POST

MODERNISM

Post modernism, used within the graphic design world since around the 1980’s. when postmodenism pops up within design it has several opinions on what it actually means as many people dont have a clue, even the most knowledgeable people within graphic deisgn had doubts about itsuch as Richard Kostelanetz author of a dictionary of avent-grades he says “my persoanl opinion holds thats anything characterised as postmodern, wether by its author or its advocates, is beneath critical consideration,no matter how immediately popular or capable it might be”. also judith williamson author of decoding advertisements, interviewed in a design journal “the term is too vague to be useful in anything other than a stylistic sense”. this might sound harsh but even today i side with the modernists and arent too fond of most post modernist works as its too wild and lacks structure.

Postmodernists viewed modernism as a failure, they thought that less was a bore. compared to modernisms block colour and clean edges which were seen as un-impressive, postmodernists liked to use brush stokes and ripped edges which is more characterful and unique. what brought post modernism up to level it is now is the mass media and interconnection throughout the world of design. for many it was liberating as the media fronted the idea that postmodernism was very unsettling giving several animations ucreepy expressions and voices. postmodernism as of today is heavely influenced by cinema as it amuses us and we just cant seem tog et enough.

“The term is too vague to be useful in anything other than a stylistic sense”

judith williamson

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POST

MODERN

MAGAZINES

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DAVID

CARSON

Carson was hired by publisher marvin scott jarrett to design Ray Gun, an alternative music and lifestyle magazine that debuted in 1992. in one issue he nototriously used the font called Dingbat, a font containing only symbols, as a font for what he considered a rather dull interview with Bryan Ferry. Ray Gun made Carson well known and attracted new admirers to his work. Carson eventually started working for Pepsi-Cola ,Ray Ban,Nike,Microsoft and many others from 1995-1998. his post modernist style is well loved by so many but you either love it or hate it. the brush strokes and uneveness creates character in his pieces but makes some of his work hard to read and understand what the design is actually showing us.

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ROYLICHTENSTEIN

"Visible Brushstrokes in a painting convey a sense of grand gesture. But, in my hands, the brushstroke becomes a depiction of grand gesture. So the contradiction between what I'm portraying and how I am portraying it is sharp. The brushstroke became very important for my work."Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein played a critical role in subverting the skeptical view of commercial styles and subjects established by the Abstract Expressionists. By embracing "low" art such as comic books and popular illustration, Lichtenstein became one of the most important figures in the Pop art movement. While his paintings of cartoons and comics are his most recognizable work, he had a prolific and somewhat eclectic career that drew from Cubism, Surrealism, and Expressionism. But it is his re-imagining of popular culture through the lens of traditional art history that has remained a considerable influence to later generations of artists, as Pop art went on to significantly inform Postmodernism.

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MODERNISM

Erik Nitsche: Gebrauchsgrafik

There are many modernist graphic designers and they all have a unified uniqueness, the simple geometrical state that modern graphic design finds itself in is a staple in my work and its what i enjoy most in design. modernism is a term used in the aftermath of world war one and the russian revolution in a period where the artistic avent-garde dreamt of a new world free from conflict,greed and social inequality. the term modernism itself was used in graphic design since the 1920’s to 30’s, as soon as economic conditions improved, designers had to re-assess their work and sometimes sometimes even to the demands of fascism. initially before this time modernism was largley experimental but then came from the drawing board and intot he real world. modernism has survived for all this time and still remains a powerful force of design in the design world of today

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MODERNISM

MAGAZINES

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MONDRIAN

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“I CONSTRUCT LINES AND COLOR COMBINATIONS ON A FLAT SURFACE, IN ORDER TO EXPRESS GENERAL BEAUTY WITH THE UTMOST AWARENESS. NATURE (OR, THAT WHICH I SEE) INSPIRES ME, PUTS ME, AS WITH ANY PAINTER, IN AN EMOTIONAL STATE SO THAT AN URGE COMES ABOUT TO MAKE SOMETHING, BUT I WANT TO COME AS CLOSE AS POSSIBLE TO THE TRUTH AND ABSTRACT EVERYTHING FROM THAT, UNTIL I REACH THE FOUNDATION (STILL JUST AN EXTERNAL FOUNDATION!) OF THINGS… I BELIEVE IT IS POSSIBLE THAT, THROUGH HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL LINES CONSTRUCTED WITH AWARENESS, BUT NOT WITH CALCULATION, LED BY HIGH INTUITION, AND BROUGHT TO HARMONY AND RHYTHM, THESE BASIC FORMS OF BEAUTY, SUPPLEMENTED IF NECESSARY BY OTHER DIRECT LINES OR CURVES, CAN BECOME A WORK OF ART, AS STRONG AS IT IS TRUE”.

BAUHAUS

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The Bauhaus combined elements of both fine arts and design education. The curriculum commenced with a preliminary course that immersed the students, who came from a diverse range of social and educational backgrounds, in the study of materials, color theory, and formal relationships in preparation for more specialized studies. This preliminary course was often taught by visual artists, including Paul Klee, vasily Kandinsky and josef Albers among others.

GRIDSYSTEM

In graphic Design, a grid is a structure( usually two-dimensional) made up of a series of intersecting straight or curved guide lines used to struture content. the grid acts as a guide on which a deisgner can organize and layout graphic elements such as images, paragraphsin a rational, easy to read manner. after the first world war a number of graphic designers influenced by ‘the new typography’ by jan tschicholdbegan to question the relevance of the conventional page layout of the time. the rsult was a modern typographic grid that became associated with the international typographic style. josef muller brockmann helped propogate the use of the grid by publishing it in his book ‘grid systems in graphic design’ which then reached north america after europe.

Page layout, image and text

Grid systems in graphic design,The grid System

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Also known as International Style, the Swiss Style does not simply describe a style of graphic design made in Switzerland. It became famous through the art of very talented Swiss graphic designers, but it emerged in Russia, *HUPDQ\�DQG�1HWKHUODQGV�LQ�WKH�����·V��This style in art, architecture and culture EHFDPH�DQ�¶LQWHUQDWLRQDO·�VW\OH�DIWHU�����·V�and it was produced by artists all around the globe. Despite that, people still refer to it as the Swiss Style or the Swiss Legacy. This progressive, radical movement in graphic design is not concerned with the graphic design in Switzerland, but rather with the new style that had been proposed, attacked and defended in the 1920s in Switzerland. Keen attention to detail, precision, craft skills, system of education and technical training, a high standard of printing as well as a clear refined and inventive lettering and typoraphy laid out a foundation for a new movement that has been exported worldwide in 1960s to become an international style.

Emerging from the modernist and constructivist ideals, the Swiss Style can be defined as an authentic pursue for simplicity – the beauty in the underlines of a purpose, not beauty as a purpose in itself. The principle “form follows function” became a battle-cry of Modernist architects after the 1930s. As a consequence of this principle, most of the Swiss Style craft is devoted to the minimal elements of style such as typography and content layout rather than on textures and illustrations.

SWISS STYLE DESIGN

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Josef muller-brockmannThinking

JOSEF

MULLER

BROCKMANN

Josef Muller-Brockmann was

a swiss graphic designer and

teacher. he was one of the

leading pioneers of swiss

modernism and was regarding

as one of the most talented

and resourceful advertising

and design artists in

Switzerland.

He was born in may 1914 in

Rapperswil in switzerland and

studied history of art, design

and architecture at the

university of zurich under

ernst keller. After an

apprenticeship at walter

digelman, he established his

own design practice in 1936 in

zurich, specialising in

graphics, exhibition design

and photography.

He designed his first poster for

the tonhallegesellschaft of

zurich in 1950 and went on to

become a graphic design

teacher at the

kunstgewerbeschule from

1957to 1960

Posters from zurich

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My own interpretaion of Brockmanns’s work, so simple and yet so appealing. i enjoy wrking in bold but simple styles as its a much more leniant take on design. some may see it as a random shape se-lection but others it can mean more but to me its just pleasant design and it never gets old

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ARMINHOFMANN

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Hofmann has been described

as one of the most influential

people in swiss graphic design

history. along side the more

well known josef

muller-brockmann, emil ruder

and max bill, Hofmann helped

shape the modernist-inspired

graphic design beyond

recognition. Without’the

international graphic style’

contempororary graphic

design would be almost

unrecognisable. the

cleanliness and readability of

the style aswell as use of grids

and sans-serif typefaces have

helped define how we design

today.

The designers of today are still

taking the best elements from

this era of design to create a

whole new visual aesthetic.

Hofmann felt that one of the

most efficient forms of

communication was the poster

and spent most of his career

designing them in paticular the

basel stadt theatre.

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