Quoteth

About Onassis 

Upon researching Aristotle Onassis, I discovered that he was born in Turkey, to his father whom owned a company selling tobacco. Onassis refused to be lower-class, and so with only $250 strapped to his leg, he migrated to Argentina in the 1920's. 

While in Argentina, Onassis worked at a telephone company, listening to business calls between New York and London, using this information as his way to earn his first million. At night, Onassis would listen to these calls and with the acquired information, would invest. Through his success he was then able to purchase expensive suits and invite himself to rich events, where he would socialise with the elite women. Onassis made a name for himself through dating various wealthy, well known women, and after making that first million, expanded his fathers tabacco company by finding a hole within the cigarette industry, and exploiting it. He created two cigarette brands, including Osman, and marketed these products at women. 

Following this success, Onassis purchased a number of ships, (knowledge that he adopted from his ex's father) and soon became known as one of the most famous shipping magnates. He later went on to marry Jackie Kennedy, JF Kennedy's widow. 

Understanding of the quote

"If women didn't exist, then a world without money would have no meaning"

At first, I wasn't sure if this statement was degrading women or praising them. My into all analysis of this quote before research was that Onassis was saying: money is used to shower/spoil women (all women are 'gold diggers'), money is used to protect and provide for women (they are unable to do this for themselves), without money mean do not need to focus on social status (women are only impressed and focused on money).

However, after vigorous research, I have concluded that Onassis dated wealthier women than himself, whom were born into upper-class families, whereas Onassis was born lower-class and cheated his way up, through his admirable business mind and false-emitted ego; essentially making the women a higher status to himself, and not giving Onassis the right to degrade them, but to in fact admire them.

I do think that Onassis admired and appreciated women, as he was a playboy but to women who were willing to play along - today this would be a little unconventional, but it was the 1920's/30's after all. 

Onassis also targeted his tobacco company at women; as he knew that women were the ones who bring the items into the house (whether it was the husbands money or not). Women were the household consumers, and also the  focus of a lot of 1920/30's publicity so he understood the importance that women held within consumerism. 

Thus, I no longer consider the quote to be sexist. I believe that he understood women's role and power within consumerism, publicity and social status and so he used that to his advantage. Without women, Onassis wouldn't have made millions. So without women, the little money he originally had would mean nothing. His fame and wealth, is thanks to the female gender. 

Ideas

My first thoughts for my typographic piece is to focus on type that narrate aspects of Onassis life. 

As Onassis was Greek, I discovered that the currency during his peak would have been the Third Modern Drachma. I briefly explored using a Greek type similar to that embedded on the Drachma, to communicate the wealth behind the quote. I also tried embedding 'no meaning' and making it quite discrete and empty; giving the phrase in fact, no meaning. I also tried to replicate this idea by incorporating a lot of negative space as emphasise the lack of meaning. 

I feel like this idea currently appears to be too weak, as by focussing on money, the piece is quite impersonal to Onassis, which isn't what I am looking for, while it also feels too contemporary.

My first design |  S.Sargeant ©

My first design |  S.Sargeant ©

I then had the idea of focussing on tobacco packaging/branding/marketing, seeing if I could gain inspiration from the typeface, composition and colour scheme.  I researched Onassis's own brand, Osman, as I wanted to be true to his narrative, and not to make the mistake of absorbing inspiration from an entirely juxtaposing tabacco brand. There wasn't much research visually to find about Osman. I had to idea of extracting the text from the package that I could find, and then hand drawing lettering to enhance the vintage feel. However, as some of the letters were missing from the packaging (such as F and X) I would have to improvise the font. I haven't developed on this idea as I discovered a new idea that has slightly more depth, however if this new idea doesn't work, then I will experiment with this one.

My new and most recent idea, is to focus on 1920's telephone directories. As Onassis would not have even had a taste of the life that he created without the telephone company, I feel that this is possibly the most important milestone within his life. I also feel that there is more information and depth within this area, as there are lots of typographers, print designs etc. that emerged during this area (including the typeface used for the numbers on the phone dials, the telephone directories etc.). I also discovered Bell Gothic font. A typeface that was created in the 20's for readability within the phone directories. This typeface was then utilised within newspaper print. I feel that this type has a lot of references to Onassis, as he too, began working with telephones, and soon found himself in all of the newspapers. By stylising the font in bold, I feel that it reflects Onassis well, as he must have been a bold and influential man, with a lot of self believe in order to feign wealth in order to socialise with elites. 

Developing this idea, I am thinking of using Bell Gothic Bold and rendering a typographic newspaper/telephone directory using the quote. I may also use calligraphy to state his name on a decorative fashion, as vintage print works would have at the top.