Remembering graphic design from the 80s and 90s on Twitter

In recent days there has been a great deal of traffic on social networks regarding graphic design. And we at the Museu del Disseny wanted to take a fond look back at examples of graphic design from the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, coinciding with the inauguration of the new permanent exhibition «Do you work or design? The new visual communication. 1980-2003».

What designs from that time had a greater impact on you? We offer you a summary of the designs that have been shared using the hashtags #dissenyesotreballes and #diseñasotrabajas (designs or works), as well as those from teachers, design students, magazines, blogs specialising in design and cultural organisations.

The world of publishing

Publishers played a leading role in the renewal of graphic design in the eighties and nineties. This is how the designers Rosa Llop, with pieces in the new exhibition, and Anna María López, remembered it. The former with one of her favourite magazines, the GRRR magazine. The latter, with the bi-monthly magazines from Ardi and the logo of Editorial ANAYA. Oscar Guayabero looked to Editorial Cru with designs by Àlex Gifreu and Javier Peñafiel.

Cinema and the performing arts

Culture was open to the creativity of the times, as the Museu de les Arts Escèniques (Museum of the Performing Arts) showed with designs by Francesc Espluga for the posters of works like «Pierrot Lunaire» (1997) at the Teatre Nacional or «Antígona» from 1978 at the Teatre d'Horta. Gràffica magazine recalled the designs of Oscar Mariné, especially the poster for Almodóvar's film Todo sobre mi madre (All about my mother).

The institutions are renewed

With democratic regeneration and entry into the European Union, the institutions and organisations showed a new way of communicating with the citizens. The visual identity of the Municipality of Santiago (1988) by Permuy Asociados is a good example, as the researcher and design professor Marcos Dopico commented on Twitter.

For their part, the Valencian institutions were strongly committed to graphic design in the 90s, according to Xavi Calvo. The tram signals in Valencia, by Paco Bascuñán in 1994, which can still be seen, and the signs for the exits on the AP-7 as it passes along the Valencian coast, also the work of Bascuñán, together with Lavernia and Nebot .

Own-brand events

Two events brought international attention in the early 1990s. Thus, the poster by Enric Huguet for the 92’ Olympic Games, proposed by the Barcelona Design Centre, and the Universal Exhibition of Seville, fondly remembered on the blog by Macho Dominante, have been highlighted.

The same year saw the logo for the fifth centenary of the discovery of America, the work of Cruz de Novillo, proposed on Twitter by Alberto García Ariza. And of course, the social network was full of nostalgia when the design professor Santos M.Mateos reminded us of the legendary Naranjito, designed by María Dolores Salto and José María Martín Pacheco (1982).

Do you know other examples? Share them on Twitter using the hashtag #dissenyesotreballes or #diseñasotrabajas. You can get inspired with the new permanent exhibition of graphic design. We are waiting for you!