Midterm Assignment

Chris Brown

Professor Peter Winant

AVT 101

10/12/2011

Slavimir Stojanovic

My research project will be based on Slavimir Stojanovic, an international graphic artist who has brought revolutionary designs to the advertising industry. Stojanovic was born in 1969 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia) where his design career also began at age 16. He studied in Belgrade at Design Highschool and the Academy of for Applied arts and Design then went to HDK in Gotheburg, Sweden. In his still continuing career he has acquired more than 200 international awards for his design and advertising.

The art of Slavimir Stojanovic very much retracts from the ex-communist advertising that was rampant in Eastern Europe at the time. The advertising that was around was very straight forward and reasoned with the viewer in order to sell the product. Stojanovic's ads were very symbolic and appealing to the eye which was in sharp contrast with the ads of the time. This is the difference between hard copy and no copy (without using words) advertising and is what put his work into the spotlight.

This idea of no copy advertising give his art a language of its own. He conveys messages through symbols, puns, and paradoxes which I find to be very clear and fascinating. For example the logo he did for the Sony Walkman is simply a musical note with a foot as end of the note. Though a very simple idea it gives us exactly what we need to know about the product reflecting the title perfectly.

Growing up into a society that has had drastic political and economic changes must have been a huge influence on his art and life. His website has actually been down due to a hacker group from a neighboring country Kosovo accusing him and every Serbian of being war criminals due to the recent conflicts between them. This is reflected in his work which is very against ethnic hatred and violence contrasting from the violence that has happened to and from his country. His art seems to be an escape from this reality yet the emotion is still read.

Another point that is very much effects the art of Slavimir Stojanovic is the economy. Serbia has had an economic revolution drastically moving from a communist led planned economy to a democratic led market economy which has had a huge effect on his art. Leading in the field of advertising design in Serbia we see a constant theme in his art. For example he has an image santa clause in his underwear to represent the effect of the recession on the economy. We see his commercial work directly reflecting onto his art work as well (which he defines as two different things). In a recent show of his “Instructions, Directions, and other Cases” he describes mass communication and commercial society and the understanding of life from the eyes of a commercial designer.

Slavimir Stojanovic has also started a creative service unit called “Futuro”. This I believe captures Slavimirs beliefs. He made the company then he split it into two separate companies one of art and the other of commercial work. He believes that art and commercial work feed each other in endless inspiration. This is directly similar to his own life where he balances his commercial work and his art career as two separate entities yet very both reflect each other.

We also see him bringing outside idea's into his own country developing their commercial industry and the country as a whole. We see him bringing in characteristics from the Polish poster makers as well as a new use and focus on font in graphics. Though his work is international he constantly keeps his center in Serbia. Furthermore he brings a wealth of knowledge of what sells on the international scale making him one of the top advertising directors in the country.

His work heavily brings us an understanding of what sells. Looking at his exhibitions everything looks so appealing, with light colors and simple characters and symbols. The art makes you feel like you want to buy something, maybe an idea, as if he is selling something to you. This seems to further his message of how these images dictate our perception of our understanding of life. Slavimir Stojanovic is an artist that has learned a lot about developing an appealing style of art and design with clear concise messages in the same way that his home country has developed to a democratic capitalist nation. He has truly revolutionized advertising as well as artistic design.