to what extend did bauhaus influenced the 20th century? bauhaus typography
TRANSCRIPT
A reaction against the class system and aristocracy
Architects were looking for a leading force behind the expectations to develop a “Brave New Word” A new way to integrate art, aesthetic & industry as a means of replacing the old approach in education & design.
New direction: ART TO INDUSTRY!
1. Context: the aftermath of World War I
Sinnde Photo Bauhaus Exhibition Barbican Center 2012
Walter Gropiu’s philosophy ”form follows
function” transformed advertising, typography,
architecture, people living’s spaces and
public’s esthetic expectations in fundamental
way
Information first, artistic flair after. Use your
design to reinforce your message never the
other way around
Form follows Function
Utility come first
II. Legacy principles:
Mission: to provide affordable artistic utilitarian
design for every class of person - proved to be a
success
Muuz lamp Norman Copenhagen
The school was founded on collaboration. It
achieved an openness and collaborative style
few groups had.
Gropius's vision towards a union of art and
design - Proclamation of Bauhaus”(1919) -
describes a utopian craft guild combining
architecture, sculpture and painting into a
single creative expression
II. Legacy principles:
Share & Collaborate
Towards design
enlightment
Work with each other, share ideas, don’t live in fear of
losing credit. Sometimes getting better and learning is
more important
Albers Stacking Stables
Their crisp geometric style and in some cases
primary colors are reflected in design
everywhere. The purpose: to honor
functionality with beauty and simplicity, to
please the eye and capture the mind.
Kandinsky strove for a visual style beyond
cultural differences. He believed certain colors
complement each other and communicate
specific ideas or emotions.
II. Legacy principles:
Color & Shape
There’s always a connection between
Bauhaus design still feels incredibly fresh and current.
Displaying the “perfection of geometry” is still highly
sophisticated
For Bauhaus, words were a graphic element.
Therefore they became a part of the
architecture.
Like a chair in a room – functioning on their
own as words, as artistic tools within the
space.
II. Legacy principles:
Clean Typography Matters
Be as imaginative with your typography as you are with
every other tool in your toolbox, but make sure it never
detracts from your visual message
Poster for Senator Obama in Berlin 2008
Young people come to Bauhaus! Teaching techniques and social principles aimed to
foster: Creativity / Happiness/ Friendship
III. Birthplace of a revolution:
Design education was seen as a means to create reaction against, rather than to follow.
Its spirit and ideas, the greatest legacy, were to influence many generations of architects designers and artists.
The Metal Party group photo – Oscar Schemler Traadic Costumes 1926
T lux Feininger – Sport at Bauhaus 1927
Bauhaus seal
Gropius decided that they should generate
design for mass production that were
simple, rational and accessible to everyone.
Their furniture - A new way of living-
became a signature of their work more than
architecture.
IV. Gropius ‘s input:
The school’s philosophy: the artist should be trained to
work with industry. Artists created prototypes for
industrial production, as they saw the machine as a
potential force for good both aesthetically and socially.
Katz Bau Bookshelf
M Breurer’s Wassily B3 club chair with woman seated wearing Schemler Mask
Red/Blue armchair 424 G. Rietveld 1918
He stressed on the social function of
architecture and design. Favoured the public
good rather than private luxury
The architectural focus shifted away from
aesthetic to functionality
IV. H. Meyer ‘s input:
His mission was to focus on the “needs of
the people, not on the needs of luxury”
Sinnde Photo Bauhaus Exhibition Barbican Center 2012
Marcel Breuer Armchair 1922
Haus am Horn Kitchen (1923)
IV. Mies van der Rohe ‘s input:
Author of Less is more philosophy - the perfect summary for modernism
Added an increased emphasis on architecture & building at Bauhaus school; moved it to Berlin in 1930;
He designed The German Pavilion at the Barcelona Universal Exhibition
Lily Reich controlled the interior design
department
Became the most influential modernist
architect of the 20th century and an
inspiration for Ayn Rand‘s book ‘The
Fountainhead’
Sinnde Photo Bauhaus Exhibition Barbican Center 2012
Mies Van der Rohe Barcelona chair and otoman
The Bauhaus Building designed by Gropius in Dessau in an industrial aesthetic with concrete and steel and a curtain of glass is a component of what we now recognize as modern architecture !
The Bauhaus paradox: it didn’t have an architecture department until 1927
V. Architecture:
Other Bauhaus hallmarks of modernist architecture:• steel-frame construction• an asymmetrical pinwheel plan• maximum efficiency• spatial logic
Bauhaus Manifesto Quote Germany circa stamp
showing Bauhaus architecture steel building
treated as “Silver Princess” by a awestruck USA when they moved there en masse
Successive leadership
Emblematic building
Unshakable place at the heart of Modernism
from three of the leading designers of the time
that embodied the philosophy of it’s founder in an unmistakable image
International student body & supporters
01
Celebrated faculty staff
VI. UNMATCHED IMPACT:
Bauhaus had what no other art school had:
the dominant movement of the 20 th century
Sinnde Photo Bauhaus Exhibition
Barbican Center 2012
The course of visual culture of the 20th century would have looked totally different
Between them, they touched everything from photography and theatre to painting and architecture
The middle classes lived in tasteful simplicity ever after
What would have happend if a
bomb would have denotated
under this group photographed
on the roof of the Dessau
Bauhaus’ building in 1926?
VII. Conclusion:
Bauhaus is everywhere!
L-R: Josef Albers, Hi. Scheper, Georg Muche, L. Moholy-Nagy, Herbert Bayer, Joost Schmidt, Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, V. Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger, Gunta Stölzl and Oskar Schlemmer
Typography with facial outline of its seal
List of cited works:
1. B is for Bauhaus, Deyan Sujic, Penguin Books, London, 2014
2. Young people come to Bauhaus – article inspired from Barbican
Center: Bauhaus Art is Life exhibition, 2013,
http://sinnde.com/blog/young-people-come-to-bauhaus/
3. Six Lessons from the Bauhaus: Masters of the Persuasive
Graphic: http://blog.visual.ly/six-lessons-from-the-bauhaus-masters-of-
the-persuasive-graphic by Anni Murray
4. Quick History: The Bauhaus & Its Influence:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/post-241-93344
5. "The Bauhaus, 1919–1933". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art
History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000– Griffith
Winton, Alexandra, .
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/bauh/hd_bauh.htm (August 2007)
6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus