Diet Coke and Grenadine

A project from my art class in Chile about the significance of textual design with associated linguistic and social meaning. 

The relationship between text and its significance is almost always correspondent; n this project in which we were required to use text, wanted to go against that.  The font Helvetica is a crisp and modern design that was a part of the change in ideals and attitude of the 1960’s in the Western world. The look of advertisements, store signs, books, newspapers, and other public media became sleek and to-the-point, where in the 40’s and 50’s cursive writing and cheesy slogans riddled print resources. As quoted from the documentary on Helvetica with the same name, one graphic artist says the font changed the world. However, my thoughts jumped to Latin America in the 1960’s, the lack of change that Helvetica was having there. I took a word that is the opposite of all that Helvetica represents—clean, progressive,  professional—and placed the letters over the same kinds of graphic shapes that first accompanied the font. 

I complied images from the of-the-moment artist at the time, the Sweedish Hans Neuburg, with letters in Helvetica to spell out “pendejo,” a Mexican slang word for an idiot. I revealed the painting in parts: first I placed just the first “P” down, then came “P-E-N,” ad then the full 7 letters. I was curious to see the reaction that the text had on my Spanish-speaking classmates, first with just a single letter, then with an English word they might not all be familiar with, and then with a dirty word in their own language. I wanted to see how such an ugly word would resonate in a beautiful environment. Turns out my classmates were at first surprised and then thoughtful. Luckily I didn’t offend anyone, but maybe I offend you?