To What Extent is Jameson’s Theory of Pastiche relevant to Modern Typographic Practice?

Jameson suggests that pastiche is the ‘modern’ development of parody. A laugh-less, soulless ‘blank parody’ (Jameson, 1991), which draws on the visuals of history and imitates them for commercial gain and the reinforcement of the established cultural hegemony. Jameson paints parody as an intellectual emulation that educates and enriches its audience through the use of humor. In comparison Pastiche is a lynch pin of postmodernity, empty of anything but the intent of consuming, reflecting the capitalist social structure of the moment. By making visual historical references, Jameson believes that we reduce our cultural, historical awareness to a form that we can only understand as a mass of simplified styles and genres. Jameson sees the modern culture and creative landscape as a ‘field of stylistic and discursive heterogeneity without a norm’ (Jameson, 1991). Jameson means that the modern design landscape is made up of so many copies and references to different times, that it all becomes no more than visual noise. In the majority of Graphic Design, typography often plays a crucial role in the look, feel and tone of voice of the finished piece. Typography carries and communicates messages not only in the form of the words themselves but also in the simplest of visual symbols: the way a line is curved and the sharpness of serifs. I want to examine how applicable Jameson’s theory of pastiche is to modern typographic practice, which is part of the very ‘field of stylistic… heterogeneity’ (Jameson, 1991) that Jameson references in his essay ‘The cultural Logic of Late Capitalism’. I will be analyzing not only the presence of pastiche in modern typographic work, but also pastiche in terms of the design process and whether, in fact, through applying this theory to typographical practice, we can discover its validity and relevance to modern design practice.

To provide a grounding and context for my discussion, I have chosen to analyse an apparently overtly pastiche piece of graphic design in which, as with most design, typography plays a pivotal role.

This example by Stranger and Stranger studios in 2010, for a Christmas special Absinthe bottle, is about as pastiche as it gets. It is an emulation of graphic design of the Victorian era. It uses the flattened stylised botanical shapes quintessential of the time in question, and the mixing of fonts bares strong resemblance to the zealous cacophony of fonts used on many Victorian advertising posters. From first glance the audience can tell this design is a pastiche of late Victoriana, in a very overt fashion. The curved baseline of the heading text smacks of lithography type production, which was one of the few production methods of the late 17oos to allow such freedom from the grid. In fact the very mix of this curved base line and the straight baseline on the

sans serif type (Fig.4), on other areas of the design, is what really hammers home the association with the Victorian era: the straight base line was the main limitation of wood movable type, a very prevalent production method of the time. This pairing of lithography and wood letterpress in the visuals of the design, firmly links it to the Victorian era. On the main heading type a small amount of illumination has been used in the ‘A’, adding smooth flourishes and an extended terminal, which not only frames the following letters, but also draws attention to the beginning of the word. This is in keeping with the ‘rich ornamentation’ (Friedl, F., Ott, N and Stein, B., 1998) that the Victorian era borrowed from medieval illuminated manuscripts. However, the care and thought that has clearly gone into the illumination of this letter, as sign posted by the directional component of the flourishes and the comparative minimalism of the ornamentation, is a tell of the modern designer’s hand in the creation of the design. This illumination also reveals the historical awareness of the designer. The Victorian reproduction of the illuminated manuscript began to consider ‘concepts such as ‘legibility of typeface’ or ‘unity of the page’’ which ‘prompted the creation of designs full of harmony and clarity’ (Friedl, F., Ott, N and Stein, B., 1998), as does this modern day play on the Victorian aesthetic. Arguably, as the aesthetic is reproduced it gains a greater clarity. With each iteration, the aesthetic is developed and refined. Can anything about this design really be described as a ‘blank parody’ (Jameson, F., 1991) when so much thought, care and knowledge went into it?

This concept of ‘thought’ raises the question of what role intention plays in the creation and affect of pastiche. Each aspect of the design has been made to look a certain way for a reason: to shape the message. Stranger and Stranger are establishing the association between this drink and the concept of Christmas. They are making connections with the Victorian era because that in turn has inherent connections to the modern idea of Christmas: the Christmas tree, the way we decorate, all come from the Scandinavian and German influences of the Victorian Royal family. These multi-layered connections made in the mind of the audience, create a complexity of message that could not have been achieved without the visual link to this era. This is something that Margaret Rose agrees with in the work ‘Parody: Ancient, Modern, and Post-Modern’ (1993), in which she says that pastiche is not ‘blind…but a device which may be put to a variety of uses by those applying it to their work’. In this case pastiche is used to create deeper meanings in the message communicated by this design. Rose goes on to expand on this idea, saying that ‘Pastiche may be controlled by its users for a variety of both inventive and not so inventive purposes’ (Rose, M. A., 1993). When related to the Absinthe design, the crucial point is that pastiche typography in this situation is used to increase the depth of the message, specifically to achieve the ends of selling the product. This ties into the fact that the whole of Jameson’s argument is used as a critique of the capitalist structure of western society, and that pastiche is used to make products more visual appealing and desirable, thereby fueling the need to consume and by extension the consumer structure of capitalism.

Although this is true, this is one of the major flaws in his argument. If Jameson argues that pastiche is blank because of the way it is used, then it is not pastiche its self that is bad but the people that use it to perpetuate the current cultural hegemony. In this situation pastiche is simply a ‘device’ (Rose, M. A., 1993), something that is incapable of being ‘bad’ in the same way an axe is, until it is used as a weapon.

From this perspective, modern design practitioners are to blame for the negative effects of pastiche. However, by saying that ‘Pastiche may be controlled by its users’ (Rose, M. A., 1993), another question emerges. Are the users those who design using the ‘devise’ (Rose, M.A., 1993) of pastiche, or those who receive the message created through the lens of pastiche? The clearest answer is both. The idea of communication is inherently two-sided: you need producers and receivers to make the system work. In this sense, by utilizing pastiche to enhance the message of this design, Stranger and Stranger is showing a clear awareness of the audience as a sentient entity. Pastiche is one mode of design that requires the engagement of the audience to work fully: they need to think about the connections to the Victorian era and what this means for the product. But just how sentient is the audience? In ‘Thinking with Type’ Ellen Lupton describes type as ‘what language looks like’ (Lupton, E., 2004), and it is fair to argue that like a conversation, the amount of communication depends on how much the individual is ‘listening’. There is no doubt a lot to ‘listen’ to in this design. In contrast to Jameson’s preferred modernist approach of invisible type, these letterforms could be said to have more to say than the words themselves (as discussed earlier), but it is fair to assume that some people may not ‘hear’ them and how much of the message is subconsciously processed is down to the individual. Jameson claims that the use of pastiche undermines our cultural historical awareness, but can a design be that powerful, even when the audience is ‘listening’? While there would be very little dispute over whether this design is communicative, is it actually communicating sufficiently to reduce our historical awareness? Once again Margaret Rose comes to the fore, arguing that consumer audiences are the ‘subjects of meaning rather than the passive bearers of pre-given messages’ (Rose, M. A., 1993). Rose cites that audiences are not ‘passive’ receivers of messages, but are rather ‘subjects’ at which the messages are aimed and with whom they interact. However, Rick Poynor in his article ‘First Things First Revisited’ argues that ‘we no longer recognize the myriad ways in which it (design) prompts, cajoles, disturbs and excites us’ (Poynor, R., 1999?). In contrast, it is arguable that pastiche is one ‘device’ that makes people recognize the thought behind the design and what the designer is trying to do, because the historical references make people think about why they are being referenced. There are also many arguments that design is not powerful enough to alter the way people think without them recognizing it, as if the audience had ‘little to no mental faculties’ and the ‘designer puppet masters’ hypnotize the audience ‘with things like colours and typefaces’ (Bierut, M., 2007). In this instance, Bierut uses heavy irony draw attention to the ridiculousness of this idea. Although design, and

typography in particular, is a powerful communicator, it could be said to be huge self-aggrandisement on the part of the designer to suggest that it has capabilities akin to brain washing. So, although pastiche is a ‘device’ (Rose, M.A., 1993) used by modern designers, it is plausible to say that it is not powerful enough to catalyse the negative social change that Jameson cites.

In this point lays another hole in Jameson’s argument against pastiche. If these design tools were strong enough to reduce our historical awareness to ‘styles’, (Jameson, F., 1991?) then they would be powerful enough to obliterate any challenging school of thought, and Jameson’s theory would not have secured a place in the general public consciousness. Therefore through its very existence Jameson’s theory disproves itself.

Looking back at the production methods of another time, seems the dominant method, through which typographic pastiche is constructed. Although the label itself is not embossed, around parts of the lettering and some of the patterns, there is soft digital drop shadow (Fig.2 & 3 Stranger and Stranger 2010used to suggest an embossed finish. As previously mentioned letterpress was one of the main stays of the printing world during the Victorian era, and once you can press print designs into the paper, embossing and de-bossing becomes easy. The colour constraints of the design to black and gold are also reminiscent of Victorian production methods. This meant that producing such a design would only require two plates for the different colours as opposed to the four required for full colour prints today. Throughout history, production methods and their limitations have shaped the development of typographic design and practice. This is because the limitations of production methods control the look and feel of the shapes produced by it. This design is an example of the merging of the stylistic constraints of two if not three production methods. The softly bracketed serifs and the fairly consistent stroke weight are limitations of wood moveable type. The wood couldn’t withstand the pressure of the press and maintain thin lines and serifs after numerous prints. The illumination of the ‘A’ shows the limitations of ‘bone’ type; in other words lettering produced with a quill. This was done using the liquid medium of ink applied by hand, sharp edges and definite stops were hard to achieve, and therefore this medium lends its self to flourishes and rounded terminals shaped in globules of ink. Although this type is not produced using a quill pen and ink, the letterform references this production method. This strong connection between letterforms and the technology of the time is another reason why type lends itself to associations with history and therefore pastiche, so easily.

There is no doubt, an increase in historical reference in graphic design of late, and perhaps the limitations of old production processes play a role in this. In an age where advances in technology can be mystifying and apparently limitless, the designer can feel lost. The designer by his/her very nature is a problem solver and someone that experiments

with these problems in a search for something new. In an environment where these constraints are removed it is only natural that we look back to the limitations and problems of old production methods in the search for something exciting. If anything this increases our historical awareness, both on the part of the designer and the audience, in fact ‘that sense of presence of the past in pastiche is not just something cerebrally observed but felt. It is part of the knowledge we can have of our place in history’ (Dyer, R., 2006). Here Dyer completely contradicts Jameson’s claim that pastiche is a negative thing, practically encouraging designers to make use of this tool in their communications arsenal.

Many would argue that by copying past design styles or looks we are learning from them, ‘imitation, in the widest sense, is the foundation of all learning’ (Dyer, R., 2006), this has always been the case. If we regard learning as the simple wish of betterment, it is clear to see that learning is part of our ground state of being. Simply look at the Absinthe bottle. To modern eyes, it is clearly a reference to the Victorian era. However, if this design were produced during the Victorian era it would have been a reference to medieval design and the truth of craft and materials that were the conceptual backbone of the arts and crafts movement. No matter what time you reference, we’re almost always looking back further, whether we are copying past styles or reacting to them, looking back for inspiration seems to be part of the way the human mind works. Indeed, ‘no artistic style is ever at an end; new impetus can always be provided by past forms’ (Friedl, F., Ott, N and Stein, B., 1998). In this excerpt Friedl, Ott and Stein use the word impetus to describe the creative energy of our culture. In doing so they create a parallel between our collective creativity and the energy of a sentient moving body. Through this it is possible to liken collective creativity to that of an individual, and like any creative individual, we as a culture need to look back to see where we are going and to gain the inspiration to go there. The use of the word ‘new’ is interesting too. Jameson claims that in the current creative climate ‘stylistic innovation is no longer possible’ (Jameson, F., 199?). Friedl, Ott and Stien cite the idea that ‘new’ has to come from the old. The very word Jameson uses in this situation undermines his own point. Innovate literally means to ‘make changes in something established’ (Oxford Dictionaries., 2014) and it is arguable that this design and many others of its kind, do just that. By utilizing digital production methods to recreate an ‘established’ aesthetic, that aesthetic is changed and is no longer ‘established’. It could be said that innovation is taking place, simply in a slower and less overt fashion than during Jameson’s favored modernist period. In this sense, in looking back and gaining ‘impetus’ from past designs, modern typographic practitioners are in fact fueling a slow but steady form of innovation.

Slow innovation is in sharp contrast to the bang and gusto with which modernism entered the cultural landscape. However, does this mean that modernism was any ‘better’ than subsequent movements or ideologies? Jameson, quoting Marx, believes that the central conceptual

‘truth’ behind the modernist movement ‘weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living’ (Jameson, F. 199?). He prefers its central goals of improvement and its distinct separation from the western consumer society that he despises so much. Saying in this quote, that the ‘living’ are weighed down by the guilt of departing from this great ‘truth’. In contrast pastiche, and its over arching home of postmodernism, ‘expresses the inner truth of that newly emergent social order of late capitalism’ (Jameson, F., 199?). In this case Jameson draws a parallel between two battles, in which the great cultural war of postmodernism versus modernism, is mirrored by pastiche versus parody. However, I would and have argued, that in the modern world, where ‘consumers become actual or potential producers’ (Rose, M. A., 2003) through the development of communication technology and the proliferation of production technology, a new visual culture is required. A variety of visual styles are needed to reflect the variety and number of producers and consumers. This is especially tangible in type design, where ‘the exemplary presentation of variety in the development of typography creates conditions under which the past and the future are understood.’ (Rose, M. A., 2003). Here Rose underlines the power of type design to act as a mirror for the cultural landscape. In this case the variety of design reflects the variety of people. I suppose this comes down to the Marxist route of Jameson’s argument and the fact that this design (fig.1) perpetuates consumer society in his eyes. While this is definitely a valid view point, another angle is that this cultural landscape ‘without a norm’ is in fact desirable because of the way it sign-posts the number of people contributing to said cultural landscape, which is much closer to a type of visual equality and democracy than the ’prophetic elitism’ (Jameson, F., 1991) of the modernist movement. Jameson praises the conceptual truth of function over form, but pastiche fulfills a function of a different sort, through the skilled use of form. Once again we encounter the idea that in utilizing the tool of pastiche, modern typographic practitioners are improving the cultural landscape rather than destroying it.

In conclusion, I would say that the question of pastiche’s relevance to modern typographic practice is a difficult one to balance. While it is easy to say that typography plays a major role in pastiche, I would be less inclined to advocate the implementation of Jameson’s theory, in typographic practice. It would stop typographic practice in its tracks. Typography as a discipline is all about emulation as learning, understanding using historic references and using production methods to shape style: all things, which construct pastiche. I guess it would be fair to say that the theory of pastiche is very relevant to modern typographic practice because it is an interesting and thought provoking theory, but the designer, in order not to sacrifice the experimentation and innovation that Jameson said to be impossible, should treat it as a positive development of our culture, and not the historically destructive force that Jameson suggests.

Bibliography or Reference List:

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Fig. 3

Fig. 1 (Stranger and Stranger, 2010)

Fig. 2