The Vision of the 20th Century

Art Deco is defined by the visual motion and movement that is created by the illustrated forms. A time when machines of war turning into machines of transportation. A time when cars are mass produced. It is were we see the birth of branding and when symbols become paramount to design and the message conveyed by the works (usually posters). Propaganda is used to scare and persuade people to act according to the motivation of the political movements. Illustrations were very powerful and Americans basically copied the European style. America didn't develop their own design style until later. Seeing how graphic design evolves reminds me of my own processes in developing my work. Styles need to be experimented with to see what's possible before you wipe the slate clean and try something new.

The Emergence of Modern Graphic Design

This is the period when graphic design begins to be taught and studied formally. Much of the architecture and design of this time is still done in new architecture and designs. Guidelines were drawn and in order to be considered a 'modern designer' you had to follow the rules. Many of the designs by these modern designers are still around and still fit with the current design styles of today. Simplicity becomes beauty, form follows function, and that which is economical is the most successful. Though modern design goes through this strict phase of dos and don'ts, it again is turned back to breaking the rules and recycling the designs of the past. Allowing design to open back up greatly benefited the field and it breaks free while still keeping in mind some of the things learned along the way. I can relate to the need of going through the motions to discover why certain things work, what they represent, and how the elements function. Making rules along the way is, I think, very natural. It's as natural as it is to, at some point, throw it all out the window and start again.

The New Typography - Discourse 1

Topics:
• Modern Type Takes Form So Modern Consumers Absorb It Quickly
• Form Grows Out Of Function
• Clarity Is The Essence Of The New Typography
• Logical Organization Is Necessary
• Striving For Order Can & Must Be Expressed In Asymmetrical Form
• Large Differences In Weight Are Better Than Small
• Roman Type – International Type Face Of The Future
• Good Type Has No Other Purpose But To Be Of Utmost Clarity
• Pseudo Constructivism
• Many Mistakes Made


Ornamental type is described as the 'old typography'. It was a type based on aesthetics and beauty. Here is an example of just such type, full or ornamentation and expression. Where, in contrast, modern type is based on clarity and simplicity in form.

Here we see an example of how modern type is thought of today. The most successful is thought to be that which is almost invisible to the eye because of it's simplicity. A concept exaggerated in this piece, and where bad type is thought to be intrusive and loud.

This is an example of Roman Type. A simple type with clarity and structure, created through a grid system of geometric lines and shapes. It is what the author feels is "good typography".

I believe this is an example of what is referred to as Pseudo Constructivism. Mistakes found in type where the information is lost due to poor design. The type is difficult to read and the flow is poorly crafted.

Graphic Design for the Socialist Agenda

During this time period we see graphic design utilized to promote political ideals. Communist visions reject the idea of design as creative expression. The role of art is to oppose old orders and replace conservative visual art. The idea of one vision and equal rights between men and women becomes a repeating theme as well as a revolution and looking forward to a brighter future. Photos were considered more powerful than illustrations and were combined with bold text and colors to draw attention and promote the cause.
Artists working for the greater good called themselves Constructivists. All advertising and packaging were geared toward this social movement as well. The idea of this is sort of scary to me. Political agendas promoted through products used in everyday life sounds like something out of the Orwell classic 1984. All design has a profound influence on the general population and it's unfortunate that it's taken advantage of in this way. I am very interested in the psychology of design and using it in the best possible way so it is interesting to see how this has been done in the past. I suppose all design has a certain degree of manipulation.

The Birth of Modern Graphic Design

As signs become increasingly important, minimalism became the norm. Posters communicate propaganda during times of war. Patriotism reflected in service. Futurism embraces the ideas of war and the machine age. Cubism embraces the relationships between forms and representation. This is an exciting time because it is where we begin to see the foundations of graphic design being formed. Many men of this time can be credited with this. Ludwig Hohlwien was a leading master in Plakasil. He was skilled in expressing emotions while reducing naturalism to symbolic messages. Stephane Mallarrre laid the foundation of "orchestral verse". This is when poets begin to consider the arrangement of letter forms as much as the words themselves by arranging the type to enhance it's meaning. There is a huge emphasis on the relationship between form and meaning. Futurism and Cubism come together to form modern graphic design and the Dada movement, started by Tristan Tzara, starts reacting to "a world gone mad". People seek freedom from convention. Duchamp brings into question the values held by people in the arts and challenges them with him work. Heartsfield worked with found images, rearranging them to create something completely different and sometime without meaning at all. Kurt Schwitter, an outsider to the Dada movement, created a movement of his own called Merz where he created extended cubist collages and type experiments that further seperated word from language. And finally, Surrealism challenged the psychie with exercises of freeing the mind and seeking alternate states of reality while modern photographic expression is pioneered by Man Ray.
All of these experiments lead to today's design from photography to type manipulation. It is all directly related to what I myself am currenlty learning in my design and photo classes. The birth of these ideas have formed what I know as graphic design today and it is facinating to see where it has come from and where it has gone. It also inspires a lot of ideas in my own design developments and encourages experimentation on my part to perhaps make my own impact on the direction graphic design is headed.

Tranforming the System

Art Nouveau was the beginning of the transformation to modernism. Design takes on a system for images and type. Examination of what the purpose of these elements are sparks a change in, what was before, a more sort of chaotic approach to design. This is when ornament becomes structure. Posters are still important to this time of advertisement and the blurring of sexual and provocative lines and limitations. Advertising obsorbs the transformation as most of the works were for product endorsements. Architecture and design merge to birth a new objectivity which distinguishes designers from fine artists. Geometric design begins to emerge which seems to make design more simple yet more complex. Sharp lines appear and linear patterns take shape. Mathematical patterns replace floral gestures. Then begins "new objectivity" where we see design reduced to it's simplest forms once again to create corporate identities and industrial symbols.
The most interesting observation here is how art, in general, keeps being redefined and seems to come full circle. We begin with simple cave drawings to communicate a story to the invention of simple symbols to represent large concepts. In a leap, art opens to new inventions that allow us to communicate on a much larger scale. Once this is established, the experimental stages fuel a disorderly style which is again narrowed back down to it's simplest forms with it's newly added maturity. I wonder if now design has begun to open back up again searching for new discoveries that will then be broken down to another more elegant simplicity. Or if design has plateaued to a more steady steam. In my opinion, with technological advancements, I tend to think it's more likely the former than the latter.

The Dark Ages of Type and the Revitalization

With the advent of the machine type setting came mass communication. This changed the world dramatically. Various type faces were produced and expressive type became popular. There were "battles in the streets" with poster designs using large type to dominate others. Seeing the possibilities of type bore an almost out of control design style, which was not much of a style at all. It was unruly and without any real design quality. Chromolithography, using lithographic stones to print component colors gave more illustrators jobs and illustrations started to dominate the mass media. Commerce changed the form of type which seemed to strip it of it's historical evolution. Soon advertising agencies emerged and the growth of magazines flourished. Political cartooning was invented as well as the greeting card. While type and design seemed to get out of control, there was finally a period of reflection where William Morris influenced a stepping back to rethink the fundamentals of design.
It seemed to take a lot of bad design to get back to a design structure that is expressive and well thought out. This is indicative of our culture's general tendancy to exploit our resources before realizing it's value. The most interesting part for me was having to go through a really low point in design before the happy turn it takes in really valuing the handmade or what we refer to as 'organic' style today.