Issue 1 - May 2015
ÂŁ2.99
Form follows Function An exploration of Modernism and Post Modernism
MOD - ERN ISM New Visual Language
this to permeate all areas of life, from graphic design to household objects and architecture. Their aim in doing was to benefit society and create an ideal lifestyle and culture, which would eradicate distractions and focus on the important. Furthermore it would embrace simplistic design and aid human kind in their pursuits. However there is the more abstract area of modernism in which it contradicts the utopian ideas of the movement and instead attains a more experimental nature.
Josef Muller Brockmann, Opernhaus Zurich Poster, 1966
M
odernism was developed as a term to counter the greed, conflict and inequality, which was present during the 1st world war and Russian revolution. It wasn’t actually used to describe a graphic style until the late 1920’s and this was due to the increasing success of mass media, which also required them to alter their work accordingly, as to be produced on a large scale. It was regarded as an escape from the negative effects resulted from the First World War, it became an ideal for a way to be. Modernism used the Russian revolution as a model for how society could be. With the emphasis being on “new” ways and “new” ideas it later adopted the title of “The New Typography”.
Especially in regards to graphic design the designers of the time aligned type and image within a structured grid and were keen to follow the grid always. However in cases where they wanted a piece to stand out or excite, they would following from the constructivists lead, set some if not all of the elements out using a diagonal grid. The use of this diagonal grid presents movement into their work.
Within modernist design geometry, colour and shape tend to be used greatly as a tool to envisage movement. Architecture was also a great feature within modernism as architects and sculptures created abstract forms. They rejected the notions of fashion and style and understood the geometric forms as being a universally understood means of design. Being opposed to the ornate designs of past movements such as romanticism they strived to attain what they called “form follows function”. They wanted
Swissair 1956
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David Carson, Raygun magazine, Issue 1, 1992
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ost-modernism was a rebellious reaction against conforming to the norm (in regards to animation at any rate), yet at the same time is very conformist in terms of the world and its culture. So it was defiant in terms of graphic rule sets but celebrated culture in all its forms as it were. It strived to display all the rules to its viewer before playfully breaking them. In conjunction with the links of pop art, post modernism in its own way aims to level the playing field in terms of high and low art.
De-constructive, rule defying, the Postmodern era redefined graphic design once more, taking the modernist principles and breaking them down into arbitrary signs.
As mentioned earlier it celebrates the world as it is, without a bias towards one or the other. Featuring experimental use of colour and typography, the post-modern movement to some was that even illiterate type held meaning and purpose if the message became “exciting” and more engaging for the viewer. Collage is one element that features often within graphic design throughout this movement and began to emerge within the modernist movement, as if a precursory for the design which was to come. However one vital difference between these is the use of many influences, post-modernism drew influence from varying styles from the past combining them into a collaged de-fragmentation of society. At points post-modern designs would parody themselves and make fun of the connotations they were promoting and techniques they used. However once popular culture magazines such as Kerrang! and MTV caught onto the trend, they began to “tame” the movement and this is where grunge culture became popular. Through punk fashion and underground publications the chopped up, unmoored style became a common sight to the horror of the modernists. The post-modernists too had a message to shout about though this one wasn’t about creating a utopian world, but rather celebrating the diversity that our culture and world displayed.
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Right: City In Flux - Printed Booklet.
O
ur first brief required the representation of the city and how it is an ever-changing subject. It is this “Flux” that we were tasked to communicate through visual communication, this was an open brief which allowed for an array of interpretation. I responded to the brief in an alternative aspect to most and rather then taking a literal approach to change within a city, I looked at the city’s hidden and subtle changes, the changes it creates within social behaviour. Following on from reading Jean Baudrilliard’s The Ecstasy of Communication, I took a
stance to represent the affects globalisation and commercialisation have on the everyday person and their morals. The topic of social morals and values led me onto spiritual regard and this in turn I proceeded to consider using the Swan as an ideological symbol, which in this case would be subverted from its traditional connotations. In terms of mediums used, I set out to capture a range of textural interest found within the city, or in this case, large market town of Huddersfield. Further to this I combined the use of
traditional mark-making techniques such as lino-printing with that of digital collage. This results in the images which I accompanied with a contextual selection of text which make up the booklet. I named the booklet Social Decline, this name I feel sums up the ideas behind my concept and therefore is fitting with the grunge style imagery and sombre message.
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Below: City In Flux - Double page spread.
Globalisation is slowly decreasing our traditional disposable 10 City In Flux
New Visual Language
values and therefore heightening those of the society.
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C F
ity in
lux
Opting for a dark mysterious feel, I used the following textured images to decorate the booklet’s cover. However partly due to the paper, the rough grunge visuals didn’t quite fit with the contents. On reflection this would have been rectified had I spent less time on research and more time experimenting and developing my outcome. If I were to do this project differently, in addition to the point made above I would experiment further with the different mediums and outcome possibilities. If I were to re-create the cover, I would use a delicate like design for the booklet using a more organic earthy material. Further to this I would use the laser-cutter to incorporate the geometric swan into the cover, while the negative space it creates would reveal its “hidden” contents so to speak. I am most happy with how the digital collages developed and feel this is the strong point to my response for this project. 2
City In Flux
Within the city there are social changes almost unnoticed. Until you look for these they are hidden from the eye, they are the values and moral code dictated by the commercialisation of the world we reside in.
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City In Flux
12 City In Flux
The Social Decline
Nicole H.D.W. Sinclair University Of Huddersfield
No longer are people having a high value of their family heritage but they are valuing the latest technology, the transparent, temporary and flimsy.
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City In Flux
The increase in commercialisation is fuelling our high value of the transitory, the replaceable technological devices we so commonly use, meanwhile our spiritual and emotional connections are being neglected.
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City In Flux
Globalisation is slowly decreasing our traditional disposable 10
values and therefore heightening those of the society.
City In Flux
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EA RT H ART I FACT T
he aim of this, our second project, was to look into the Golden Voyager which was sent up into space in 1977 and re-interpret the content and/or medium as a modern day response. This would in theory embody the world as it is today, though this brief also was open in terms of interpretation and therefore you could perhaps create a comparison between the original content and how the same things have drastically changed since. I set out to create an info-graphic poster and proceeded to create a set of three. I also created a mini poster, though admittedly rushed, around the symbols used within the designs. I would have liked to have animated the info-graphic, though using one of the earlier design paths and therefore I would have been able to pan in and around the Earth as to direct each topic to the relevant cities and countries it affects. I mention using one of the previous design paths due to the fun style of illustration which would work much better in an animated fashion and this would be paired with the ability to pan around the globe. One of my friends suggested the possibility of bring able to touch a symbol in a specific area to access further information and I think this also would have been
New Visual Language
an interesting route to go down. The route I would have taken this idea would of been a mobile app or website design. The latter seems most fitting due to the amount of text possibly appearing on screen. However creating such on a mobile device would still be a viable option, as I would add a feature to read more on each topic and therefore this prevents too much information from being presented all at once. The parts of this project that I found most challenging were that of identifying a target audience and also obtaining sourced and referenced facts from around the world. The first I found difficult due to the ambiguous nature a time capsule goes through, essentially the unknown and so I determined the most likely being that of a future generation of the human race, one whom may have forgotten the truths of the past. If I were to change an aspect of this project, it would have been to create more outcomes, particularly in relation to an animated video exploring the equality issues and success stories around the world. I would have also liked to have created some minimalistic 3-D sculptures and/or 3-D data visualisations using a similar technique to Siang Ching and with inspiration from Brendan Dawes lecture.
Above: Equality info-graphic depicting the highest areas for wealth and poverty. Right: Poster depicting keys and their meaning.
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Above: Equality info-graphic depicting the most and least accepting of LGBT rights.
New Visual Language
Above: Equality info-graphic depicting the highest areas for racial tolerance and intolerance.
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I
n regards to my initial designs which can be seen on the opposite page, those which I took forward(top right) were initially inconsistent, though I felt although that was the case at first I could identity a letter which most embodied the feel of the piece and take this forward to provide a developed and refined typeface. Therefore I chose to base the width and height elements upon the capital letter t, before creating a lower-case x as to achieve a working x-height guide. The t was initially the first letter I created within this design at the sketching stage and due to its embodiment of the image seen below, I felt it was the most appropriate to use. Throughout the development and refinement of the font as a digital vector image, I proceeded to use the phrase “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog� which incorporates all letters of the alphabet as to test the legibility and readability of the font. Further to this I also experimented with colour variations for the typeface as to show its dynamic capabilities. I created the name of the typeface from the artist’s last name whom I took inspiration from and due to the typefaces mechanical looking structure, I hence named it Wadsworth Mechanics. I found this to be an interesting workshop to take part in and found the process of developing a font takes careful consideration. I enjoyed creating the typeface however I feel I spent too much time on the development stage, though this came out with the above outcome which I feel is successful. The full typeface can be seen below and has also been used to create the above title.
Edward Wadsworth, Newcastle, 1914
New Visual Language
Inspired by Edward Wadsworth, Newcastle, 1914
Inspired by Josef Muller Brockmann, Beethoven Poster, 1955
Inspired by Josef Muller Brockmann, packaging advertisement Page 19
Š Nicole H.D.W. Sinclair 2015 BA (Hons) Graphic Design Student Credits to the respective copyright holders for all reference images used within this publication.