Graphic Designe History

I'm Sean Adams and I'd like to welcome you to the foundations of graphic design history I've been studying and teaching graphic design history for three decades and I've helped build and manage the largest collection of graphic design history in the world the AIGA historical archives one of the first questions you might ask is why should I care about graphic design history it's the past and I would answer that one of the best tools to be a great designer is to have a wide visual vocabulary and history gives us that having a visual library of images stored in your memory gives you a smarter and more varied toolbox the other point is that design is not Darwinian that is it doesn't get better over time design simply reflects the culture and the period of time in which it was created this course is created to provide a solid foundation of the highlights in our graphic design history I'm not interested in talking about history like your third grade history teacher I'm more interested in why something looks the way it does and what was happening to influence that whether it's a unique way of using contrast or an unexpected approach with typography the examples we'll explore will always be inspirational I'm sure you'll finish with more appreciation for some of the great designers in the past and it will hopefully spark your curiosity to dig deeper welcome to the foundations of graphic design history and just like today technological change was a driving force in the mid to late 19th century and like today people's lives were turned upside down as new inventions changed the way they lived and worked it's this rise of a society that was more industrial based than agricultural based that drove much of the way Victorian design looked imagine life before the Industrial Revolution most people made their own clothes or they were custom sewn for them almost every item in their house was handmade their tea pots were never identical to the next door as new machines and mass manufacturing began to make exact duplicates of items that were suddenly available in huge quantities this all changed now people were able to choose between different teapots and their shirts were available in different colors this mass production created competition so now the manufacturers were thinking I need people to buy my teapot rather than the teapots from a company down the street but how can I make that happen this is the genesis of modern advertising and design in order to compete manufacturers turned to posters placards and ads to convince consumers to use their products welcome once be a simple note on a wall now needed to be noticed at the same time new machines were invented that could handle finer printing so suddenly there were greater possibilities for creativity in advertising Victorian advertising reflects these changes and the values of that period such as a clear class structure sexual restraint and a strict code of conduct Britain was at the height of its Empire with colonies around the globe elaborate ornamentation and mixing of styles from other cultures reinforced the British Empire's colonial strengths these forms were paired with images that reflected idealized nostalgia and moral goodness this coca-cola ad is a great example of a sentimental image representing the goodness of a Victorian woman and the ornate typography representing the refined and upper-class values of coca-cola the advertising had an air of optimism new machines and industries were transforming the world and making wonderful products it was a time of massive technological innovation Science and Industry were going to solve all the problems of poverty hunger and disease we may look at the Victorians and think they're old-fashioned and naive but the design embraces the new ideas of the time they were in the midst of rapid change which affected the ways they lived and worked there are some parallels to today as it can seem that new digital technologies appear before we've even learned how to use the last ones design and technology are always intricately woven together new printing techniques and tools change the way designers work and this leads to new styles and solutions take the Macintosh for example the introduction of this tool in the 1980s not only changed how designers worked but impacted the look of the things we designed now this gets a little technical so bear with me for centuries books and illuminated manuscripts or hand-drawn typically by monks or scribes if you wanted multiple copies that monk needed to hand draw each one individually this took a long time and was very labor intensive in 1450 Johannes Gutenberg invented the movable type printing press this process began with individual letters molded from metal into slugs they were combined to create paragraphs ink was applied to the metal type and paper was pressed on to the surface this process allowed for multiple copies to be made from the same metal type when the copies were completed the type was taken apart and recombined into another page or paragraph by the 19th century and again due to the Industrial Revolution and increase of products there was a large need for advertising and promotion a manufacturer could produce 5000 cups but then needed to sell them the metal type process worked well on books and posters with small type but the individual letter forms made of metal had a size limitation when it was attempted to make large headline size version that metal forms would break apart the solution was to make posters only with small type or find a new way to make big letter forms for printing fortunately an American printer Darius Wells began making letter forms out of wood a printer could carve these letter forms as large as they needed this answered the call for big type to promote events this was the birth of the American would type poster at first the printers of these posters tried to emulate the look and feel of the older metal type designs with elaborate ornaments and a variety of fonts this was accomplished by mixing large wood type with smaller metal type it was also very difficult to print images so printer relied on fanciful typefaces and multiple rules and dingbats to create energy as you might expect this mashup of processes created a complex and at times chaotic design the handmade quality gave a sense of the human touch which feels warmer and less clinical than some of the typography we use today it's easy to assume that a new technology replaces the old one but like radio before television that's not true today letterpress printing with wood type is incredibly popular companies such as hatch show print and Nashville are looked at for design excellence and many schools have built their own letterpress workshops wood type and letterpress are usually more economical than offset printing when making smaller quantities experimental work limited edition books even wedding invitations are perfect for the letterpress process over the last thirty years as design became more and more digitally based many people yearn for the handmade and organic and return to the printing technology of the 19th century creating again wood tight posters Paris in the late 19th century was full of optimism and excitement peace and prosperity gave people more leisure time and allowed for the expansion of all the Arts the Industrial Revolution produced thousands of ordinary products that needed advertising this and the new prosperity created new luxury goods and multiple forms of entertainment to enjoy and these also require a new form of advertising we call this period labelled Epoque or the Golden Age the limitations of printing technologies created the look of the wood type poster by the 1860s new advances in printing provided the opportunity to use color and imagery with higher quality Jules sureiy expanded on the typographic wood-type posters and is considered a father of the modern poster he moved away from type only solutions and introduced illustrations and a more painterly approach the images convey a sense of frivolity and fun he used exaggerated lighting and energetic movement to communicate excitement and pleasure many of the posters use a strong x-axis to maintain harmony the colors are carefully chosen to give the illusion of artificial or stage lighting for example a Sarah Bernhardt poster uses blue on her face to simulate a stage lit shadow and sureiy integrated the typography into the image with hand drawn and painted letter forms Sheree presented women in a new and modern way previous depictions in posters and art were of prostitutes or holy figures his women were called charettes and showed the new attitudes women in Paris in the 1890s had a less restrictive role Sheree showed this with lower cut dresses smoking energetic dancing and even operating new machines like an electric lamp in the same time period the flat forms and simplicity of Japanese woodblock prints influenced onry de toulouse-lautrec he took sure Ray's approach of an image-based poster but moved toward a flatter and simpler form his posters also use theatrical lighting and dynamic movement to create excitement for the entertainment events he promoted Lautrec posters integrated the typography as well but the style was less refined than shirase following a looser approach Lautrec also used large expanses of negative space and implied form as Japanese woodblock prints did he doesn't paint the detail of may milton's dress we are only shown a large area of white the viewer is forced to fill in the blanks to complete the elements in his or her head other artists such as théophile alexander stein line shared Lautrec spash unfortunate block art and Impressionism his poster the shot noir mixes the solid shapes and high contrast of Lautrec s-- work with a tighter and less fluid form the excitement and energy of this period in Paris allowed for the explosion of creativity and innovation the posters reflect the vitality of the era and the place the idea of an energetic image driven design replaced the informational and static posters from before over a hundred years later we assume a poster will be dynamic and exciting otherwise it's just a sign in the late 1800s society was bombarded with products and inventions that celebrated the machine-made in theory factories were making items that made everyone's life better every family on the block could now own a well-made an identical teapot class distinctions would disappear and a unified society would emerge the reality was crowded slums a massive increase in urban pollution bad quality products child labor and the slow removal of all things handmade art nouveau or the new art was a style that sought to counter this with solutions based on nature and an idealized agricultural medieval life Art Nouveau forms are typically fluid and flat like Toulouse Lautrec the Japanese woodblock also influenced Art Nouveau artists and designers in this case impacting the use of space while plant life and the natural world influenced the shapes Art Nouveau was more than passing fanciful style and graphic design the ideas of a return to natural forms also influenced architects product designers and furniture makers candlesticks chair even entrances to the Paris métro adopted the Art Nouveau aesthetic Aubrey Beardsley was the bad boy of Art Nouveau he illustrated books and limited edition prints the subject matter ran toward the grotesque and erotic the style is black and white with high contrast the shapes are fluid and clearly are derived from the natural world he used shapes from flowing vines peacocks water and flowers the peacock skirt was drawn for an edition of Oscar Wilde salomé the images shocked the British public Wilde was also unsettled and worried that Beardsley's grotesque imagery and strong style would overshadow his words in addition to Oscar Wilde salomé Beardsley created a series of illustrations for Sir Thomas Malory's book the death of Arthur these illustrations became Beardsley's best-known work the subject matter is an idealized medieval Camelot Beardsley begins to incorporate harder-edged borders and elements from illuminated manuscripts Alphonse mu cos posters and illustrations for advertising share Beardsley's fluid forms and idealize romantic past Mooka however incorporated color and complex pattern many of these illustrations were intended for large scale posters rather than small books at small scale these may seem less dramatic than Beardsley's high contrast but at actual poster size the effect is hypnotic Muja used Arabic and Byzantine decorative motifs for the patterns borders and typography like Beardsley's connection to Camelot Mooka uses these foreign forms to comment on the goodness of a more agrarian culture with handmade design incredibly we are in the midst of a similar reaction today this time with the digital and technological again we see a movement towards organic forms handmade production and an idealized reverence for pattern for a designer who is no nothing but the computer screen this seems like a radical and new idea it would be simpler if I stated that one style and design displaced the previous style and everything in design history was nice and sequential but movements and styles tend to overlap or branch into other areas and ideas this is the case with Art Nouveau and the Arts and Crafts movement they share similar principles and occurred in the same approximate time but have different results William Morris is the acknowledged leader of the Arts and Crafts movement like the artists who worked in the Art Nouveau genre Morris also rejected the industrial revolutions bad quality and lack of skilled workmanship his book design embraced the idea of the artist and worker coming together to make a unique object of beauty the books of the Arts and Crafts movement were often printed on small presses with limited quantities the emphasis was on quality not quantity every part of the book from the typeface pattern paper binding and materials was refined this reflected the importance of craft over mass production looking back toward an imagined Romantic period the work had intricate hand-drawn patterns based on natural forms and the subject matters were sentimentalized and idealized often focusing on the agrarian age with topics such as Chaucer Knights and medieval poetry unlike art nouveau the designers working with an arts and crafts approach filled the negative space with pattern and decoration this relates more to illuminated manuscripts before the invention of the printing press then to Japanese woodblock art the Arts and Crafts movement launched a renaissance of book design the quality and manufacturing of books was in a dismal state as the publishing industry looked to cheaper ways to manufacture this renewed appreciation for the book arts spread from Europe to the United States sparking an interest in small presses and limited editions Architects such as and green and green and Frank Lloyd Wright adopted many of its ideas and transform them into building concepts fine handmade woodwork artists created stained glass and the connection to natural elements are all part of an Arts and Crafts building one of the most lasting effects of the Arts and Crafts movement is the commitment of design to quality the movement prevented a slow slide into fast cheap and low quality as an accepted fact today good designers and printers strive to create the highest quality product obsessing over every detail by the turn of the 20th century young artists began looking beyond the complex forms of Victorian design Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts the ideas in the air at the start of a brand new century were about new and fresh approaches for these young artists the world of medieval poetry and complex patterns had no place in this brave new world Lucien Bernhardt was 15 years old when he attended an exhibition in Munich of work that moved away from the drab tones and clutter of Victorian era he was as he said walking drunk with color through the exhibition he went home and painted every wall and all the furniture in his room with these new bright and vibrant colors his father kicked him out of the house but he made the giant leap into realizing the design could be minimal and clear Barron Hart's poster for Priester matches is a perfect example his original solution had dancing girls a cigar table and a tablecloth but one by one he took each item away determined to get to the core of the communication which was simply matches this solution is the beginning of modern graphic design today that relies on symbols and shapes rather than literal illustration to promote an idea this school of work is known as placket seal or poster style other German artists such as Ludwig hole vine working in the poster medium were also exploring simple shape and minimal decoration the use of implied form with negative space is an incredible way to make the viewer work this is a good approach the more a viewer tries to understand the visual the better he or she will remember it the typography was created by hand as part of the illustration and was also reduced to the most basic message strong vivid colors abstract and flat pattern and a rejection of anything decorative are the hallmarks of the German poster movement these artists without knowing it also were the first to work with modern corporate identity the idea of a logo today is a simple icon and name this can be traced back to that original Priester poster the effects of the German poster period are with us in modern identity design minimal posters and the basic concept of less is more it was gathering momentum and becoming a major force but as we'll see next the movement was derailed in 1914 by World War one On June 28 1914 the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo this effectively began World War one in Europe Austria Hungary Germany Russia France and Britain all now needed to promote their own message to recruit volunteers rally the troops and convinced the public that their fight was good and victory was possible there was no radio television internet or social media but new cost-efficient printing technologies allowed for mass production of posters and these became the primary tool for war propaganda the explorations and stylistic approaches of art nouveau and arts and crafts were quickly set aside the British French and American governments commissioned the work and preferred an approach that favoured realism and traditional images Britain France and America relied on messages of patriotism home family and a man's role in society British posters questioned a man's masculinity if he did not enlist as in the poster daddy what did you do in the Great War others appealed to a man's sense of honour for the women of Britain American posters used images such as Uncle Sam and the American flag for patriotism four million copies of James Montgomery flags I want you poster were printed and distributed across America unlike the British posters the American posters are direct and straightforward Uncle Sam looks directly at the viewer and commands the viewer to join the army a Marine stands before the flag and demands that the viewer become a Marine even President Woodrow Wilson stares directly at the viewer and commands them to stand by him before the war an average American would not go farther than 20 miles from their home for their entire lives recruiting posters promise the idea of adventure and excitement overseas German posters continued to use the simplified placket steel approach simple symbols and typography communicated messages of strength and victory Hans Rudy Eric's poster for the film u-boat house or the u-boats are out uses the simplified form of a sans-serif you to frame the abstract figure of a u-boat commander the strong shapes and dramatic action to pick the commander as a new type of hero the poster uses hand-drawn lettering and bold areas of flat color integrating image and text into one message other posters appeal to Germany's medieval past and the honor of the country while these posters are aesthetically strong the abstraction and lack of realism had little or no emotional impact today we are bombarded with images and messages it's difficult to imagine a time when a poster was the most critical propaganda tool for the war effort the era of world war 1 was the first time that the power of design was used effectively on a mass scale these posters did the job of radio television and the Internet combined the first time I was given the assignment to research graphic design and the Soviet revolution I thought why should I care I'm not a communist but the way we approach graphic design today originated during the 1917 Russian Revolution let me set the stage in very simplified terms Russians are fighting against the Germans during World War one for centuries the ruling classes the Tsar and monarchy had oppressed the bulk of the population mostly living in poverty as peasants as the population moves from an agrarian way of life to the cities they face horrible conditions and disease when Russia enters World War one there were widespread food shortages and there was tremendous inflation people questioned why they were fighting in a war for leaders who neglected their citizens this disillusionment triggered the explosion of revolution in 1918 the people rise up against the Czar the Russian army abandons the war against Germany and the Soviet state is born at the onset of the revolution designers with radical new ideas were welcomed into the movement and over the next two decades created most of the work we now know as constructivist these designers rejected the personal expression of fine art and viewed decorative ornamental design as symbols of the aristocracy suppression they created a new style and were determined to speak to the masses Gustave klutzes poster five-year plan is geometric and bold using the symbol of a hand and simple shapes to convey a message rather than a representative illustration the typography is sans-serif rejecting decorative fonts elements are turned on an angle to suggest forward movement and energy the red background celebrates the Soviet flag the popular message to the Russian people from the Soviet leadership was that this new society created equality for all people removed the aristocracy and class structure and would enable the Soviet Union to move forward with industrialization the hand-made was personal and elevated the individual over the state so this was rejected in favor of machine made forms Ella's Itsuki's poster beat the whites with a red wedge uses an intrusive red wedge to symbolize the red Bolsheviks in a battle penetrating their opponents the white army during the Russian Civil War photography replaced illustration as a mechanical process photography celebrated the machine and the Industrial an illustration represented self-expression which the constructivists rejected the constructivist believed that old disciplines such as drawing painting and traditional graphic design were obsolete they integrated methods such as photo montage and over printing to their posters and publications graphic design was not a form of art there was no room for personal expression it was a collective discipline on the same level of culture as industrial manufacturing while this may seem harsh to us the result was a shift toward the function of something rather than simply the aesthetics simple tabs to denote sections in a publication might appear ordinary now but they were new functional tools for the constructivists by the late 1920s the Soviet political structure began to move away from strong abstract forms and photo montage they now considered the constructivists to be radical intellectuals and the work to be a representation of capitalist cosmopolitan culture the Soviet government demanded design be realistic and not abstract as the tenor changed any of these designers left Russia for Germany and the United States we see the influence of the constructivist today in graphic design stylistically but it is the concepts of functionalism designed for the common man abstract geometric symbols and the preference for photography that are their strongest legacy we like to think we live in a time of radical and unprecedented change and in many ways we do however the early 20th century was a chaotic combination of new inventions technologies and the shift from an agrarian lifestyle to an urban culture like today there were some people intent on holding onto the old traditions and other people that didn't think the changes were fast enough in 1909 in Italy Filippo Marinette II formed a group of designers called the futurists these people wanted the changes and wanted them to happen quickly they rejected the traditional approach to art and design entirely they wanted to celebrate the components of the new industrial society speed machines war and revolution the work used typography energetic forms and chaotic composition to communicate their idea of the new world Marinette wasn't interested in working within the confines of society he wanted radical and violent change he shocked people by demanding we will destroy museums referring to them as graveyards littering Italy the futurists hated harmony in classical forms they viewed these as a remnants of a culture only interested in recreating the past and pacifying the masses they created work that treated typography as painting energetic and illegible like a speeding automobile or train typography was to be expressive and dynamic energy was the top priority the Futurists collage elements from different sources together since harmony requires a sense of unity they discarded that and purpose slammed together found typography paint and drawing the futurist movement was over by 1918 most of the futurists revered war violence and the destruction of the old when World War one began they quickly enlisted by the end of the war very few were alive in 1915 in Switzerland a different group of artists and designers were gathering in opposition to world war one unlike the futurists who revered war and destruction they were pacifists and responded to the horrors of war by creating the Dada movement Dada rejected reason and logic they were interested in nonsense irrationality and intuition there are many ideas as to the source of the name Dada however most believe that it is nonsensical word these designers and artists worked to shock the bourgeois or middle-class population art was considered whoo-hah so they made anti-art the Dada manifesto promises the abolition of logic social hierarchies memory and the future work was random and improvised the typography in form was often random or used elements of Dada poetry also nonsensical as its source by World War two the Dada movement died out so many of the designers and artists shifted towards ideas such as surrealism or modernism even more were killed in Hitler's concentration camps categorized as degenerate artists both the futurist and Dada movements change the way we look at typography type was not simply a choice of a legible typeface or a way to decorate a poster it was a picture of a word typography could be expressive and dynamic or like an illustration used solely as a compositional element today every time we choose a typeface as a way to communicate a tone or idea we are referencing the Futurists and data movement the Futurists and constructivists wanted to destroy the old world and create a new one based on the machine industry and socialism the leaders of de steel or the style in dutch also rejected the traditions they believed caused world war 1 but unlike the Futurists and constructivists they wanted to rebuild the world with an approach that merged math and harmony in 1917 a group of artists architects and designers came together in the netherlands to create the movement its leader theo van osburgh wrote the old is connected with the individual the new is connected with the universal an individual with personal expression might use images and forms that were specific to one political regime however an individual designer could not own reductive abstract geometry based on mathematical proportions these are universal forms they could not be related to the Soviets the Germans British or any nation as I mentioned before design is a product of its time and place in this instance the rational minimalism is related to Dutch values of Calvinism and discipline working with a limited palette of colors and square shapes the distill designers hope to create solutions that talk to everyone and lost any sense of national or personal identity austerity and purity drove much of the graphic design and typography invitations announcements and magazines use sans-serif fonts and large amounts of white space designers working with the Juche steel ethos used only the color palette of black white and primary colors these were pure and universal as opposed to more complex colors that could be considered personal at one point van doughs Berg designed a font even more of any sign of individual personality the letter forms are made of square shapes dispensing with any curves or extra elements this severe approach however proved difficult to maintain it's human nature to create something personal as the movement matured seemingly small allowances were made such as using a 45-degree angle this new direction caused an enormous rift in the group and by 1924 the group disbanded one of the greatest legacies of De Stijl is the idea of working across many forms of design the approach was intended for graphic design architecture products and fine art it was a utopian philosophy that contrary to its name was not just about style it was about the human condition society and our ability to live together in a peaceful and harmonious culture and of course there is the legacy of the Partridge Family bus perhaps the most important influence on contemporary design is the Bauhaus the Bauhaus was a school in Germany training designers in all fields to this day most design education is based on the Bauhaus teaching method the Bauhaus was the place where all the previous movements and styles came together at the core of all these prior movements constructivism futurism Art Nouveau de steel and Arts and Crafts was the idea that design could make the world a better place this was the guiding principle at the Bauhaus Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus in 1919 like the leaders of the other movements at the time he believed the old order of aristocracy and corruption had led Germany into the catastrophic war design would create a new society and a better way of life he saw the solution as a return to an earlier medieval time when artists and craftsmen worked as one but he wasn't interested in medieval romantic forms the constructivists he viewed the machine and an industrial civilization as the way forward these tenants of the Bauhaus created a style that would dominate the rest of the 20th century they are the central ideas of modernism first a designer should strive for the highest quality and craftsmanship Herbert buyers poster for subject as ordinary as a collaborative housing project adopts perfect geometric forms and highly refined typography second less is more ornament was corrupt and unnecessary a brochure for the town of des house tourist office doesn't show the details of the heavily ornamented Town Hall the right house des how it focuses on a modern airplane and a simple Bauhaus building third work should be true to its materials wood should look like wood and steel should look like steel the metal on this chair is metal the straps are leather internal forms of the chair are all exposed nothing is hidden under heavy fabrics or pretends to be anything other than metal and straps next form follows function the design of something should be functional never decorative the invitation to the inauguration of the Dessau campus is divided into specific areas for image and information times are highlighted in red and the typography has a clear hierarchy and good design manufactured with mass production ensured equality and harmony Mariana Brandt's tea and coffee set is based on pure geometry and uniform materials there are no meaningless flowers or any ornamental details the simple forms could be mass-produced and bring harmonious beauty into an average home the Bauhaus building at Dessau is a good example of these ideas it is not a grandiose structure filled with statues and marble it is a machine for education a factory to teach graphic design at the Bauhaus was minimal and lacked any unnecessary decoration or elements the Bauhaus was the central point where the old world ended and the new world began it was a culmination of World War one industrialization and all the previous movements the way we live work and design today is either a direct result of the Bauhaus or a reaction against it the fact that much of the work still feels fresh and clear is a testament to the solid principles of Bauhaus modernism graphic design of the Bauhaus focused on typography shape and color professors integrated the tenets of modernism into the classes and workshops in product design furniture making an architecture design for the masses slowly replace gropius's original idea of designer as craftsman in graphic design however the refinement of form and typography maintain the concept of craftsmanship typography was one of the Bauhaus greatest legacies it was bold and clear with simple sans-serif fonts at one point this was simplified further by Herbert Byers attempt to create a typeface with no capital letters the typography was based on rational and mathematical systems grids and the golden section were part of each solution every element from a word to a hairline rule existed to serve a function from indicating where a letter begins on a letterhead to organizing text into the legible blocks design solutions favored photography again due to its realism as opposed to something handmade or interpretive like a painting lászló moholy-nagy II introduced experimental photography with unusual points of view montage and darkroom techniques this enhanced the design work adding dynamic energy the photography moved away from a static image taken at eye level and shifted to a cinematic approach the camera could be placed at a bird's eye view or from the ground up the subject was part of a larger world beyond the frame of the image the next time you watch any action movie you'll see these ideas used over and over color at the Bauhaus follow the ideas of the de steel movement black white and primary colors were Universal and not attached to any specific political party or nationality professors johannes itten and paul clay taught foundation classes in color and shape the exercises they invented are used by most design courses today in 1932 the Nazi Party had taken over the German government they quickly shut the school down the Nazis in charge of the faculty contracts deemed the work to be Bolshevik and degenerate the students dispersed and many of the teachers migrated to the United States sparking a revolution in design 80 years after the last student left the building we see examples of the Bauhaus influence specifically good design for the masses companies like Design Within Reach cratenbarrel and target use this as a core value and marketing message the Bauhaus also left designers and the masses with a new philosophy about design today the public expects a product to be functional it should be the best quality and aesthetically beautiful they demand graphic design be clear and legible and mistrust work that is too elaborate ornamental or hard to understand but most importantly it is not even questioned that a designer works to make life better Yann chiseled was one of the many typographers influenced by the Bauhaus in 1923 when he was 21 he visited an exhibition of work from the Bauhaus the exhibition profoundly changed his way of thinking about typography tschichold was trained as a traditional calligrapher at the leipzig academy before visiting the Bauhaus exhibition his work was symmetrical and based on classical typefaces for five years after visiting the exhibition he refined his new approach to typography and published dhanoa typography dhanoa typography promoted asymmetry sans-serif fonts and repulsion to the degenerate typefaces and arrangements of traditional typography following the tenets of the Bauhaus tschichold believe typography should never be decorative its most important job was to relay information as efficiently as possible there was no room for expressive and personal work for Tisch old typography should be asymmetrical dynamic and energetic this mirrored the modern world and the new ways of working celebrating the Machine rather than a human hand proportions were tied to the golden section and mathematical calculations determined the placement of elements on a layout in the hands of a lesser typographer this approach could lead to utilitarian and banal solutions tschichold added another layer onto the functional aspect he recognized the value of beauty and incorporated the values of harmony and spiritual content the new typography is characterized by the use of sans-serif fonts preferably one font in a range of weights and sizes symmetrical layouts were not efficient as they forced the content into one form regardless of the message asymmetrical layouts provided a solution that created better hierarchy content drove the solution for efficient communication like the other designers of the Bauhaus following the rules of modernism tschichold favored photography as it was truly representational and precise illustration was subjective his color palette was limited working mostly with black white red and yellow again this removed the designers role as an artist choosing a wide range of colors it promoted the idea of a universal visual language color existed to aid the viewer in the communication and provided hierarchy only negative space became an important element chiselled also added rules bars circles and boxes to aid in efficient reading these also expressed a kinetic energy connecting to the new age of the machine in 1933 the Nazis barged into tschichold Munich apartment and arrested him and his wife he was accused of creating Bolshevik and Ungerman work after six weeks he was released and took his wife and four-year-old son to Switzerland ironically after the war tschichold moved to London and rejected the new typography he now believed that designer should work with humanist forms and integrate classical typography in 1946 he wrote that the new typographies impatient attitude conforms to the German bent for the absolute and its military will to regulate the objective of the new typography was clarity not decoration this philosophy became the guiding rule to most of the typography we see today as information becomes more complex and dense take for example the barrage of information on screen during the television news clarity becomes more important so in many ways the new typography is more relevant today than it was in 1923 in the 1920s designers and artists at the Bauhaus were working to reduce form to only its functional elements at the beginning of the 1930s in Paris the idea of purity and geometric forms found a voice however a softer more elegant approach emerged it is during this time that we see the rise of the poster as a great art form economically France was not devastated by World War one like Germany the effects of the Great Depression were present but the situation was not as dire and harsh as post-war Germany luxury goods travel and entertainment continued to have a strong market which of course leads to advertising printing technologies had also improved since the age of sureiy and toulouse-lautrec now designer could work with finer tonal values gradations finer typography and a larger variety of colors shadow dimensionality and fine lines could now be printed successfully one of the leading designers in poster art was am Cassandra a Ukrainian immigrant living in Paris he didn't have one set approach based on De Stijl constructivism or any movement instead he liberally borrowed elements from each of these each of these movements promised a utopian society Cassandra's only connection to this philosophy was implied wealth Cassandra's posters promoted luxury cruises travel expensive products and an upper class lifestyle other designers used gaudy and baroque forms to illustrate these subjects as if wealth were about gold and ornament Cassandra used the minimal geometry and iconic imagery of the Bauhaus and constructivism his poster for the Normandy is genius it is abstract not realistic it is a series of subtle tones and gradations in a few simple shapes the scale is exaggerated the elements work together harmoniously with no unnecessary forms Cassandra's forms may appear soft and fluid but have an underlying grid based on geometry and repeating forms the posters are image based telling the story without the use of verbage the typography also echoing the other forms in this case a circle served as a secondary element other designers in Paris adopted some of the same concepts these posters succeed with a rigid structure of proportions and shapes combined with scale and a sense of grandeur big is huge small is tiny negative space defines objects and the same shape is repeated many times on each composition these designers lived in a world with moving buses and automobiles they design these posters for maximum impact when seen briefly from a moving car or train the colors and tones have high contrast and the details of the image are deleted the typography typically is only the name of the product letting the image do all the work this culture of exquisite poster design is part of our concept of a romantic Paris of the 1930s they are the basis for advertising today create a sense of excitement and adventure and invite the consumer to be part of this refined world this approach of a hard-hitting fast read is at the heart of every street poster billboard or magazine ad you see today it's nice to think that design is driven by aesthetics and good values in many ways it is but in the United States it is intimately connected to commerce design is the oil in the Machine of capitalism the 1920s were a boom time in the United States advertising increased dramatically as the need to sell products grew magazines at their most basic are features surrounded by ads they existed then as they do today not to tell a story but to sell advertising this boom in advertising created a period of innovation and new ideas in magazine design in the 1930s even as the country fell into the depression magazines were the dominant form of communication radio existed but the magazine advertising was the best way to promote visually art directors gain power and more control over the photography and layout choices ideas from the European avant-garde and the Bauhaus began filtering into the design with a wave of immigration from Germany Joseph benders 1937 cover for Fortune magazine utilizes the geometry of the Bauhaus drama a French poster design and dynamic forms of constructivism other American art directors began incorporating dramatic negative space geometric forms graphic photography and experimental typography sepi Pinellas was one of the first women in the field to rise to prominence she took ideas from constructivism and soften immed create a distinctive look for magazines like Vogue and 17 photography at the Bauhaus with its unexpected photographic cropping and point of view as seen here on the cover of Harper's Bazaar influenced many of her choices Alexi bro de vich immigrated to the United States to escape the Nazis in the 1930s he became the art director at harper's bazaar broad ovitch was a fan of AM Cassandra and encouraged him to spend two summers in New York in 1936 and 1937 the result was a series of striking covers other covers and interior spreads borrowed from avant-garde typography at the Bauhaus using clear typefaces and strong shapes bro de vich was a genius with composition and scale he played with montage and mixing typography and photography these were all ideas taken directly from the European avant-garde yet tailored to an American audience unfortunately magazines were printed in giant quantities and offset printing did not have the capabilities to maintain perfect color tones and small detail bro de vich used this weakness to his advantage he used black-and-white photography dynamically not just laying out images after the fact he changed the idea of what an art director was he conceived ideas the setting and the look of the images he was the mastermind behind all aspects of the layout he fostered the talents of many of the best photographers of the time like Richard Avedon and Irving Penn bro de vich moved the traditional magazine layout away from a centered stodgy approach with small illustrations to a symmetrical dynamic and photographic solutions over time his power increased as an art director while the layouts became increasingly minimal if you've ever seen the movie funny face watch for the scene with the angry Russian art director he's based on Alexei Berta the change from a textfield magazine from the 1920s to a highly Illustrated and energetic one profoundly changed the concept of a magazine the incredible work of sepi pinellas joseph fender and alexei bro de vich at vogue Harper's Bazaar and 17 introduced modernist ideas and the European avant-garde to the United States these magazines however reached only a small elite audience the average American in the midst of the Great Depression did not need luxury items expensive cruises or career fashion unemployment during the Depression was as high as 25 percent Franklin Roosevelt initiated a new federal program the Works Progress Administration or WPA the WPA employed millions of Americans they built dams bridges roads and federal buildings one division the federal art project employed designers illustrators photographers sculptors and painters the federal art project introduced modernism to a wider audience in America through posters designers were urged to speak to the masses in the least elitist way possible imagery was representational but not overly realistic the subject matter ranged from travel posters to local art exhibitions the program maintained arts in the United States and began a tradition of public arts projects many of the WPA designers had been exposed to European modernism the Bauhaus approach was geared to speak to a small group of European designers and was not effective in reaching millions of Americans WPA designers integrated the simple forms and geometric shapes with clear iconography and symbols pure colors were easier to reproduce with offset and silk screen printing and communicated hope and progress Lester Beals poster for the rural electrification administration are a great example of complex messages reduced to geometry and symbols in 1935 90% of America's rural areas had no electricity bill was tasked through the WPA to convince people in these areas to adopt electricity he used silhouetted photography icons such as arrows and radically simplified shapes such as the water faucet on this poster bill designed posters that left no doubt to the message his poster with arrows and the word radio make it clear immediately that electricity will bring radio to your home in red white and blue in addition to the WPA 'he's influenced most of the designers associated with the Bauhaus our modern ideas fled Germany to the United States American designers began to see firsthand these ideas in action and adopted many of the forms Joseph benders poster for the 1939 World's Fair exaggerate the scale of the monuments the asymmetrical layout expresses energy by rotating the subject at an angle and using dramatic lighting the poster is a series of repeating forms the triangle of the trial on is echoed with the spotlights the Paris fierce circle is used for the walkway and the typography serves as a grounding element Paul Rand took the modernist concepts and applied them with a lighter touch this catalog for design students at the 1939 World's Fair uses the simple geometry of the constructivists but adds a layer of humor by referring to the fair's famous landmarks the trial on in Paris fear with basic design elements Paul rands cover for apparel arts magazine is influenced by moholy-nagy EES experimental photography at the Bauhaus rant however lightens the tone with a loose engraving of a palm-tree echoing the boat propeller European modernism began in Germany and evolved in the United States the ideas and values remain the same but the purpose was now to communicate complex ideas or to promote products to a wider audience than ever before the result was a kinder gentler modernism for the American Way of life Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany on January 30th 1933 the Nazi Party men began to eliminate all political opposition and consolidate their power with a campaign of violence and intimidation they immediately began a mass media campaign to rule the German people by 1934 the Nazi propaganda machine now controlled all communications from Radio to posters Joseph Goebbels was the head of the Nazi Ministry of propaganda he used film books and graphic design to communicate the Nazis twisted set of values gurbles was one of Hitler's most devoted followers he was extremely anti-semitic and strongly supported the extermination of all European Jews he commissioned work that spoke to ideas of Aryan racial purity an inherent German superiority over the world and anti-semitism in its early years the Nazi Party adopted many of the modernist ideas such as simple messages iconography and strong forms however as time passed this changed to a more traditional an illustrative approach that Hitler preferred by the mid 1930s the typography was regulated to only using the official Germanic black letter typefaces most of the modernist designers had either fled to other countries or were imprisoned in concentration camps other designers use sentimental and emotional scenes to manipulate the audience on this poster a young areum youth looks to the future with the all-seeing fuhrer leading the way hitler was glorified in a god-like religious way abstract and geometric shapes were replaced by the realistic yet idealized illustrations German citizens were forced to hang these posters in their homes to prove loyalty to the party others were plastered around the city Nazi soldiers Hitler Youth and German athletes were relentlessly portrayed as pure and Aryan they are good-looking white Teutonic and strong this poster has a halo background to communicate the purity of a young woman or we see a soldier from below making him seem grand and heroic a poster by Ludvig whole vine for an athletic event gives us an image of the perfect German woman athletic strong vigorous tant and Aryan she represents victory energy and vitality ideas valued by the Nazis the message is problematic ethically but compositionally it is a success halt vine takes the color and shape of her shorts to echo the swastika the form of her body echos the shape of the flag the primary idea in all propaganda is to characterize your side as heroic and the enemy a subhuman if we see an enemy as an individual with feelings and a life we may feel empathy the Nazi posters used extreme and grotesque characterizations of racial minorities Jews Americans and the British the Imperial Japanese propaganda illustrates President Roosevelt as a green Frankenstein monster spreads in this Japanese book show images of the peaceful harmony in Manchuria during his brutal occupation at the end of World War two the Nazi regime faced defeat even then gurbles persisted in the faith that propaganda would lead to victory this poster for the full term or people's militia communicated the message that every German male between thirteen and sixty could fight until dead in April 1945 the Allied powers won the war Hitler and gurbles committed suicide and left a shattered nation to rebuild the result of the Nazi purges of intellectuals and artists eliminated an entire generation of Germany's best minds and designers the tools of propaganda have been consistent for centuries Nazis elevated propaganda to a new level by using mass communication to spread their terrible message during World War two the Allied powers included written France the Soviet Union China and the United States in contrast to the Nazi messages of intimidation fear anti-semitism and racial purity Britain and the United States utilized propaganda to mobilize national spirit appeal to patriotic duty and encourage hard work in the same way that the message of the Axis powers evolved from a ruthless set of Nazi values the Allied messages were reflected from a national set of ethics that valued freedom Liberty at a democratic society in January 1941 President Roosevelt articulated his vision for a post-war world founded on four basic human freedoms freedom of speech freedom of religion freedom from want and freedom from fear Norman Rockwell used these ideas as the basis of world war ii 'he's best example of allied propaganda the Four Freedoms initially Rockwell had no idea how to tackle such large and broad ideas then he decided to tell the story from the point of view of his own hometown while these posters may seem traditional and representative they incorporate many of the modernist concepts specific symbols are included to strengthen the message perspective is skewed to create room for the elements and there are no parts of the poster that do not contribute to the message in freedom of speech the blue-collar worker speaks at a town meeting with the same rights as the white collar executive next to him freedom from fear depicts the father holding a newspaper with wartime headlines while his wife touched the children in bed the warm light of home is represented with a small vertical band on the far right freedom from want gives us the bounty of Thanksgiving not food but a family the man in the front looking directly at you the viewer as part of the family the shape of the couple serving echoes the shape of the turkey and the food on the table represents the goodness of American agriculture other designers and illustrators focused on the value of work such as J Howard Miller's rosie the riveter which served as a morale booster for the war effort in factories Rosie's red white and blue attire reinforces the patriotic communication Giancarlo originally from France brought modernist and European avant-garde to his American work with simplified shapes and the conic imagery his poster for America's answer production used less literal illustrations taking a graphic approach to convey the message with symbols the letter O does double service as a nut turned by a highly stylized wrench Joseph Bender's Army Air Corps poster is a combination of simple geometry and patriotic colors which highlight the energy of flight the tiny airplanes pointing toward the American star is the key element depicting enormous height and distance one of my favorite posters from any period is Charles coiners poster give it your best it is a direct and simple depiction of the American flag with a declarative command the command and simple message are similar to the World War 1 poster I want you optimism teamwork and challenge are exemplified in every Allied message the War Department worked across media to convey these messages from radio to movies Joe Rosenthal's famous photograph of Marines and enable Corman raising the flag on Iwo Jima was quickly reused as a poster encouraging all the forces to work in unison the war effort in the United States provided a need for mass communication and manipulation of message these skills combined with the emigration of European designers in the 1930s created some of the most successful and copied posters in history going forward after the war these tools would be used again as a post-war economy boomed World War two left much of Europe and large parts of Asia in ruin the continental United States was untouched during the war the u.s. industrial machine expanded dramatically following the Great Depression these factors made America the world's dominant economic and military power in addition millions of troops were demobilized and absorbed back into the economy now with wartime restrictions on purchasing removed the consumer market exploded many graphic designers were among these demobilized troops they had seen the world and were not willing to return to traditional or expected solutions they viewed the world as a new frontier and wanted to explore new ways of communicating the ideas of modernism integrated into mainstream design now the public wanted fresh new clean and simple solutions for graphic design architecture and products rather than religiously adopting the strict Bauhaus methods of modernism designers such as paul rand lester beal saul bass lou Danziger and alvin Lustig use the Bauhaus concepts as a stylistic approach simplicity and the less is more approach was employed but exuberant colors and forms replace the clinical perfection of discipline modernism this was also a time of great ideas and confidence Walter Peck II an executive at The Container Corporation of America helped form the American Bauhaus in Chicago he founded the International Design Conference in Aspen and was responsible for promoting graphic designers with the Container Corporation advertising rather than showing a product in this case cardboard boxes Koepke invited designers to use great ideas of Western man for advertising content the solution by paul rand uses the Uncle Sam hat as a fused metaphor of a flower to convey the flowering of liberty and democracy the loose illustration style conveys energy and a personal connection to the subject post-war America was a place where science industry and the American spirit of invention had saved the world and would make a new one American corporations were trusted leaders technology was idolized and the atom was our friend Alvin Lustig's cover for ID magazine connects three very different items within the common shape of a circle the primary colors are derived from the De Stijl movement while the photomontage comes from Bauhaus experimental photography iconography and symbols replaced texts driven messages organic shapes replace the hard-edged forms of the Warriors Herbert Beier used fluid shapes as abstract talk bubbles Herbert matter another European who emigrated to the United States in the 1930s and cased images of new furniture from Knoll in biomorphic shapes the negative space here is as critical as the positive shape many wartime production methods evolved into consumer products Tupperware molded plywood nylons and a host of other products entered the marketplace Alvin Lustig sad for a new line of chairs focuses on the organic shape of the molded plywood rather than just the chair color palettes move from the drab tones of camouflage to vibrant and optimistic colors pastel and bright colors were favored printing technology was less accurate than today and the simpler tones like a solid magenta reproduced better than a subtle and complex color graphic design emerged as a profession in the 1950s before the war graphic designers were considered commercial artists or art directors AIGA the American Institute of graphic arts was founded in 1914 by typographers and printers in the 1950s the organization changed with leaders who are now called graphic designers the way we digest information as a culture forces designed to evolve in the Victorian era when books were the primary modes of communication design was dense and relied on text in the 1920s radio changed that and as we heard information in a more sequential way typography opened up and became more dynamic by the 1950s television and film revolutionized our society dramatically and design responded design evolved from a primarily text-based solution in the nineteenth century or text and pattern were the only elements for communication to solutions in the 1930s that combined text and image using both the image and typography to tell the story and then by the 1950s designers used a singular image as the primary element the image however wasn't simply a pretty picture it needed to communicate an idea until the entire story symbols and metaphorical images are strong ways to Telegraph an idea a symbol of heart is fairly Universal and is faster to read than words designers use the power of symbols as a technique to use images in place of complex verbage in the 1950s many designers employed the concept of a fused metaphor this takes one image a filmstrip for example that is a symbol for film or movies and combines it with a series of flags that communicate international when fused the two symbols read together and tell the story without needing to read the copy the most successful solutions merge the two symbols and created something new think of it as one plus one equals three this is Paul rands cover for an exhibition of Modern Art in daily life he takes the symbol of a paint palette and paintbrush to read his art then he combines them with a fork turning the paint palette into a plate a complex idea like modern art in daily life is told quickly and surprisingly one of the most exquisite examples of this approach is Lou danziger's catalog cover for an exhibition of American paintings a paintbrush is paired with a gesture of an American flag the simple white background minimal typography and black and white paintbrush or paired with not a perfect image of the American flag but with the painted version of one relating back to the subject matter the genius of this approach is the interaction with a viewer when he or she sees the solution they need to decode it they are riddles that may take a few seconds to understand the more time the viewer spends with the image the better they will remember it and the discovery of the meaning provides a sense of delight as in of course and how I get it sure my fan guys Marv designed a series of covers for architectural and engineering news using the fused metaphor approach like danziger's american painting cover the issue for the American Institute of Architects in Washington DC removes any complex background and uses a flag and architects drafting pencil their covers for pepsi-cola world are lively and humorous asking the viewer to solve the riddle and then providing the answer with a small type for the month of the year a collection of bottle caps and football play diagram can only mean caps Ecola and football season this is a solution that is still viable today and can create surprising and unexpected results make a list of symbols for one subject and a list for another and combine them one by one lunch and art for example the strength of this image driven approach is evidence of the wider gap between advertising and graphic design that began in the 1950s designers began to drop the slogan and turn directly to image based solutions that didn't rely on words advertising was and still is dominated by copy and tag lines the standard ad composition was to show an image place a slogan below it and copy to support the product one way is not better than another done well either approach can be sublime the fused metaphor answered the public's desire to read images rather than text as television and film became the dominant communications media it was clear that the second half of the 20th century would be the age of images in the 1950s and 60s New York was the center of advertising and design the term the New York school is more about a group of designers working in and around New York rather than a strong creative movement a common theme of these designers is a commitment to the modernist ideas of less is more functionalism and the use of images and geometric forms to convey a message the American iteration of this placed importance on work being a gala terian open and direct these designers took advantage of common cultural symbols they combine them with verbage to tell a new story creating a symbiotic relationship between word and image henry wolf's cover for a catalog on an AI j exhibition of paperback covers shows the viewer a trompe l'oeil tear revealing the word paperback which is of course exactly what that is Bradbury Thompson's incredible promotional books for the paper company West Vaiko integrate collage experimental printing techniques and asymmetrical typography with classical American images and themes Paul rands cover for a book on Pablo Picasso takes the artistic personality of Picasso's brushstrokes and integrates a portrait of him into the composition this creates a double meaning for the title a portrait of the artist and a portrait of his work much of this work used a clever twist on a common image the upside to this approach was a fast read that provided a sense of delight and positive connection to the brand or product the vision behind CBS William golden used a flag at half-mast as a symbol for the death of someone of prominence the answer here made clear by the headline is how the Vice President can become the president the tenant in modernism less-is-more makes this work every element from the image to typeface contributes to the communication if Jorge cherni had added too many elements fussy typography or decorative devices the message would be unclear designers also used alternative methods of making to create a stronger message we are so used to a world of photographs that it is hard to consider a rough drawing or collage as a viable solution even though he was in Los Angeles Saul Bass is typically included in New York school bass used cut paper collage and a variety of tools his poster for the man with the golden arm is made of cut paper and hand-drawn typography the result is one of the most famous movie posters in history bass also used humor to suggest an idea that might be too risque the poster for love in the afternoon doesn't show a literal image of people engaged in an illicit activity bass suggests the naughtiness with a hand closing the blind the first step if one were to have an affair in the afternoon the defining ideas of the New York school simplicity honesty humor and intelligence echoed the American culture of the 1950s and early 60s these designers took the tenets of modernism and techniques of the European avant-garde and created a new language this version of Bauhaus modernism had now matured into a confident and dynamic approach reflecting the values of the time and place and creating a truly American form of design after the war the International style or Swiss typography predominated European graphic design it was a style that relied on order mathematical proportions and a rigid grid structure in the same way that Dutch culture influenced De Stijl with order and a Calvinist discipline Switzerland's national character influenced the International style a preference for clarity and structure based on rigid rules led to Swiss typography in 1957 Joseph Mueller Brockman began teaching typography and graphic design in Zurich his work was founded on strict proportional guidelines primarily the golden section a grid structure was used to organize elements typography and visual elements were scaled mathematically rather than intuitively he founded and co-edited DeNooyer graphic or the new graphic design journal this was written in German English and French and broaden Muller Rockman's approach internationally many of yan xishan zai Diaz from the Bauhaus influenced designers in Switzerland such as Muller Brocklin Armin Hofman Ernst Keller and Max bill these ideas included that typography should be dynamic and functional a designer needed only a single sans-serif typeface such as accidents grotesque a flush left ragged right alignment was preferred the difference from tschichold was the rigorous devotion to the golden section and mathematical systems some designers superimposed the golden section on the camera lens so the models and objects would line up perfectly in the frame the strongest work was dynamic and piercing simple geometric forms were scaled and placed with meticulous and mathematical precision color was used either sparingly to highlight information or create a focal point or as large color fields the main goal of any piece was functional the message should be clear and ordered for the viewer to comprehend black and white photography was straightforward objective and sharp existing only to service the composition and message from the success of Muller Brockman's journal de neue graphic the Swiss style moved into the rest of Europe and crossed the Atlantic to America Antonio boo Jerry founded studio by Jerry in Milan in 1933 moholy-nagy II and the work of the Bauhaus inspired by Jerry solutions by the 1950s he adopted many of the ideas of Swiss typography unlike Muller Bronfman but Jerry's work had a looser approach the golden section and grids were still apparent but there was a lighter touch and a willingness to break the rules if it made for a better composition American and Canadian designers treated Swiss typography the same way they dealt with Bauhaus modernism it was one of many styles and used with a range of clients a grid might be present on layout but some elements might shift if the designer determined it created more impact as in this poster by Arnold Sachs the International style dominated architecture and design throughout the 1950s and early 1960s but as less talented architects and designers began using the style the results became banal and dull today we take for granted that we set up a grid for a layout use the golden section of proportion and maintain mathematical consistency with type sizes these are all the result of Swiss typography throughout the 1950s and 1960s the American corporation was viewed as leading the way toward a great big beautiful tomorrow corporations embodied the values of the 1950's conformity order hierarchical power structures and security employees expected to work at the same corporation for their entire career with hard work they would climb the corporate ladder from the mailroom to CEO slowly providing a better life for their family before the 1950s corporate identity was a rather casual affair divisions often created their own version of logo and were autonomous in their design choices a group of 10 executives might have ten distinctly different letterhead designs as corporations grew and expanded the lack of visual consistency became a problem creating a cohesive identity program solved multiple problems functionally for example an entire company now use one business card or letterhead to this allowed for centralized purchasing of printing and reducing costs in marketing one logo and visual style maintained a clear and unified message in a competitive landscape logos designed in the 1950s and 60s were hard edged and simple reproduction quality was variable from a well printed brochure to a low end newspaper ad sharp and clean forms work best across the spectrum Saul basses identity for the bell system which became AT&T is a good example of the progressive simplification that evolved into a masterful icon a corporate identity system expanded a designer's role from only designing a logo to creating an overall branded look Shania fan guys Marv designed the Mobil logo in 1963 the previous name Mobil gas was shortened and the simple logo was the foundation for a major overhaul of all corporate communications advertising and signage an identity program could unify thousands of employees and increased stock values it could reposition a company in a new medium like the CBS identity designed by William golden in 1951 as he was driving through Pennsylvania Dutch country he was inspired by the hex symbols in the shape of human eye painted on shaker barns the Newmark moved CBS from radio broadcasting to television after Golden died in 1959 Lou Dorfsman took over as creative director he evolved the identity with a singular typeface CBS Dido and a black-and-white pallet Dorfsman proved that a strong identity system could be varied and exciting across a wide range of materials Paul Rand designed several of the periods most recognizable marks the IBM logo evolved from the former full name of International Business Machines ran recognized the power of a more efficient approach the shortened acronym he continued this idea with the American Broadcasting Company which uses the same ABC logo 50 years later the mark is a series of almost identical circles in the negative spaces the letter forms and the containing shape the simplicity is one of the reasons for its longevity Rand's UPS logo also shortened the united Parcel Service to an easier name and used a simple rectangle and bow shape to communicate parcels large scale identity systems introduced the identity manual these guidelines maintained a cohesive system with a set of rules for usage they were distributed to creative departments and outside agencies to maintain a singular vision some corporations went to extremes to maintain a cohesive voice in one instance all executives were required to wear white shirts and black ties no personal artifacts were allowed on a desk and a template existed to make sure everyone's desk lamp was at the exact same angle questions about the dehumanizing aspects of the corporation gained momentum by the late 1950s the idea that corporation was the key to a golden future began to disintegrate the monolithic aspect of a rigid corporate identity system began to evolve political activism has been a part of graphic design for centuries we use images or symbols and words to convey our point of view this is the constant in our profession Benjamin Franklin did it with his printing press hippies did it in the 1960s and we do it today in order to understand the 1960s we need to go back to World War 2 during the war women and minorities experienced new freedoms women were told they were strong enough to be in the workplace building ships and airplanes and everyone was called on to do his or her part regardless of race religion or gender after the war this changed millions of troops work demobilized and back into the economy this meant that everyone else was told to go back to the old ways women belong in the home racial minorities were segregated and anyone thinking differently was disenfranchised but you can't put people back in a box by the mid-1960s society exploded graphic designers use their skills to communicate issues around civil rights the anti-war movement the environment and women's issues the design of protest work best when it was direct and to-the-point with little chance of misinterpretation Mikado wadis poster protesting the United States his involvement in the Vietnam War uses clear symbols of the American flag and a dead Vietnamese man the rough illustration technique made the message more visceral and emotional in France a series of strike posters by Italia populaire a roughly drawn silkscreen silhouettes the handmade typography adds to the urgency and the red color connects to socialism see more costs anti-war poster uses the recognizable symbol of Uncle Sam from the James Montgomery flag world war one poster and recasts him as a villain non-designers also created much of the protest work these Flyers posters and publications were printed on small presses or mimeograph copiers in someone's garage the point was not high-end aesthetics and refinement but the urgency of the message slick graphics were identified as being mainstream or Madison Avenue establishment a new raw aesthetic emerged that treated design as an ephemeral messaging tool rather than a piece of art in 1967 a satellite captured the first image of the Earth from space the writer Stuart brand used this image on the cover of the Whole Earth Catalog the catalog provided information on sustainable practices and living communally the image and catalog sparked the environmental move it's common practice today to recycle use natural resources judiciously and support environmental issues but it was a radical concept in 1968 John van Hamer's felt addressed the issue with a poster highlighting the air quality in Southern California in 1970 and other designers use the poster to forward the anti-establishment idea of recycling protest work depends on an emotional response like propaganda complex information cannot convince the viewer of anything work from the 1960s used a sense of community outrage and us against them even dating was used as a way to convince young men to burn their draft cards the influence of this period permeates every part of our life now from zine to protest stickers on Facebook the counterculture movement created an environment where we freely use graphic design to clarify our unique position on any subject San Francisco was the port where many young men and women were discharged after World War two those that didn't feel that they fit in back on the farm or the small town stayed the beat movement grew in the 1950s and the city became a haven for artists and writers by 1966 San Francisco was the epicenter of the counterculture revolution a small group of designers began making posters to promote events at the Fillmore auditorium in 1966 the posters followed a style that was fluid and complex any poster from this time period and style is grouped together as a film or poster it's important to realize that this was the height of the American corporate identity Swiss typography and international style but the film war posters are a hundred and eighty degrees from these we look at these today and think how can anyone read that the point at the time was to reject legible Swiss modernism in favor of a more organic and less rigid experience this was also amplified by the use of hallucinogenic drugs and other substances the idea was frankly to take these drugs and stare at a poster for hours there was a strong connection to the ideas of Art Nouveau in the same way that our Nouveau designers rejected the cold idea of the Industrial Age the film or poster designers rejected hard-edged modernism and consumer-driven culture their stylistic connections to art nouveau and conceptual connections to 19th century writers like Lewis Carroll books like Carroll's Alice in Wonderland are filled with mind-altering drugs placards with Jefferson airplane's lyrics based on Alice's story promoted drug usage the Leyden thought poster for Big Brother and the Holding Company takes the Cheshire cat from Alice as a nod to drugs much of the work was silk-screened or printed on small presses it was often turned around quickly the demands created a unique set of circumstances that allowed for exploration and experimentation typography was typically hand drawn this solved two problems the first being the difficulty to obtain typesetting which was expensive the second being a personal and organic approach the color palettes are rarely polite the colors vibrate and clash often creating optical illusions again this was a response to the viewer who was taking LSD and the designer who was typically designing while on LSD the film war poster movement became the look of a new generation the style implied a new consciousness and a rejection of the old and traditional ways young people began putting these posters on their walls as a symbol of unity for the first time posters were designed to be viewed in a personal rather than public setting why all movements the counterculture evolved and eventually disappeared once advertisers notice the youth markets connection to this they begin using it to sell products the idea of dropping out which was a way of suggesting that one would leave school or a job and live off the land was modified to be a selling point for soda drinks and washing detergent by the early 1970s the value of this work for me is the exuberant approach to typography in color no two colors are ever wrong and type can or cannot be legible these radical ideas open the door for all alternative graphic design today while much of the design world in the 1960s and 1970s embraced swiss modernism and Helvetica another group of designers turn to an eclectic and exuberant approach unlike the film or posters this work was rooted in ideas of decoration expressive form and human touch rather than rebellion and drugs again technology is a strong component of the shift in the 1960s phototypesetting became the prevalent way of getting type for decades designers ordered type that was set in metal now a system existed that used a negative and film technology to generate letter forms this opened the door to typeface designs that could never be made in metal because they were too thin too heavy or too elaborate now with phototypesetting the finest of hair line rules ultra tight letter spacing and highly complex letter forms could be generated and used by a designer like the film or posters the eclectic movement also looked back to Victorian and Art Deco forms these have been deemed bad design for the generation following Bauhaus modernism but many designers began to feel boxed in by minimal swiss modernism and wanted to work with other styles and a more humanistic roche now led by designers like pure blue ballon designers look back in into these sales into their work this wasn't simply a copying of a Victorian design the best solutions took the forms and images and repurposed them for contemporary audience a magazine spread by liu balan adopts nineteenth-century typography and ornament and adapts it with a modernist grid and vibrant color throughout the 1960s and 70s the layouts became more and more elaborate and the typefaces more extreme the overly decorative and exaggerated forms shocked most of the design establishment a split began between the modernists and designers rejecting those hard line rules illustration began to replace photography as a way of embracing a warmer less clinical and functional tone pushman Studios adopted art deco Art Nouveau and other historical forms and mixed illustration with typography typographic eclecticism was never meant to be elitist or considered high art designers like her blue ballon in new york and Margit Larson in San Francisco considered Swiss typography to be aimed at a small elite while typographic eclecticism was warmer and appealed to a wider mass audience like the film or posters this idea opened the doors to a wide variety of design movements to follow rejecting functionalism embracing personal expression mixing media and appropriating forms from other time periods became components of the postmodern movement and dominated design in the 1980s album cover design is an area often overlooked by design historians the subject matter was music not intellectual concepts there was no philosophical manifesto it was an art form that existed to sell records if you ask anyone who lived during the time when people actually bought records they will light up when discussing their favorite record and be able to describe the cover in detail great emotional weight is contained with the combination of person with music and the artifact of the album cover the designers of the late 1960s and 1970s working in this field or a special breed they were the first rock star graphic designers other designers knew them by name and they were promoted along with the covers the styles were loose and open-ended one cover might be modernist and simple another complex and decorative there was no attachment to a specific idea each solution might be radically different from the last the industry thrived in Los Angeles and New York the two centers of the music industry designers such as rollin young produced an enormous body of work the freewheeling approach of the 1970s is evident in the mix of media style and ideas budgets were large and a designer could hire the best illustrators and photographers unique packaging techniques were added as the album covers became more than simply a way to hold a record most album covers depict the band name and a photograph of the band or musician the best examples of album cover design rely on abstraction or symbols this may seem easy but removing a photo of the band was a difficult battle with the artists agents record companies and executives but when it was possible great results emerged the emotional connection to a physical artifact is lost with mp3 downloads these great album covers prove the power of design to reach the viewer as an individual the rejection of following one Dogma explicitly makes sentence after the radical changes of the 1960s the album cover provided a perfect vehicle for personal connection to design as the decade moved from being the Wii generation of the sixties to the me generation of the 70s previous to world war ii japan had remained fairly isolated and traditional after world war ii the macarthur plan revived the japanese and introduce social changes modernity and technology was embraced by the 1960s Japanese design reflected an integration of Western ideas into a Japanese aesthetic in some instances this was expressed with swiss modernism gan hosiah used the golden section swiss typography and Helvetica for a Yamaha motorcycle poster the purely Swiss approach is adapted however by turning the image on the vertical using an aspect of Japanese writing from the mid 1960s to the 1970s a new Japanese aesthetic emerged it maintained ties to swiss modernism and a preference for neutral geometric forms japanese techniques such as flatten shapes and high contrast were combined with a connection to mathematical proportions and minimal symbols ryoichi Yamashiro's tree-planting poster demonstrates integrating Japanese traditions and incorporating international influences he uses Japanese calligraphy and spatial composition with a more conceptual way perhaps influenced by Western communication after world war ii you Saka Kamakura emerged as an influential design leader in Japan he was nicknamed boss in Japanese by the Tokyo design community Kamakura worked tirelessly to change the idea that the applied art such as graphic design was inferior to fine art he founded the Japan advertising Club and strengthened the position of graphic design as a professional discipline his poster for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics is a masterpiece of simplicity and concept it connects to European modernism with flat geometry and symbolism but adopts a Japanese approach to symmetry Kamakura is posted for Expo 70 combines a language of traditional Japanese crests with expressive geometry and Western sans-serif typography the result is modern harmonious and cohesive tanaka created imagery and iconography with rigid grid structures and collar fields he took the expected imagery from japanese culture such as a geisha or samurai and reimagined it with modern geometry Taten or yaku combined the psychedelic approach of film or posters with Japanese symbols and forms Western iconography such as Marilyn Monroe yachts and the Capitol building in Washington DC are used with traditional Japanese woodblock techniques and texts yoku also manages space with traditional Japanese composition objects at the top of the frame are the most distant and objects at the bottom are the closest to the viewer after World War 2 Japan rose from defeat to become a global leader in technology and manufacturing graphic design in Japan matched this rise moving from a secondary trade in 1950 to a well-respected profession by 1990 contemporary Japanese design combined the traditions and methods of Japan with modern ideas the result was a fresh aesthetic that was both rational and intuitive simultaneously swiss typography and the International style were the dominant forms of design in the 1960s and 1970s the rigid adherence to strict mathematical proportions and rational typography created neutral and refined work but there was no allowance for anything unexpected intuitive or playful by the mid 1960s a younger group of Swiss designers began to slowly break some of the rules swiss designers such as Steph Geiss peeler and rosemary TC had seen the typographic eclecticism of the 1960s in the United States they were influenced by the freedom and exuberance and began to expand the rules of Swiss design dice peeler explored the complexity of form rather than rigid simplicity and the layering of form and space his solutions merged motion and dimension with information and concept at Basel in Switzerland Wolfgang Vanguard explored typography by questioning all of the rules why was it wrong to change the weight of a typeface mid-sentence were there different ways to create hierarchy with open letter spacing angles and unexpected composition Vanguard then used film positives and negatives and typography to overlap information and texture he exposed the process and showed the halftone dots cut lines and typographic accidents after a series of presentations in the United States a new generation of designers went to Basel to study with vine guards dan Friedman April Greymon and Willie Koontz studied with Vanguard then returned to the United States Greymon moved to Los Angeles and integrated a California energy into her work a promotion for the China Club creates typographic three-dimensional space letter spacing different weights and sizes suggest type and typographic elements that are forward or more distant in space Willie quinces poster for Columbia University maintains the language of Swiss modernism but introduces shape pattern and three-dimensional space to clarify the message the result is a synthesis of refinement and order with a vibrant energy and the unexpected Debra Sussman's environmental design for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles adopted many of the ideas of the new wave an underpinning of swiss modernism three-dimensional typography and a preference for geometric shapes she added to this by running it through a filter of vibrant color the color palettes were inspired from Mexicans South American and Asian influences rather than European models the new wave movement combined the functionalism of the Bauhaus energy of constructivism and the rigour of Swiss modernism the addition of radical experimentation expressive typography and a high-tech color palette created the movement more importantly it introduced a new approach that accepted intuition and play the United States is a big country one idea can be influencing graphic design in one region while another idea is prevalent in another Seattle in the late 1980s and 90s was a nexus of amazing energy and movement in music and design as the music scene exploded the design world responded and created a unique style specific to that time and place the designer art Chantry moved to Seattle in the 1970s he worked as an art director at a free monthly tabloid and began designing posters for independent record labels community events and concerts the posters typically had low budgets and tight turnaround times chantry used this to his advantage and adopted a process that combined found images from vintage magazines and books with bold typography this related to the music scene the musicians in Washington were thrift store items and the typical outdoor clothing the style did not evolve out of a conscious attempt to create an appealing fashion it was about being cheap and durable and appealed to those focused on authenticity in their music a poster for an exhibition of artists made machines combines the low-tech typography of a handheld label machine with the intentionally rough image of a tire the handmade and raw visuals convey energy and an alternative experience chantry's remarkable sense of composition and scale works here making a strong and clear poster Robin ray and Michael Strassburger founded modern dog design in 1987 modern dog employed many of the same techniques of found imagery raw typography and a sense of immediacy ray and Strassburger included a wry sense of humor too much of the work and an attitude of we like it and that's what matters the imagery was taken not from high in photography but from parts of low end culture such as a 1970s catalog from years there were multiple messages built into each piece these posters do not adhere to the fused metaphor school Bauhaus modernism or typographic eclecticism here les was not more less was a bore the success of this work is its lack of self-importance these are ephemeral items that will be used and discarded they don't carry the weight of being high art or precious they are energetic raw and unapologetic by the mid-1970s modernism seemed to have run its course the philosophy of rational objective and rule-oriented design didn't answer the needs of a generation interested in self-expression and intuition graphic designers began exploring ideas such as decoration pop culture and historical classical forms the term applied to this is post-modernism post-modernism is a complex subject entire sections of libraries are devoted to books on the idea but there are a few constants in graphic design rejecting the tenets of modernism form does not follow function design can be expressive and ignore the function elements can be appropriated from anywhere typography can be self referential and have alternative meanings irony is a large component the piece might borrow a form or idea from somewhere else and treat it satirically or maybe ironic itself mimicking another piece of design Architects Robert venturi and Denise Scott Brown introduced the concept of vernacular design as a component of post-modernism in their book learning from las vegas vernacular design refers to the language of common design in graphic design rather than presenting the world in Helvetica post modern design borrowed from the language of the street typography borrowed from a carwash sign was as relevant as refined Caslon a classical form was recycled in a new way michael van der biles poster connections contrasts a stylized classical column with a modern grid the line of runners communicates a value of the pre modernist ideas of classical harmony postmodern design incorporated a relentless attention to the written language words could be reconstructed to change meaning or broken apart to highlight a meaning the representation of a word was more important than the information for example a poster by Stefan Sagmeister for an aaj conference has typography made from chicken feet rather than simply being a word in chicken feet the postmodern approach was to deconstruct the meaning of chicken feet letter forms all work in the postmodern genre was designed to be analyzed from a historical semiotic and psychological point of view the meaning of a collage image letter space typography and colors was dissected and examined to most viewers post modern design seemed friendlier and more humorous than the hardline swiss modernism the solutions were nostalgic and warm the design world however deconstructed every element reviewing the complex interplay of political and cultural meaning in postmodern design arose was not just a rose as the movement evolved the playful connection of vernacular typography and appropriated imagery evolved into a niche conversation of the dystopia of the world aimed at a smaller and smaller audience design was poised for a split between those who maintained a focus on postmodern critical theory primarily in academia and those focused on the larger mass market in practice in 1984 Apple released the Macintosh I was in college and LU Danziger one of my teachers asked me to take it out of the box and see if we could use it as it turns out it could make typography since nobody was there to teach me the right way I learned to use the mouse upside down when the Mac was released shockwaves ran through the entire profession some designers refused to touch it a famous designer said he couldn't stand the smell of it but the Mac would revolutionize the entire industry the initial options were primitive Helvetica or x roman bitmapped images and slow processing as technology improved the design solutions became more refined typically when a new medium is introduced it will try to emulate a previous form early photography tried to look painterly now designers tried to find language unique to the digital environment early work took the language of the medium the bitmap and exaggerated it images were pixelated or des generated digital errors and typography were highlighted the idea of accident and imperfection was incorporated into design the digital medium enhanced the idea of New Wave typography and three-dimensional space typography became radically 3-dimensional and layered a solution that would have required days of creating a complex mechanical with multiple layers of physical films could now be created and manipulated with ease scott makalah's typographic treatments for a Michael and Janet Jackson video were revolutionary the typeface with imperfections and exaggerated forms was animated dimensionally the suggestion of three-dimensional typography was now a reality in a screen based medium motion many of the designers exploring the possibilities in the digital arena had embraced post-modernism and deconstruction lorraine wilds poster for the southern california institute of architecture was layered with an image fine lines and typography the viewer was invited to wreak struck the meaning from the individual pieces the digital revolution also created the democratization of design now anyone from a designer to your mother could design an invitation logo or flyer a clear split occurred between civilians who now made low-end designs such as an in-house newsletter and high-end design created by trained designers the ability to design fonts in a digital format created opportunities for exploration Jeff Katie's work maintained the highest level of typographic refinement and skill but explored the way we read and the cultural meaning inherent in a typeface font design then moved from the control of a small group of highly trained experts to a discipline open to everyone the upside being a proliferation of fonts the downside being the lack of quality in many of them perhaps the most revolutionary shift in graphic design was the change from a designer as an art director to an editor and creator the art director had traditionally been like an orchestra leader pulling together photographers illustrators and typographers to make a solution now the designer did all of these things in the digital box there were more options than ever before rather than actively creating a solution a designer now edited from a wide range of possibilities as we've seen graphic design responds to cultural technological or aesthetic changes by the mid-1990s a new generation of designers looked back at the complexity of post-modernism and the digital revolution and turned toward a simpler approach rather than following the idea of high theory deconstruction many of these designers were interested in creating work that spoke to a wider audience they wanted to find a way of creating meaning with fewer forms many designers look to return to singular ideas and minimal layouts referencing the work of the new york school in the 1950s much this had an air of optimism minimal work of the mid-1990s embraced simple geometry and clear color palettes the idea of three-dimensional complexity in typography was abandoned in favor of easy to understand symbols and images legibility was a priority but the concepts of post-modernism would not allow for retreat to a purely minimal Bauhaus approach now every image symbol and word was examined for its multiple meanings even the reference to a fused metaphor approach was filtered through the postmodern analysis this cover for conference catalogue by bill grant appears to be a simple image of shopping carts and the word gain the meaning however was far more complex the shopping carts are at a Target store the conference was in Minneapolis home to targets headquarters and the conference was about commerce and society a simple read typographic cover could not be just a simple cover it was a reference to 1950s textbooks vernacular design and appropriation the roots of minimalism were clearly based on the simple iconography of designers such as Paul Rand and James Massey the complexity of the world layered with massive amount of communication on a daily basis created the need for a simpler way minimalism also escaped the trap of being dull the explorations of expressive typography fill more posters and new wave design extended the freedom to play with scale and negative space radically the strongest solutions appeared playful and light the reality as in on this poster by michael van der beyal was a tight control over every element with less on the page everything mattered the difference between a cover for a newsletter from the Bauhaus in 1928 and a minimalist poster from 1996 is a sense of self-knowledge the 1928 cover is fresh and clear and at the I'm naive the minimalist solution from the 1990s has the same fresh and clear dynamic but is self-aware with understanding of a hundred years of design history when we discussed post-modernism we touched on the idea of vernacular design at its base definition vernacular architecture speaks to the aesthetics related to a local region or building usage a roadside motel is the vernacular of route 66 or exposed pipes are the vernacular of a factory in graphic design this idea is about language what is the language of the sign for the route 66 motel in the 1980s Tibor Hallman founded a man company in new york he began playing with vernacular forms from low-end design such as a warehouse ad or Street signage as a contrast to the slick and cold modernism of corporate America his design for an ad for restaurant Florent borrowed typography from the street diners and a telephone book advertising Hallman didn't replicate the typography to create a themed look he reinterpreted it in a fresh new way on a promotion for the same client he appropriated an agricultural edging of a hog with a diagram of pork cuts and turns it into a map the expected solution for a restaurant ad would have been to photograph the food and show a clean map typeset in Helvetica the genius of calman was his willingness to reject that in favor of humor vernacular design was a way of celebrating low-end culture the menu at Florent was a reference to non designed menus at diners all over New York calman adopted the elements creating the same look but the skill of fine typography and smart copywriting elevated it to great design other solutions had a tongue-in-cheek attitude that winked at the original source a poster for an exhibition on humorous graphic design appears to be a well-designed expected solution tasteful bodoni and a well photographed banana peel Coleman shifts the entire poster to the right revealing the printers marks suggesting a slip on a banana peel when the poster was trimmed other designers such as Charles Spencer Anderson incorporated multiple forms from a large range of sources the complete covering of the entire poster rejects any three-dimensional typographic ideals or Swiss modernism it was a wonderful overload of popular culture this resulted in work that had a far warmer tone and spoke to a wider audience the best work not only borrowed the typography and forms of low end design but also included smart or ironic messaging it reinterpreted the language and made a new idea paula shares posters for the public theater slam together the language of street typography constructivism Dada and wrestling posters again the issue of modernist minimalism is rejected reflecting the energy and vitality of the content vernacular design relied on two ideas first the audience would find a deeper connection with a recognition of the source and second if they didn't it would still be appealing aesthetically several years ago I judged the competition one of the entries was a stationary system for a car wash it was beautiful in its raw and naive form but the question posed by vernacular design was this was it intentionally raw and naive or was it authentic if it was authentic and not designed in an ironic way did that make it less good after World War two many designers made the move from New York and Europe to the west coast Liu Danziger Saul Bass Walter land or Ray Eames Alvin Lustig and many others decided to build practices in Los Angeles in San Francisco they saw the opportunity to work in new ways in a less crowded design marketplace isolation created community in the early days there were relatively few graphic designers working on the west coast and AI J was a new york-based organization designers in Los Angeles in San Francisco gathered together in informal meetings or created groups such as the Design Group at these meetings they shared ideas and techniques with less competition they openly collaborated and worked as a whole to succeed East Coast publications largely ignored the West Coast as being irrelevant california-based magazines like arts and architecture and Communication Arts focused on the new work in California the ethos of teaching was inherent in the California design scene since the 1940s on the East Coast teaching was a secondary profession that a designer might do after retiring or something to do if one had extra time in California it was a given that education was integral to the profession art schools such as Art Center College of Design California College of the Arts and California Institute of the Arts followed the practice of educators being working designers the ideas put forward in these schools were based on Bauhaus modernism and radical thinking this led to a flourishing of work that was fresh and unexpected Walter Landor founded Walter lantern Associates in 1941 he initially worked with local clients in San Francisco and then expanded into a client base along the entire Pacific coast by the late 1950s Landor was an international leader in corporate identity Landers client base beyond the United States was Asia this and its occasion San Francisco created a different atmosphere than the firm's in New York in 1964 Landor associates moved on to a retired ferryboat the Klamath permanently docked in San Francisco Bay by the 1960s designers like John van Hamer's Feld and John Severson were designing posters for the surf culture the surf and skate culture influenced designers with a casual attitude and DIY approach these posters introduce concepts that would be used by the film or posters in San Francisco and typographic eclecticism in New York a few years later Margit Larson and Barbara stocker Solomon used color in vibrant and bold ways they adopted color palettes that were connected more to Asia and South America than Europe they rejected the Swiss approach to color as a purely functional element and painted with broad strokes the entertainment industry provided an opportunity to work in different media Saul basses film titles revolutionised moviemaking his graphic and minimal Sensibility created titles that are imitated to today the title sequences for North by Northwest the man with the Golden Arm and psycho rely on a reductive set of elements and simple animation the results were astounding interestingly bass and Alfred Hitchcock ended their collaboration after psycho bass and Hitchcock both claimed they designed the shower sequence it's a simple shapes like the shower head and graphic elements like the grid of tiles that indicate the hand of bass in the 1980s the new wave movement flourished in California April grime and space and shaped concepts and Deborah suspends work for the 1984 Olympics introduced an international audience to California design in San Francisco Michael van der bile Michael Cronin Michael Mabry and Jennifer Morla explored geometric forms and high-energy color combinations their work took postmodern forms and mix classical typography flat shapes illustration and photography the result was work that might have been done at the Bauhaus if the Bauhaus had been somewhere sunny the 1990s saw the rise of deconstruction and the digital revolution Lorraine wild Jeff keyd and Ed fella all taught at CalArts they worked with ideas of deconstruction and critical theory their students entered the marketplace in California and New York this influenced experimental work throughout the United States in the 1990s in 1994 our firm Adams Morioka was founded and we look toward minimalism and modernist concepts we rejected the complexity of form prevalent at the time working with simple shapes and objective imagery the difference from cirque modernism being the layering of multiple concepts into one solution these ideas were introduced at an AI GA conference in New York and then articles in international magazines spreading the influence of California design design in California match the growth of the economy aerospace entertainment culture and technology industries expanded throughout the late 20th century today the largest percentage of designers in the United States works on the West Coast it was the values of Education exploration and freedom that nurtured the industry creating an international influence as I was putting this course together I repeatedly bumped into the issue of time each of these individual subjects from the Bauhaus to post-modernism could fill an entire two-hour course we've covered a vast amount of material here it's obviously a subject I love and hopefully the introduction here will lead you to a time period or movement that inspires you the history of graphic design is complex and multi-layered I've broken the subjects into individual sections but in reality they all overlap in time some of the subjects like the Bauhaus influence design for decades others occurred simultaneously like Dada under steel here we touched on the tip of the iceberg for every single designer we discussed there ten more just as influential and interesting but there are threads that become apparent graphic design history is the concrete history of our culture it reflects the attitudes beliefs and events of a time and place the artifacts designers created are the physical manifestations of a time a poster from the futurists is about more than energetic lines and colors it reflects a society grappling with new inventions and ideas the Whole Earth Catalog is more than a cover with a circle and line of type it reflects a culture moving toward radical new ideas the best graphic design works at a visceral level speaking to the viewer emotionally graphic design history tells us who we were and not what we thought but what we felt design history also expands our toolkit you probably don't want to liberally rip off a Japanese poster but understanding what they made and why they did it gives you as a designer more to work with there are many books on graphic design history some listed in the exercise files I urge you to do a deeper dive into an area you find intriguing believe me there are images and ideas that will change the way you work and remember it's not about studying hard for quiz on the civil war it's an exploration for inspiration

Channel: Creative News

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Length: 136min 40sec (8200 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 06 2018