POST(MODERNISM)

Today we discussed the modernism versus postmodernism and how these two contrast, follow each other and influence designers in today's world. Since it was our last lecture class, it was a very insight look at where we stand in the graphic design field and what direction we want to go in our career.
First, a little catch up from the class. Post modernism is defined with such characteristics as form over function (contrary to modernism), feel over rationale, self consciousness, self-referencing design, mix between high and low culture (pop culture) and experimenting with surface, texture and different materials never used before in the arts. It was a revolutionary time when people reacted to the world situation and broke the boundaries of art (kitsch). Design did not stand alone, but started to be combined with music, film and popular culture, especially accessible to the young generations. One of the prominent artists of the times was Wolfgand Weingart, German born typographer and graphic designer. His unique style from 60s and 70s was focused on letter spacing, the use of sans-serif, the rule of stair stepping applied in grids, diagonal lines. Because of his innovative approach to the design he is named the Father of 'New Wave' or Swiss Punk design. Weingart was an important person for introducing the brave and new that came in 60s, 70s and 80s. It is fascinating to note how the inspirations and the drive for design shifted at that time and it was not the mainstream art but music and cinema that design was responding too. Rock and punk brought new opportunities to attract young people to express their ideas through graphic design. One of the strongest fields for Punk, both music and design, was England, especially Manchester and London. These places were full of underground bands, youngsters forming groups and associations celebrating the freedom. Among working designers there were Patrick Negal, Charles Anderson, Peter Serville and Malcolm Mclaren. They represented a New Wave creating posters, CD covers, concern invitations for such icons as Sex Pistols, Joy Division and later New Order, David Bowie, etc. Another groundbreaking moment in the graphic history was the introduction of Mac computers into a public use in the early 80s. Although these revolutionary machines did not perform many options in the beginning, they were a source of inspiration for many artists. Designers got fascinated into the digital, pixelated effect, layers and blocks incorporated into a grid system. Ed Fella popularized the experimental, expressive typography. David Carlson stepping into the field without any formal design education was focusing on the spacing and legibility. It was an exciting time of experimentation and attempt to break the boundaries. Stefan Sagmeister has been a prominent example of such an approach to the arts and for many years has presented shocking and provocative works. 
I think we all have a very romanticized image of the 60s, 70s and early 80s. For the people who were born in the 90s, everything before seems like a big wild party and young people had a tremendous freedom to affect the culture. How amazing it had to be to work for Sex Pistols or Sex Devision or The Cure even before the whole world heard about them? I believe it was the feeling of making something completely new and partially banned that electrified everybody and gave them inspiration and power to overcome the academic approach to the art. But 'those dancing days are gone' and I wish people today had such a direction to follow and be excited about. I think it became almost impossible to come up with anything completely new that would shock the people in the world and create such a strong international and intercultural reaction as New Wave. That could be the reason why so many people come back to the modernism and try to find the conformity into established design truths such as grid, rationale, function. It seems as if New Wave was a XX century form of Rococo and now after the frivolity and emotional expression, people seek for some stable and fixed solutions. Personally I think I include myself into the modernism. I feel that design should have a clear purpose and function rather than shocking just because. Getting to known the traditions and 'academic' basics is a backbone for further explorations. 

 

 

Swiss versus NY style

Today in class we looked at the differences and similarities of Swiss and New York graphic styles. Swiss design or International Typographic Style was a theoretical concept, focusing on the design as an important and socially useful aspect of modern life. Started after the WWII in 1940, it had its roots in De Stijl, Futurism, Constructivism and Bauhaus. It is recognised by sans-serif fonts, objective photography, logical mathematical grids used as the layouts. There was a strong belief that typography should be clear and not allow any distractions for an actual content. On the other side Swiss style was not based on any historical and geographical period in arts and eventually it spread around Europe. Max Bill and Theo Ballmer were the significant representatives of that International movement, both graduates from the Bauhaus. In 1953 Max Bill together with two co-workers founded the Ulm School of Design in Ulm, Germany. It was set on the foundations of the Bauhaus and later shifted towards the intergration between the arts and science. It is also notable that the ULD included the semiotics as an important field of study. Semiotics (or semiology) discusses the signs and symbols in a certain context and how the meaning of an object changes it throughout the placement and situation. There are three branches of semiotics: semantics (relation between signs and the things to which they refer), syntactics (signs in formal structures) and pragmatics (relation between signs and the effects they have on the audience).
Adrian Frutiger and Armin Hoffman are otehr prominent Swiss designers, focusing on typography. Adrian Frutiger is best known for typefaces, such as Universe (completed in 1954 after 3 years of work on a system of 21 versions of the font. In 1970s he began to redesign the font and create new variations.), Frutiger, Linotype Didot and Egyptienne. Arman Hoffman was a head of the graphic department at famous Schule für Gestaltung Basel (Basel School of Design). His works are characterized by a rich use of the negative space and the play between relationships and contrast (scale, black & white).
The New York Modernist Style starting in 1940s is reflected into a pragmatic approach to the Swiss design. Main figures that stand out in the history of the graphic design are Paul Rand, Saul Bass and Ivan Chermayeff. These three man completely changed the face of the design and entered new doors to the modernism in the United States and the whole world. There have been thousand of opinions on their work but there can be no discussion in admitting how influential Rand, Bass and Chermayeff were. 
From three of them I really liked Saul Bass' works, especially the motion animation on the title sequence for Hitchcock's movies. I think it is very interesting how the times and technology shifted graphic design and opened new opportunities and means of expressions. And as a matter of my personal taste, I admire Bass for working with the best artists of the time, like Hitchcock and creating new visual effects and entertainment for the audience. I also enjoyed the subejct of semiotics as a philosophical theme included in graphic design. I believe there is too little discussion between such issues as linguistics and typography. Communication designers should be able not only to use the words with fonts and grids but also have a deen understanding of the meanings. Semiotics provide a background to interpret the text and turn it into a significant content.

New Design

Staying in the spirit of the great Bauhaus, we explored and discussed more artists, influenced by the modern design, and how they introduced these concepts into a daily life of people, especially in America. Among many, there is Jan Tschichold who plays a very significant role in the process. Born in a German family of a signwriter, he was traditionally trained in calligraphy from his early years of school education. After visiting Bauhaus in 1923 at the age of 21, he became strongly influenced by the modern design. Two years later he started to write on the matter and released his first work, trade magazine, Elementary Typography. In 1927 he published his most acclaimed book, entitled Die neue Typographie, New Typography. It was a manifesto and a collection of graphic design rules, such as the use of Grotesk fonts (sans-serif), non-centered layouts, asymmetric balance of the elements, use of the white space, standardized paper sizes. It was followed by the series of articles and soon after 1927, the works by Tschichold gained popularity among German workers and printers. However, due to six weeks interrogations of him, his wife and the son, and pressure from the Nazi government, which denounced Tschichold and the follow designers as cultural Bolsheviks, he had to abandon the modern style. From 1932 onwards he turned back into the classic style. Later in his life he criticized the fascination for the modern, functional ideas written in New Typography. He moved to England and started to work for the Penguin's book, creating over 500 cover designs. He set up the system of Penguin Compositional Rules which are used until today. 
Herbert Matter was another designer working in the field. He was a Swiss born artist, acclaimed for the use of photomontage. As Tschichold he was traditionally trained and studied painting in academies in Geneva and Paris. When he moved back to Zurich he was commissioned to work for Swiss National Tourist Office to create advertising posters. He tended to combine clear type with a new method of photomontage. In 1936 he came to the United Stares and started to work for such giants as Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, Knoll and taught at several universities, including Yale. 
Addison Dwiggins and Lester Beall were influential designers who introduced modern aesthetics to the American audience. Even though the field of graphic design had already been working in a spirit of the modern design, the common people did not share these ideas in their daily life. Dwiggons and Beall were both commercial artists in the major cities in the country, e.g. Chicago, New York. Beall produced a series of advertising posters for Rural Electrification Administration, Time Magazine, Chicago Tribune. 
Robert Muchley also worked for the social benefit. Working with the government he became a part of a new movement of art and design for people. His posters are characterized by a generous negative space, silk screening methods and a feel of cubist shapes and forms.
I think it is very interesting to see the transition between the Bauhaus design and how it was approached in America. While in Germany the artists had to fight for their existence and worked on the edge of danger, designers in the United States could not only work freely but also contribute to the society. It is fascinating to see how design is applied in the life of common people through the advertising and how it actually helped the people. I think it was a ground breaking time for the designers to get separated from the group of traditional artists, such as painters, sculptors, etc. They became a part of the industry and indeed very influential part in the modern times. I especially liked the posters with social context, 'John is no really dull', etc. We might laugh at the content now, but these posters did not differ in the rhetoric from nowadays advertising for breast cancer tests or HIV tests.