Issue 1 Spring 2015 Form Follows Function
An exploration of Modernism and Postmoderism. Create with meaning.
Form Follows Function
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Contents
New Visual Language
Contents
Mimmo Rotella Inspired
Form Follows Function
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Modernism Postmodernism City in Flux Type Transcription Earth Artifact Links
City in Flux
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Modernism
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Modernism
“Helvetica - to look further is in vain.”
- Massimo Vignelli
The modernist movement began at the start of the 20th century when the idea of technology and mechanisation could produce a better society. This utopian belief influenced the sub-movements such as Constructivism, Dada and Futurism that focus on fragmentation and a scattered appearance which was inspired by industrialism. The style was detected in architecture and literature as well as art. Techniques such as collage, photography and geometric sketches were popular when creating art pieces and graphic design outcomes. Kurt Schwitters followed the modernism style using collage to achieve his abstract effect. Use of colour varies in each sub-movement and artist style,
majority of graphic pieces included red, neutrals and black and white. This was likely due to printing and cost reasons. Majority of design used the Helvetica font during the Modernist movement as it was clean cut and simplistic which was what designers wanted in their work. The style was curved and had equal distance between the x-height of letters such as ‘h’ and ‘p’ to the shorter letters such as ‘a’ and ‘o’. Although some designers, such as Bauhaus, created their own ideal type making their work drastically different to the many designers using Helvetica. Both fonts were bold and striking which made their work stand out in a strong way.
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Shape played a big part in this movement, as they are the main focus of designers’ images. Circles, squares and triangles would be repeated in a constructed way that would make the overall image look scattered, giving it a unique style. Artists such as El Lissitzky and Wassily Kandinsky used this style of design in their work. Some artists used the repetition of geometric shapes in a more grid-like style such as Piet Mondrian who’s work is most well detected by his use of bright primary colours paired with the block grid lines through the page. The overall style o f t h e Modernism movement was sterile and dominant due to the ideals at that t i m e i t w a s p opular up t o t h e m i d - 6 0 ’s .
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Postmodernism
Post Modernism is a late
20th century movement that evolved in the mid 1960’s to respond to the Modernism movement, as many artists did not want to follow the rules the past movement had laid out. They abandoned the idea of the grid system and chose a new, more free style of creating work. After rejecting the modernists’ obsession with progress and challenging it they came out with a new design that inspired new artists through to the 90’s.
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The main focus for a rti sts i s on the process and experimentation that falls into a flowing, unconventional final design. Post Modernist style art contains a lot of symbolism and terms in pop culture, as well as using themes within politics and society. Jamie Reid’s work shows this abstract style blending with the politics and pop culture of the 70’s, his use of text doesn’t contain grid structure or a bold printed font that is continuous and simplistic, instead it is
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Form Follows Function
bold in a way that involves newspaper cuttings of text to show his message. The complex structure and hidden meanings in Post Modern work seems to give the overall pieces a personal touch and a puzzle for the audience to solve. This less readable, more personal style is due to the randomness of focused images on the pages, which brings an element of secretiveness.
Postmodernism
The use of colour varies but majority of the movements work is bright and colourful, especially in the 60’s and 70’s due to the use of colour appearing in new magazines and in TV. Overall style was vibrant and bold, by using unconventional colours and layering images for a organized cluttered piece. Popular techniques were use of collage and technology, especially
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toward the end of the movement. This style of movement focuses on the fragmented style like the Modernism movement did but in a less structured way that makes the two v ery different in style. Post Modernism ‘breaks the rules’ to achieve its wild, unique appearance and passed boundaries in the use of colour, grid systems and structure.
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City in Flux
A project focusing on the constant bust state of every city.
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City in Flux
This project focused on the
forgotton and unnoticed of the city in flux. Many are focused on the destination rather than the journey and spend their time thinking of their own problems rather than the small interesting values that are in front of them.
authenticity so the man’s mind would separate the art from his usual work on a digital screen as the contents inside the books are detached from the business lifestyle.
After studying artists such as Kurt Schwitters, Mimmo Rotella, Michael Bosanko and Robert Rauschenberg (These became my most inspiring artists for this project) I decided the media my final outcome should be.
Each of the booklets are handmade as I sewed the spine myself then added my own contents. Each of the 5 books had a theme, Travel, Music, Fashion, Food and Forgotten, I also imagined a character that would own books like this that could have been lost, picked up and noticed as art.
To contrast f r o m t h e stereotypical business man’s life involving a bundle of digital technology I chose the idea of creating a series of small booklets that have a feeling of
The booklets also contain techniques such as pop a rt styl e pen drawings, collage, light stitch work, Photoshop designs as well as collections such as train tickets and receipts.
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City in Flux
Artists such as Kurt Schwitters and Robert Rauschenberg inspired this project. Kurt Schwitters
Schwitters Response
Robert Rauschenberg 9.
Rauschenberg Response New Visual Language
City in Flux
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City in Flux
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City in Flux
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Northern Quarter, Manchester. City in Flux Photoshoot. New Visual Language
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Type Transcription
Form Follows Function
Letter ‘A’ lower-case.
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Type Transcription
A nother project to complete
was Type Transcription, where 3 alphabets were created from inspiration of modernist artist’s work. By being inspired by this work I created unique fonts that seem unimaginable to create from the mind only. The key to this method was to keep each letter in theme with the next for a complete looking alphabet. When I first started to design these pieces I focused on certain letters and expanded this, starting small with key letters helped notice a theme before creating the whole alphabet. My first design has been inspired by artists who use circles in their work in the modernism
movement, then using a ruler and compass I sketched the characters in a mathematical way. The second typeface is one inspired by Wyndem Lewis whose work involves pieces inspired by industry and construction, this is noticeable in my own typeface. The third is inspired by a piece by Josef Muller Brockmann, a huge influence in Graphic Design when considering structure and modernist layout. This piece looked like a 2D
form of a 3D image that could be glued together in a way, segments of this creation are noticeable in my alphabet. The rough sketches of the 3 alphabets turned out different from each other as well as any other font I have used before. By using inspiration not associated with type, creations appear that are unique with an interesting touch only the creator of the alphabet has achieved.
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Type Transcription
Form Follows Function Once 3 alphabets had been created, the next and final step was to clean them up and adjust them on Illustrator. By using this programme the letters could be as large or small as they needed to be without pixilation occurring either way as well as being able to constantly adjust size for an even layout of each letter. The letters were created by a variety of lines, shapes and the path tool which I have improved on using whilst creating these pieces.
The Wyndem Lewis inspired alphabet has a fun, child-like vibe to it therefore could work for an audience of children. I have seen other fonts that are targeted at a young audience but I feel this is still unique in comparision. The Muller-Brockmann inspired piece has a sci-fi feel, it could work within my Earth Artifact project due to this if I wanted to improve that final piece and make it more unique.
The final design was inspired by various artists combined with my own style, I believe this is the most interesting out of all the designs I created. As this type is bold and not simple to read it could be a successful statement typeface for a title or typography piece, once this type would be used not much else would be needed on the page due to its detail and creative appearance.
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Type Transcription
Letter ‘F’ Capital.
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Earth Artifact
Form Follows Function
A project focusing on creating a language through symbols.
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Earth Artifact
In this Earth Artifact project the brief explained to create a new version of the Golden Record which included all aspects of the world in one record, this was needed to be updated in information as well as in general. It wasn’t recommended to be an exact new replica and could simply base itself on the original. Any media could be used to create this, I decided on creating an infographic that explains the world through images so anyone and anything could understand what I was communicating.
The process of creating my icons were achieved by finding inspiration from existing icons, my own imagination and trial and error.
After creating multiple designs that didn’t involve words I decided adding them would help fully explain the intentions and what each icon meant, although the audience could get the gist of the piece without needing to read the words around the icons.
The overall design looks quite successful but there is room for improvement such as creating a booklet describing each icon in more detail or creating a small fact file for each to give the icons more context and the audience more understanding of the overall final piece.
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Once these icons were successful I explored different ways of displaying them within different shapes and compositions. From doing this it was noticeable that the more simplistic the better which is how I settled with a black and white theme with a hint of colour to give the piece a brighter feel.
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Earth Artifact
Form Follows Function
Inspired by codes and symbols to create icons easy to understand.
During this Earth Artifact project many influences c a me f ro m a variety of sources and ideas. Main topics I explored were symbolism and icons that already exist on products and such around the house. These helped when looking at the design of icons I was creating, I also took into consideration what image appeared in my mind instantly when the word was thought of. When merging all of this information together I achieved the icon designs.
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Another inspiration in this project was Peter Saville’s colour coding work, where he created a different colour for each letter and used this as an alphabet for albums by New Order. The audience would have to unlock the code to understand the title of the album, this was inspiring to me when creating a l anguage for my audience as I realised I could create a language with no words. This artist and symbols in mind I created an update of the record.
Form Follows Function
Earth Artifact
Experimenting consisted of thread, focusing on iconology and exploring text with image. Development then began focusing on layout of the symbols that have been created.
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Earth Artifact
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Earth Artifact
Images throughout the magazine to explore that I do not own.
Modernism http://www.noupe.com/design/josef-muller-brockmannprincipal-of-the-swiss-school.html http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5f/Artwork_by_ El_Lissitzky_1919.jpg http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/helvetica/ subway.jpg http://www.aiga.org/medalist-arminhofmann/ https://maker.me/m/ae582f https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/ originals/64/11/0c/64110cf4a9af3da46056ae8b8584adc4. jpg
City in Flux Inspiration http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/rauschenbergbazaar-p77127 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/schwittersmeasure-t12392
Earth Artifact Inspiration https://wharferj.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/savillescolour-code.jpg http://alchemyofthegoddess.com/wp-content/ uploads/2011/09/Basic_Alchemy_Symbols_by_Notshurly. jpg
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New Visual Language. Spring 2015.
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