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elcome
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his month we are setting out on a brand new path as we launch the magazine into the world bringing good design – both in context and visual – that we hope you will love and stick around for.
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irstly, we aim to explore the era that took th over in the 20 century, the turn of Modnism and the rebellion of the postmodernm era. We look back at these movements and eir work and see how they impacted on both e art world as a whole and the massive imct they had on the graphic design world today.
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e also look into postmodernism and pose the question whether we are still in the post modern ages of design or are we going back to the roots bedded in us from the modernism era. Many have gued about this subject and we join in and give r opinion into what we consider to be the answer.
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e hope you enjoy the magazine as a whole and enjoy the feel of our publication. We work the hardt to bring you content you will find interestg and a simple design that you will simply love. xt month will be a typography special exoring the various artist and their secret ys with type that have gorgeous outcomes.
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ope you enjoy the don’t hesitate to you think by email,
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Modernism - It’s all about the grid We look into the history of the modernist era ncluding looking at some of the most famous works that were produced and the effect that this very influencial movement has on todays graphic design. Looking at the grid and how it came about both in art and design
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Postmodernism - Breaking the grid Looking past the modernist era we jump into the PostModernist time and see how the times change, the attitudes change and how the change in technology helped designers experiment more freely with their work.
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Viva la grid We look at the design basic - the grid - and see how it affects our day to day designing life. We discuss how we now adapt our designs around a set frame depending on purpose and how the grid has expanded it’s uses into other fields such as illustration.
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Are we still postmodern? Article discussing whether the design world we contribute to today still is in a post modern frame of mind. Are we still breaking the grid? Are we going back to our roots embeded in the modernist era? Or have we moved on altogether into a Post-Postmodernist era?
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odernism is a movement that was domineering the art and design world in the late 1890’s into the mid 1950’s.The stems of modernism can be routed back to many sources. Some of them were artusts aspiring of a world and culture that broke free from the current suffering of conflict, greed and any social inequality. The visual side of the movement was all about the grid and designing around a set frame and conforming to a certain amount of rule. Modernism was the movement that really launched modern graphic design. Modernism is s p l i t i n t o v a r i o u s m o v e m e n t s d u r i n g t h e e a r l y 2 0 th century. To name a few; Expressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism, Surrealism, Suprematism and Constructivism. The combination of futurism and cubism were the main factors in creating modern graphic design. Cubism, with its harsh shapes and interesting ways of breaking up the space on a page was the key in creating the strong influence on “structural design on the picture frame” which is more commonly known as the grid system. Futurism, stemming from Filipo Marinetti’s manifesto, was created and promoted an enthusiasm for war, machines, speed and of course modernism and were known to detest things such as museums, libraries, moralism and feminism. The influence by futurism gave more of an impact to how type is used and how it can be more than just words on a page. These two movements together, as well as creating the modern graphic design we know and use today, it also went on to influence other modernist movements including the Dada movement and the surrealist movement.
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“The m o d e r n artist is working with time and space and expressing his feelings rather than illustrating�
Jackson Pollock
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P a o t b p
o s u h r e
st a t e in op
mo dernism c a m e a b o u t a f t e r m o de r n i s m a n d w a s c r e a wa y o f r e b e l l i n g a g a i n s t t h e g r i d a n d t h e p r e v i o u s load o f idea s a n d t h o u g h t s o n c r e a t i n g a r t . A l t h o grid w a s a r e v o l u t i o n a r y p i e c e o f d e s i g n a n d h e l g t he a r t wo r l d f o r w a r d , i n l a t e r y e a r s , m o r e a n d m le found a r t t h a t b r o k e t h e g r i d m o r e c o m p e l l i n g i n t e r e s t i n g t h a n t h e m o d e r n i s t s t y l e .
t s u p o a
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O n e o f t h e m o s t i n f l u e n t i a l as w e l l a s w e l l k nown d e s i g n e r s t h a t i s ass o c i a t e d w i t h p o s t mode r n i s m a n d i t s e x p eriment a l wa y s i s t h e d e s i gner and t y p o g r a p h e r , D a v i d Carson. H i s ex p e r i m e n t a l t y pography, u n i q u e r a y g u n c o v e r s and gene r a l de s i g n e t h i c a l l combine to c r e a t e p e r f e c t e xamples of po s t m o d e r n d e s i g n . A s stated bef o r e , br e a k i n g t h e g r i d was a big i d e a fo r t h e d e s i g n e r s in this era a n d t h e y w e r e d e t e r m i n e d to experi m e n t a n d u s e t h e i r w i l dest imagin a t i o n s to c r e a t e w a r p e d and unique d e si g n s . T e x t t h a t f l ows off the p a ge , s h a p e s a n d c o l o u rs in scatt e r e d po s i t i o n s a n d c o m binations of p h o t o a n d t e x t a l l c o m e together. P o s t m o d e r n i s m i n f l u e n ced a lot of p e o p l e an d c a n b e s t i ll seen in v a r i o u s p i e c e s o f g r a p hic desing t h a t is c r e a t e d i n t h e 21st centu r y bu t t h e r e i s a d ebate into wh e t h e r w e a r e s t i l l c lassed as p o s t m o d e r n . O n e o f t he stronge s t ar g u m e n t s b e i n g the rein v e n t i n g o f t h e grid and ho w p e o p l e a r e g o i ng back to t h i s t i m e l e s s system to c r e a t e e x c iting a n d n e w p i e c e s of d e s i g n a n d t yp o g r a p h y .
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T h e grid. When we think of the g r i d , various things can pop into o u r heads as a designer. Whethe r i t is to try and proportion a d r a w ing, decide the height of an a s c e nder on your lower case ‘d’ o r w here to put things on a page; g r i d s will always be the answer. C o l u mns, gutters and baseline g r i d s. Golden sections, rule of t h i r ds and squared. There are m i l l ions of grids out there and t h e y all serve different purp o s e s to different people at d i f f erent ages. So what makes a g r i d so special? Without them, d e s i gn work would be a lot harder. M a y I even suggest that design w o r k may not even look remotely w h a t we see today if it was not f o r the grid. The grid helps us p r o p ortion our work and helps us t o o rganize our pages a lot easi e r than doing it from memory. G r i d s are a very modernist idea a n d have developed a lot over t h e years, getting more and more c o m p lex depending on the need o f the design product or the c o m p lexity of the details withi n t he pieces that you create. A l t h ough sometimes, they piece s a ren’t detailed at all, the c h i l dren’s “copy the picture” e x a m ple on this page would be a f i n e example of something using a g r id that isn’t complex at all a n d proves we understand grids f r o m an early age. Adjusting our a c t i ons to comply with certain b o u n daries in our work, preventi n g us from just unloading our c r e a tive thoughts all over the p a g e . Grids bring a sense of ord e r and uniformity to our work. S o m e could argue, in the case o f the postmodernists for exa m p l e, that the grid can crush t h e creativity of individuals as w e l l as lower the interest leve l o f the piece overall. Postm o d e rnists had the aim to break t h e grid and rebel against the r u l e s set out by the modernists i n t he years before. The result w a s a very complicated yet beautiful outcome that sometimes w a s n ’t always legible or recogn i z a ble, but gorgeous all the s a m e .This can still be seen in s o m e of the works people create t o d a y, but the gird is still a v ery common tool that most g r a p hic designers today like to h a v e tucked under their belt. U l t i mately, grids are part of the bones of graphic design a n d without them, we would be i n a totally different world.
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The debate of whether in the design world we are still in a postmodern world has been argued for a long long time. Being way after the start of the modernism era we are definitely have progressed from then, but the post modern era seems so long ago it could be suggested that we have moved on and matured from this time. There are elements of both times in all design work that is made today, and with education taking students back into the times of these movements, the new generations of designers are being inspired by these artists and using the modern technology to create a fusion of all the pieces they see. Could this be the birth of a brand new era? Modern Post Modernism? Who knows? One thing is for sure; the speed of the design world is growing at an even bigger pace with bigger and better pieces being created every day, each with their own style, feel and ideal response. Everything inspires design, and the waves of trend are always changing. Geometric patterns to collage to organic textures and drawings, no two pieces are the same. This then causes people to experiment, bring two types of techniques together and create a completely new style. This is pretty much what has happened t o p o s t m o d e r n i s m i n t h e 2 1 st c e n t u r y d e s i g n w o r l d , i t h a s b e e n merged, and warped and combined with other styles and influences to create a hybrid of designs that portrays the ever-changing design world and the ever-expanding capability of technology. Some areas to do with design will argue that the post modern era is still around quite strongly as a lot of more illustrative artists tend not to stick as strictly to a grid format. People like Jon Burgerman create their own compositions and shapes and make use of the space they are given rather than set out what they are going to do and where. This approach does make you question whether we have progressed from the postmodern era fully or whether we are only just coming away from its grasp.
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