The Fast Lane Between Imagination & Innovation by edrummond01

IMAGINATION INNOVATION

Kansas State University Art Department

Art 576 Advanced Typography/Spring 2018 Professor Matthew Gaynor

IMAGINATION

Navigating through Abstract Expressionism

A Scenic Tour of Modernism

INNOVATION

The Intersection of Design and Communication

Navigating through Abstract Expressionism

Written by Mary Carnes

Arshile Gorky, The Liver is the Cock’s Comb—1945

Abstract Expressionism is one of the most important movements in the art world, yet many only understand it as a style, time period, or handful of artists. This paper sets out to explore what made abstract expressionism different, what cultural ideas the movement arose from and who lead the movement through innovation within their own art careers. For the purpose of this essay, I will divide the movement by the three major themes recognized within the paintings; Abstraction, Action, and Color. Although every artist associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement abstracts their subject, there is a level of representation that some artists like Pollock and Rothko did not explore. Arshile Gorky and Willem De Kooning, take a figurative subject and abstract it, sometimes subliminally. Action painting arose during the Avant-Garde period and it’s understood as the technique of painting with extreme action, in which paint is randomly splashed, thrown, or poured onto the canvas. Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline were some of the first artists to try action painting although they adopted very different styles of action painting. Color Field artists, Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman create a sense of being enveloped by color and surrounded by the painting. The subject is the color itself, and it unlocks a transcendent expression for color field artists. What is Abstract Expressionism? The art movement is extremely hard to define, and somehow encompasses both artists who attacked the canvas with gestural freedom, as well as those who gently filled their fields with color and simple, deep expression. The art movement took place primarily in New York City during the 1940’s and 50’s. It was somehow meant to encompass not only the work of painters who filled their canvases with fields of color and abstract forms, but also those who attacked their canvases with a vigorous gestural expressionism. There is no manifesto, as with Dadaism, overarching structure or rules or leader, in fact there is little cohesiveness throughout the movement or between the artists themselves. The commonality able to bind these artists into one movement is the underlying primal themes and mystic overtones that the artists tend to adopt. The physical connections between artists, during their careers are often random, some close bonds, others minor rapport, and many desired isolation, as Abstract Expressionism was born into a cultural landscape of independence and differentiation. The artists of the movement explored an existentialism and individuality with confidence and extremism. There arose an open-minded attitude toward the process of painting, accepting the uncalculated results of the process as the final outcome. (Hobbs, Carleton, and Levin 1981, 25). It opened a space for artists to have freedom with their canvases and start to make art for the experience and expression of the process itself.

Jackson Pollock, Mural—1943

Mark Rothko, Number 10—1950

Abstract Expressionism emerged in New York City just after WWII ended, many European Surrealists moved to the United States in the 30’s and Abstract Expressionism implemented Surrealist focus, the archetypal, and often disturbing subject matter and the balance of self-expression and the chaos of the subliminal conscious. Because Abstract Expressionism arose from a climate of postwar and cold war paranoia, the mood of the art produced was riddled with trauma and anxiety. To escape from these feelings, artists pursued freedom of expression. To many, abstract expressionism represented freedom, “the freedom to create controversial works of art, the freedom symbolized by action painting, by the unbridled expressionism of artists completely without fetters”(MOMA). All artists in the movement were committed to their art as expressions of the self, born out of

profound emotion and universal themes, and most were shaped by the legacy of Surrealism, a movement that they translated into a new style fitted to the post-war mood of anxiety and trauma. In their success, these New York painters robbed Paris of its mantle as leader of modern art and set the stage for America’s dominance of the international art world. The following artists are only six of the many artists within the movement, each one incredibly individualin how they’ve attacked their art. Each artist represented here practiced a unique, recognizable style and was deeply influential in the movement. This paper seeks to explain who each artist is, what he invented within the movement in the

context of the certain theme that he is representing; abstraction, action or color, and the legacy that he left. It should be mentioned that there are many incredible women artists throughout the Abstract Expressionist movement, Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell, Mary Abbott, and Elaine de Kooning are just a few of the many. The reason there are only men represented in the paper is because of the amount of research available to study from. The freedom the painters established in abstract expressionism opened the door for many new art movements to come.

Navigating through Abstract Expressionism

Gorky combines styles f rom Surrealism, Dadaism and Cubism to create his s t y l e o f l y r i c a l a b s t ra c t i o n

Arshile Gorky, born 1904 in the Ottoman Empire, emigrated to the United States in 1920 as a refugee. Gorky was a senior member of the American avant-garde but did not receive the kind of response that many believe his work merited. Although, the museum of modern art acquired one of his paintings, quite early in the movement in 1941, in the seven years until his death, Gorky had not a single painting bought by a museum or awarded a prize. He found a cold reception at his first one-man show at Julien Levy’s gallery in 1945 and many friends and art critics urged him to move to Europe where they believed his work would be more appreciated (Gorky’s Life). Gorky tragically died in 1948 at the peak of his art career. He poured the foundation for the abstract expressionist painters to come. Gorky should technically be labeled a precursor to the Abstract Expressionists. He seamlessly combined the Expressionist and Surrealist aesthetics and exposed the New York artists ways of integrating the innovative ways that European modernists were painting at the time. Ultimately, Gorky was a driving force in establishing New York as an important arts center and, as a byproduct, the United States as a cultural capital. Gorky’s form of abstraction in his art is incredibly lyrical. He combines styles from surrealism, Dadaism and cubism to create his style of lyrical abstraction. His paintings are titled for their subject matter, “The Liver is the Cock’s Comb”, “Water of the Flowery Mill” and “The Black Monk” are all examples of how he takes a physical idea or place, and then gently abstracts them, often featuring flowing shapes pleasant compositions. There’s a biomorphic resemblance to something living, or what was the original subject, but Gorky has abstracted it beyond recognition. Like all other Abstract Expressionists, Gorky, there’s an emphasis on art as a process, however, Gorky’s was much more methodical and structured,

compared to many of his contemporaries. Gorky’s emphasis on the process of painting - as he put it himself, “always to keep starting to paint, never finishing painting” - also greatly impacted Pollock and the Abstract Expressionists. (Perl 2014) Gorky’s contributions to the foundation of Abstract Expressionism and to the art world are difficult to overestimate. He brought abstraction beyond cubism and began to experiment with organic forms, automatism and abstracted landscapes to flowy compositions. Somehow his smooth paintings are injected with explosive energy. Gorky was not only influential in his ideas and paintings but also within his relationships. He became a close friend of De Koonings and it is widely believed that Gorky was the first to introduce to the idea of composing abstract paintings by including relevant personal images. The body of work that Gorky left behind was incredibly impactful on American Art and he secured a position as one of the last great surrealists and one of the first Abstract Expressionists.

Mechanics of Flying—1945

Image in Khorkom—1934

The Black Monk—1948

Water of the Flowery Mill—1944

Navigating through Abstract Expressionism

Willem De Kooning, born 1904, had been considered a “painter’s painter” since the thirties. lived a life of total honesty, who chose the uncomfortable rather than conform to anyone else’s idea of what a painter’s life should be. Both de Kooning and Gorky chose a life of poverty rather than to compromise their work. De Kooning was born in Rotterdam and moved to the United States in 1926, he died in 1997. De Kooning is possibly most well-known for his paintings of women which he created between 1943 and 1946. The paintings were a series of many versions of seated figures, in which he “juxtaposed forms clearly defined by his strong curving lines, with forms that were blurred almost to extinction” (Perl 2014). The forms in the paintings were mysterious, grotesque, intriguing and most of all, expressive. De Kooning was quite adamant that his images were created to be allusive and ambiguous. He said to art critic, Selden Rodman, “Whatever I see becomes my shapes and my condition. The recognizable forms people sometimes see in the pictures after they’re painted, I see myself, but whether they got there accidentally or not, who knows? In that phase, I was painting the woman in me.” (Rodman, Selden, and Eliot 1957, 102). Although he claimed to have no physical subject matter, de Kooning’s preference for using the figure of women as the starting points for his paintings, distinguishes his work as an important innovation in the abstraction of the movement. De Kooning’s work presents his subjective experience of physical things and beings, which affect his experience, truly earning him the title of an “Abstract Expressionist”. (Belgrad 2007, 109).

De Kooning was serious, intense, honest and incredibly spiritually engaged in his painting. He viewed his process as a form of survival. In 1951 at a museum of modern art symposium he said, De Kooning painted to paint. He is the epitome of painting for the process, not for performance or success. “Spiritually, I am wherever my spirit allows me to be, and that is not necessarily in the future. Art never seems to make me peaceful or pure. I always seem to be wrapped in the melodrama of vulgarity. I do not think of outside or inside or of art in generalas a situation of comfort… Rather, they (abstract expressionist painters) have found that painting, any style of painting-to be painting at all, in fact is a way of living today, a style of living, so to speak. That is where the form of it lies. It is exactly in its uselessness that it is free. Those artists do not want to conform. They only want to be inspired.” (Rodman, Selden, and Eliot 1957)

Woman—1951

Woman and Bicycle—1951

Woman 1—1950

They only want

to be inspired 12

Womanâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;1948

Navigating through Abstract Expressionism

Jackson Pollock is probably the most well-known abstract expressionist painter today as a result of his unique and innovative style of painting as well as the consumerist way that he sold his paintings and allowed himself to become a public figure. Pollock was born in Wyoming in 1912, and moved to New York with his brother in 1930 to study painting under Thomas Hart Benton at the Art Students League. Pollock rose to fame quickly after he began his drip period, between 1947 and 1950, in which he violently dripped paint onto an un-stretched canvas. He immediately was recognized world-wide after an August 8, 1949 article in Life magazine was published, titled “Is he the greatest living painter in the United States?”. In response, Pollock immediately deserted his drip style and proceeded to pour paint, often in darker colors. He was far less successful in the art world when he abandoned his “popular” style, and eventually died in 1956 in an automobile accident, under the influence of alcohol. Pollock, like Gorky was able to create a new style by combining the subject matter that many surrealist artists adopted, with an innovative improvisational technique and bold style of attack. Pollock’s experience of painting was innately action oriented. He said of his process, “When I am in my painting, I’m not aware of what I’m doing. It is only after a sort of “get acquainted” period that I see what I have been about. I have no fears about making changes, destroying the image, etc. because my painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through... there is a pure harmony, an easy give and take and the painting comes out well.” (Perl 2014, 2). Pollock’s inventive drip technique was incredibly original to the art world. He opened minds around the world about the way paintings should be made. He was firmly against the idea of easel painting, and Pollock wrote a grant in early 1947 to the Guggenheim, that “he intended to paint ‘large, movable pictures that will function between the easel and mural, ‘and added: ‘I believe easel painting to be a dying form, and the tendency of modern feeling is toward the wall picture or mural” (The New York School, 166). Many who followed after him adopted his view of painting as a process. Pollock wrote of his experience of the process of action painting, “I feel nearer, more a part of the painting… I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting.” (Perl 2014, 1).

Number 31—1950

My painting has a life of its own

Number 1—1950 Number 5—1948

Navigating through Abstract Expressionism

Meryon—1961

Franz Kline was born in Pennsylvania in 1910. Kline’s recognizable style of large, black, active strokes of paint on a white, canvas, are now known around the world. He began by sketching figures and structures in a slightly abstract way, but when de Kooning took a Kline sketch and projected it on the wall of his studio to show Kline that his works could be taken farther at a large scale, Kline came into his style. He said of the initial projection and inspiration, “A four by five-inch black drawing of a rocking chair… loomed in giant black strokes which eradicate any image, the strokes expanding as entities in themselves, unrelated to any entity but that of their own existence.” (MOMA). From this point on, Kline’s action painting was born. Kline was incredibly expressive with the limitation that he gave himself of house paint, and black and white. He would paint, scrape, repaint images over and over again until he found that his emotion was visible in the resulting image. Kline wrote, “The final test of painting, theirs, mine, any other, is: does the painter’s emotion come across?” He also said of his subject matter, “I paint not the things I see but the feelings they arouse in me.” (Rodman, Selden, and Eliot 1967, 105). Kline was spiritually oriented to his process of painting and to his expressive subject matter. Kline is recognized as one of the most important artists of the Abstract Expressionist movement. Kline is declared to be an action painter because of his spontaneous style, and abandonment of figurative subjects and imagery. His focus on the brushstrokes, process of painting and the materials as the subject of the painting was a new concept even for some of the abstract expressionist painters. Unlike the Pollock, Kline’s paintings are nuanced, subtle and he very heavily meditated on his works. His paintings were almost made to look like they were done with no thought, just a flash of inspiration, but instead, they were extensively studied before his brush even met the canvas. (Anfam, 2003). Many critics even attribute Kline to the beginning of the minimalist movement which replaced Abstract Expressionism in the 1960s, because of his denial toward assigning meaning to his work. The objective emotion and frankness was extremely avant-garde for the time.

Chiefâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;1950

Orange Outlineâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;1955

I paint not the things I see but the feelings they arouse in me

Navigating through Abstract Expressionism

Mark Rothko was born in Russia in 1903, and although Rothko refused to be labeled by any art movement, his color field paintings are generally identified as part of the abstract expressionist movement. Rothko and his family immigrated to the United States in 1913. In 1923, Rothko found art, he enrolled at Parsons New York School for Design and was educated under Arshile Gorky and Max Weber. Under the influence of the two great painters, Rothko began to view art as a “tool of emotional and religious expression.” From this understanding of art, Rothko began to paint his recognizable compositions consisting of rectangles and squares flooding the canvas with color. His style is incredibly minimalist, letting the emotion beam and envelope the viewer. Thomas B. Hess wrote of Rothko’s style, “In depriving the painting of most of its traditional prerogatives and wiles, in reducing it-not to the skeleton, but to the skin-Rothko also enriches it with a directness of emotional statement” Contrary to what many believe, Rothko’s paintings were not about color theory or the nuances of the paints he used. His paintings mean so much more. Rothko himself claims he’s not an abstractionist. I’m not interested in relationships of color or form or anything else. I’m interested only in expressing basic human emotions-tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on-the fact that lots of people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I communicate those basic human emotions. The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them. And if you, as you say are moved only by their color relationships, then you miss the point!

Number 5—1948

Rothko was so committed to the emotional core of his paintings, that he even wished that his work would be viewed only by the untrained eye, with no understanding of theory. (Perl 2014, 3) Rothko said of Abstract Expressionism Painters “We assert that the subject is crucial and only that subject matter is valid which is tragic and timeless.” He also said of his subject matter, “I think of my pictures as dramas; the shapes in the pictures are the performers. They have been created from the need for a group of actors who are able to move dramatically without embarrassment and execute gestures without shame… I do not believe that there was ever a question of being abstract or representational. It is really a matter of ending this silence and solitude, of breaching and stretching one’s arms again” (Perl 2014, 3)

Red—1968

Number22â&#x20AC;&#x201D;1949

Navigating through Abstract Expressionism

Barnett Newman, born in New York City in 1905, was a painter, critic and author. He happened upon the art scene through his friendships with other painters and radical ideas that align with other abstract expressionists, but a style that clearly deviates. Newman is seen as one of the major figures in abstract expressionism, especially innovative as a color field painter. His paintings are existential in tone and content, explicitly composed with the intention of communicating a sense of locality, presence, and contingency. (Wright and Gayford, 2006). At a time when expressionist paint handling was the rage, he worked with solid planes of smoothly applied color, only occasionally interrupted by the vertical bands he called “zips”. He aimed for something real and concrete. His paintings were embraced by the younger generation who were looking for something beyond the overwhelming emotions of abstract expressionists such as de Kooning and Kline (Perl 2014, 7). Newman’s ability to create concrete messages about his art and the art of others propelled him to become an unofficial spokesman for the Abstract Expressionist avant-garde. Statements Newman made, such as, “Yet a lifelong anarchism underlay the assertion that free human creativity, as manifest in the artistic act itself, was a primeval urge whereby human beings gained control over, and so redeemed, a tragic world” encapsulates the mood of the movement, the culture it arose from and force toward free will (Anfam 2016 ).

Throughout his acclaimed paintings like “Onement I,” a cadmium red dark field with a glowing orange central vertical stripe, “Be I”, a red painting bisected by a clean white line, “Abraham” with a broad stripe asymmetrically slicing the black color field, Newman was able to merge the stripe, a motif which he named, ‘zip’ and the color field into one balanced and whole composition. The simplicity creates an ambiguous meaning and invites many different interpretations. He cared little for the aesthetic quality of his art work and was often quoted saying “Aesthetics is for the artists as ornithology is for the birds” (Rodman, Selden, and Eliot 1957). His purpose in painting was to create an experience and deliver an emotion. In 1950 he stated that in each painting, there are, “specific, and separate embodiments of feeling, to be experienced”. Newman also stressed that experiencing his work should, “induce an experience of time (and thus of self-reflexivity) even more than of space” (Anfam 2016).

Untitled—1945

More than any other Abstract Expressionist artist, Newman had a spirit of anarchy and change. He succinctly explains the abstract, sometimes grotesque and unique style of the Avant-Garde; “We are creating images whose reality is self-evident and which are devoid of the props and crutches that evoke associations with outmoded images, both sublime and beautiful. We are freeing ourselves of the impediments of memory, association, nostalgia, legend, myth or what have you, that have been the devices of Western European painting. The image we produce is the selfevident one of revelation, real and concrete, that we can be understood by anyone who will look at it without the nostalgic glasses of history.” (Perl 2014,14).

Onement 1—1948

Canto VIII from 18 Cantos—1963

The painter of the new movement clearly understands the separation between abstraction and the art of the abstract. He is therefore not concerned with geometric forms per se but in creating forms which by their abstract nature carry some abstract intellectual content

Vir Heroicus Sublimisâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;1955

Navigating through Abstract Expressionism

Willem de Kooning, Woman—1952

Mark Rothko, Red, White, Yellow—1958

The Abstract Expressionist movement reoriented the way of thinking of art as an object towards creating art as an experience. The ability to move the viewer, and communicate an emotion became the artist’s calling. Because of the way the artists of the movement explored existentialism and individuality with confidence and extremism, they created a culture within the art world of process painting, ultimately accepting the uncalculated results of the process as the final outcome. Abstract Expressionism opened a space for artists to have freedom with their canvases and start to make art for the experience and expression of the process itself. Kline said of abstract expressionism, “It’s free association from the start to the finished state. Painters like Rothko, Pollock, Still perhaps, in reaction to the tendency to analyze which has dominated painting from Seurat to Albers, associate with very little analysis. A new form of expressionism inevitably followed. With de Kooning, the procedure is continual change, and the immediacy of the change. With Pollock, it’s the confidence you feel from the concentration of his energy in a given picture.” (Rodman, Selden, and Eliot 1957, 108).

Jackson Pollock, Untitled—1952

Franz Kline, Black Reflections—1959

A Scenic Tour of Modernism

Scenic Tour

o f

Modernism Written by Fiona Liem

Alvin Lustig, Fortune Magazineâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;1946

The period of time leading up to the second world war transformed the world in many ways. People in the past were struggling to come up with new ways to have better communication between the industry and the consumers. They began rejecting traditional ideas like the decorative, organic flourishes of Art Nouveau. Instead, they began adopting abstract, geometric forms, which led to the creation of movements such as Cubism, Futurism, Constructivism, De Stijl, and Dada. These modern movements were simple and expressionistic; thus allowing the creators behind the work to have clear communication with their viewers. On top of that, they became a source of inspiration to many graphic designers. In addition, along with the development of technology, the room for creativity expanded. However, at first. these advancements were exclusive to Europe (Clifford 2014, 16â&#x20AC;&#x201C;17).

Meanwhile, in America, the Stock Market Crash of 1929 triggered a series of events such as the Great Depression of the 1930s. It devastated the global economy and cost millions of people their jobs. The effects did not only happen in America but also other nations. For instance, in Germany, the financial support given by America to the Weimar Republic disappeared. Meanwhile, the Nazis, who were rising in power, took advantage of the economic vulnerability to push their agenda even further in Europe. Designers and Artists at the moment were either forced to conform to Hitlerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s policies or migrate elsewhere. Resulted in many of them moving to the United States and bringing their European modern sensibilities with them. (Clifford 2014, 68). Several years after the depression, America entered World War II. The war created many jobs, which consequently pumped money back to the economy. As a result, the economy of the nation surged. Both consumer demand and birth rate increased, developments of railroads led to easy traveling, and housing sectors that extended beyond the city limits resulted in new ways of life. Moreover, there was a need to marry good design with affordable materials and productions in order to promote products. The new American economy opened many opportunities for both European and American designers to flourish.

Brandbury Thompson, Westvaco Inspirtations—1963

In addition to advertising, magazine publishing, film and television, the music industry all attracted talented designers. The aftermath of the stock market crash and the war produced economic growth that united people and ideas, resulting in new ways to design and communicate (Clifford 2014, 68–69). Before the war, the United States was a clean slate with regards to art, unaware of constructivism and all the other isms because all the art movements were secluded in Europe. However, unlike the European designers, most of the American designers did not attach to any philosophy for they remained open to a range of styles (Eskilson 2012, 304). As quoted by the authors of Graphic Styles, “Combining European ideas of abstraction, dynamism, and asymmetry with a particular American directness, the new design provided a viable alternative to the blatant and often vulgar style of mass-market design.” (Heller and Chwast 1988, 195).

Saul Bass, West Side Story—1961

A Scenic Tour of Modernism

Alvin Lustig Lustig did what most of his colleagues did not—he designed literally everything

One of the many designers that made it to the top and helped spread modernism in the United States was Alvin Lustig. Lustig was born in Denver, Colorado in 1915 and he went to a Community College in Los Angeles. Lustig was a very ambitious man who strongly believed that the title “graphic designer” was too limiting. Therefore, he did what most of his colleagues did not, he designed literally everything — magazines, interiors, book jackets, packaging, fabrics, hotels, mall signage, the opening credits of the cartoon Mr. Magoo, a helicopter, and the list goes on. What is truly impressive about him, however, was how he achieved all that success before dying at a very young age (Clifford 2014, 94). Nevertheless, before becoming the famous designer that he was, Lustig was a student of Frank Lloyd Wright. He stayed with Wright for some time in Wisconsin until he ran away and opened his own studio because he could no longer stand the pressure of only having to do things the “wright way”. Upon opening his own studio, he targeted architects who wanted to advertise their work. Unfortunately, his efforts resulted in not much. It was only until he designed a Christmas card for Jacob Zeitlin, a bookshop owner whose shop was like the mecca for many Los Angeles’ literati and designers, that his career began to get better. From Zeitlin, who had a lot of connections, Lustig received more commissions. In 1940, the twenty-five-year-old prodigy had a bright future and was ready to conquer the world. He left his small studio and moved to a bigger one. He designed letterheads and booklets for clients, experimented with abstract motion pictures, and went out of the boundaries to prefabricate furniture and modular houses (Heller and Look Magazine—1944 Cohen 2010, 25).

Fortune Magazine—1952

American Woods book cover—1951

Three Tragedies book cover—1947

Lustig then continued to design the total package for his clients, from corporate identities to office environments. Nonetheless, the jack of all trades was best known for his book covers. James Laughlin, New Directions Publisher would vouch for that. It all began when Laughlin, who had been packaging reprints of modern literary titles in a traditional format, was struggling with his business for it was not selling well. However, Lustig came to the rescue by breathing new lives into the covers of the books.

He rejected the traditional formats that Laughlin and he added bright colors and abstract visuals that were inspired by Joan Miro and Paul Klee. Since then, the sales of the magazine tripled and stores began to display the books prominently. Lustig also never failed to surprise Laughlin with his creative designs that were always different and new. It was as if his reservoir of ideas was endless and limitless even though he seldom relied on literal solutions for he preferred to get the feel of the author’s creative drive and then translate it into his own graphical terms despite his tendency to use abstract elements (Heller and Cohen 2010, 50).

48 —19 Chair

A Scenic Tour of Modernism

Fortune Magazine—1952

Later in his career, in New Direction, Lustig adopted the realistic qualities of photography, which he added a twist by mixing it with abstraction. It was then that he officially walked away from pure abstraction and into photo collage. With his new style, Lustig did a series of conceptual black and white covers. His cover for Federico Garcia Lorca’s Three Tragedies is a great example. In his work, he took a picture of the author’s name written on a sandy beach, effectively designing both type and image at the same time. On top of the design, the one-color printing, helped the book stand out in a market cluttered with colors and traditional type. In 1951, he was asked by Josef Albers to help create a graduate graphic design program at Yale University (Meggs and Purvis 2012, 350). Unfortunately, his career had to slow down when his diabetes that he had since a teenager became worse. His vision began failing around 1950, and by 1954 he was totally blind. Nevertheless, a visionary that he was, he did not let his illness stop him from doing what he loved. Instead, he would dictate his ideas to his wife or another assistant, who would then produce the work under his supervision. He also continued to teach until his very last breath. Even after his death, his influence lived on because his wife, Elaine Lustig, took over many of his works and went on to become an acclaimed designer herself (Clifford 2014, 94).

New Directions book series—1951

Although Lustig was not a practitioner of the International style, his innovative designs were one of the markers that show the shift from realism to abstraction in the United States. His tendency was to fill up the space he got with colors, which he then topped with several two and three-dimensional elements, some of which projects out of the space that contains it. Most of his work also includes lines that flow throughout the space like his book jacket for Anatomy for Interior Designers. As a whole, his works represent the American twist to the European abstract styles — a hybrid of styles instead of just focusing on one, which truly depicts the kind of person that he was (Eskilson 2012, 304–305).

Anatomy for Interior Designersâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;1952

A Scenic Tour of Modernism

Bradbury Thompson

A constant interest in work plus an interest in everday things can give the artist

and designer endless numbers of fresh ideas

Self Portrait—1966 Another great talent who was born in the mid-west area of the United States was Bradbury Thompson. While Lustig was breaking the limits of his title, Thompson was breaking the limits of low budget. Even though he did not design as many things as Lustig, Thompson was especially good with layouts. He was known for his printing skills and his deep knowledge of typography and colors. His works usually show used vintage letterpress type and foundry imageries. “With a limited budget for new plates and artwork, Thompson used the typecase and print shop as his canvas, easel, and second studio.” Speaking of layouts, Thompson was a huge fan of magazines. After graduating as an economics major, he worked in the printing industry in Kansas until he decided to move to New York to further pursue his dreams. When in the city that never sleeps, Thompson became the art director at Mademoiselle (1945– 59) and design director at ARTnews (1945–72). All in all, he designed for more than 30 other magazines during his career, including Smithsonian and Business Week. Still, Thompson is best known for his work with Westvaco (West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company). To promote the company’s papers and printing processes, he designed Inspirations, a magazine that was made for design professionals. He restricted himself by only allowing existing imageries from printers, museums, and ad agencies to be used in his works. This Westvaco cover—1954-56 particular decision was the thing that really made him stand out from the designers of his time because everyone else was moving towards abstraction while Thompson was marrying the past with the present. He used Inspirations to experiment with photographic reproduction techniques and printing processes. Consequently, his results were striking layouts that are decorated with vintage illustrations or images, bold cyan, magenta, yellow, and black colors and or shapes. He also played with dramatic scales and transparent layers.

Stamp Designs—1980-85

Inspiration for Printers—1956

Through his work, “Thompson achieved a rare mastery of complex organization, form, and visual flow.” He introduced the engravings of the eighteenth and nineteenth century in a way that was never done before. With the use of large, bold organic and geometric shapes, he was able to give the page a touch of magic. Moreover, he would often enlarge letterforms and patterns to use as design elements or as visual patterns and movements. His method also involved taking apart four-color process plates that are often overprinted to create new colors—a method that has been used since then and one that has inspired many people until today. During the 1960s and 70s, he turned to a more classical approach to book and editorial design. Instead of experimenting so much, he focused on the readability, the formal harmony and the use of Old Style typefaces. Such work can be seen in periodicals like Smithsonian and ARTnews, his postage stamps, and his other books, including the Washburn College Bible. Along with the change in his designs, he went on to pursue a multi-disciplinary career. As mentioned by John Clifford, the author of Graphic Icons, “He designed more than 100 U.S postage stamps, wrote The Art of Graphic Design, and taught at Yale University.” Furthermore, the Washburn College Bible that he designed became an example of his style of combining the past and present. In the book, Thompson used classic type and artwork, but he “separated the text into phrases that ended at natural stopping point”, thus giving it a more readable rhythm (Clifford 2014, 94).

A Scenic Tour of Modernism

Inspiration for Printers—1958

Society of Illustrators Logo—1968

Print Cover—1962

Yale Annual Report—1968

In 1980, Allen F. Hurlburt, a distinguished art director, writer, and teacher commented on Thompson’s work that was published in Communication Arts magazine, “In his own quiet way, Bradbury Thompson has expanded the boundaries of the printed page and influenced the design of a generation of art directors. Unfortunately,…many of the young designers who are in his debt are hardly aware of his presence.” He continued with recommending that people take a look at the works Thompson created in the year of 1945; the year when the war ended and the year that Thompson wound up his tour of duty with the Office of War Information (OWI). That year, Thompson designed the final issues of three wartime magazines including Victory and USA, all of which were translated into several languages and distributed worldwide (Thompson 1988, 19). Another thing that made Bradbury Thompson stand out from many designers was his use of both upper and lowercase letters. In 1945, Thompson was experimenting with ways of combining readability and graphic logic, which he then stumbled upon the idea of Monalphabet — a tradition to break the separation of letterforms from capital and lowercases. He used the typeface Futura to conduct his experiments. He began by either constantly using all lowercase or uppercase, which created a confusion. Then, he moved on to notating the start of the sentence using a bullet, an underline, and bolding the letter itself, which he ended up adapting into one of the issues of Inspirations and also the entire design of the 33rd Annual of Advertising Art. Still, he was not satisfied with the result. He went on to experiment more and finally settled on the idea of enlarging the lowercase letter at the beginning of the sentence, which he coined as Alphabet 26. Alas, critics said it was a waste of time, but Thompson ignored them and encouraged the younger designers to try it and to explore type as if it were a toy (Thompson 1988, 37). Another important thing to note about Thompson was his habit of overloading himself with work. However, like Lustig, he was never out of ideas because he mainly got his inspiration from the mundane routines that many people often complain about. For instance, when asked by TypeTalks what gave him his inspiration, Thompson said his routine as a father to his son. For instance, he learned so much when he helped his son learn to read, drew railroad tracks for him with two pencils held together with a rubber band, and many more things that people tend to perceive as something ordinary. However, as quoted by the master of layout himself, “A constant interest in work plus an interest in everyday things can give the artist and designer endless numbers of fresh ideas.” (Thompson 1988, 43).

Annual Report—1980

A Scenic Tour of Modernism

Saul Bass The last of the three great visionaries is Saul Bass. Similar to Lustig, Bass went on beyond his title as a graphic designer. However, unlike Lustig, Bass found his niche, which was movies. Throughout his career, Bass revolutionized the film industry with his amazing designs. His specialty was his ability to create a single strong motif that would stick to the viewers’ minds while summarizing the complexity of the film content. His works are poetic and they certainly tell their own story. Before him, movie titles were considered so unimportant that theater curtains would only be pulled aside only after they were over. However, a breakthrough happened when Otto Preminger’s The Man with the Golden Arm was released in 1955 as the movie featured Bass’ minimal, animated title sequence. The director loved Bass’ work so much that the curtains were wide open even before the credits began (Clifford 2014, 124). Born in New York, Saul Bass was the son of Jewish Immigrants from Eastern Europe. His love for art was in him for as long as he could remember and so was his cutout technique. Bass only began to speak English when he first went to school. However, by high school, he was the arts editor of his school’s literary and arts publication The Monroe Doctrine, and of the yearbook (Bass and Kirkham 2013, 3). He also received various scholarships and awards. During his time at Art Students League, he learned so much from his layout class teacher, Howard Trafton, who was well known as a commercial artist. From Trafton, Bass took up his habit of using freely brushed letters and crisp modern typography. Another man who inspired Bass was the legendary Paul Rand. Bass was highly inspired by Rand’s use of shape and asymmetrical balance but disliked Rand’s way of carefully creating the compositions using complex contrasts of shape, color, and texture. Instead, Bass simplified his designs down to a single dominant image, which he did by using irregular cut out forms that were cut with scissors or drawn with a brush. He also often collaborated them with typography or handwriting. As a result, his work has an energy to it even though his elements are very much two dimensional as it lacks all the exactness that could make it seem rigid (Bass and Kirkham 2013, 6).

I want to make beautiful things, even if nobody cares

Magnificent Seven—1977

Grand Prix—1966

Vertigo—1958

After he graduated, the young and naïve Saul dreamed big and wanted to see his work in the high ends of the industry like Paul Rand and Cassandre. Therefore, he began by entering the industry as a commercial artist. However, when he did get the chance to get in the industry, he got frustrated as his creativity was always knocked back with the rules they had. He commented that he disliked how the industry was because there was so little room for creativity in the advertising world at the time for everything was dominated by what he called the “See, see, see” method of design — “See the missionaries boiled alive! See the virgins dance in the Temple of Doom! See Krakatoa blow its top!” (Bass and Kirkham 2013, 8). Still, it was from there that he learned a lot about rendering, tidying up roughs, and typography.

The Man with the Golden Arm—1956

A Scenic Tour of Modernism

Carmen Jonesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;1954

Later, Bass met Gryorgy Kepes, a Hungarian artist, designer, and teacher, who influenced him greatly through his book Language of Vision. From Kepes, Bass learned that visual tensions that are produced by certain graphic elements form the basis of a universal language of vision, and that graphic design and motion pictures can change the world because they are not bound by tradition. And because of that, Saul Bass had the idea of moving imagesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;one that was far more progressive than the works of many designers during that period (Bass and Kirkham 2013, 9). In 1952, he moved to the other side of the country and opened a design office in Los Angeles where he designed print ads for movies. While moving to California, Bass brought with him the ideas that were born in New York. It was then, in 1954, that film director Otto Preminger came in and hired him to design the poster for his film Carmen Jones. For the movie, Bass created a design that superimposed the two elements that best represented the movie over each other â&#x20AC;&#x201D;a rose and a flame.

His technique of creating symbolic images that represent the movie instead of focusing on the star was the thing that made him special. “The simplicity and directness of Bass’ work enables the viewer to interpret the content immediately.” Film Director Martin Scorsese, also commented, “Bass fashioned title sequences into an art, creating in some cases a mini-film within a film. His graphic compositions in movement function as a prologue to the movie — setting the tone, providing the mood, and foreshadowing the action.” For instance, for The Man with the Golden Arm, starring Frank Sinatra as a card dealer addicted to heroin, Bass created abstract paper cutouts that were shown on the screen at different angles while the brassy score plays. At the end, the cutout transforms into a jagged arm, which is the primary symbol of the film. This title sequence was the first one to set the mood and became part of a movie. Also, in his animation for The Man with the Golden Arm, Bass successfully matched the movement of the forms and the design of the forms themselves with the beat of the music. The bursting of the jagged arm was a genius touch too as it became the climax after the suspense (Meggs and Purvis 2012, 395).

mostly for his film-related designs, some of his designed logos are still used today (Clifford 2014, 124). At the end of the day, the most important thing one can take away from Saul Bass is his tenacity and his belief in what he was doing. As quoted by Bass himself, “I want everything we do to be beautiful. I don’t give a damn whether the client understands that that’s worth anything, or that the client thinks it’s worth anything, or whether it is worth anything. It’s worth it to me. It’s the way I want to live my life. I want to make beautiful things, even if nobody cares.” Bass dreamed big, believed in himself, and so he was able to change the design world (Chris Coyier 2010).

Bonjour Tristesse—1958

In his career, Bass designed classic titles for Psycho, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Bonjour Tristesee, Vertigo, Grand Prix, and North by Northwest. In the 1980s and 90s, he continued to design famous film titles, such as Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas and Casino. Not only that Bass transformed the design aspect of the film industry, but also the business side of it. He created everything needed for marketing purposes starting from on-screen titles, to posters, to advertising. Bass went on to create the Academy Award-winning short, Why Man Creates, and the feature-length Phase IV with his beloved wife. He also designed logos for Continental Airlines, Minolta, AT&T, Warner Communications, and others famous companies using his iconic style. Although Bass was known

Various Logos

The Intersection of Design and Communication

Intersection

Design Communication

The

and

Written by Beth Drummond

The power of the written word, and its use, can be dated back to as early as 3500 BC (Evolution, 2013). Communication was (and continues to be) the driving force behind all human interaction. It started out simply enough; symbols, cuneiform and pictograms to communicate an idea. As communicative methods evolved, humans discovered that communication could be used in a variety of ways. Recording history, collecting data, and telling a story just to name a few. Thus, began the natural human instinct to gather information, and consolidate it into a concise manifestation; the book. This process took several months (or years) to complete, and because of its rarity and tedious craftsmanship, the book was a valuable object that was protected and revered. As the book emerged from mass production during the Industrial Revolution, its status changed from priceless art to an object of entertainment and imagination, eventually migrating from boxes and drawers to shelves and coffee tables across the country. And now, once again we are part of another shift in time where the status of the book, and its relationship with the world around us has dramatically changed once more. The book has found its way into a world of virtual communication, and is accessible in an entirely new way. No longer only a physical object, the book is now an invisible object on our electronic devices and in our clouds. And through

Archaic Cunieform Examples Mid Third Millecial BC

all of these shifts in production and accessibility, the book has remained a steadfast and irreplaceable resource, sustaining its value and purpose throughout its evolution. Until the 1830â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, the book, and its cover, were generally quite simple in execution. Not counting the illustrious and beautiful illuminated manuscripts made by hand in 400 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 600 AD, the book and its cover were often not designed at all, but an afterthought that was more functional in purpose. The cover was often book board, covered in fabric, with moveable type used to apply the book title and author. Between 1830 and 1945, the book cover remained a protective sleeve for the valuable object beneath but was executed with more consideration given to the books content. Printing created a wide variety of options available to publishers, and the book cover included illustrations, photographs, experimental type, and a range of colors all printed on paper. These new methods of book cover design were used in the mass production and rapid consumerism of the book industry, ultimately promoting the book cover from purely functional to aesthetically relevant. Not only did the book cover still protect its treasure within, but it also had (and still has) a significant consumer-driven presence within society (Meggs, 2016).

Various Mid-Century book covers—1924, 1922, 1927

Immediately following WWII, in late 1945, European modernism was sweeping the country, and for those in the arts, it was a welcome alternative to more traditional or classical styles and techniques. Modernism also embraced the marriage of creative expression and socioeconomic utility, which was ideal for those in the graphic arts. Graphic design was still in its honeymoon phase, and had only recently been declared a viable and lucrative career choice for those in the creative arts. Under the graphic design umbrella were more specialized design careers; editorial, poster, greeting card, album cover, and book cover design. All were careers gravitating around communication and considered economically profitable as well as socially impactful. Graphic design, after all was (and still is) a highly visual form of communication, and while it should be judged by its aesthetic qualities, it must also be judged by its ability to communicate effectively. The book cover became a platform for designers to explore modernism, make connections with a consumeristic audience, and develop methods to incorporate both balance and innovation. The book cover found its voice after WWII, and in the two decades to follow, the exponential growth and development of the book cover proved to be the foundation for which modern book cover design is built on today.

In 1945, book cover design was considered to be a unique career path for a designer, and an opportunity to not only represent themselves as the artist, but to also represent the author and publisher as well. While the book cover was still considered to be a marketing tool, ephemeral in every way, after WWII the book cover found its roots thriving in modernism, and a career in book cover design was born. A successful book cover required input and direction from three different sources; the designer, the author, and the publisher who would work together to create a “snapshot” of the book’s contents. The collaborations and relationships between the designer/author/publisher proved to be delicate, and required compromise, originality, and the shared desire to communicate with readers. And above all else, the book cover needed to seduce a reader, ultimately enticing them to pick up and purchase the book. While some designers disliked peddling for the advancement of consumer slavery, others found book cover design an exciting and rewarding experience, and felt that the sale of a book was confirmation of a design’s achievement. Either way, the book cover proved to be a powerhouse of experimentation and communication after WWII, and its designers were some of the most successful, relevant, and innovative designers of the 20th century.

The Intersection of Design and Communication

W.A. Dwiggins Dwiggins, Marionette—1939

Dwiggins, Stencil for Treasure In The Forest—1936

W.A. Dwiggins (1880 – 1956) was an American designer whose book cover designs were highly innovative and clever for what was generally seen in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Although most of his designs precede WWII, it is imperative to include Dwiggins in this exploration of the book cover’s journey, as several of his designs are in response to the fine arts’ interest in a modern, utilitarian, and sometimes non-objective viewpoint. Dwiggins is thought to have coined the phrase “graphic designer” in 1922 and was a staunch supporter of partnership and teamwork amongst book making personnel; from the author, to the designer, to the final printer and binder. Additionally, W.A. Dwiggins was also one of the first designers to consider the whole book (front, back, inside, pages, binding, etc.), and created a system with color schemes and repetitive design elements to create a cohesive visual

experience for the reader. Along with his creative illustrations and experimental typeface designs, Dwiggins contributed a very methodical and thoughtful approach to book cover design, treating it as a precious object that was to represent an entire team of people in only a split second. He often made his own tools, taught himself calligraphy among other techniques, and inspired many designers to rethink the book cover as a tool used for visual communication, and a credible influence on society and the economy (Brown, 2000).

Dwiggins, Bronabejjia—1950

Dwiggins, The Time Machine—1939

George Salter George Salter (1897 – 1967) was another young graphic designer whose book cover designs transcended beyond the thoughtless application of information onto the cover of a book. From Germany, Salter travelled to America to feel its embrace of modernism and the celebration of juxtaposing elements and ideas. This juxtaposition can be seen within several examples of his work. With hints of abstract expressionism, cubism, and surrealism, Salter wasn’t afraid to combine these theories into one visually stimulating image. He experimented with layering, photomontage, collage, and hand-drawn elements, giving his book cover designs a sense of modernism, but also a reference to traditional methods as well. Not only was Salter highly intuitive and experimental in design, he was also one of the most outspoken advocates of graphic design, and specifically professional book cover design in America (Brown, 2000).

Salter, The Tower of Babel—1947

Salter, The Scarf—1947

Salter, Bread and Circuses—1937

Salter, The Raft—1955

The Intersection of Design and Communication

Ernst Reichl Another German born designer by the name Ernst Reichl (1920 – 1980) entered the graphic design scene in America as early as 1920 and had a widely successful career for another 50 years after that. Reichl was much like Dwiggins in that he was a “whole book” designer, and firmly believed in the harmonious totality of the package and the value of one design vision for all its parts. Reichl was also a firm believer in reading the manuscript of a book before designing the cover. Though it seems common sense, at the time there were many designers who did not practice this method, and who instead welcomed direction from the author and publisher to create their vision. Reichl felt that reading a book was an intimate experience that must be completely understood in order to accurately translate its contents into something visual. This careful consideration of content made Reichl one of the most successful designers after WWII, and his innovative approach of exaggerated and playful typography and large geometric shapes were elements that could be seen throughout his career in book cover design (Powers, 2006).

Reichl, Ulysses—1934

Reichl, Portraits and Prayers—1934

Reichl, The Daring Young Man—1934

Hawkins, The Sound and the Fury—1934

Hawkins, Three Plays—1934

Hawkins, Red Smoke—1932

Arthur Hawkins (1903 – 1985) was an American-born designer who emerged from a California art school in 1929 as a graphic designer and visual communicator. Hawkins designed approximately 1500 book covers between 1930 – 1970, some of his most successful after the end of WWII in 1945. During a time when the book cover was still trying to plant its foot firmly in the design world, Hawkins took the cover, highly stylized it with splashes of color and decorative lines and shapes and put it out into the consumer’s space alongside books whose covers were still quite mundane and irrelevant. The consumer couldn’t help but gravitate towards Hawkins’ designs, and the book cover took its place among some of the greatest designs of the mid 1900’s. Not only did the book cover gain respect within the design community, it used one of the most significant marketing tools of the 20th century. The visual connection (Brown, 2000).

Hawkins, They Were Still Dancing—1932

Arthur Hawkins

The Intersection of Design and Communication

Edward McKnight Kauffer Kauffer, don Quixote—1958

Kauffer, Britain at War—1941

Another important book cover designer from the mid 20th century was Edward McKnight Kauffer (1890 – 1954). Kauffer was an American-born designer, painter, and illustrator who explored a wealth of design concepts and developed a style riddled with modernism and an avant-garde inspired quality. His range as a designer made him highly prosperous in a number of different design endeavors like poster design and branding, and his amalgamation of traditional and modern concepts were rendered into cleverly executed and visually exciting compositions. From photomontage to illustrative distillations, Kauffer cleverly produced designs that embodied modern sophistication and whimsical intuition. Asymmetrical application, geometric abstraction, and imaginative communication were all techniques used by Kauffer along with the exploration of the “type and image” relationship. This relationship would prove to be a critical one and would become an integral proponent of book cover design in America between 1950 – 1960 (Powers, 2006).

Kauffer, Point Counter Point—1951

Kauffer, The Ill Tempered Clavichord—1952

Kauffer, Exile—1949

Book Jacket Designers Guild

Book Jacket Designers Guild Exibition book cover—1949

While all of these designers, Dwiggins, Salter, Reichl, Hawkins and Kauffer contributed essential foundational elements to the design of book covers, their careers and lives were all coming to a conclusion in the 1950’s and 1960’s, and their torch needed to be passed on. In 1947, a group of American designers formed the Book Jacket Designers Guild to promote and ignite interest in the art of book cover design. Not only did the guild want to raise awareness of the book cover’s critical role in consumer culture, they also wanted to elevate the artistry of book cover design in hopes of recruiting a new community of designers with fresh ideas. The guild organized exhibitions to publicize their work and highlight the unique opportunity to collaborate with authors and publishers about visual communication. The publishing companies began to recognize the importance of a well-designed book cover. It generated sales, and for a publishing company in the 1950’s, every dollar mattered in such a highly competitive and lucrative business. So the designer became the link between the publishing world and the consumer, and together the designer, the publisher and the author forged a partnership that generated designs that were significantly modern, groundbreaking graphic works of art. More importantly, the designs were communicative, cleverly exploited ideas that brought the books content to life with vibrancy and visual clarity. The relationship between type and image blossomed on book covers in the 1950’s, and designers explored this relationship to its limits during this decade of critical importance for the graphic arts.

Book Jacket Designers Guild Logo—1949 Various Mid-century book covers Book Jacket Designers Guild Exhibition—1949

The Intersection of Design and Communication

Alvin Lustig Alvin Lustig (1915 – 1955) was a brilliant graphic designer during the 1940’s and 1950’s in America. Despite his untimely death at the young age of 40 from diabetes, his impact on the world of design is immeasurable and significant. Graduating in Los Angeles in 1934, the young Lustig began a short-term internship with Frank Lloyd Wright that proved to be a fundamental influence on the direction of Lustig’s design career. Following the internship, Lustig opened his own design firm in Los Angeles where he explored the graphic arts using modern philosophies and forms to create new and innovative compositions (Brown, 2000).

ABC of Reading—1951

The Man Who Died—1951

Alvin Lustig embraced unconventional design methods, using ornaments for abstracted forms and linear elements, and developing type that functioned as an image or shape within the composition. Modernism at its finest, with some architectural undertones. Along with his exploratory and unique book cover designs, Lustig also worked closely with several publishing companies to design book covers for an entire series of books. These series’ had to be visually connected to each other; in essence, to develop a recognizable brand for the American consumer. Lustig understood the needs of the publisher, and any publisher that came his way. He was skilled and thoughtful, and developed a system for generating successful visual communication. He approached design as he would any problem which needed to be solved, much like a math equation that needed to be deconstructed and reconstructed to reveal its answer (Powers, 2006).

Amerika—1946

The Wanderer—1951

Selected Poems—1950

Lustig approached design as he would any problem which needed to be solved, much like a math equation that needed to be deconstructed and reconstructed to reveal its answer

The Confessions of Zeno—1947

Spearhead—1947

Lustig also embraced his place in consumer culture. He was aware that his designs were generating the sales of an object that would someday become obsolete and knew that compared to most avenues in the fine arts, his career choice was a fleeting and semi-disposable one. A career that relied not just on the formal elements of the fine arts and design, but also paralleled consumer popularity, trends, and behavior. Lustig took this opportunity to communicate with the audience in ways that had never been explored before. His work with photography and photomontage were some of his most significant examples of design that were truly inspired. These examples along with his wide range of other designs were successful on many levels; formally and structurally sound, aesthetically pleasing and interesting, and visually and appropriately communicative.

Alvin Lustig was also a visionary, and wise beyond his years. He used his design success as a platform for social impact. Lustig believed that by designing a book cover for the masses of American consumers, he could leave a distinct impression on society and its participants. Lustig also believed it was the responsibility of the designer to nurture the social consciousness and blur the lines between high-end fine arts and a utilitarian object, in turn generating respect for the book cover, and its role in a consumerdriven culture. In order to keep up with the ebbs and flows of a fickle society, a designer must have at its disposal a wide variety of tools and techniques that facilitate design flexibility and intuition. He encouraged future designers to explore not just one technique or method, but utilize many at once, creating new relationships and concepts along the way. Lustig states, “the designer is not a single-minded specialist, but an integrator of all the art forms – and simultaneously a spokesman for social progress.” (Brown, 2000) It was this design theory (among many others) that made Alvin Lustig one of the most influential founders of modern book cover design in America.

The Intersection of Design and Communication The Anatomy of Revolution—1949

Paul Rand

Prejudices—1958

The Fervent Years—1950 The Stork Club—1946

The Intersection of Design and Communication

As Alvin Lustig’s career was coming to an end, another designer by the name of Paul Rand (1914 – 1996) had already become a highly respected magician of design in consumer-driven America. Rand was well-established by the 1930’s as an editorial and magazine designer as well as an advertising and commercial art phenom. Rand is often remembered most for his contributions to corporate America with the development of company trademarks and branding. However, his book cover designs developed during the 1950’s and 1960’s in America were some of the most progressively experimental of the mid 20th century, often containing an amalgamation of modern reductivism and playful expression (Brown, 2000). Much like Lustig, Rand believed it his privilege to have such a substantial and intimate relationship with the faceless consumer culture of America. Rand successfully and almost effortlessly transformed avant-garde ideals into an American commercial language, shaping the corporate identity of his clients. He did not consider fine art to be more or less relevant or impactful than commercial art, but instead believed that both the fine and commercial arts could coexist and support one another. Rand embraced opposing theories and elements and could successfully synthesize design that integrated both abstraction and representation; both modern sophistication and playful humor; both type as word and type as image (Powers, 2006).

Leave Cancelled—1945

Goodbye Columbus—1959

The Condemned of Altona—1961

Paul Rand was a playful innovator, and a vocal advocate of experimentation. While Rand’s designs were a reflection of modern America, they were also reflections of the book’s contents within. While some designers discounted the text when reflecting on design choices, Rand felt that the contents were of consequential importance to book cover design and should be considered from the beginning of the design process to the final design execution. Another key component of design employed by Rand was the presence of text on the cover, and its relationship with image in a composition. While many designers applied text without exploring its conceptual ramifications, Rand exposed this valuable communication device and used it throughout his career to represent not just a singular concept, but a variety of interwoven and complex philosophies within one composition. Rand’s ability to juggle and somehow create balance between reductive modernism and aesthetic expressionism was precisely why he became such an influential contributor to the world of graphic design in mid 20th century America.

The Living Symbol—1961

The Intersection of Design and Communication

Rand, Thoughts on Design—1945

Alvin Lustig and Paul Rand were both visual explorers who brought the world of book cover design into the exclusive circle of graphic arts. Along with many other designers, Lustig and Rand gave the book cover designer credibility as an artistic innovator, and effective visual communicator. The book cover became a relevant platform for graphic designers to explore and embrace their role within a consumer-driven America, and graphic design became the powerful force it continues to be today in the 21st century. Although book cover design is considered to be but a small piece of the larger graphic design puzzle, it represents a unique perspective on design and explores not just visual communication, but the relationship between visual communication and the text in the book. This juxtaposition of fine art and corporate art is the essence of graphic design itself.

Salter, The Wall—1963 Lustig, Nightwood—1952

Rand, DADA—1947

America in the mid-20th century became an

environment where non-traditional methods were

celebrated, and modern ideals and abstract concepts were welcome

Rand, The Transposed Heads—1963

Hawkins, The Last and First Men—1936

Graphic design is generally considered to be the combination of fine art and corporate art, manifesting itself into a visual representation of ideas in a clear and communicative way. These concepts flourished in the mid 20th century in America and inspired the exploration of graphic design as a realistically lucrative business venture. With that in mind, it is easy to see why such specialized careers like editorial design, branding, advertising and even book cover design were developed, indicating that communication had stretched beyond the written word and into the realm of visual arts. Following a period of unrest in America, and after WWII ended in 1945, society was eager to put the pieces of the country back together and include new and innovative philosophies that generated growth and prosperity. The demand for visual communication was high, and designers found a wide range of career options were created for the artist interested in consumer communication. From Dwiggins to Rand and everyone in between, graphic designers were increasingly indispensable during a time when communication became a key component of the commercially-driven society of the 1940’s and 1950’s. There were opportunities abound, and America in the mid-20th century became an environment where non-traditional methods were celebrated, and modern ideals and abstract concepts were welcome. The need for imaginative communication techniques combined with unique and enticing visuals became the purpose for design; thus, began the intriguing dance between type and image within a composition. A dance that would flourish into a relationship that continues to be explored today in 21st century American graphic design.

Navigating through Abstract Expressionism

A Scenic Tour of Modernism

Citations

“Abstract Expressionism Movement, Artists and Major Works.” The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/ movement-abstract-expressionism.htm.

Bass, Jennifer, and Pat Kirkham. Saul Bass: a Life in Film & Design. London: Laurence King, 2013.

Anfam, David. Abstract Expressionism. Royal Academy Of Arts, 2016. Anfam, David. “Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940-1976.” Artforum International, Oct. 2008, p. 376. Academic OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/ A187505551/AONE?u=ksu&sid=AONE&xid=7ed68178. Accessed 20 Feb. 2018. Anfam, David. “Newman, Barnett.” Grove Art Online. 2003. Oxford University Press. Date of access 17 Feb. 2018, <http://www.oxfordartonline.com.er.lib.k-state.edu/groveart/ view/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.001.0001/oao-9781884446054-e-7000062140>

Clifford, John. Graphic Icons: Visionaries who Shaped Modern Graphic Design. Reachpit Press, 2014. Coyier, Chris. “Saul Bass.” Quotes on Design. March 17, 2010. Accessed February 19, 2018. https://quotesondesign.com/saul-bass-2/. Eskilson, Stephen. Graphic design: a new history. 2nd ed. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012. Heller, Steven, and Elaine Lustig Cohen. Born Modern: the Life and Design of Alvin Lustig. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2010.

Ashton, Dore. The New York School: a Cultural Reckoning. University of California Press, 1973.

Heller, Steven, and Seymour Chwast. Graphic Styles: From Victorian to Post-Modern. London: Thames and Hudson, 1988.

Belgrad, Daniel. The Culture of Spontaneity: Improvisation and the Arts in Postwar America. Univ. of Chicago Press, 2007.

Meggs, Philip B., and Alston W. Purvis. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. 5th ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2012.

“Gorky’s Life.” The Arshile Gorky Foundation > Gorky’s Life, arshilegorkyfoundation.org/gorkys-life.

Thompson, Bradbury. Bradbury Thompson: the art of graphic design. New Haven: Yale University

Hobbs, Robert Carleton, and Gail Levin. Abstract Expressionism, the Formative Years. Cornell Uni versity Press, 1981. “MoMA Learning.” MoMA | Abstract Expressionism, www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/themes/ abstract-expressionism. Perl, Jed. Art in America, 1945-1970: Writings from the Age of Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, and Minimalism. Library of America, 2014. Rodman, Selden, and Alexander Eliot. Conversations with Artists. Devin-Adair, 1957. Wright, Karen, and Martin Gayford. The Grove Book of Art Writing. Grove Press, 2006.

The Intersection of Design and Communication

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