r3 + ex.1: mixing messages
+ typography addiction
O ário revolucion gang suíço Wolf danças e designer grandes mu tipógrafo s da a um r po l todos sáve contrariou foi respon XX, onde , Weingart lo cu sé do espaço o do ométricas gn gráfic visões ge o do desi di ri re ná s, io ce ca er no post matemáti vimentos proporções dos os mo c imitações, amente to ct re pos, foto di ti dogmas (l u com influencio mentações ia ri nc pe uê ex eq no mo cons sultando a realizar Suíça, co Weingart rnista, re áfico mode instigaram gr er s hi ia gn og si da ol de rda tecn icado pelo nder a pe As novas ente crit ou a defe em ss te rt pa e fo t tr ar en tg alismo o ‘jogo’ íça, Wein experiment de criar Escola Su o na iv ct ão te je aç en sua form , com o ob va consci Apesar da o projecto icas, esta s num mesm e tipográf to ia as an af ic qu gr áf en po gr ti o, inúmeras periências tipográfic sionismo s s novas ex es da no pr s ar ex da es o ti ap adas e re cterizando Weingart, oal, cara rem utiliz ss se pe ia o af sã pogr expres icas da ti campo da ades gráf Wav as qualid r ze fa a) e New em como (Inglaterr nk o. Pu ad o ic nt o m seu signif do movime tornando alterar o surgimento imagens, lação de sável pelo pu e on ni am sp ma ar re e cl i fo ção os, sendo Weingart ra a cria nos projet izadas pa da il vi ut te ol en am nv se s er u directam tética de tecnologia influencio e pela es t e destacou-s íço também n su ma o ei af Gr gr al Jet-Se pó April Experiment ens. O ti ag os im iv e ct s q e os cole dos tipo issional, resolução Sagmeister meio prof on, Stefan -se pelo rs iu nt Ca nd me d fu ri vi di pe Da a ideias ex Saville, tipográfic ir as suas versidade em to de difund de 90 a di ca gn da mi si ca lé De dé po Na escolas de bíguas, a am às e s õe as r aç us acus as de esta agens conf um onda de e de mens ram acusad ch fo an s al ia av af pogr em uma . Tais ti resultando ao leitor respeito do gmeister. e Sa us alu de an ef as por se legibilida ido por St nd fe de e reforçad st rt ti ga ar in We das an as por es, tanto designer ovocadas s caracter digmas pr do ra o pa çã la de -a nipu nças s perdendo iste na ma Tais muda itas veze ada, cons dade e mu te utiliz nt li en me bi em ri gi nt pe le ue ex a freq nível de alterando ado como ementos, iz el il v ut os no a ad s er da demasi rgimento que antes próprio su rmação. O fo lo in pe , de do al os origin se perden tipográfic ica, foi trabalhos ição gráf us da propos se ista nos ia modern o des a influênc de levar pactante. gráfico im pessoais gart, va de Wein e A iniciati periências ex as de on consumismo apelo ao na desordem
os
s’ ) ‘imposto
as tipográfic e famílias , grelha
la pela Esco l de s; um níve
osiçõe s em comp assimetria
ens, s de imag breposiçõe so s, õe uso de áfica. composiç ieta, e o nguagem gr ade irrequ a nova li id um al de su vi to a o surgimen ação de um s, a form ra o informaçõe s. he de rt a Ba ui gráfico pa rarq land o o design ido por Ro nd nd va fe le o de itor cnologias, interessad exto e le s novas te rt estava da ga o in çã We iz a, ic o da util ificar ou ão sintát e do risc am intens e na funç pos poderi a focava-s ti íç s su no ia es a tipograf e alteraçõ ditava qu ado, acre ic if gn si as novas seu de 70, e da década m fi no período, idos gn. Neste Estados Un ea do desi ár rgiu nos su na mo ho ti al la baixa ve; o úl ta de trab criada pe a ferramen ibilidade um eg r il do à ta do Peter microcompu gart devi e Brody, t, Nevill ia de Wein er nc eb uê Hi fl h in et a a Kunz, Kenn ente óbvi an, Willi ando Dan Friedm mo co s o, provoc e nome tilo suíç es ao o safi bstância, ico de de e Tomato. lo sem su tilo gráf a um esti a-se no es do av zi se du ba re m, estões da tinha sido que por fi o design rno das qu culto rar em to ndo, onde gi mu a lo o pe tã em prol do en tais s passou a leitura ia do af an gr lt po cu novas ti cos, difi orno das nte estéti hos merame al ab tr r gráfica rem a cria ução tipo A descontr e. nt me al ruídos e uzido actu sição de que é prod es e impo er ao ct io ra íc ca nção e m in e não a fu mento entr unos, dera namental do espaça or mo ão co nç s formas fu originai das novas ere tenha s formas am estuda e o caract er qu de m on co o íça, , fazend e destacar Escola Su totalmente am manter normas da que procur tando as ado s ei er sp gn re si a de um result nd tuito de tação, ai mente haja t com o in ra actual Se bo tem Je s, al ogia Experiment vas tecnol caso dos como é o o, , os iv ut lo mercad esconstr mulada pe ada e esti iz o il o, ut sm o ni it é hoje mu da, o urba tilo de vi o pessoal, es sã o es a ri pr óp ex am a in icos. O pr as determ sign para alhos gráf tecnológic ar os trab ormações ur sf ig an nf tr co s/ s vão inovaçõe gráfica. ntes construção as consta
es.
1
wolfgang wolfgang weingart weingart ist istmein mein homeboy homeboy
3
E
O I
L N
F G
G
A
A
R
N
T
D
“What’s the use of being l e g i b l e, when nothing inspires you to take notice of it?”
W
W
MA
U
E K A TRO
! E L B U 5
Weingart
W
lfgan
O
erted bespace was ins as increased at th , ed er graphic We discov ps became or word grou s rd wo e th , was tween letters the message derstanding un at th d n, an pposed. Our in expressio an we had su on reading th up t en nd pe r and his less de of Emil Rude the viewpoint d, ge en all ch inct maniactivities ote a succ ixties he wr -s id m e th r the followers. In interpreted fo ographically typ I ich wh of 73: festo, a part Number 5/19 onatsblatter, aphische M gr inpo ey Ty nv of co to cover re it and that is plain duty befo e on s ha so hy n ab lve 'Typograp nsideration ca gument or co ar No g. itin he read formation in wr which cannot printed work A ty. du is th m sign, typography fro an graphic de rpose. More th uct without pu od pr a es m beco
y h p r g o p ty n a is expression technology,
precision
and
of good
order.'
Founded by Emil Ruder and Armin Hofmann, the Weiterbildungsklasse f端r Graphik, the international Advanced Program for Graphic Design, was scheduled to begin in April 1968. Ruder's heartfelt wish was to teach typography, but because of additional obligations as the school director, he would, need a teaching assistant. He asked me, and, I readily accepted. Tragically, his unexpected illness and regular hospital confinements in Basel precluded the chance of ever working together. The first seven students came from the United States, Canada, England, and Switzerland, expecting to study with the masters Hofinann and Ruder. When I showed up as the typography teacher their shock was obvious. Because of I my training, radical experiments,
TRUST
ME.
and because we were around the same age, the students began to Eventually,
disappointment
gave
way
to
curiosity.
Teachers agreed on common themes for the initial two years of the, advanced program, the Symbol and the Package. Feeling more confident by the second year, bolstered by the studants enthusiasm, I risked further experimentation and my classes became a laboratory to test and expand models for a new typography.
7
9
k
efg
gin 11
q
WW
n
The work of Wolfgang Weingart may to some mean simply the series of extraordinary Weltformat (905x 1280mm) po
montage, framing elements and halftone screens. The posters constructed dizzying visual spaces that were a pleasu
reproduction gone mad, engulfing familiar images and words in a fractured world of moiré, colour separation and th
beginning and end was obvious; pulling apart the process of making in between, anything but. They were at once se
Where designers are known only by a fraction of their work - frequently reproduced, iconic and isolated - an antholo
and journals, if published at all. Weingart’s own first and formative statements on design and pedagogy were made i
Though his lectures have been republished, interviews given and teaching methods again profiled, Weingart’s own re experiment that supports it.
Towards the end of Typography Weingart writes: “technical equipment enabled me to realize my world of signs and p
the incidental, accidental or hidden features of metal type - the printed feet of the type body, for instance - suggeste teacher at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Basel (now the Hochschule fiir Gestaltung und Kunst), experiments with type
pictures but helped populate it with similar contraventions. These experiments were part of a wider scheme of design preferred orthography) while protesting as unrealistic “value-free” Swiss typography.
W,
osters he created in the late 1970s and early 1980s, culminating in “Das Schweizer Plakat”, a maelstrom of
ure for the eye but disorienting for the intellect bent on meaning. Here were the signs and signifiers of process
he effects of make-ready. Like much craft of the highest order, the assembly of the posters was a puzzle: their
elf-evident and mysterious.
ogy offers a chance to rediscover their influences and first principles of design buried in old or difficult-to-find books
in the early 1970s, on lecture tours (“How can one make Swiss typography?”) and in Typographische Monatsblatter.
etrospective Typography allows him to make known a more representative body of work and the pattern of
pictures”. This important theme travelling throughout the book is traced to his training as a trade compositor where
ed a compelling, alternative world of signifiers far removed from the image of type well set Later, as a student and on the proofing press and in the process camera didn’t simply enable Weingart to realise his world of signs and
n and teaching that sought provocatively to re-order the conventional meanings of typo-graphic form (Weingart’s
13
By some measurements, his output is neither large nor diverse, despite signals the book’s 500-plus pages and 2.2kg w But the lack of expanse is redressed in a distillation of creative cause and effect, following a logic Weingart insists c Projects” has a useful programmatic momentum one might expect of a teacher. They also support Weingart’s claim th Typography is pedagogical in other ways, too, offering sequences of pure two-dimensional design (“The Letter M” or sources of inspiration (the Near East deserts and their classical ruins). The sum is a catalogue of signs, pictures and the “real jobs” shown in the book’s later section “Correspondence between Experiment and Practical Application”. Th Where Weingart has less to offer is in considering text. His own concerns about it are found already in the lectures o own text is hard: justified locked block-like into heavy-handed layouts; marginal references to illustrations are confus translation is in italics, pushing reading to the edge of discomfort. As image, these choices successfully counterpoint a pictorial one that begrudges concessions to the reader’s efficient use of it. This may not be a problem or even a sur challenging.Anyway, conventional efficiencies were what he set out to re-assess. Here though, are limits. For instanc coded marki and penetrated by interrogators that make it functional and efficient This fluid, digital typography is con does not offer in Typography, he implores us to “... understand my world of pictures i reflecting the times from whenc teach and consider the role of new technology in the production of communication. But past technical paradigms may well prove too burdensome. Weingart admits: “the assumption that digital or elect sources of my pleasure and creative inspiration. I am bound to my roots as a craftsman.” At times in Typography ii ap
weight might send to the contrary (the book, however, leaves almost entirely aside the story of 30 years teaching). characterises his development. Unrealistically neat or not, the reconstruction of six progressive “Independent hat he is himself largely self-taught. “Typography as Endless Repetition”) that are salutary as exercises in the conceptual evolution of form and as techniques whose use and meaning assume a self-referential order in Weingart’s world and help make sense of his is valuable in tracking the film layering and collage experiments that initiated the crescendo of his late posters. of the early 1970s, though on the evidence of Typography, the matter seems little addressed since. The book’s sed with page numbers; the Times New Roman type is often large and continuously underlined while the English t hand-drawn textures and sparsely inhabited spreads. But in other respects it seems that Weingart’s view of text is rprise. After all, the iconic quality of Weingart’s work is partly what makes his work (his pictun so fascinating and so ce, what orders much typography now and gives it meaning often lies beneath the visual surface; it is structured by nceptually distant from that which is static, iconic idiosyncratic. Of course, it’s unfair to comment on what Weingart ce they arose.” Nevertheless, since the mid 1989 (the date of his last significant projects he has continued to work,
tronic tools would be the nexf step in my work was a delusion. My hands and the tangibility of my materials are fie ppears a line is being drawn under a career, that Weingart’s work will now simply provide ruins for our technical-
q
15
Wolf WOLFGANG
WEINGART
TURNED
A
REBELLIOUS
EYE
TO
SWISS
RATIONAL
TYPOGRAPHY
" While studying under the Swiss masters, Armin Hofman and Emil Ruder at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Basel in the 1960
expulsion. Combining extreme letterspacing, slant, weight, size, and repetition with a fierce practical knowledge of printing, W
the changing postmodern times. New Wave was born. Weingart and the students he later taught at the Kunstgewerbeschu
modernism to open its unrelenting structure to the dynamic experiments of a new era. His audacity urges us to look deeply at o In
an
its
elements
Swiss
era
and
when
tools
typography
in
in
lead
metal,
general,
and
wood,
the
type
or
synthetic
typography
was
materials—was
of
the
Basel
virtually
the
school
obsolete,
context, in
in
fact,
particular,
the
played
an
er, was on the threshold of stagnation; it became sterile and anonymous. My vision, fundamentally compa ing the assumed principles of its current practice. The only way to break typographic rules was to know
signed my students exercises that not only addressed basic design relationships with type placement, size, and
We discovered that as increased space was inserted between letters, the words or word groups became graph
Our activities challenged the viewpoint of Emil Ruder and his followers. In the mid-sixties he wrote a succinct ma "Typography
has
one
ed
that
cannot
work
plain be
duty
before
read
it
becomes
and a
that
is
product
to
convey
without
information
purpose.
More
in
w
than
g
Founded by Emil Ruder and Armin Hofmann, the Weiterbildungsldasse for Graphik, the international Advanced Program fo
additional obligations as the school director, he would need a teaching assistant He asked me, and I readily accepted. Tra The
first
seven
students
came
from
the
United
States,
Canada,
England,
and
gang
Switzerland,
expecting
er, theii shock was obvious. Because of my training and radical experiments, and because we were a
Theteachersagreedoncommonthemesfortheinitialtwoyearsoftheadvancedprogram,thesymbolandthepackage.Feelingmoreconfidentbythesecondye
It was a major undertaking to organize my extremely diverse typographic ideas when I was asked to exhib
and fantasies about my life. One of them, entitled "was ich morgen am liebsten machen wiirde" (what I would
Accelerated by the social unrest of our generation, the force behind Swiss typography and its philosophy of reducti FIFTH
INDEPENDENT
PROJECT:
TYPO
Years after our explosive rebellion against the prevailing status of Swiss typography and all the values that it h
type shop, although well stocked in metal type, rule lines, symbols, and ornaments, flexible in all possible techn Since
the
invention
of
printing,
typography
had
been
the
domain
of
craftsmen.
The
artists
and
ky, Kurt Schwitters, Piet Zwart, whose work anticipated a future direction in graphic design, perhaps cam
In my case the crisis came at the beginning of the seventies when the student unrest had subsided, when many of us were tryiijgto envisi It
was
too
soon
to
imagine
the
potential
of
layering
lithographic
films.
Nor
could
I
predict
tha
From a feeling of nowhere to go, a low point and a standstill, I set repeated, single type elements. The pictures conjured up many
childhood, the drudgery of survival in a postwar economy and a report card with the failing grade that would never improve— in Ger
for handwriting. The word "schön," set in bold with two fine points above it, defined my idea of beauty. The rows of Rs were elephan
mark of the printer, was the intersection of north, south, east, and west. The letter Y was a dichotomy, the arid desert strewn with co
This phase of my work may well have been influenced by Serial Art, or by Repetition Typography practice
zerland, a longtime friend of Ruder, offered Basel a progressive approach to the arrangement of typograph
ly favored by Hans-Rudolf Lutz who studied at the Basel school for one year from 1963 to 1964. Lutz and a few
q
Since the invention of book printing, Univers was the first entire font system to be designed with
al alignment among such variations was not a standard consideration. For a given size of type all twenty-on
height (the height of lowercase letters without ascenders or descenders) and the same baseline. This simp
tion, available in eleven sizes for metal typesetting. When I came to the Basel School of Design the coarse Berth
Y,
RESCUING
IT
FROM
WHAT
HE
DESCRIBES
AS
"THE
THRESHOLD
OF
STAGNATION
p
0s, Weingart reacted to existing standards by pushing typography to the limits of legibility and beyond. He narrowly escaped
Weingart dismantled the rational methodology of his elders. Out of this radicality emerged a design movement appropriate to
ule in the sixties, seventies, and eighties, including April Greiman and Dan Friedman, used their intimate knowledge of Swiss
our own time and, in so doing, "to question established typography standards, change the rules, and to reevaluate its potential. the
environment
impetus
that
important
of
enabled
me
to
international
role
from
a
develop
a
the
fifties
traditionally progressive until
equipped
curriculum
the
end
of
for the
the
type
shop—
Kunstgewerbeschule
sixties.
Its
development,
Basel
howev-
atible with our school's philosophy, was to breathe new life into the teaching of typography by reexamin-
them. I acquired this advantage during my apprenticeship as I became expert in letterpress printing. I as-
d weight, but also encouraged them to critically analyze letterspacing to experiment with the limits of readability
hic in expression, and that understanding the message was less dependent upon reading than we had supposed
anifesto, a part of which I typographically interpreted ior the cover ofTyfograpKiscKe Monatsblfltter, Number 5/1973
Weintg
writing.
No
argument
graphic
design,
or
consideration
typography
is
an
can
absolve
expression
of
typography
technology,
from
this
precision,
duty.
and
A
good
print-
order.
or Graphic Design, was scheduled to begin in April 1968. Ruder's heartfelt wish was to teach typography, but because o
agically, his unexpected illness and regular hospital confinements in Basel precluded the chance of ever working together
g
to
study
with
the
masters
Hofmann
and
Ruder.
When
I
showed
up
as
the
typography
teach-
around the same age, the students began to trust me. Eventually, disappointment gave way to curiosity
ear,bolsteredbythestudents'enthusiasm,Iriskedfurtherexperimentation,andmyclassesbecamealaboratorytotestandexpandmodelsforanewtypography
bit at the Stuttgart gallery Knauer-Expo in December 1969.1 designed eleven broadsides relating to thoughts
d most like to do tomorrow), was a list of wishes and dreams, and it has become one of my favorite works
ion was losing its international hold. My students were inspired, we were on to something different, and we knew it
OGRAPHY
AS
ENDLESS
REPETITION
had come to embody, my work, too, became repetitive. Disheartening as it was, I had to admit that our schoo
niques, no longer offered creative potential, not for me personally and not in the professional practice of design designers
of
the
twenties
and
thirties,
the
so-called
pioneers
of
modem
typography,
El
Lissitz-
me to a similar dead end due to the inherent limitations of perpendicular composition in lead typography
ion a new life. The renewed challenge to find other possibilities in my work, to find my way out of a leaden typographic cage, seemed futile
at
in
the
darkroom
another
world
of
surprise
awaited:
transparency
and
superimposed
dot
screens
y associations: the endless expanse of the desert, the steps of archaeological sites, the discipline of my apprenticeship, and, from
rmany, the number i. Lines that spanned a double-page spread reminded me of first grade in Salem Valley and my practice notebook
nts with their long trunks, a peaceable herd roaming a dry river valley at the foot of a steep mountain massif The cross, the registration
olorful tulips. Pages of bold points and vertical lines were abstractions of photographs brought back from journeys in the Near East
ed in the class of Emil Ruder during the sixties. The typeface Univers designed by Adrian Frutiger of Swit-
hy. The design of Univers was ideal for Ruder's own typographic work and that of his students, especial-
w of his colleagues designed typographic pictures that would have been difficult to compose in any other typeface
interchangeable weights, proportions, and corresponding italics. In the design of older typefaces visu-
ne variations of Univers, whether light, regular, medium, bold, condensed, expanded, or italic, had the same X17
plified letterpress printing and increased the possibilities for visual contrast in tone, weight, width, and direc-
hold Akzidenz- Grotesk, so rarely used, was fast asleep in the type drawer under a blanket of dust. I woke it up
David carson
Y canN c m
It was David Carson, however, more than any other designer, who, in the early 1990s, was most active and effective in popularizing these approaches. For many young designers, his work as art director of Ray Gun magazine from 1992 to 1995, supported by lectures and workshops around the world, provided an introduction to experimental design - one so overwhelming for some viewers that it tended to obscure his work's relationship to earlier experiments. Ray Gun also delivered the first experience of this type of design to many non-designers, especially outside the US, and it was He goes onto explain: often assumed, in media coverage, that Carson's approach 'Maybe at some was entirely without precedent. Certainly, the success of subconscious level Ray Gun's design as a hip signifier of 'Generation X' youth things are done to upset culture encouraged the deconstructed style's rapid take-up somebody - part of me up by corporate advertising and Carson himself created ads continues to see no for Pepsi-Cola, Nike and, later, Microsoft. By 1997, a British valid reason for many newspaper was hailing him, in a headline, as 'A Hero of of the accepted rules Deconstruction'. In Carson's body of work, the rule-breaking of design. Perhaps impulse seen in punk and deconstruction became the central that is why I have not idea. No convention was too unassuming to challenge andfany bought into many of structural principle could be disregarded in the cause of the accepted rules... expressive design. In his first book, The End of Print (1995), I'm not anti-school, he describes his way of working as a 'loose, intuitive, nobut when I became formal-training kind of approach'. interested in design I really didn't know what those-rules were and so I just became fascinated by exploring the look and feel of the subject.' Echoing designers from Cranbrook and CalArts, Carson argues that the rationalism of grid systems and other kinds of typographic formatting is 'horribly irrational' as a response to the complexity of the contemporary world.
Ynoout nNOT mi co mutne 19
O M F I
G
G
O H M Y FNGU (*+ +
GOD
Carson's repudiation of design and editorial conv contents page, the now role-less numerals become from the 'worst typeface at hand'. At Ray Gun, ty Deconstruction, published in 1994, the columns a line of each paragraph and one of the columns is pu half of the final paragraph, beginning mid-senten with the reclusive British rock star Morrissey, three irregular type-clusters which revolve arou to fixed editorial hierarchies still unthinkable in
GOOD
Many letters from readers did seem to bear this out, at least in the case of Ray Gun, though the argument is at odds with the suggestion by Carson and others that much of the writing in the magazine was not worth reading in the first place, and its application in more general reading contexts was disputed by critics. While Ray Gun's art director and cast of young designers employed graphic devices that bore a resemblance to earlier deconstructionist work, the magazine's success signalled the emergence of a new graphic style - grunge - that in some ways looked back even further, to punk's torn edges and dirty graphics, just as the grunge rock of the early 1990s partly rekindled the spirit of punk rock. Grunge, like punk, was energetic, disrespectful, tngry (or perhaps just angry-seeming) and subcultural in origin, though this could not last. 'The 'Clean Grid of Modernity' has been formally rejected by the nihilism of Industrial Youth Culture', wrote Joshua Berger, art director of Plazm, published in Portland, Oregon, and second only to Ray Gun as a product of the grunge sensibility. Typefaces by American companies such as Plazm Fonts (an offshoot of the magazine) and House Industries display ravaged outlines and decayed, crumbling edges, where chunks appear to be missing. Elliott Earls' dysfunctional trio of typefaces - Dysphasia, Dysplasia and Dyslexia - sprout strange, unseemly excrescences. Luc(as) de Groot's font, Jesus Loves Your Sister, spurts liquid trails from every available surface. The essential difference between 1970s punk and 1990s grunge was one of technology.
ventions began in earnest at Beach Culture magazine, where, in 1991, he first abandoned page numbers. On the fifth issue's e ingredients in a thick stew of typographic matter, with no definite top or bottom which also attempts to generate interest ypographic material was treated with an even more painterly and emotive degree of freedom. In a feature on a band called are carved into irregular shapes, angled fracture lines run through the text, forced justification is used to space out the last ushed out to the edge of the page so that the page trim (never totally predictable) cuts off some of the letters. The second nce, is placed at the start of the article. Carson's word pictures were often evocative. On the opening spread of an interview titled 'The Loneliest Monk', a pull-quote from the piece - 'I have no interest in any aspect of whordom [sic]' - is broken into und a photo of the singer, who is about to move out of shot, returning the viewer to the image. At other times, in a challenge n most publications, though never far from the surface in 1990s postmodern design, Carson interposed himself unavoidably between reader and story. In one famous case, he replaced a feature I about the singer Bryan Ferry with two columns of unreadable dingbats (the text was printeddnpFull, for those who cared, at the back of the magazine). The assumption with all these devices was that readers would readily enter into the process of disentangling, deciphering or dismissing the text. At a time when young people were reading less, Carson suggested (as did many others at the time) that such devices were necessary to compete with other media attractions and that material designed to this degree might be better absorbed and remembered, if the reader had to work at it.
21
EXPERI MENTAL JET SET
o punk e a utopia do moderno O atelier que faz design eterno: Entre
este atelier holandês mostrou em Portugal que é mais do que uma
nota derodapé na história do design gráfico. O atelier de design gráfico Experimental Jetset é conhecido em todo o mundo por causa de uma T-shirt. A sua lista de quatro nomes John & Paul & Ringo & George composta em Helvetica fez parte de uma série que criaram em 2001 para a editora de T-shirts japonesa 2K/Gingham. Ninguém previa no entanto que, nos anos seguintes, o fenómeno a que chamaram Tshirtism tivesse tanto impacto no universo do design gráfico e não só. Todas as semanas recebem exemplos de “visões” da sua T-shirt vestida por celebridades, ou de citações/alterações desta mesma lista, mais ou menos pirateada. O que é já um
23
ícone do design gráfico do séc.
o o, O
twentytwentytwentyfour hours to go i wanna be sedated nothin’ to do and no where to go-o-oh i wanna be sedated design
político
Os Experimental Jetset ficaram conotados, desde os seus primeiros anos, com o uso extensivo do tipo de letra
Helvetica, e com a sua idiossincrática reinterpretação da herança modernista no design gráfico. Através do uso deste superlativo símbolo do “estilo internacional” pretenderam, especialmente no início dos anos 90 – altura em que
dominavam as correntes pós-modernas e radicais lideradas por nomes como Neville Brody, David Carson e Katherine
McCoy –, afirmar a sua identificação com a herança moderna, socialdemocrata, liberal e progressista que construiu o Estado holandês, com o qual se identificavam e onde gostavam de viver.
Em vez de se colarem a tendências radicais “emprestadas” – apesar de citarem o manifesto futurista, o movimento punk e teorias da conspiração como influências –, exploraram o seu próprio património gráfico, cultural e social, e
atribuíram ao seu trabalho um significado político. Este Estado a que se referem é o mesmo que, através dos fundos
de apoio às artes praticadas nos Países Baixos – os célebres Fonds BKVB –, permitiu que várias gerações de artistas, arquitectos e designers, incluindo eles próprios, pudessem fundar os seus ateliers e iniciar as suas carreiras graças a subsídios atribuídos a fundo perdido. Falam também de uma cultura que reconhece no design (gráfico) uma das forças do progresso de uma nação.
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IDIOSSI NCRÁTICA RE INTERPRET AÇÃO DA HERANÇA MODERNISTA NO DESIGN GRÁFICO
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Sag m ei ster : I ag re e t h is d o es Wi t h ve r y fe w e x c e p t i o n s ( s a y it is easy to see what you’ ve se e m l ik e a n u n f ai r q u es t io n . Th ehi g h w ay s i g n a g e ) I lo v e t h e fa c t prod uced and for whom . But what un fa ir an sw e r : I h a v e n o cl u e . I t ha t d es i g n s t a rt s t o lo o k d a t e d do you actu ally want to achi eve? t hi n k I wo ul d l ik e t o t h in k t h a t af t er a wh i le . Wha t do you want out of grap hic m ay be I m a d e an i m p re ss io n : desi gn? M ay be b y b r in gi n g h a n d m a d e t yp e Hel le r : S o , wh a t d o y o u t h i n k (a ga in ) t o t h e fo re fr o nt (o ne o f is y o u r m o s t d a t e d lo o k i n g wo r k , Sag mei ster : Ultim ately , it m y st u de n t s a t S VA M FA D es i gn an d wh y ? woul d be grea t to use it pure ly S agme iste r: Y es , it i s . I m en t i on ed t h a t h a lf o f h er as a lang uage : To prod uce l ea rn ed s hi tl o a d s i n m y y e a r un de r g r a d u a t e cl a s s wa s do in g Sag m ei st er : A m o n g o t h e rs , cont ent that lend s itsel f well w it ho u t c li ent s , i n c l u d in g m a ki n g wr it i n g o n fa ce s ), or m ay be b y t ha t M a rs h a ll C re n s h a w C D lo o k s to be spok en in that lang uage . u p my m ind ab o u t a l l t h e fi e ld s po in t i ng t o wa r d s t h e i m p o rt a nc e r at h er o ld n o w, b e c a u s e o f i t s Ther e is a certa in cont ent that is I d id no t wa n t t o g et in t o ( b u t of d es ig n a re as t h at do n’ t ho lo g r a p h i c p r i n t i n g o n t h e d i s c best spok e in a certa in lang uage h a d ima gi ned p rev io u s ly th a t I si m p l y pr o m ot e a n d s e ll. A n d I (i n 1 99 6 th i s wa s fre s h ), i t s o p (say love is easi er decl ared w ou l d). I s ur pr i s ed m y s elf b y ca n sa y t ha t t h e q u e st i o n o f m y art p a tt ern s a s we ll a s t h e t y p e in the lang uage of a pop song g ett ing up eve ry d a y a t 6 a m to co nt r i b u t i on t o t h e d es ig n fi e ld se t in r i g i d b o x e s . than in arch itect ure – the Taj c o nd u ct li tt le t y p e e x p er im e n t s do es n o t k ee p m e u p at ni g h t . Maha l notw ithst andi ng). I think ( wi th no d ea d li n e lo o m in g ). I Hel le r : I s t h e re a p i e c e o f we made a good start with that l o ve t h is f ie ld . Hel le r : S u p e rfi c ia lly , wo r k t h a t y o u wi s h y o u ’ d n e v e r whol e “Thi ngs I have learn ed yo ur wo r k h a s s o m e o f t h e pu t i n t o t h e wo r ld ? in my life so far” serie s (the H ell er: B u t , b e h o n e s t. W h a t co nc eit s o f t h e a ge – a curr ent SVA subw ay post er is d o n’ t y ou l o ve a b o u t t h is f ie ld ? m ar r i a g e o f a rt / e xp re s s i on a nd Sag m ei st er : F o re m o s t o u r part of this) . de s ig n/ c o m m u n i ca t io n – b u t pa ck ag in g fo r t h e c o m p u t e r S a gme ist er : I lo v e li m i ta t i o n s re t r o s p ec t iv e ly i t i s n o t j u s t sh oo t -t h em - u p g a m e s D e a t h d r o m e Hell er: So is it safe to assu me w hen de si gn in g a p r o j ec t . I fa s h io na bl e, t re n d - s p o tt er st u ff . an d Sl a m s c a p e . T h e y we re b a d that you are able to expr ess all d o n’ t l ov e li mit a t io n s wh en Yo u’ v e ne v er fa l le n in t o t h e ga m es , C D ’ s p a c k a g e d i n ( la r g e ly that you want to “say ” thro ugh t h ey a re rev ea le d o n ly a ft e r we st y le u be r a ll es t r a p, as s om e em p t y ) ce re a l- b o x - s i z e d b o x e s i n the grap hic desi gn medi um? Or d es ig ne d t he p r o j e c t . I d o n ’ t ha ve . H ow , p a rt ic u l ar l y g i ve n or d er t o c o n v e y h e ft i n e s s a n d a do you fore see othe r medi a as l o ve u no rg an iz ed c li en t s . I yo ur m ore c u lt u r al c l ien t s, ha ve re a s o n f o r t h e $ 6 0 . 0 0 p r i z e t a g . pote ntial ly more effic ient? d o n’ t l ov e t ha t p e r io d w h en t he yo u av oi d ed t h is ? We m a d e m a n y m i s t a k e s , fi rs t b y d ea dl in e is lo o m in g a n d t h e re is t ak in g o n a j o b I h a d n o i n t e re s t Sag mei ster : I will stick n o i dea ye t wi t h t h e p re s s u re Sag m ei ster : Wh en w e s t art ed in ( I a m n o t i n t o s h o t - t h e m - u p with grap hic desi gn, and if I s l ow ly mo u nt in g . ou t i n 1 99 3 we ha d a st y le = f a rt ga m es ) , s e c o n d b y p re s e n t i n g woul d direc t a movi e or writ e si g n h a n g in g in t h e s t ud io ( i t i s lo t s o f di re c t i o n s ( t h e c li e n t some musi c, it likel y woul d still H ell er: T h is m a y s e em lik e a n no m o re ) – w e v er y c o n s c i ou sl y pred i ct a b ly c h o s e t h e wo rs t ) a n d qual ify as grap hic desi gn, me u n fa ir q ues t io n ( i t s c e rta i n l y av oi d ed a ny s t yl is t ic t r a p s . I n la s t b y n o t i n s i s t i n g t o p re s e n t bein g a grap hic desi gner and all. d ema n ds e it he r m o d e s ty o r t he m ea nt i m e I h av e le a rn e d t ha t t o t he d e c i s i o n m a k e r , s o i mmod es t y), b u t c a n y o u go od ( an d if n ec e ss ar y e v en ch an ge s k e p t o n c o m i n g wi t h o u t Hell er: I aske d befo re whet her d es cr ibe wh a t y o u b eli e v e i s t re n d y ) st y le ( an d wo n d e rfu l m e b ei n g a b le t o d o a n y t h i n g this is an exci ting way to spen d y o ur co n t rib ut io n t o t h e g r a p h ic fo r m ) pl a y a n im p ort a n t r o l e i n ab ou t t h em . time , but is it a soci ally valu able d es ig n f iel d o v er t h e p a s t de li v er i n g c o n t e nt t o t he v i ewe r . way to spen d it? d ec ad e? Bu t I n ev e r t h ou gh t t h at gr a ph ic Hel le r : W i t h y o u r S c h o o l o f de s ig n ha s t o be t im e le s s . Vis ua l A rt s re t r o s p e c t i v e e x h i b i t
H ell er: It ha s b ee n o v er tw o y ea rs si nc e y ou to o k - o ff f r o m t h e pro f es sio n a l g r i n d fo r a y ea r to do y o u r o w n wo r k . A re y o u g la d t o b e b a c k ? I s g r a p h i c d es ig n s ti ll an e x c it i n g w a y to s p end yo u r c re a t i v e t im e?
On the occasion of his first New York retrospective,
SAGMEISTER
:
MADE YOU LOOK which runs at the School of Visual Arts (601 West 26th Street, 15th floor) from November 9 December 11, 2004, the artist and designer was asked to reflect on his past and recent accomplishments.
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In o n e sentence: Y o u lo o k a t a p ie c e o f g r a p h ic d e s ig n and you have a m o v in g e x p e r ie n c e . A ll o f u s w e r e moved at o n e p o in t o r another by a p ie c e o f a r t
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your eyes on the towe r blink ed. I was touc hed by the expe rienc e Sagme ister: It is as valuabl e design and you have a moving itsel f and also by how much the as the individu al designe r wants moved experie nce. All of us were popu latio n of Berli n love d it: to make it. Just as you can be on t h e p u b l ic c o n s c i ou sn es s ? at one point or another by a Peop le stop ped all nigh t to look a socially conscio us lawyer core piece of art, struck to the insid e, watc hing their frien d’s (or not), one can choose to be Sag m ei ster : I do t h in k book, by a movie, change d by a eyes tran sfor m the light towe r a socially valuabl e designe r Be n ’s c am p ai g n h a d a n i m pa ct . touched by a piece of music. into a face . For the peop le who (or not). in this Tr u eM a j o r it y w a s s u c c es sf u l in Fewer of us experie nce were in the exhi bitio n spac e it se tt in g up o ne o f t he ea r li es t front of a piece of design, insid e the towe r, the expe rienc e Heller : Okay then, what is a op po si t i on s t o t he wa r i n I r a q is possibl e neverth eless. The was total ly diffe rent but socially valuabl e designe r? was (a t a t i m e w h en f ew m a i ns t re a m last time it happen ed to me touc hing neve rthel ess, when ever gr o up s ca m e o u t a g a i ns t i t ) , a couple of months ago, when some body look ed into the kios k, Sagme ister: Milton Glaser t he y w ere i n s t r u m en t al i n two I was touched by a piece eyes appe ared is a socially valuabl e designe r. un co ve r i ng t h e c o m p u t e r v ot i n g of my student s in Berlin were thes e giga ntic ke King Kong in the spac e—li His persona and his designs are m ac hi n e pr o bl em (t h e c o m p u t e r making. look ing in. valuabl e (and belong) to the city at e m y v o t e) , a n d n o w, t og et h e r of New York in a similar way wit h M o ve o n . or g p la y a r o le in Heller : How did they touch you? Hell er: Whe neve r I view a Lou Reed’s songs are and do. I vo t er reg is t r a t io n an d ge n er a l of art or desi gn, I rememb er going to a horse race op po si t i on t o t h e c u r ren t reg i m e. Sagme ister: We held our final retro spec tive what all the work to sum up try around Novemb er 2001, - half of It is im p os si b l e fo r m e t o called class exhibit in a building mean s. Is it simp ly a colle ction the 50,000 people at the track ev a l ua t e h o w m u ch o ur gr a ph ic the light tower, a 10-stor y of disp arat e item s that by its wore the I HEART NY button, m at e r i al h el p e d t he m , I ’ m s ure i t renovat ed factory building criti cal mass has relev ance as which, so close after 9/11, it di d n o t h u rt . with an added 5 story glass a body , or is there an over was an incredi ble outpour ing cube on top, situate d in the arch ing philo soph ical, ethic al, or of support , a truly touchin g East Hel le r : A nd a s a fo l lo w- up Friedri chshain section of datio n. As you look event. Milton’s symbol took on do y ou t h in k o f t h e p u b l ic g o o d Berlin, a young area compar able what ever founcted work , what is colle your at all the best (unifyin g) attribut es wh e ne v er yo u crea t e a p iec e The to William sburg in New York. the answ er to this? of a great flag without any of of w or k ? piece in questio n was a little its worst (exclud ing) ones. His kiosk, installe d 1/4 mile from Sag mei ster : I think we contrib utions, as a founder Sag m ei ster : N o. A n d I d o n ’ t this tower, next to one of the are back into unfa ir ques tion of New York magazin e, - the ev e n ha ve a s e t l is t o f c r i t er ia busiest subway station s. terr itory . You migh t try to sum Bluepri nt for dozens of city eit h er . Bu t w e d o t ak e o n j o b s it up, I coul d not. I can badl y magazin es worldw ide, Pushpin wit h t h e q u e st i o n “ Is t h is with s The kiosk had two opening misq uote one of our clien ts: Oh Studios - the bluepri nt for which so m et h i ng t h e w or l d n e ed s ” i n lights shining out of them, fine, its only grap hic desi gn. But hundred s of design studios As in. m in d . An d er re d a nu m be r o f invited passers by to look it, like it, yes I do. worldw ide and countle ss s t im es , t u rne d o u t t h e w o r l d di d soon as you did, macro camera I like politica l and social campaig ns go no t n eed i t a ft e r a ll . inside the kiosk filmed your well beyond the city of New York eyes, beamed the data to the and the field of graphic design. Hel le r : Y o u ’ ve p r o f es s ed , light tower, and project ed a full He is valuabl e to society . an d yo u’ v e t au gh t , t h e i de a t h a t story high image of your eyes de s ig n sh ou ld i nd eed t o uc h ot h er in real time from inside onto the Heller : Do you truly believe hu m an b ein gs . Wh at do es t h i s light tower, transfo rming the that work you’ve done on behalf ac t ua lly m e a n in a p r ag m at i c w ay ? entire building into a face with of Ben Cohen has made an impact familia r eyes. When you blinked , Sag m ei ster : In o ne s e nt e n c e : Yo u lo o k a t a p ie c e of g r a p h i c
Diagrama
por Ken Garland
FIRST THINGS FIRST MANIFESTO
PÓS-MODERNISMO
Arena The Face Magazine
KATHERINE MCCOY
‘No More Rules: Graphic Design and Postmodernism’
RICK POYNOR
‘Pensar com Tipos’ Crime Tipográfico
ELLEN LUPTON
Edward Fella
APRIL GREIMAN
CRANBOOK ACADEMY OF ARTS
TOMATO PROJECT
por Irma Boom Chris Dixon Steven Heller Ellen Lupton Katherine McCoy J. Abbott Miller Rick Poynor Erik Spiekerman ...
F IRS T T HIN GS F IRS T 2000 M A NI F ES TO
por Max Miedinger
HELVÉTICA
type foundry Berthold
AKZIDENZ GROTESK
DOCUMENTÁRIO: HELVÉTICA por Gary Hustwi
EXPERIMENTAL JET-SET
PHILIP MEGGS ‘Texts on Type: Critical Writings on Typography’
WOLFGANG WEINGART
Dan Friedman
C O MP U T A D O R Movimento Punk ‘produtor e leitor digital’
NEVILLE BRODY
RayGun Magazine
DAVID CARSON
‘Things I have learned in my life so far’
STEFAN SAGMEISTER
Tipografia Experimental - Desconstrução Tipográfica
ESTILO INTERNACIONAL NEW WAVE
ROLAND BARTHES
MODERNISMO
Índice 1//Introdução 2//Wolfgang Weintgart + Neville Brody 8//Ellen Lupton 12//WW, 16//Wolfgang Weintgart 18//David Carson 22//Experimental Jet-Set 26//Stefan Sagmeister 30//Diagrama
Referências WEINGART, Wolfgang (2000); My Way To Typography; Lars Muller Publishers __ O NASCIMENTO DO USUÁRIO LUPTON, Ellen (2006); Pensar Com Tipos; Cosacnaify, São Paulo __ WORLD OF SIGNS AND PICTURES EYE MAGAZINE #37 (2004) Typography Wolfgang Weingart Reviewed by Eric Kindei __ POYNOR, Rick (2003); No More Rules: Graphic Design and Postmodernism; London: Laurence King __ Experimental Jet-Set Publicado originalmente no suplemento P2 do jornal Público (2007) por Frederico Duarte Fonte: http://www.05031979.net/publico/experimental-jetset __ Stefan Sagmeister: Style + Fart = Language Publicado originalmente no site AIGA (2004) por Steven Heller Fonte: http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/stefan-sagmeister-style-fartlanguage?searchtext=stefan%20sagmeister __
+ Neville Brody Katherine McCoy The Ramones 31
Faculdade de Belas-Artes . Universidade de Lisboa Design de Comunicação IV 3º Ano - 1º Semestre // 2010 - 2011 __ Bernardo Caldeira // 4768