Media Design

Media art is displayed to the public for a variety of different reasons.  Some are meant to advertise, some to entice, but all carry meaning and serve a purpose.  Media art that has a clear meaning always seem to interest me. An example of media design that interests me was released in 1971 by John Lennon and Yoko Ono.  Around Christmas time of that year, they released billboards throughout the world in eleven cities including, New York, Tokyo, London, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, and Paris. The billboards stated “World is Over if You Want it! Happy Xmas from John and Yoko”.  The posters appeared with white backgrounds and bold black lettering, the “War is Over” part appearing the largest.  I like this method of design because it grabs one’s attention for the purpose of addressing a positive and uplifting message.  The piece is attention grabbing because of the sheer boldness of the lettering as well as its statement that war is over.  During this time, 1971, America was full tilt involved with the Vietnam war.  John Lennon was one of the handful of significant musicians who used their stardom to spread the message of peace and become a well known humanitarians.  It seems like these days, ads need to be in bad taste or obnoxious for them to catch the attention of the public.  John and Yoko succeeded admirably in their choice of media design in the early 1970’s in that it was bold and yet possessed a positive message.