Embedded Files
Mather & Company
Mather & Company
The original motivational poster: work incentive posters or ‘Constructive Organization Posters’ printed by Mather & Company. The artist is unknown.
These posters inspired me to create 'Motivational Posters Series' in a workplace-friendly manner, but completely juxtapose it with the degrading text right underneath the tranquil collage imagery.
“In the early 1920s, salesman Charles Howard Rosenfeld proposed a series of motivational posters for workers to Charles Mather, who worked for his family’s Chicago printing house, the Mather Company. These “Constructive Organization Posters” were sold by subscription in over 300 varieties between 1923 and 1929. "
“The cards were 7” x 4.75”, designed to be displayed individually on workers’ desks on an easel.”
A 1929 Mather work incentive poster, ‘Out In Front,’ by an unknown artist
Despair®
Despair®
‘Demotivators’ by Despair®
“When we started Despair, we had a dream. To crush other people's dreams. But we knew, given our goal, we'd be in for a fight. After all, the Motivation Industry has been crushing dreams for decades, selling the easy lie of success you can buy. That's why we decided to differentiate ourselves- by crushing dreams with hard truths!”
Another company created these motivational posters which deviates from encouraging employees to produce goods or work, instead it aims to demotivate. The turn from sincere motivation from Mather & Co.'s posters seen in Demotivators signifies a turn in the social perception of work and authority. In 'Motivational Poster Series', I aimed to avoid any sort of motivation or positivity.
Francis Picabia
Francis Picabia
“In Tableau Rastadada, the artist depicted himself as a playboy (kicked by women’s pumps), a failure (as suggested by the words “le raté”), and even a social climber (the “rasta” in Rastadada stands for rastaquouère, a rich, foreign upstart). These elements together created a self-deprecating, punning self-portrait.” -MoMA
Things I like:
The self deprecation, the depiction of the self
Typography - the written ink on paper
Monochrome colour palette - printed black and white
I want to bring the monochromatic colour palette into my work, which lets the focus be on the subject matter. Reminds me of newspaper clippings or fashion magazines.
'Tableau Rastadada' (1920) Cut-and-pasted printed paper on paper with ink.
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