Page 224 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

GRAPHIC DESIGN 221

among them. It will not be wrong if we specify them as mobile hoardings. In Dhaka fig. 4.24 Advertisement
city (pl. 4.20), the many advertisements seen on the over-bridges can be considered as of a cigarette company
a kind of hoarding. Among these over-bridge hoardings, the advertisements of as signboard of a store,
Grameen Phone are undoubtedly the most artistic and attractive. photograph Athahar
The use of the neon sign in Bangladesh commenced comparatively later, from the 80s. Hossain Surjo
Most neon signs belong to the multinational companies. There is a striking quality in
their design and presentation. Nevertheless, the main concepts of these designs for
neon signs, hoardings or the advertisements of magazines come from abroad (pl.
4.19). As for our country, the regional offices of South Asia or South-East Asia decide
on the guidelines, patterns, colors, materials etc. of the designs and they send some
samples for these. The advertising agencies of those companies in Bangladesh follow
the instructions and guidelines laid down by those organizations and sometimes make
minor changes if necessary while preparing the designs. Therefore, an artist or a
designer does not have much scope to show creativity through these designs. If we
notice we will see that the advertisements of these companies look-alike in all the
countries of a particular region of the world (fig. 4.24), for example, the advertisement
of Coca Cola, Lux, Pepsi, etc. We can definitely raise questions about the credits and
contributions of Bangladeshi graphic designers in these designs.
For the last two decades there has been a major change in signboard designing and
these multinational companies are more or less actively responsible for this as well.
There is a class of artists in Bangladesh known as ‘signboard artists.’ They do other
minor works besides painting signboards for shops or institutions. For instance, they
paint text-based banners or festoons on fabric for different occasions. Some also
endeavor to paint pictures due to economic requirements or according to their own
urges. Not long ago, most signboards were painted by these commercial artists. This
trend is not completely lost yet. Although the number of artists have decreased in
Dhaka city, outside Dhaka, in the small towns, they are the ones who still do all the
signboard paintings (interestingly, in the small towns outside Dhaka they are the ones
who people identify as artists, even today). They work on various signboards; they are