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Yesterday Tim and I checked out a talk by Dan and Michael of Aesthetic Apparatus, two poster makers from Minneapolis. Originally from Madison, AA have been at the forefront of creative silkscreen music and art posters for the last 5 years. They incorporate original and found imagery in their graphic designs. In the Q&A, there was an interesting discussion about how intellectual property can affect graphic design and how AA thinks about their design principles. Many large corporations like Disney work to create a lock-down on art and culture surrounding their “brand.” Dan says that IP can factor into the design of their posters, but in more of an aesthetic way (pardon the pun) and less in relation to legal restraints. While AA is still a fairly small venture, he says that if they use obvious graphics, photos or other design content, they make sure that the object undergoes some sort of transformation, thus producing a new work that is either a parody or distinct transformative work.

It’s interesting to note the ways different groups are thinking about freeing culture. On the one hand, the rise of digital representations of images, text, audio, video, etc. online has brought about a whole new thinking about intellectual property and copyright. There are many groups working to make sure that these objects can be freely shared using exciting new technologies. At the same time, there are groups like Aesthetic Apparatus that seem to operate outside of this legal world of worry. Sometimes we can get so bogged down about worrying about whether it’s ok to use an image that we begin to censor ourselves and our art.