Modernism in Graphic Design

LECTURE NOTES 

Start of modern graphics? 

Cheret (1884)    

Toulouse Lautrec (1891) 

- experimentation    

- signs of modernism 

Parole in liberta - futurists 

- first experimentation with type 

- minimalistic, stripped down 

- capturing modernity and male resistance 

Apollinaire (1918) II pleut 

Zang 

Marinettie - first person to use type as image 

Fortunato Depero - Bolted Book

- not hiding materials, experimenting with form 

- Radical type 

TYPOGRAPHY - Tschischold     

 -  Argued only Grotesk fonts, very stripped down sans - serif. Axemdons Grotesk   

 -  Didn't like Fraktur font as it was used by the Nazis 

 -  Mechanical font in machine age 

INTERNATIONAL TYPOGRAPHIC STYLE 

 - Switzerland post WII  -  because it was neutral in the war 

 - Grid  

Swiss style  -  modern graphic style 

 -  uses grid 

 -  Aksidenz Grotesk/Helvetica 

 -  Flush left, ragged right text 

 -  abandoning of drawn illustrations in favour of photography

Neue Grafik 

 - international style 

 - form into function, nothing but type, straight to the point 

 -  heir-achy of type 

 -  Aksidenz Grotesk 

Modern Graphic style, Swiss style, Joseph Muller Brockman  

Boyne + Rattansi, Postmodernism + society 

- Aesthetic self - reflectiveness 

- Has a form that looks back at its form - bolted book 

- Montage 

- Paradox, ambiguity (work thats contradictory) + uncertainty, loss of form in the modern world 

- loss of the integrated individual subject 

- optimism 

INTERNATIONALISM 

Universal - sans-serif for a new age 

- stripped down 

- rational/logical 

- easier to read 

- cheaper 

- typeface made on computer/machines 

Harry Beck 

- Underground map 

-Paul Citroen - metropolis 

Conclusion 

- No essence of modernist art + design that is shared by all - just 'family resemblance's' 

- Modernism moves away form an illusionisitc "realistic" way of depicting the world and instead relies on signs + symbols 

HELVETICA FILM 

- Massimo Vignelli 

  - New York Map-underground, legibility, simple 

  - Flower children, doesn't like, too western, if it makes sense they do the opposite, had no logic 

DAVID CARSON 

- looks at everything he receives, stamp packaging, hand writing 

- form is more important 

- lazy, easy fix to go with Helvetica, says its boring, too easy to use, anyone can use it

- fonts named after cities 

EXPERIMENTAL JETSET 

- Amsterdam based design studio 

- Interested in sub-culture, punk rock 

- Uses helvetica