HISTORY OFGRAPHIC DESIGN

JOURNAL

BY

KAYLEE

VAN TUINEN

TIME LI NE

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PRE-INDUSTRIAL REVELUTION

TIMELINE

15,000 - 10,000 BCE

FIRST KNOWN VISUAL COMMUNICATION

Both pictographs & symbols in Lascaux Cave, Southern France.

3600 BCE

THE BLAU MOUNUMENT

The oldest artifact known to combine words & image

1750 BCE

STELE OF HAMMURABI

105 AD

INVENTION OF PAPER

Ts’ai Cun was credited to inventing paper in China

1045 AD

MOVABLE TYPE

Pi Sheng invented movable type, allowing for characters to be

individually placed for printing.

1276

PRINTING ARRIVES IN EUROPE

paper mil opens in Fabriano, Italy

1460

ILLUSTRATIONS IN BOOKS

Albrect Pfister is the first to add illustrations to a printed book

1530

FIRST TYPE FOUNDRY

opened by Claud Garamond

1760

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION BEGINS

setting the stage for advances in Graphic Design production

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ART NOUVEAU

Title: Folies-Bergère, La Loïe Fuller, 1893

Artist/Designer: Jules Cheret

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Art Nouveau is an artistic avant-garde movement that gained popularity in 1890 and lasted until the early 20th century. It was greatly influenced by the Arts-and-Crafts movement. Artists that joined the movement believed that life itself was art and everything in our lives should be treated as just that - Art. This belief resulted in a transformation of architecture, furniture, products, adver-tisements, and more. Because this movement “fine Art” started to become more accessible to an array of people, not just the wealthy.

The style of Art Nouveau is highly inspired by the natural world and this is reflected in the aesthetics of the artworks categorized as Art Nouveau. Key elements that may identify an artwork as Art Nouveau are graceful flowing lines, extreme rhythmic curves, organic subject matter, unusual/new materials, illustrations of beautiful women, asymmetry, and movement.

Jules Cheret’s poster “Loie Fuller” is a well-known Art Nouveau artwork. In fact, Cheret is often regarded as the originator of the artistic lithographic poster. Like most Art nouveau advertisements and poster art, Cheret uses a beautiful woman as the main subject. The woman figure in this poster is the American dancer Loie Fuller. “Fuller was an important attraction at the 1900 Paris world’s fair, embodying Art Nouveau with her innovative chore-ography and diaphanous silk costumes illuminated by multicolored electric lights”(moma). Charet’s illustration of Loie Fuller is flowing with energy, movement, color, and line. He uses organic strokes rather than hard lines, which is very common in the art movement. The hand drawn typography is very typical in Art Nouveau. Cheret keeps his quite simple and frames the illustrated image. Compared to other artist whose type begins to become more ornimental some even blend with the image. Cheret’s work is iconic to art nouveau. He inspired and set the stage for later artists that join the movement.

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FUTURISM

Title: Cover for Zang Tumb Tumb, 1914

Artist/Designer: F.T. Marinetti

FUTURISM is an artistic movement that began in France in the early 20th century. The style eventually became influenced by Cubism as time went on. It was one, if not the first, modernist movement to make a significant impact on the world of Graphic Design. The movement was started and led by F.T. Marinetti whom wrote the Futurist Manifesto. Originaly the movement was more centered around poetry but quicky grew into many forms of art, including; Graphic Design.

The movement began in the midst of World War I and the Futurist were inspired by this. They embraced war. The movement was all for the future, speed, noise, machines, youth, violence and destruction. They wanted to disregaurd the past and live in the moment, for the future. All this choas and energy was highly reflected into their art.

F.T. Marinetti’s cover for Zang Tumb Tumb is a typical example of Futurist Graphic Design. It was Marinetti’s first published collection of words in liberty, a verbal and visual collection of his poetry. First off, this is easily recognized as Futurist design, by the lack of grid. Marinetti organizes the type in an energetic and chaotic manor, quite popular amongst the style. A variety of text weight and size is used to lead the viewer along the viewing experience. The title even expresses the futurist love for mechanical, loud, noisy, machines and is described by MOMA as; “The title Zang Tumb Tumb evokes the sounds of mechanized war—artillery shelling, bombs, explosions.”. The Typography graphically repre-sents these sounds and weaponry.

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Title: Giselle, Basler Freilichtspiele, 1959

Artist/Designer: Armin Hofmann

SWISS TYPOGRAPHY also know as International Style is an artistic movement that started in Switzerland in the 1940’s and 50’s. This movement is what greatly molded and shaped 20th century graphic design. Armin Hofmann is one of the designers credited to leading the Swiss Typography design movement, and taught at the Basel School of Design. This progressive and radical movement was centered around detail, precision, simplicity, clarity, legibility, content, and the grid. The minimal designs and typographic forms that were created under this style used type in its purest form of funtionabilitly. Most if not all the type used was sanserif, there was no use or need for traditional or serif fonts which added decora-tiveness. Two of the most popular fonts used in Swiss Typography are Akzidenz Grotesk and Neue Haas Grotesk (Helvetica). These fonts were apreciated for their pervasiveness, univeralsity, and clarity.

Hofmann’s poster for the ballet Giselle is an iconic and perfect example for Swiss Type. He uses a minimal amount of color, sans serif type, and imagry. There is no type that is unneeded or “butters up” the information. Even the Photograph has been simplified too a simple, high contrasted form. Giving just enough information to identify the image in the simpilest way possible. The poster appears to use a simple and mathematical 3 coloumn grid, with all the type in the left coloumn and imagery in the two right coloumns. The use of this grided structure creates a dynamic balance and is a common Swiss grid.

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SWISS TYPOGRAPHY

PSYCHEDELIA

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Title: The Jimmy Hendrix Experience, Axis: Bold As Love

Album Cover, 1967

Artist/Designer: Karl Ferris PSYCHEDELIA was an artistic revolution that sprouted around the 1960s. Art, music, and the way of living was going through a extreme change. This style, unlike any other, was associated and influenced with the use and effects of psychedelic drugs, which many people were experimenting with during that day and age. The result is often imagery reflecting what one may see and experience while “tripping”.

This movement was very original and unseen during that time. Some psychedelic artists were clearly influenced by the Art Nouveau and Pop Art style, using expressive hand made type, organic lines, and bold colors. Fluorescent and bright vibrating colors, graphic lines and textures, and optical illusions created sensa-tional results and effects. Looking at one of these images may convince the viewer that they are on LSD, or remind them of past experiences. Images were often reduced to basic shapes and colors, and typography often was distorted to fit into areas and shapes in the imagery.

When reflecting on this style, Karl Ferris’ Album Cover Design for “The Jimmy Hendrix Experience, Axis: Bold As Love” instantly came to mind. The Typography at the top center of the image has a typical Psychedelic expressiveness and a slight distortion that still contains a strong readability. Ferris uses an extensive variety of saturated and bold vibrating colors throughout the imagery. The reflected and almost mirrored symmetrical aesthetic he uses creates a very trippy visual. Even the content he uses in the artwork also reflects Hendrix’s spirituality, which was becoming more popular in the states during that period. Over all this is an iconic Psychedelic Design that will be remembered throughout time as the “poster child” for psychedelia.

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WORKS CITEDART NOUVEAU [3 - 4]

“Jules Chéret. Folies-Bergère, La Loïe Fuller(1893).” MoMA.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2014.

Gontar, Cybele. “Art Nouveau”. In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/artn/hd_artn.htm (October 2006)

FUTURISM [5-6]

“Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. Zang Tumb Tumb: Adrianopoli Ottobre 1912: Parole in Libertà (1914).” MoMA.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2014.

“The Art Story.org - Your Guide to Modern Art.” Futurism Movement, Artists and Major Works. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2014.

SWISS TYPOGRAPHY [7-8]

Poynor, Rick. “Armin Hofmann.” AIGA. AIGA, 2011. Web. 12 Nov. 2014.

“Armin Hofmann : Design Is History.” Armin Hofmann : Design Is History. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2014.

“Lessons From Swiss Style Graphic Design - Smashing Magazine.” Smashing Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2014..

PSYCHEDELIA [9 - 10]

“Psychedelia.” Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2014.

“Blog.” Flintriver. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2014.

“Graphic Design History | Psychedelia.” Graphic Design History | Psychedelia. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2014.

TIME LINE [1- 2]

CLASS BOOK / NOTES