Coded Designs

I was much struck with a photograph taken in Moscow 1990, by photographer David Hlynsky who visited the communist bloc before it collapsed. His mission was to capture the urban landscapes he found, and amongst them was the the shops of the communist East which he said "hid as much as they revealed, about the real economy".

Moscow - 1990 - Lipstick

..... amongst his pictures was one that captured the moment when a very inventive shop window dresser, managed to make a one brand and one colour delivery of lipstick, into something really attractive to look at.

It reminded me as much as anything of the works of Polish writer Stanislaw Lem and the Soviet Robotic style of design .....  

Robots - Stanislaw Lem

 

A style that was peculiar to the Soviet era .....

Hello - I’m a Robot!

.... and was often a coded reference to the coldness of the Soviet system and regimes ... often it was the only criticism that passed by the censors, who failed to see it for what it was. Now of course, despite our ongoing political differences both East and West are united in consumerism.