THE POST TRUTH POST
An editorial design assignment / an art piece with social commentary
Done in response to the brief "rethinking the newspaper", i created this satirical take on what news has become in the current scenario. The brief called for explorations in the form and function of the newspaper, and for my response, i kept the form intact and instead dissected the functionality of the newspaper, creating this collection of fake news, ethically questionable advertising, a "social-media" inspired quiz, and of course, a horoscope which is always correct.
The name “The Post Truth Post” comes from the realisation that we’ve transcended to a society where the notion of truth has become subjective, and facts have become passe.
“If it’s in the news, it must be true!”
“If it’s on the TV, it must be true!!”
“If it’s on the internet, it must be true!!!”
Statements like these informed the idea of creating something that raises not a question mark, but maybe an interrobang (?!) at the utterly bizarre media that feeds us information and the lack thereof!
I did set out with that vision in mind, but i thought of letting this grow organically. Instead of taking it as a simple graphic design project, i thought of it as an exercise in authorship- creating actual meaningless content for what i thought of as social commentary, composing, editing, and illustrating it on my own.
Of course this did not go as planned, because i had grossly underestimated the deadlines, and over the course of the five days allotted to us for this editorial de- sign task, i had chosen to create this frankenstein monster- pastiche of a propaganda-machine, a good mix of CraigslistOnionBuzzFeedTwitterTabloid. The end result is not as perfect as i’d anticipated, but in its own weird way, it’s a newspaper that is simultaneously a piece of social commentary, satire, a work of art, an exercise in layouts, grids and publication design (maybe not a very successful one?) and a somehow self-righteous critique of what i have decided to call “millennial journalism”.
Read the full paper below!
