Frédéric Deltenre
Discussing graphic design and the professionals that practice it inevitably entails discussing languages. And dilemmas, in this case related to communication, since problem solving lies at the very heart of the culture of design and, also, since designing always involves making ethical, methodological and market choices. Thus, it is possible to interpret an author through his graphic language, but as the hypothesis of a personal project that deciphers a broader situation than the design itself. This is also true when the artist selects only one of the tools at his disposal, even when the instrument of choice is laden with history and meaning, as in the case of posters.
The case of Frederic Deltenre gives food for thought in both of these aspects. From the linguistic viewpoint, it must not be forgotten that this author comes from Belgium, a country that is equally under the influence of French and Central European, and particularly Dutch, culture. As regards graphic design, this influence is reflected in two very different traditions. On the one hand, Holland was the absolute protagonist of the Modernist revolution, through what we could define as a “multi-concept” vision. The geometrical approach prevails, even in his most ironical or post-Modern interpretations, with a richness of stroke that is facilitated by a historically sensitive clientele. This explains the extraordinarily high quality of Belgian graphic design, as well as its great achievements in specific sectors such as, for instance, typographic design.
On the other hand, from the French side it is possible to make an interpretation linked to graphiste dexterity, undoubtedly influenced by Eastern European tradition, through the many authors who moved to France in the fifties from their countries of origin after an increase in Soviet pressure. Among them, we can call attention to Tomaszewki and Cieslewicz, already mentioned in these pages. Historically, the author’s stroke prevailed, albeit closely linked to public communication, institutional or cultural, which up to the eighties was symptomatic of a strong division between, precisely, the public and the private spheres; i.e. that of private companies.
On the one hand, then, system, matrix, typography; on the other, expressivity, figures, signs. Frederic Deltenre emerges as an excellent hypothetical fusion of both traditions, since the Belgian author resorts to solid approaches, from a structural point of view, but makes use of a typography that recalls the expressive possibilities with which even the “simplest” and most widely used characters (hence, not only those designed explicitly to fulfil a stylistic function) are endowed. But the intervention of typography is frequently corrected manually to create linguistic games that betray the need to communicate meanings instantaneously.
Games which, on the other hand, are similar to those played in the field of visual poetry (or whichever name we choose to give it), in which poetic inspiration is also expressed on a visual plane. Instead, an extremely synthetic manual stroke is used to create the guiding image of the manifesto. These decisions result in very direct images that transmit messages with a high, usually social impact; which leads us back to the more generic plane of design hypotheses and problem solving questions. Deltenre is an excellent example of the graphic designer’s acceptance of social responsibility which, in different forms, has been an important subject of debate over the past few years or, if it were necessary to set a date, since Adbuster published, in 1999, First Things First, a manifesto signed by many international graphic designers echoing the manifesto of the same name launched by Ken Garland in 1964. Another aspect of this question is the frequent demand (from associations, institutions or magazines) made of graphic designers to visually express (normally in posters) their posture regarding tragic events or current affairs, whether they be global or local problems (since 9-11 and the Iraq War). Deltenre goes out of his way to make the most of this situation, with a lucid and cold irony that lends his message a rare efficiency.
