REVOLUTION THE
ISSUE
CONTENTS
4
THE BAUHAUS
26
The First Modrn Art School
JAN TSCHICHOLD Typographic Master of The 20th Century
8
THEO VAN DOESBURG The Bad Boy of De Stijl
30
PIET ZWART Pioneer of Modern
12
Typography
LAZSLO MOHOLY-NAGY The New Vision
18
34
DESIGNS TODAY
36
CREDITS
HERBERT BAYER Jack of All Trades
DESIGNERS 4
THE BAUHAUS The First Modern Art School
The Bauhaus was a school whose approach to design and the combination of fine art and arts and crafts proved to be a major influence on the development of graphic design as well as much of 20th centur y modern art. Founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar, Germany in 1919, the school moved to Dessau in 1924 and then was forced to close its doors, under pressure from the Nazi political party, in 1933. The school favored simplified forms, rationality, functionality and the idea that mass production could live in harmony with the artistic spirit of individuality. Along with Gropius, and many other artists and teachers, both Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Herbert
Bayer made significant contributions to the development of graphic design. Among its many contributions to the development of design, the Bauhaus taught typography as part of its curriculum and was instrumental in the development of sans-serif typography, which they favored for its simplified geometric forms and as an alternative to the heavily ornate German standard of blackletter typography.
DESIGNERS 6
Top Left: A very famous poster by Joost Schmidt for the 1923 Bauhaus exhibition.
Bottom Left: A recent photograph taken of the Bauhaus Dessau.
Right: Bauhaus 1919-1928 by Herbert Bayer is one of the most influencial books on Modern Design ever published. This book occupies three dimensional space as represented by the X, Y, and Z axis.
DESIGNERS 8
THEO VAN DOESBURG The Bad Boy of De Stijl
Highly influenced by Wassily Kandinsky, Van Doesburg shifted his style of painting from one that emphasized less of a direct reflection of everyday life and one that placed more importance on a conceptual style that favored a simplistic geometric style. A Dutch artist, Van Doesburg led the artistic style movement “De Stijl� into popularity and influenced graphic designers for many years to come with his theories. His theories conveyed the idea that there was a collective experience of reality that could be tapped as a medium of communication. Van Doesburg moved to Weimar, Germany in hopes of impressing the directer of the Bauhaus, Walter Gropius. Gropius did not directly oppose his ideas, but did not accept him onto the faculty of the Bauhaus. In reaction to this, Van Doesburg positioned his studio
directly next to the Bahaus and attracted many students with the ideas he promoted, most of which were developed out of the ideas of Constructivism, Dadaism and De Stijl. It was during these times that Van Doesburg formed a tight bond with the artist Piet Mondrian. And, in 1923, Van Doesburg moved to Paris so that he could communicate directly with Mondrian. However, the two were very much polar opposites in character and it resulted in the dissolution of their friendship. It has been speculated that the breakdown came as a result of a disagreement about the directions of lines in their paintings. Van Doesburg moved to Switzerland in 1931, due to his declining health, and it was there that he died, on March 7th.
DESIGNERS 10
Top Left: After splitting with Piet Mondrian, Van Doesburg created a new concept for his art known as “Elementarism” which was characterized by diagonal lines and can be seen in his CounterComposition XVI in dissonances.
Bottom Left: Studies and the final version of Van Doesburg’s 1918 piece Composition VIII (The Cow) illustrates the painstaking process of abstraction that Van Doesburg underwent when creating his works.
Right: Van Doesburg designed a typeface where each character was based upon a square divided into 25 smaller squares, developed long before the Macintosh computer and pixelbased fonts. It has been revived as Architype Van Doesburg.
DESIGNERS 12
LASZLO MOHOLY NAGY The New Vision
Known for his versatility and the fundamentals of design which he taught his students, Laszlo replaced Johannes Itten as director of the Bauhaus in 1923. He experimented in many different fields including photography, typography, sculpture, painting, industrial design and printmaking. His experimentation across multiple mediums led to graphic design work characterized by bold typography in combination with striking photography. After he resigned from his position at the Bauhaus in 1928 he spent time working in Berlin as a film and stage designer. In 1937 he moved
to Chicago and formed the New Bauhaus, which is now the Illinois Institute of Technology. The school shared the same philosophy as the original Bauhaus and caught on quickly. He chronicled his efforts to establish the curriculum of the school in his book Vision in Motion.
DESIGNERS 14
Top Left: This is an example of Moholy-Nagy’s extensive use of photograms, which are a mix of everyday objects that have been over exposed. It is an experimental form of photography.
Top Right: Space Modulator Experiment, Aluminum 5. This piece is an example of MoholyNagy experimenting with 3
Right: This cover for a publication is an example of Moholy-Nagy’s integration of photography and modern, sans serif typography.
Following Spread: Another photogram created that combines unusual 3 dimensional objects that have been over exposed.
DESIGNERS 18
HERBERT BAYER The Jack of All Trades
Bayer was both a student and a teacher at the Bauhaus and worked in a wide range of fields including painting, sculpture, typography, advertising and architecture. In his early years as a student he studied painting with Kandinsky, but in just a short while he was teaching one of the Bauhaus’ first classes on typography. The amount of work that he created before he was 28 was more notable than most designers entire careers of work. He spent time teaching at the Bauhaus, working as an Art Director for the Container Corporation and as an architect in both Germany and America. In between his time at the Bauhaus and his career in America he spent time as the Art Director of Vogue magazine’s Berlin office. His contributions to the fields of graphic design, typography and advertising
were many. One that should be noted was his design for a typeface that consisted of entirely lowercase letters. The German blackletter types were overly ornate for his taste and their use of capital letter for every proper noun was annoying. Logically, Bayer developed a sans-serif alphabet of lowercase letters titled “Universal”. In 1946 Bayer moved to Aspen, Colorado where he spent much of his time designing local architecture and posters for the local community. In 1959 he designed another sans-serif typeface. Again it was all in lower case, but he called it “fonetik alfabet” and it contained special characters for the endings -ed, -ion, -ory and -ing. He is one of the most recognized designers to come from the Bauhaus institution and his theories of design are still taught in many schools today.
DESIGNERS 20
Above: Prospectus for Dessau. This piece is made by letterpress printing. Bayer uses large blocks of color and black and white photos.
Bottom Right: Design for “Room 5” for an exhibit in Paris. Bayer also designed architectural space. He set up the art exhibit to bring the art to the viewer at the angle of their vision.
Page Right: “Bauhaus” cover. This is one of the most famous pieces by Bayer, a photomontage.
Top Right: Universal. Bayer not only designs posters and signs, but he designed “Universal”, a typeface for Bauhaus.
DESIGNERS 22
Above: Regina. Bayer designed this as a booth for a fictional toothpaste. The booth was supposed to lure you in with the sound of her voice.
Right: Bank notes issued by the state bank of Thuringia. Bayer here used blocks of color and typography aligned on vertical and horizontal axes.
Next Page: Poster for Exhibition of European Decorative Arts. Bayer uses only text and bold blocks of color to create this lithograph.
24
DESIGNERS
DESIGNERS 26
JAN TSCHICHOLD Typographic Genius of the 20th Century
Tschichold claimed that he was typography. There are few who would attempt to deny that statement. The son of a sign Tschichold began working with typography at a very early age. Raised in Germany, he worked closely with Paul Renner (who designed Futura) and fled to Switzerland during the rise of the Nazi party. His emphasis on new typefaces was deemed a threat to the cultural heritage of Germany, Typography and the Nazis seized much of his work before he was able to flee the country. When Tschichold wrote Die Neue Typographie he set forth rules for relating to modern type usage. He condemned all typefaces except for sans-serif types, advocated standardized sizes for establishing
a typographic hierarchy when using type in design. While the text still has many relative uses today, Tschichold eventually returned to a classicist theory in which centered designs and roman typefaces were favored for blocks of copy. He spent part of his career with Penguin Books and while he was there he developed a standardized practice for creating the covers for all of the books produced by Penguin. He personally oversaw the development of more than 500 books between the years 1947-49. Every period of his career has left a lasting impression on how designers think about and use typography, and it will continue to affect them into the future.
DESIGNERS 28
Top Left: Tschichold created a standardized practice for Penguin Book covers.
Top Right: Sabon was one of Tschichold’s completed typefaces. It has been revived as Sabon Next by Jean Francois Porchez for Linotype.
Right: A poster designed by Tschichold in 1927 using asymmetrical layouts and diagonal lines.
DESIGNERS 30
PIET ZWART Pioneer of Modern Typography
A pioneer of modern typography, designer Piet Zwart was influenced by Constructivism and De Stijl. His influence shows in his work and in this quote: “...to make beautiful creations for the sake of their aesthetic value will have no social significance tomorrow...�. Zwart worked as a designer, typographer, photographer and industrial designer in the Netherlands in the 1920s and 30s. Primarily working for the NKF Company, he created many works of graphic design before retiring from the company to spend the rest of his days as an interior and furniture designer. Also influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, Zwart began his education at the School of Applied Arts in 1902. He spent most of his
career moonlighting as an architect and photographer, as well as a designer and for several years he was very successful. His design career came to a halt when he was arrested by German soldiers in 1942. He was eventually released after the war, but the experience affected him drastically. He spent the rest of his life primarily working in interior design. His excellent use of color, typography, composition and photography are reminiscent of the Bauhaus and his influence on the future generations of graphic designers lives on through the Piet Zwart Institute at the William de Kooning Academy.
DESIGNERS 32
Top Left: This cover for the NFK Company’s Annual displays Zwart’s integration of sans serif, typography, and primary colors. Zwart referred to himself as a hybrid between a typographer and an architect.
Bottom Left: This spread Zwart created for the NFK company is an excellent example of how Zwart incorporates photomontage, primary colors, and geometric shapes.
Right: This book cover for Amerikaansche Filmkunst, a book series on American Film, shows Zwart’s expert use of photomontage, typography, and primary colors.
TODAY 34
BAUHAUS Inspired Designs of Today
Memnoch the Devil by Angelina Zavilevich Zavilevich uses multiple alignments for her type and sets paragraphs on angles. She also uses large blocks of diagonal colors in the background.
Bauhaus by Curseofthemoon Curseofthemoon uses diagonal lines, text on various alignments, and a typeface very similar to Bauhaus design.
AG Ideas Poster by Matthew D. Jones Jones uses black and orange, diagonal axes, and a circular element that other elements are jutting out of. The text is aligned on multiple axes also.
El Lissitzky Poster by Charles Rezandi Rezandni uses a circular element that other elements are interacting with. He also uses a diagonal axis that the text lines up on in various directions. He uses red, black, and tan to reference the colors of Bauhaus design.
Women of Color Game Nights by Tyler V. Shaqiri The designer of this poster uses the circular shape used commonly in Bauhaus design with diagonal text jutting out from the shape.
Deutschland Stamp by Anonymous This designer uses bold blocks of color, type on a vertical axis and horizontal axis, and type that is inspired by Bauhaus typographers.
CREDITS 36
Bauhaus (4-7)
Theo Van Doesburg (8-11)
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (12-17)
Designed by Paige Morse References: Wikipedia The Bauhaus Archive The Bauhaus Dessau Foundation Bauhaus Images on FlickR
Designed by Heather McIlrath References: MoMA Icon of Graphics Explore Van Doesburg at The Tate Modern Theo van Doesburg: The Splintered Self at The Guardian
Designed by James Dortch References: The Moholy-Nagy Foundation The Illinois Institute of Technology The Fiery Stimulator at The Guardian The Struggle for Utopia at Amazon
Herbert Bayer (18-25)
Designed by Jenni Elledge References: RIT Design Archive Wikipedia Biography at the Art Directors Club
Jan Tschichold (26-29)
Designed by Paige Morse References: Linotype Feature Tschichold Fonts at MyFonts A Titan of Typography at The Guardian
Piet Zwart (30-33)
Designs of Today (34-35)
Designed by Heather McIlrath References: Icon of Graphics The Piet Zwart Institute The Piet Zwart Collection at Design Observer
Designed by Jenni Elledge