History of Graphic Design -Weekly Journal 9

WEEKLY JOURNAL 9: : November 26

Digital Design after the 1970’s
Digital technology: from punch cards and plotters to desktop computing
Media transitions: type deign and publications
Fluidity and functionality
The myth of immateriality and challenges of digital design

In Module 10, ‘Digital Design after the 1970’s’, during all the rebellion, eclecticisms, modern technological advances, new professions emerging, while old ones disappear, computers to learn, multiple computer languages becoming available, multiple medias; it feels like a climatic crescendo. Having lived this time period, experiencing all the nuances, learning curves, reinvention and excitement of this time I can tell you that I absolutely will not be able to cover everything in this time, and especially the fabulous artists. This weeks examples will be of album covers that we lost in the process of technology. They are surely missed by those of us that had the pleasure of them. “Bang the Party, WordPress.com, upminsterkid 2, Ratatat, The House of Leaf and Lime *3, Progandpoo @ BlogSpot *4. If you are viewing this document online please find the missing images through links are provided in the bibliography.)

Digital Design after the 1970’s
Growing up in the 1960’s and 1970’s, my first real, of interest graphic design were album covers. What a continuous source of delight. ‘Record’ album jackets were amazing to sort through. There were too many to count and sadly through all the progression of technology, the album cover, along with the record is long gone. Lying on my back, head phones on, I’d listen to an album from beginning to end, studying the album cover from beginning to end and back again. “The enigmatic graphics of Hipgnosis collaborators Colin Elgie and George Hardie, as well as Storm Thorgerson’s concepts and photography, were eye-openers. They helped show how graphic form and style can be used to suggest meaning rather than spelling it out, and to comment on (or add to) a product’s content rather than just selling it. In this respect, new wave designers such as Barney Bubbles, Malcolm Garrett and Vaughan Oliver, instead of breaking with the previous generation, simply did the same with different means.” [Copyright eye magazine © 2001. eyemagazine.com]

During this time graphic design changed through digital technology: from punch cards and plotters to desktop computing. Somehow I missed the punch cards, though I had a friend that worked for a company in Illinois called Eby-Brown, which was a supply company and they used this technology for running their business, so I got to see some of the ‘punch cards’ and it was explained to me, though it was never really clear how a bunch of similar punched holes in a card was worth so much value; binary code. It somehow became clear in a class called ‘Scanning’, where it was explained what was bitmap (Photoshop, pixel-based, every space on a grid on or off) and vector or postscript (scalable written in a mathematical language for more precise illustrative graphics, fonts and publishing programs) and the benefit for each, such is binary code.

I did, however, experience the media transitions in type deign and publications, with the affordable (?) Macintosh computer and the earliest versions of publishing and graphics software, as well as classes at the local community college, that was promoting a degree, whose title kept changing as well as the curriculum due to the ever changing technology, software and mediums that happened seemingly immediately, one on top of the other.

Before binary code, the invention of typesetting with the use of a camera and ‘paste up which at the time was revolutionary, was made worlds better with the digital computer in the language binary code. Binary code is what made the digital environment fluid and functional, replacing the rigidity older technologies.

As the book explains “The myth of immateriality and challenges of digital design”, is as it was in the work world as a graphic design artist. As, I arrived in the field, at Ace Hardware Corporation in Oakbrook, Illinois, the art director, was looking to me, as a God, to save him with the companies internet and intranet. The first job I had to tackle was their look and feel, while battling the IT Department for every kilobit of space. Mind you, they stood their ground for a long time, only allowing 15kb maximum for any and all graphics!

As I arrived at Ace, knowing the new technologies, I was with employees that had been with the graphics and advertising departments for some 25 years, not knowing what to do or how to do it as defined by the new technologies. They were swimming from the wrong end of the pier, paddling as fast as they could. Part of my job was to train these people in the different areas, as it pertained to their former level of expertise. To continue this subject, in the four years I was at this job, as a layout artist, I watched as the advertising department become outsourced to contractors of Reuben H. Donnelly, and then two years after I left Ace, the Graphics department was also outsourced to the same company. Oh, what a wild ride that was!

One additional comment I’d like to make which I should have mentioned in last weeks journal, is in regards to the book we have been studying from, ‘Graphic Design History, A Critical Guide’, has an extensively well written 22-page glossary with very pertinent information, in regards to the history, as well as the current trends and technological breakthroughs in graphic design history.

Conclusion
‘Digital Design after the 1970’s’, during all the rebellion, eclecticism, modern technological advances, with new professions emerging, and old ones dying, trying to stay five years ahead to remain valuable in whatever new medium, or software/hardware nuances should arrive was a very exciting ride. Whoa! I couldn’t possible cover everything or even touch most of everything in this time. Wonder what’s next? Finally, this weeks examples will be of album covers that we lost in the process of technology. They are surely missed by those of us that had the pleasure of them. “Bang the Party, WordPress.com, upminsterkid 2, Ratatat, The House of Leaf and Lime *3, Progandpoo @ BlogSpot *4. If you are viewing this document online please find the missing images through links are provided in the bibliography.)


BibliographyAll information, most everything written unless marked otherwise is all credited to the authors of ‘Graphic Design History, A Critical Guide’ and Professor Kent Manske.

*2 Bang the Party, WordPress.com, upminsterkid
http://bangtheparty.wordpress.com/2008/05/28/ian-dury-the-upminster-kid/

*3 Ratatat, The House of Leaf and Lime. 

http://leafandlime.hobix.com/archives/2004/08/ratatatatat.html
http://www.audiodregs.com/wallpaper/ratatat_wallpaper01.jpg

*4 Progandpoo @ BlogSpot
http://progandpoo.blogspot.com/2006/10/genesis-selling-engalnd-by-pound.html

http://www.perrific.com/cds/covers/genesis.jpg

History of Graphic Design -Weekly Journal 8

WEEKLY JOURNAL 8: : November 19

Postmodernism in Design 1970’s - 1980’s and Beyond
Post-modern Styles
Post-modern consumption and conservatism
Critical theory and post-modern sensibility
Postmodernism and activism
Changes in the profession

In Module 9, ‘Postmodernism in Design 1970’s - 1980’s and Beyond’, we experienced even more extreme rebellion, almost to the level of anarchy. The artists are bored with ‘reductive modernism’, they get playful in an ‘in your face’ way. The electronic age pretty much threw the field wide open, there became so many new roles to create, fill and so many new toys to play with.This weeks examples are of, “Kat Caverly, a New York photographer (that started out in Chicagoan in the mid 70’s) and designer, who’s work I found very interesting while viewing postmodernism art examples: http://www.katcaverly.com/ and http://www.katcaverly.com/mt-static/archives/biography/*2, all the rest are collections from various artists of the ever famous ‘La Mere Vipere’ (fist punk rock club in Chicago, 1977). If you are viewing this document online please find the missing images through links are provided in the bibliography.)

Postmodernism in Design 1970’s - 1980’s and Beyond
Wikipedia defines post-modern styles as: ‘Post-modern art is a term used to describe art which is thought to be in contradiction to some aspect of modernism, or to have emerged or developed in its aftermath. In general movements such as Intermedia, Installation art, Conceptual Art and Multimedia, particularly involving video are described as post-modern. The traits associated with the use of the term post-modern in art include bricolage, use of words prominently as the central artistic element, collage, simplification, appropriation, depiction of consumer or popular culture and Performance art.’

Except for the digital aspect, Art, Architecture and design of this period’s beginnings can be summed up with, “rolling with a free-form, anything-goes style.” An article in the Chicago Reader, talks about punk music as it related to the Chicago scene:. “It’s hard to generalize about any punk community, and there’s not much you can safely say about Chicago’s except that the musicians were more likely to be unpretentious, working-class people—and like their LA cousins, Chicago scenesters had a less intellectualized idea of what it meant to be punk, rolling with a free-form, anything-goes party style.” * 4

There were several areas of the post-modern period that I really identified with, related to, in actual and metaphoric ways. Yes, being old gives me experience, or should I say history... Having been in printing since high school, more on than off, I went through most of the fazes of the big change in design/printing, starting with early paste-up, camera work, film stripping and platemaking, to when publishing software(s) were first introduced. WOW! I bought a Macintosh immediately and learned every software there was on that platform. The early digital artist that was mentioned in class, Anne ------, immediately reminded me of the women’s’ movement that completely changed my world and I didn’t have anything to do with creating it. There are pros and cons to everything and the idea that with the one creation of her naked, which was completely backwards to that movement, changed into the interpretation of her ‘being in her power’ was fabulous. To me, one of the main cons of the women’s movement is that in some respects, our power was taken away.

I’m jumping around a bit and unfortunately there aren’t enough electronic pages to cover this period, for me, so my main emphasis will focus on ‘Punk’.

Punk 1970’s
A few words of my own about the Pop and Protest of the 1960’s and 1950’s, particularly punk and new wave. Punk represents rebellion, expression of anger (which is not allowed, by popular request, but oh yeah were not into ‘popular’), daring, edgey, which eventually becomes acceptable and popular by adaptation and embrace of corporate advertising. The way I relate to this movement is by my own personal experience in music, at that time. The following should be read as a metaphor to the ‘Pop and Protest’ movement in graphic design history, expressed in terms of music.

People are always surprised to know that I like Iggy Pop’s music. It’s complicated to explain, but very important to me. Even as I have spent quite a lot of time writing the following, I still feel I could go on. His music does not define me any more than Gordon Lightfoot does, being from Chicago I was very blessed to have broad eclectic music coming from the radio throughout most of my life.

When this period came up in our studies, I could have said any number of the things I have written, here, but nothing would be ‘all inclusive’. And maybe, there is no way to explain it, maybe you have to experience it for yourself. Having seen him three times since the early 90’s, with 3 different people that all agree he puts on a very enjoyable show, to say the least.

Why I like Iggy Pop... It’s certainly not his ideology, roughness, or looks. The Punk movement came at a time, when in the 70’s, Chicago radio was only playing Lynard Skynard, Bob Seeger, repeats of ‘rock and roll’ heard millions of times and the only thing new on the music scene, as per Chicago radio was disco. The choices were at best boring and horrible technotronic with seemingly the same beat, over and over and over, plus the whole image of disco including the clothes was just hideous, fake and phony.

One weekend in the summer of 1977, I was asked to entertain some visitors from the UK, the setting was Chicago. I asked a friend and a local where I could take them. That particular night was the annual Venetian Parade, which is a lighted boat parade that takes place on Lake Michigan, a big Chicago event. (http://www.chicagoyachtingassociation.org/events/venetian.html),

My friends’ suggestion was to take the Brits to the parade followed by going to a club called ‘La Mere Vipere’. Well, I had ‘no clue’ what I was getting into that night, starting off with the fact that, the main floor of three, was a gay/bisexual bar. This was my first real exposure to this scene and I immediately felt very excited to be among people who dared to be themselves. We danced and had fun for quite a while with no repercussions for being straight, before we found the downstairs club. It was very dark, strobe lit, with an energy coming from the music that couldn’t be ignored, something that had been missing at that lull in musical time that I’ve already explained. Music, being my passion, the heartbeat of life, was just waiting to be re-discovered. We danced for hours, into the wee hours of the dawn, 3-4 in the morning. There was no way to have a conversation in the place as music was at high volume, bass pumping throughout every muscle in your body, but on the way out I said, “What have I been listening to? I’ve never heard this before…” The Brits acted surprised and astonished, “Huh?, It’s punk, it’s been around for a years, all over the UK.”

While my generation was not at the time of the hippies, or the punks, kind of in the middle somewhere, I’ve admired the energy of both, but not so much the ‘rock and roll’ of my generation time. I think, because it wasn’t original rock and roll and it was loosing steam, then disco was replacing everything, it was almost thrust on us. All clubs that were formerly live bands with real instruments were replaced by DJ’s playing this commercial techno, plastic-ness, which I found revolting and insulting. I never actually joined the punk scene, but alternative, a milder version of punk was just starting to arrive on the scene, Roxy Music, Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, etc. and it was very exciting. I started hearing one song in the mix “I’m Bored’ by Iggy Pop amongst the play list next to Talking Heads, Pretenders, etc.. It wasn’t till sometime in the 80’s, that I got it about Iggy Pop, now the radio was playing more and more of him, around the time he made a comeback, being produced by David Bowie. These songs were well written with that familiar energy that grabbed me back at that club in 1977, plus I’d keep hearing his voice in various movies/songs and it was a GOOD quality voice. I’d hear something and then find out it was Iggy, again and again. My opinion was ‘wow’, maybe there is something here, something that cannot be discounted, and there was. I remember at this time he was coming to Chicago and playing the Aragon Ballroom with the Ramones, I remember thinking I’d like to go, but felt like I’d need a football outfit, including helmet to survive it, which wasn’t going to happen. Then, the next time he came to town, early 90’s and after hearing more and more quality of his voice, songs of his, I went to the show. WOW, WOW, WOW! To this date and I’ve seen well over a 100 concerts. ‘That show’ marks the ‘best show’, ever, for me. The overall energy, that is buried in my 1977 memories, the charisma of this very courageous, vulnerable man that is willing to lay it all out there, literally, the way every muscle in his body moves in all different directions though out every song in the show… He captures your attention, holds it and gives you all he’s got, no holes barred, it is truly fascinating.

I guess my interest in Iggy primarily and when I was buying his albums/cds was at his most commercial time being produced mostly by David Bowie and up to about 2002. The CDs, to me, started to have too much of a negative connotation and just didn’t grab my interest anymore, but like others in music, he has given music, especially the 80’s a base for what followed in the alternative, industrial mainstream which later progressed to popular. For other genres you have Elvis, the Beatles, Bob Dylan. Like them or not, they were the innovators to all that followed in their genre, just as Iggy Pop and the innovative graphic design and artists of this time.


Conclusion
Like I said in the beginning, , we experienced even MORE extreme rebellion, almost or should I say to the level of anarchy. The artists aren’t bored with ‘reductive modernism’, anymore they are free in an ‘in your face’ way. The electronic age was and is a wild ride, which in and of itself graphic design created my new professions and many cool consumer cultures. Finally, this weeks examples are of, “Kat Caverly, a New York photographer (that started out in Chicagoan in the mid 70’s) and designer, who’s work I found very interesting while viewing postmodernism art examples: http://www.katcaverly.com/ and http://www.katcaverly.com/mt-static/archives/biography/*2, all the rest are collections from various artists of the ever famous ‘La Mere Vipere’ (fist punk rock club in Chicago, 1977). If you are viewing this document online please find the missing images through links are provided in the bibliography.)


Bibliography
All information, most everything written unless marked otherwise is all credited to the authors of ‘Graphic Design History, A Critical Guide’ and Professor Kent Manske.

*2 Kat Caverly, Photographer, Artist, Designer

http://www.katcaverly.com/mt-static/archives/biography/ and http://www.katcaverly.com/

*3 La Mere Vipere, Chicago’s first punk rock club, 1977.
MySpace URL: http://www.myspace.com/anarchyatlamerevipere

*4 The Chicago Reader, Past Music Columns, Rights of the Accused at the Cubby Bear, 1982, Mary-Colette Illarde, Chicago. Punk, Vol. 1. Miss out on the birth of the local scene? There’s a new documentary full of baby pictures. By Miles Raymer
http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/sharpdarts/071122/

History of Graphic Design -Weekly Journal 7

WEEKLY JOURNAL 7: November 12

Corporate Identities and International Style 1950’s - 1970’s
Designing the modern lifestyle
Modern style in graphic design
Consumer culture
The profession

Pop and Protest 1960’s - 1970’s
Pop culture and style
Self-conscious graphic design
Slick surfaces and high production values
Counterculture and alternative press
Revolutionary culture and protest
Changes in the profession
Critical vocabulary

In Module 8, ‘Late Modernism’, we experienced extreme rebellion of international graphic design artists, ‘less is more’ ‘sans serif type fonts’, photoplastics, the Bauhaus, the typophoto, typeface goes through major changes in design much like the Renaissance movements and earlier times. This weeks examples are of, “Armin Hofmanns’, Graphic Design Manual, many of which that can be found at http://devkick.com/blog/design-inspiration-european-graphic-design-from-1950-1970/*2, or at Swiss Miss, http://swissmiss.typepad.com/weblog/2006/10/armin_hofmann_d.html (If you are viewing this document online please find the missing images through links are provided in the bibliography.)

Corporate Identities and International Style1950’s - 1970’s & Pop and Protest 1960’s - 1950’s
Taken directly from Kent Manske’s lecture:
Some facts from the lecture on ‘Bauhaus & the New Typography’ include, “Walter Gropius was the director and architect of the Bauhaus. In 1923. In 1926-25 the Bauhaus school moved and was reorganized. László Moholy-Nagy in 1923, was influential in the evolution of Bauhaus instruction and philosophy. His passion for typography and photography inspired an interest in visual communications and led to important experiments in the unification of word and image.

The new typography and typeface design in the first half of the twentieth century: Jan Tschichold wrote a “Elementare Typographie,” published in 1928 he published his book, Die Neue Typographie (The New Typography), which rejected decoration in favor of rational design planned for concise communication. The new typography influenced type design, and a series of sans-serif typefaces were issued in the 1920s. Among the new sans-serif typefaces were Gill Sans designed by Eric Gill, who was influenced by Railway Type designed by his teacher and friend Edward Johnston. Paul Renner designed Futura, which became the most widely used sans-serif family. Rudolph Koch introduced Kabel, a popular geometric sans-serif. Important serif typefaces during this period included Gill’s Perpetua, an antique roman face inspired by the inscription on the Trajan column, and Times New Roman, which was introduced in 1931 by the British Monotype Corporation under the direction of Stanley Morison. The highly legible Times New Roman became one of the most widely used new typefaces of the twentieth century.

The Isotype (International System of Typographic Picture Education) movement, which began in the 1920s and continued into the 1940s, was established by Vienna sociologist Otto Neurath. The Isotype’s contributions to visual communications include conventions to formalize the use of pictorial language, including pictorial syntax and the design of simplified pictographs. Their impact includes research toward the development of universal visual language systems and the extensive use of pictographs in signage and information systems.

Henry C. Beck’s diagrammatic interpretation of the London Underground subway system (prototype for the modern map) replaced the geographic approach to mapping. It served as a model for other variations throughout the world and influenced the visual presentation of diagrams and networks.

During the Modern Movement, an important phase in the development of American graphic design resulted from the migration of many European cultural leaders who fled the rise of Nazism in Europe. They had a major impact on magazine design combining illustration and photography.” *1

Yes, we are still taking directly from Kent Manske’s in depth and very informative lecture. The third part of his lecture, to me, bears repeating in it’s entirety and especially because it will be posted as a blog. Yes, all the history of graphic design till now was very important to getting to where we are now, but this part of the lecture, period of time, and subject, is the very basis for communicative materials, such as magazines, posters, books brochures, etc..

“The International Typographic Style
Here we will focus on the design movement that emerged in Switzerland and Germany during the 1950s (which has been called Swiss design and, more appropriately, the International Typographic Style) and its impact on postwar American design. The roots of the International Typographic Style are to a large extent found in the curriculum advanced at the School of Design in Basel. The development of the curriculum at Basel has its basis in fundamental geometric exercises involving the cube and the line. This foundation, begun in the nineteenth century independent of de Stijl and the Bauhaus, was the basis for the 1908 formation of the school’s Vorkurs (foundation course) and remained relevant to the design program in the 1950s.

The characteristics of the International Typographic Style include asymmetrical organization of design elements on a mathematically constructed grid, objective photography and copy that present visual and verbal information in a clear and factual manner, and the use of sans-serif typography set flush left and ragged right. More important than visual appearance was the attitude the pioneers of this movement developed about their profession. They defined design as an important and socially useful activity, and the role of the designer as an objective conduit for spreading information between components of society. Personal expression and eccentric solutions were rejected in favor of a more universal and scientific approach to design problem solving.

Among the pioneers of the International Typographic Style were Ernst Keller, who believed the solution to a design problem should emerge from its content; Théo Ballmer, who applied de Stijl principles to graphic design by using a grid to construct visual forms, including letterforms; and Max Bill, who embraced the concepts of art concret, which called for a universal art of absolute clarity based on controlled arithmetical construction. Bill’s work was based on cohesive principles of visual organization, such as the linear division of space into harmonious parts; modular grids; arithmetic and geometric progressions, permutations, and sequences; and the equalization of contrasting and complementary relationships into an ordered whole. Max Huber’s tendency toward complexity offered a counterpoint to Bill’s purist approach. Huber created complex compositions by overlapping typography, graphic elements, and images, yet through balance and alignment and the use of transparent inks, which allowed the layers to show through, he maintained order in the midst of complexity.

In 1950, Bill became involved in developing the graphic design program at the Institute of Design in Ulm, Germany, which attempted to establish a center for research and training to address the design problems of the era. Otl Aicher, one of the Ulm co-founders, played an important role in establishing the graphic design program, and Anthony Froshaug set up the typography workshop. The Ulm Institute of Design included a study of semiotics, the philosophical theory of signs and symbols. The three branches of semiotics are semantics, the study of meaning of signs and symbols; syntactics, the study of how signs and symbols are connected and ordered into a structural whole; and pragmatics, the study of the relationship of signs and symbols to their users. The work of Anton Stankowski demonstrates how abstract visual form can be used to communicate complex information, such as invisible processes and physical forces. Before attempting a design solution, Stankowski researched the subject in order to understand the material to be presented, for only through understanding was he able to invent forms that became symbols of complex scientific and engineering concepts.

The International Typographic Style was exemplified by new sans-serif type families inspired by nineteenth-century Akzidenz Grotesk fonts. In 1954, Adrian Frutiger completed Univers, a cohesive, sans-serif type family that included twenty-one variations, from light extra-condensed to expanded extrabold, in a full range of sizes. Since the characters shared the same baseline, x-height, and ascender and descender lengths, they could be used together harmoniously. In the mid-1950s, Edouard Hoffman and Max Miedinger refined and upgraded the Akzidenz Grotesk fonts for the HAAS type foundry in Switzerland, releasing them as Neue Haas Grotesk. In 1961, when this design was produced in Germany by D. Stempel AG, the face was named Helvetica, the traditional Latin name for Switzerland. Meanwhile, Hermann Zapf, a German typeface designer, evolved the traditions of calligraphy and Renaissance typography with Palatino, a roman style with broad serifs, strong serifs, and elegant proportions somewhat reminiscent of Venetian faces; Melior, a modern style face with vertical stress and squared forms; and Optima, a thick-and-thin sans-serif typeface with tapered strokes. Zapf’s two editions of Manuale Typographicum, consisting of full-page typographic interpretations of quotes about the art of typography, were outstanding contributions to the art of the book.

Further development in the International Typographic Style occurred in Basel and Zurich, Switzerland. In Basel, the new movement was being forged by Emil Ruder and Armin Hofmann, and in Zurich by Richard P. Lohse, Hans Neuburg, Carlo L. Vivarelli, and especially Josef Müller-Brockmann. In 1947, Emil Ruder joined the faculty of the Allgemeine Gewerbeschule Basel (Basel School of Design) as the typography instructor. Ruder taught that legibility and readability are dominant concerns and that type loses its purpose if it loses its communicative meaning. He advocated sensitivity to negative space, systematic overall design, and the use of a grid to bring all elements into harmony with each other while allowing for variety. More than any other designer, Ruder realized the creative potential of Univers, and he and his students explored its possibilities through contrast, texture, and scale. Ruder’s methodology of typographic design and education was presented in his 1967 book, Typography: A Manual of Design. In 1947, Hofmann opened a design studio in collaboration with his wife Dorthea and that same year began teaching at the Basel School of Design. Together with Ruder, he developed an educational model linked to the educational principles of the Vorkurs established in 1908. Hofmann evolved a design philosophy based on the elemental graphic-form language of point, line, and plane, replacing traditional pictorial ideas with a modernist aesthetic. He sought a dynamic harmony in which all the parts of a design were unified, and saw a relationship between contrasting elements, such as light to dark, curved to straight, form to counterform, as the means of invigorating visual design, as shown in the “Giselle” poster. Here the organic, kinetic, and soft photographic image contrast with the geometric, static, and hard-edged typographic shapes. Hofmann applied deep aesthetic values and understanding of form to his teaching and designing. His 1965 book, Graphic Design Manual, presents his application of elemental design principles to graphic design. His work ranged from designing posters, advertisements, and trademarks, such as the Swiss National Exhibition and the Stadt Theater Basel, to environmental graphics, such as for the high school in Disentis, Switzerland, for which letters and abstract shapes were incised into molded concrete. Swiss design began to coalesce into a unified international movement when the trilingual journal New Graphic Design began publication in 1959. Under the direction of its editors, Zurich designers Carlo Vivarelli, Lohse, Müller-Brockmann, and Neuburg, its format and typography were a living expression of the order and refinement achieved by Swiss designers. Asymmetrical design, white space, and adherence to a four-column grid characterized the publication. Müller-Brockmann sought an absolute and universal form of graphic expression through objective and impersonal presentation. In his photographic posters, the image is treated as an objective symbol that gains impact through scale, such as in the 1954 Swiss “Auto Club” poster, and camera angle, as seen in the “weniger Lärm” (“less noise”) poster of 1960. His typographic posters achieved graphic power by successfully combining effective communication, expression of the content, and visual harmony. The poster for the exhibition entitled “der Film” (“The Film”), also from 1960, communicated the concept of film by overlapping the word Film in front of the word der, thus creating the typographic equivalent of the cinematic techniques of overlapping images and dissolving one image into another. In this same poster he achieves visual harmony by using the three-to-five ratio of the golden mean, considered by the ancients Greeks to be the most beautifully proportioned rectangle. In his posters for musical events, geometric form became a metaphor for the rhythm of the music itself.

Also in Zurich, Siegfried Odermatt, and later his partner Rosmarie Tissi, loosened the boundaries of the International Typographic Style and introduced elements of chance and intuitive visual organization into the vocabulary of graphic design. Odermatt, who was a self-taught designer, applied the International Typographic Style to the communications of business and industry. He used straightforward photography with drama and impact, and sought originality through the idea, or concept, not just through visual style. Tissi is known for her playful approach to graphic design. In 1968, she became an equal partner with Odermatt in the studio Odermatt & Tissi.

As internationalism grew after World War II, the new graphic design that had developed in Switzerland helped fulfill the needs for communicative clarity. Its fundamental concepts and methodology spread throughout the world. In America, the Swiss movement had a major impact on postwar design. Among the designers who embraced the International Typographic Style were Rudolph de Harak, Jacqueline S. Casey, Ralph Coburn, and Dietmar Winkler. De Harak began his career in 1946 in Los Angeles and then moved to New York in 1952, where he formed his own design studio. Feeling that communicative clarity and visual order were vital components of effective graphic design, he adapted attributes of the International Typographic Style, such as grid structures and asymmetry. In the early 1960s, he designed a series of 350 book jackets for McGraw-Hill Publishers, using a grid and uniform typographic system. This series influenced the nature of book jacket design in the United States. The International Typographic Style evolved in the work of Casey, the director of the Design Services Office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which offered professional assistance on design publications and publicity materials to members of the university community. MIT was committed to the grid and sans-serif typography. Casey and her staff, Coburn and Winkler, were innovative in the use of designed letterforms, and manipulated words as vehicles to express content.

During the mid-1960s, the International Typographic Style and corporate design were linked.” * 1

A few words of my own words about the Pop and Protest of the 1960’s and 1970’s, which actually is a byproduct of the 50’s. Sometimes, almost looking like ransom notes the themes and techniques were taken from popular mass culture, such as advertising, comic books and mundane cultural objects. ‘Abstract Expressionism’, using popular as opposed to classical art. it was somewhat whimsical, sometimes ironic. And, it was one of the last minimal types of art, leading into Postmodernism.

Conclusion
Like I said in the beginning, we experienced extreme rebellion of international graphic design artists, ‘less is more’ ‘sans serif type fonts’, photoplastics, the Bauhaus, the typophoto, typeface goes through major changes in design much like the Renaissance movements and earlier times. I almost wish I could have been there for the experience, but I will surmise to say graphic designers of today have benefited from their innovative contributions. This week I didn’t get to experience first-hand Kent Manske’s enthusiastic lecture, but as we continue to approach the now, he keeps my interest ever growing. Finally, this weeks examples are of, “Armin Hofmanns’, Graphic Design Manual, many of which that can be found at http://devkick.com/blog/design-inspiration-european-graphic-design-from-1950-1970/*2, or at Swiss Miss, http://swissmiss.typepad.com/weblog/2006/10/armin_hofmann_d.html (If you are viewing this document online please find the missing images through links are provided in the bibliography.)

Bibliography
*1 All information, most everything written unless marked otherwise is all credited to the authors of ‘Graphic Design History, A Critical Guide’ and Professor Kent Manske.

*2 Devkick Web Development for Designers
http://devkick.com/blog/design-inspiration-european-graphic-design-from-1950-1970/

*3 Swiss Miss, Tina Roth Eisenberg. I am a ‘swiss designer gone NYC.
http://swissmiss.typepad.com/weblog/2006/10/armin_hofmann_d.html

History of Graphic Design -Weekly Journal 6

WEEKLY JOURNAL 6: November 05



The Culture of Consumption 1920’s - 1930’s
The Culture of Consumption 1920’s - 1930’s
Designing the modern lifestyle
Modern style in graphic design
Consumer culture
The profession

Public Interest Campaigns and Information Design 1930’s- 1950’s
Public interest and education
Photojournalism and documentary
Wartime information
Commercial and technical uses of information design
Information analysis and design process

The Culture of Consumption thru Public Interest Campaigns and Information Design 1920’s- 1950’s

In Module 7, we experienced the artist rebellion ‘Breaking the Rules’ to the ‘culture of consumption’, as a result they were able to create a defined profession, by developing the following: public interest, public education, photojournalism with documentary, training out of work people as artists through the ‘wartime information program’, developing commercial and technical uses of information design, and reestablishing information analysis & design process. In Kent Manske’s lecture we saw many examples of the development of design from many countries, including Russia, Germany and the Netherlands’s to name only a few. We learned about the artists sensibilities. This weeks examples are of, “Object Posters, that can be found at http://www.internationalposter.com/search-results.aspx?defaultview=browse&title=Object+Poster&style=Object+Poster&page=1*2. (If you are viewing this document online please find the missing pictures online, links are provided in the bibliography.)

During the Culture of Consumption in the 1920’s - 1930’s, artists of the ‘culture of consumption’ expressed themselves in the ways of spontaneity ‘geometric abstraction’, their mind set was of ‘spirit of the times’, and with an attitude of ‘better the world we live in, an advancement in consciousness.

Public Interest Campaigns and Information Design 1930’s- 1950’s, was a time of ‘fusion of neighbors in Europe’. This is the time when branding really started and it was the large corporations that employed the futuristic, rebel artists that raised the status of the artists to a profession of professional graphic designers. Small movements in Europe started to brand, give purpose. Expression in design replaced ornamentation and design sensibilities are abstract.

Graphic design goes through streamlined, reductionism, sans serif fonts are used ‘minimizing’. Art Deco, occurs after World War 1 when America has money and is prosperous and is aimed at consumers. It’s components are rounded, gradient and uplifting. Heroic Realism, under Stalin, was design, in a sole purpose to persuade.

There was so much information this week that I think a person could fill ten separate journals on this period alone. I looked up the ‘Wartime Information’ project and did not find much, which was disappointing, as I was going to focus on that particular subject. I did find a rather nice article about the ‘Swiss Object Poster’, and I have posted it here.

Object Posters
“The term Sachplakat, or Object Poster, was coined in Germany to describe a new type of poster which featured a realistic depiction of the product and little else. Lucien Bernhard’s revolutionary 1905 poster for Preister matches is considered the first of this type, and its utter simplicity became a hallmark of the emerging Plakatstil (Poster Style).

The craze for this poster type continued in Switzerland, where the passion for precision in printing and drawing technique was unsurpassed. In 1923 Otto Baumberger drew a tweed coat for PKZ with its label serving as the only text - which many mistook for a photograph.

Shortly after, the iconic beauty of the everyday object became the mission of a group of artists in Basel, who made the Sachplakat the leading Swiss style in the ‘40’s and early ‘50’s. Laced with humor and stunning visual impact, these posters represent the last great period of the lithographic poster, which high cost and long production cycles was soon to eliminate.” * 2

To view all Object Posters: http://www.internationalposter.com/search-results.aspx?defaultview=browse&title=Object%20Poster&style=Object%20Poster” *2

The following information, I found so very interesting and pertinent to our focus, that I’ve chosen to place it in this weeks journal, as opposed to a link, that might not get clicked. It is taken from a very lengthy discussion I found at: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/math5.pattern/lesson8art.html. All credit goes to “© Copyright 1996, Pippa Drew and Dorothy Wallace, Dartmouth College”

Post War Art in Europe
“World War II presented Europe with another major disaster. Artists again raged at the hypocrisy of society -- it’s willingness to destroy life in spite of pretensions to humanism and justice. Wheeler. The existentialist writer, Sartre expressed the core philosophy of post-war art movements in Europe. “Man is alone in the world in a metaphysical void... the individual is free to seek his own way.” Wheeler. In this case, angst over the brutality of war produced “an anti-aesthetic primitivism” rather than the cool and absurdist expressions of Dadaists. Wheeler. Their approach encouraged the concept of man’s inner life as a valid subject, producing an and intuitive style, which came to be known as Art Informal or Tachism. Wheeler. It was characterized by loose, unconfined marks and shapes, as distinct from the hard edges of geometric abstraction. Wheeler. Expressive areas of texture were created by mixing paint with metal and other materials. The paintings of Dubuffet, reveal these features through flat, grotesque figures. These images express his low regard for conventional standards of beauty and composition. Wheeler. European Op artists countered his crude, accidental shapes with highly ordered patterns that made vibrating optical effects. Janson 804. 37. Jean Dubuffet, Le Metafisyx (Corps de Dames), 1950.

Hundertwasser
A Viennese post-war artist, Hundertwasser adopted automatism and tachism into a style that exhibited strong biomorphic patterns. Hundertwasser was born in 1928 in the repressed atmosphere of pre-war Vienna, and found inspiration in Klimt’s paintings. Strongly individualistic and talented, Hundertwasser left art school and went to Paris in 1949 where he was exposed to the work of Paul Klee and the Tachists. He invented his own style of painting, transautomatism. Briefly, transautomatism is planned automatism, or as Hundertwasser described it, the ability to identify with the process rather than the creation. Still in his youth Hundertwasser began a bohemian nomadic life and devoted himself to a philosophy based on the organicism of art. Hundertwasser opposed the Bauhaus and its square geometry. He eschewed the straight line in preference for the spiral which he regarded as a symbol of natural cycles -- the continuity of life and death. “The spiral is a moral rejection of a rational mechanistic world with destructive and straight line.” The organic shape of the spiral infused his work with repeating “onion slice” patterns in bright jeweled colors. Hundertwasser’s anti-establishment theories on the environment, and his sense of art as a happening and consciousness raising process presaged the Sixties. His enthusiasm led him to write the Mouldiness Manifesto, a treatise on the “organic law of expansion, and rejection of rationalistic and functionalistic architecture.” In this eccentric piece he proposes that a building should embody organic patterns of mildew.

Postwar American Painting
While there was artistic growth in Europe after the war, the center of attention shifted to America where many great European artists sought refuge from Fascism. The United States had emerged as an unscarred victor from the preceding two wars, and provided an inspiring environment for artists. At the same time, existentialism and Carl Jung’s concept of the collective unconscious influenced the mind set of American artists as it had European artists. Janson, 794.

In post-war New York City the early Abstract Expressionist movement blossomed, and evolved into two bold styles: Action Painting and Field Painting. The painter, Jackson Pollock exemplified the style of Action painting in his famous drip paintings where the painting process became a “counterpart to life itself.” Pollock’s paintings developed into a record of the artist’s psychic and physical journey with the medium. His marks, as they splashed the surface, recorded thickness, velocity and color of the paint pigment. The resulting paintings possess lavish textural patterns and energy. Page 796. 38 Jackson Pollock Autumn Rhythm: number 30 1950.

The Color Field Painter, Rothco reduced the wild elements of action painting into large patches of color that establish a subtle balance on the canvas. Other Color Field painters eliminated brushwork completely. Morris Louis poured thin paint onto the canvas producing a delicate pattern of stained colors that make a composition approaching bilateral symmetry.” *3



Conclusion
There was a lot going on in this time frame 1920’s - 1950, I’m exhausted having experienced the artist rebellion ‘Breaking the Rules’ to the ‘culture of consumption’, though I believe this would have been, so far, the most exciting time to be a professional graphic design artist. Kent Manske’s lectures and enthusiasm as we approach the now keeps my interest ever growing. This weeks examples are of, “Object Posters, that can be found at http://www.internationalposter.com/search-results.aspx?defaultview=browse&title=Object+Poster&style=Object+Poster&page=1*2. (If you are viewing this document online please find the missing pictures online, links are provided in the bibliography, below.)




Bibliography
All information, most everything written unless marked otherwise is all credited to the authors of ‘Graphic Design History, A Critical Guide’ and Professor Kent Manske.

*2 http://www.internationalposter.com/style-primer/object-poster.aspx

*3 © Copyright 1996, Pippa Drew and Dorothy Wallace, Dartmouth College
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/math5.pattern/lesson8art.html

History of Graphic Design -Weekly Journal 5

Weekly Field Journal “Research Portfolio”

WEEKLY JOURNAL 5: October 29

Formations of the Modern Movement 1880’s - 1910’s
Responses to industrialism
Arts and Crafts publications
Arts and Crafts dissemination
Art Nouveau - Jugendstil
Viennese design
Decadence and Aestheticism
The private press movement and modern design
Integration of design and industry

Innovation and Persuasion 1910 – 1930
Visual culture and avant-garde design
The graphic impact of Futurism and Dada
From experiment to principles
Propaganda and mass communication studies
Graphic Persuasion and its effects
Institutionalizing graphic design

The Graphic Effects of Modern Movement through Innovation and Persuasion 1880’s - 1930
In Module 6, we become more familiar with the modern art historical movement during the period of Modern Art Movement (1880’s - 1910’s), and the Innovation and Persuasion movement (1910 – 1930) as it pertains to graphic design. The Modern Art Movement was in response to, what became ‘junk art’ from the Industrial Period’s mass production of stock art and the need to legitimize the artist, designer once again. There was a huge movement, called ‘Arts and Crafts’, that worked towards minimizing, creativity and personalization in art, all the qualities that were not possible with the very busy available stock art, otherwise know as Decadence and Aestheticism. We observed the relationships between painting, decoration and pattern. In class, Kent Manske, presented many examples of art, including visual culture and avant-garde design and he lectured about the graphic impact of Futurism and Dada, as well as all points of interest to this exciting time in graphic design history. This weeks examples are of, “Paul Klee - Park Near Lucerne 1938, http://www.abacus-gallery...*2, Art Nouveau Tiles – Jugendstil, http://www.artnouveautiles *3 , Viennese Design, http://www.abacus-gallery...*4 and an illustrated valentine from the late 1800’s *4. (If you are viewing this document online please find the missing pictures online, links are provided in the bibliography, below.)

Decadence and Aestheticism, essentially meant, Art for Art’s Sake and Aestheticism in the context of earlier art and literary theory. “The Arts and Crafts Movement, was greatly influenced by A. W. Pugin, John Ruskin, and William Morris, endowing it with the following ideas and emphases:
•One cannot validly distinguish between fine and applied or decorative arts.
•The artisan or craftsman should have the same imaginative pleasure and freedom as painters, sculptors, and        architects.
•The Industrial Revolution both greatly damaged popular taste and did much to destroy traditional craft skills.
• Mid-nineteenth century design was by and large dreadful, and artists, sculptors, designers, craftsmen, theorists, and the buying public had work together to remedy this situation.
•Properly designed objects should embody truth to materials — what Ruskin had called the “Lamp of Truth.” In practice this meant, for example, that furniture should use solid wood rather than veneers, and all objects from small pieces of jewelry to entire buildings should explore the intrinsic capacities of the materials from which they are made.
•The role of the craftsman must be appreciated.” *5

Before the Private Press Movement and Modern Design with the Integration of Design and Industry, the printing trade thrived, necessary commercial compromises caused reduction in quality and tension between commercialism and quality. “Fine printing tends to adhere to certain established canons of taste, or at least to be aware of them. * ?

“Influential book designer Jan Tschichold formalized a theory of asymmetry in page design in the 1920’s, which, while rooted more in the Italian Futurist movement and the Bauhaus then in historical models has been enormously influential. If one examines Tschichold’s writings, it becomes abundantly evident that he had an extraordinary grasp of the history of calligraphy and typography, but that he consciously strove to enlarge the tradition of book design. He did nothing ignorantly or unknowingly; his radical realignments of the page were the product of a deep understanding of the principles of sound typography and design.” * ?

During the Modern Movement, painting, as a medium, elevated to the rank of a fine art. Pattern, as an element of design, had been associated with the less esteemed function of decoration.

The following information, I found so very interesting and pertinent to our focus, that I’ve chosen to place it in this weeks journal, as opposed to a link, that might not get clicked. It is taken from a very lengthy discussion I found at: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/math5.pattern/lesson8art.html. All credit goes to “© Copyright 1996, Pippa Drew and Dorothy Wallace, Dartmouth College”

Impressionism

“In the 1870’s, the Impressionists launched a revolutionary painting movement in Paris. Eventually, the Impressionists were recognized and celebrated in their own day. Impressionism remains popular for it’s engaging portrayals of 19th century French life. J, 706. Impressionists such as Monet were scientific in their approach; whether painting landscapes, still life or figures, they were not so concerned with making pretty pictures or evoking emotions, as they were with rendering the effects of light. “This meant that brush strokes became flecks of paint displaying an extraordinary range of visual effects.” J ? Brush strokes create an abundance of beautiful patterns and textures in their paintings, but in a random, natural form. E Claude Monet Red Boats, Argenteuil, 1875, p. 706 X (http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/math5.pattern/Monet.p62.gif).” *6

Post Impressionism

“Post Impressionism included many divergent styles. Whatever their priorities, these painters tended to use color to level shapes toward the picture plane and distort images. Since pattern also flattens space, it naturally infiltrated Post-Impressionist styles. Functioning decoratively, expressively, or as repetitious brush strokes, pattern proved a useful tool to explore the two-dimensional plane.

Pointillism, Symbolism, Expressionism, are among the many styles assigned to Post-Impressionism.

Seurat, a Pointillist, studied color interaction and carried Monet’s investigation of color and light several steps further. Rather than mixing paint ahead of time, Seurat placed small dots of pure color next to each other on the canvas. This meant that colors were mixed in the eye of the viewer, and the painting shimmered with the light of vibrating hues. J, 733. The process of breaking images into dots flattened and schemitized Seurat’s shapes in contrast to the loose naturalistic style of the Impressionists.
George Seurat, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, 1882. 732 (http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/math5.pattern/Monet.p78.gif)

The Dutch painter, Vincent Van Gogh, is known for a completely new use of color, and is often seen as an early Expressionist. Van Gogh’s use of brilliant color departs from objective reality to convey a highly charged atmosphere in his paintings. The painter’s brush strokes create a swirling pattern that fuses with color to create a turbulent, emotional landscape. Vincent Van Gogh, Wheatfield and Cypress Trees, 1889. 736 (http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/math5.pattern/VanGogh.gif)

Paul Gauguin also used color expressively. He was interested in the character of the subject as it was revealed by colors: “noble lines leading to eternity.” Gauguin and many of his colleagues were part of the Symbolist movement. Symbolist painters stopped working from observation and painted from memory. The painting became a record of the painter’s internal responses, rather than his observations. Gauguin and many other symbolists preferred spiritual subjects, and grew attracted to exotic and mythological themes. Moving away from direct observation, his work exhibited flat shapes and arabesque patterns, in vivid colors. This marked another distinct separation from pictoral realism and continued the direction toward abstraction among 20th century painters. Paul Gauguin, The Vision After the Sermon,1888. (http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/math5.pattern/Janson.p737.gif)
Eduouard Vuillard, who initially painted under Gauguin’s influence, concentrated on “decorative projects from the drawing rooms of domestic life.” J, 739.

Vuillard lived with his mother, a seamstress who worked with patterned fabrics. He often chose patterns from her fabrics as part of his subject matter. The flat shapes of Symbolist painting freed him to use pattern as a formal element in his work, and Vuillard was part of an artists group called the Nabis, the Hebrew word for “prophet.” The Nabis believed painting should be recognized as a great decorative art. They claimed that for every emotion and thought there “existed a plastic decorative equivalent, a corresponding beauty.” 124. Eduouard Vuillard, Interior at L’Etang’la Ville, 1893. (http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/math5.pattern/Janson.p740.gif)” *6

Art Nouveau

“The work of Pointillist painters, the Nabis and Symbolists, and Van Gogh generated further experimentation. In styles such as the Jugenstil in Germany, and Art Nouveau, artists integrated Symbolist ideas of internal experience, political idealism, mythology and dreams with decorative patterns and architecture. J “The avowed goal of Art Nouveau was to raise the crafts to the level of the fine arts, thereby abolishing the distinction between them.” Janson, 749. Art Nouveau is well known for organic and elongated decorative shapes. Like the work of William Morris, Art Nouveau aimed to improve the environment of the lower classes, and greatly influenced the applied arts. Similarly, the production of such designs proved expensive, and was available only to the wealthy. Victor Horta. Interior Stairwell, Tassel House, Brussels,1892-93. (http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/math5.pattern/Janson.p749.gif)

Expressionism

Gauguin and Van Gogh influenced the paintings of Northern Expressionists such as Edvard Munch. Munch was a Norwegian who created paintings of extreme emotion. The Expressionists manipulated color, pattern and line to convey their emotional state. In Austria, the painter, Gustav Klimt, was so moved by Munch’s painting, The Scream, that he launched the Secessionist movement to elevate national art. (Janson 744) As we have seen, Klimt used patterned surfaces in his otherwise illusionistic paintings to introduce rich symbolism. Klimt: Watersnakes, 1893. (http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/math5.pattern/Klimt.p41.gif)” *6

Fauvism

“Fauvism, another Post-Impressionist movement, continued to investigate the expressive powers of color already introduced by Van Gogh and Gauguin, but in a more formal manner. The most celebrated Fauve, Matisse, flattened his shapes into the flat decorative shapes introduced by Gauguin. Yet, as he coaxed his subjects into, these ornamental shapes, their contours formed strong and vibrant shorthand of color compositions. Matisse exploited the sensuous and abstract possibilities of color and pattern more than its Romantic symbolism. Henri Matisse. The Red Studio, 1911. (http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/math5.pattern/Janson.p762.gif)

Cezanne and Cubism_Cezanne, a contemporary of Seurat, represents a different but equally important direction in Post-Impressionism. Cezanne also flattened shapes to the picture plane, but in small planes of color. He employed these color planes in his landscapes and still life to articulate spatial relationships between figure and ground. Cezanne was the forerunner of the first Cubists, Picasso and Braque. Cubism presented disparate spatial views of the same subject in the same plane. Color and value were used to create spatial tension, rather than emotional expression. In these formal works, experimentation with the two-dimensional surface pushed painting another crucial step toward abstraction. Paul Cezanne, Mont Saint-Victoire, 1897-1900. (http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/math5.pattern/Janson.p731.gif)
Pablo Picasso, Portrait of Ambrois Vollard, 1910. (http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/math5.pattern/Janson.p770.gif)

Pablo Picasso, Still life with Chair Caning, 1912. (http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/math5.pattern/Janson.p771.gif)” *6

20th Century Abstract Paintings and Surrealism

“Some early abstract paintings emerged out of the themes of Cubism, Fauvism and Expressionism. While Kandinsky and the German Expressionists abandoned realism to explore emotion or spirituality in complex abstract compositions, artists such as the Suprematist and Constructivist, Malevich, and the Neo-Plasticist, Mondrian integrated the planar forms of Cubism into their geometric work. Though Suprematist art is hard-edged and minimal, it is spiritually motivated too. Malevich believed that the pure aesthetic of a square represented spiritual perfection in space; Mondrian claimed that geometric shapes freed Man from subjectivity and drew him toward a higher universal consciousness. The early work of Constructivism laid the basis for the Bauhaus School of Architecture in the 1920’s, eventually establishing Mondrian’s square as the dominant shape in contemporary architecture and Minimalist art. While these serious, formal artists placed little interest in ornament, their work does refer to pattern in an archetypal way. Mondrian’s squares cannot help but remind us of the simplest pattern, the grid.” *6

Surrealism and Dadaism

“Experimentation with abstraction fused with the violent events of World War I to create even more revolutionary forms of art. The Dada movement lead by Marcel Duchamp, evolved as a protest against society and aimed to show mainstream values as meaningless in the context of the “Great War.” Duchamp, Mona Lisa (http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/math5.pattern/MonaLisa.gif)

Surrealism followed Dada in 1924, led by the poet Andre Breton. Between World War I and World War II, Modern art continued to evolve under the influence of psychology and the theories of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. It’s chief components were the illustration of the dream, and Automatism. Automatism meant that the artist allowed the unconscious to dictate the execution of his work. J 785 The painter, Max Ernst adopted collage, using photographs to create humorous but disturbing images. Janson 784 Like Ernst, Paul Klee drew upon the unconscious through cryptic symbols and signs, and developed a unique visual language. J. 787.
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/math5.pattern/lesson8art.html” *6


Conclusion

I know I keep saying this, but it’s true every week... I’m saying it again. This period was even more evolutionary than the last, the realization and transformation from ‘junk art’ to ‘real art’, otherwise know as Decadence and Aestheticism, is what makes this period exceptional. The Modern Art Movement (1880’s - 1910’s), with the Innovation and Persuasion movement (1910 – 1930) and ‘Arts and Crafts’, as they pertain to graphic design is what made this time so significant. Finally, this weeks examples are of, “Paul Klee - Park Near Lucerne 1938, http://www.abacus-gallery...*2, Art Nouveau Tiles – Jugendstil, http://www.artnouveautiles *3 , Viennese Design, http://www.abacus-gallery...*4 and an illustrated valentine from the late 1800’s *4. (If you are viewing this document online please find the missing pictures online, links are provided in the bibliography, below.) (If you are viewing this document online please find the missing pictures online, links are provided in the bibliography, below.)

Bibliography

All information, most everything written unless marked otherwise is all credited to the authors of ‘Graphic Design History, A Critical Guide’ and Professor Kent Manske.

*2 http://www.abacus-gallery.com/cgi-bin/shop/shop.pl?fid=1010279039&cgifunction=form

*3 http://www.artnouveautiles.nl/resources2008/130808-05a.jpg

*4 http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2006/07/27/klimt_narrowweb__300x345,0.jpg

*5 Cumming, Elizabeth, and Nancy Kaplan. The Arts and Crafts Movement. London: Thames and Hudson, 1991.
Naylor, Gillian. The Arts and Crafts Movement: A Study of Its Sources, Ideals, and Influence on Design Theory. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1971.
Skipwith, Peyton. Holy Trinity, Sloane Street. London: The Trinity Arts and Crafts Guild, 2002.
Wainright, Clive. Architect-Designers from Pugin to Mackintosh. Exhibition catalogue. London: The Fine Art Society with Haslam & Whiteway Ltd., 1981.

http://www.victorianweb.org/art/design/craftintro.html

*6 © Copyright 1996, Pippa Drew and Dorothy Wallace, Dartmouth College

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/math5.pattern/lesson8art.html

History of Graphic Design -Weekly Journal 4

Weekly Field Journal “Research Portfolio”

WEEKLY JOURNAL 4: October 22

The Graphic Effects of Industrial Production 1800 - 1850
Industrialization and visual culture
Illustrated papers
Book design for mass production
Printed images
Advertising design and typography
Fine art and graphic art
Critical Issues

Mass Mediation 1850 - 1900
Printed mass media
Changes in print technology
Changing patterns in the use of graphic media
Media networks
Graphic design and advertising
Posters and public space

The Graphic Effects of Industrial Production through Mass Media 1800 - 1900
In Module 5, we learned about major developments in graphic design due to the Industrial Revolution, in which revolutionary advancements were made in: lithography, photography and halftone printing. In the cities people were working, had money and a lust for buying things “The Beginning of the Thirst for the New” . The discovery and refinement of photography created many new industries and helped fulfill the lust for buying things. Photography provided stock material to create reproducible art to be carved on woodblocks (made from end-grains of logs, for longer press runs) used for print, wood engraved illustrations. The halftone, a process where a glass negative was laid over a picture then exposed to a hatch pattern for print, became an even faster way of reproducing printable images. Advancement of the printing press, originally made from wood with a hand crank, to a better built longer lasting machine, plus the invention of the steam engine, then electricity, made production faster and more efficient. Newspapers became a ‘leisure event’, expanding culture, which were lower cost items and as a side effect people became more literate.

In the early 1800’s we start to see printed menus, schedules, newspapers, magazines ‘The Penny Magazine’, and advertising pieces Advertising, makes a major shift from ‘announce product and show reward’ to ‘engraved pictures with type that create and aura of a lifestyle’ to sell products. We start to see display and poster typefaces advance to hand drawn lithographic headlines, plus clip art and stock art. Forward looking illustrations come into vogue in 1897. Junk starts to replace art in the early 1900’s, which leads into the next module, where I will try to pick up in the next journal. This week’s examples are of, “The Illustrated London News - May 1842 until 2002 *2, The Graphic - December 1869 until 1933 *3 and an illustrated valentine from the late 1800’s *4.

The Illustrated London News
“The Illustrated London News went into publication on 14 May 1842 and lasted until 2002!. Among it’s contributors were some of the most distinguished writers of it’s day: Rudyard Kipling, Rider Haggard, Thomas Hardy, Robert Louis Stevenson, Joseph Conrad, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, George Cruikshank and many more. It also drew some of the top illustrators: Melton Prior, Frederic Villiers., William Heath Robinson and his brother Charles, Edmund Blampied, Frank Reynolds, Mabel Lucie Atwell, Lawson Wood, G. E. Studdy, David Wright, H. M. Bateman, Louis Wain, Bruce Bairnsfather, C. E. Turner, R. Caton Woodville, A. Forestier, and F. Matania.” *2

The Graphic News
“The Graphic went into publication in December 1869 and lasted until 1933. The Graphic was started because of a squabble between the ILN staff and the family of George Thomas who was one of their engravers. Basically, when George Thomas died his family wanted to put on a show of his work and ILN refused to release the engravings he did for them, so, Mr. W.L. Thomas (I’m not sure if he was George’s Father or brother or son) left ILN and began The Graphic.

During it’s time in print The Graphic hired many well known artists to provide illustrations including; Luke Fildes, Hubert von Herkomer, John Millias, Frank Holl, Melton Prior, Sidney Sime, Alexander Boyd, Frank Brangwyn, Edmund Sullivan, Phil May, Leonard Raven-Hill, George Stampa, James H. Dows, Bert Thomas and F.H. Townsend.” *3

Conclusion
I know I keep saying this, but it’s true every week... This period was even more evolutionary than the last, but with the foundation and benefit of all the previous different culture’s early graphic forms this period was exceptional. The Industrial Revolutions’ advancements and major development of graphic design happened, because of the advancement of industry, in lithography, photography and halftone printing. “The Beginning of the Thirst for the New” that leads to production exceeding art. Finally, this weeks examples are of, “The Illustrated London News - May 1842 until 2002 *2, The Graphic - December 1869 until 1933 *3 and an illustrated valentine from the late 1800’s *4. (If you are viewing this document online please find the missing pictures online, links are provided in the bibliography, below.)

Bibliography

All information, most everything written unless marked otherwise is all credited to the authors of ‘Graphic Design History, A Critical Guide’ and Professor Kent Manske.

*2 http://bp2.blogger.com/_m7PhTGSm_1s/R7C4Wt4i_BI/AAAAAAAAAJc/bYR-0ySeCtE/s200/1887xmas.jpg

*3 The Graphic December 1869 until 1933 *3 <http://bp1.blogger.com/_m7PhTGSm_1s/R7C8fd4i_UI/AAAAAAAAALw/2JifyetgTJk/s320/gilgit1891.jpg>

History of Graphic Design -Weekly Journal 3

Weekly Field Journal “Research Portfolio”



WEEKLY JOURNAL 3: October 15



Renaissance Design & Modern Typography in Graphic Design 1450–1800

In Module 4, we learned about major developments in graphic design due to the increase in the publics ravenous appetite for knowledge and the need for printed material in quantity. Some of those major develoments included, early print design, graphic communication in renaissance culture, print technology, as well as, type design, and innovative graphic forms. The public sphere’s responsibility, in response to the need, was the creation of news, books, broadsheets, and newspapers. This would greatly impact politics and there would be politics, because of the press. This was a significant time for graphic arts, graphic design, and major breakthroughs in modern type design. Aldus Manutius was, but one of the important figures responsible for the innovations of this time. This week’s examples are of, the “Aldus icons and book layout” *3, and the modern interpretation of an Aldus idea *4.

Graphic Design in the Renaissance & Modern Typography
The Renaissance was a time of revival, or “rebirth,” A time of enlightenment and rebirth of classical learning in ancient Greece, Rome, and Europe. Making knowledge from the ancient world available to all readers was the catalyst for a duplicating printing process that at the beginning of the late 15th century. They evolved typeface designs to what are now called Old Style types, which were based on capital letters used in ancient Roman inscriptions and by lowercase letters found in manuscript writing from the Carolingian period.

In 1495, Aldus Manutius, the Italian scholar, printer and elder founded Aldine Press due to the need to produce printed editions of Greek and Latin classics. Inexpensive, pocket-sized editions of books with cloth covers were his innovations. Designed by Francesco Griffohe, the first italic typeface, introduced in about 1500, when Manutius created a cast punch cut for the type. By setting these narrow letters that slanted to the right more type could fit on a page, making new pocket-sized books possible.

Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, was the prototype for Renaissance book design at Aldine Press in 1499, “(believed to be written by Francesco Colonna). The design of the work achieves an understated simplicity and tonal harmony, and its elegant synthesis of type and image has seldom been equaled. The layout combined exquisitely light woodcuts by an anonymous illustrator with roman types by Griffo utilizing new, smaller capitals; Griffo cut these types after careful study of Roman inscriptions. Importantly, double-page spreads were conceived in the book as unified designs, rather than as two separate pages.” *2

“During the 16th century, France became a centre for fine typography and book design. Geoffroy Tory—whose considerable talents included design, engraving, and illustration, in addition to his work as a scholar and author—created books with types, ornaments, and illustrations that achieved the seemingly contradictory qualities of delicacy and complexity. In his Book of Hours (1531), he framed columns of roman type with modular borders; these exuberant forms were a perfect complement to his illustrations.

Typeface designer and punch-cutter Claude Garamond, one of Tory’s pupils, achieved refinement and consistency in his Old Style fonts. Printers commissioned types from him rather than casting their own, making Garamond the first independent typefounder not directly associated with a printing firm. Works by Tory, Garamond, and many other graphic artists and printers created a standard of excellence in graphic design that spread beyond France.” *2

The 17th century was a quiet time for graphic design. Apparently the stock of typeface designs, woodblock illustrations, and ornaments produced during the 16th century satisfied the needs of most printers, and additional innovation seemed unnecessary.” *2

Conclusion
This period was even more evolutionary than the last, but with the foundation and benefit of all the previous different culture’s early graphic forms this period was exceptional. The Renaissance periods’ advancement and major development of graphic design happened, because of the publics increased appetite for knowledge, advances in print technology and type design evolved. It became the public sphere’s responsibility to respond to the needs of the time, to be able to create news books, broadsheets, and newspapers, in quantity. Yes, this was a significant time for graphic arts, graphic design, and major breakthroughs in modern type design. Aldus Manutius was, but one of the important figures responsible for the innovations of this time. Finally, this weeks examples are of, the “Aldus icons and book layout” *3, and the modern interpretation of an Aldus idea *4. (Please refer to page 2.) (If you are viewing this document online please find the missing pictures online, links are provided in the bibliography, below.)

Bibliography
All information, most everything written unless marked otherwise is all credited to the authors of ‘Graphic Design History, A Critical Guide’ and Professor Kent Manske.

*2 “graphic design.” Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 20 Oct. 2008 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1032864/graphic-design>.

*3 Molly McLeod’s Portfolio <http://my.aperture.googlepages.com/graphicdesign>

*4 Aldus Manutius <http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/f/fb/180px-Aldus_Manutius.jpg>

Aldus Manutius <http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/f/fb/180px-Aldus_Manutius.jpg>

Codex - Dante - Early Aldus Book Layout <http://www.italnet.nd.edu/Dante/images/tp1502/NewberryAldine.inf1.150dpi.jpeg>