CONT 01 11 21 25 33 47 51 55
Moder PostM Good Design Classic Design Magaz Produc City In Earth A Typefa
TENTS
rnism Modernism Magazine n c Magazine n zine ction n Flux Artefact ace
MODERNISM MODERNISM MODERNISM
Introduction
Modernism is a collection of art movements which came about in the late 19th - early 20th century. Influenced by cultural trends, the movement experiments with form particuallary drawing attention to material and the process of work. The outcome of modernism challenges the political and social structure of the new industrialized world. Artists felt that subjects such as painting, scultpture and architecture no longer needed to follow the rules as they did before thus giving artists lots more freedom with media than before. Artists of the Modernism period had an interest in new paints and other materials, they drifted away from realism and towards expression of feelings and imagery of fantasies. The outcome of their work often led people to question their art and designs, the work doesn’t give the viewer all the answers at once and the viewers had to analyse to gain any facts and intentions of the artists. Some of the art styles involved in the modernist movement include pop art, minimalism, neo-dada and cubism. From a design viewpoint the introduction of modernism in desihn didn’t start until the 1940’s and lasted until the mid 80’s it reflected the beliefs of the “fundamental scientific
laws of reason and rational thought”.
N A G V UR O B E S H T OE D Theo van Doesburg was a Dutch artist, who practised painting, writing, poetry and architecture. He was highly influenced by Wassily Kandinsky throughtout his career, Van Doesburg began painting naturalistic subjects early on in his life. Van Doesburg was sent to Tillburg near the Belgiian front in the outbreak of World War I, where he started creating De Stijl which wouldn’t be recognised for two years. Van Doesburg had shifted his style of painting from one that emphasized less of a direct reflection of everyday life and one that placed more importance on a conceptual style that favored a simplistic geometric style. While reviewing an exposition for one of the magazines he wrote for, in 1915 (halfway through his twoyear service in the army), that he came in contact with the works of Piet Mondrian, who was eight years older than he was, and had by then already gained some attention with his paintings. Van Doesburg saw in these paintings his ideal in painting: a complete abstraction of reality.
After the exposition Van Doesburg got in contact with Mondrian, and together with related artists Bart van der Leck, Anthony Kok, Vilmos Huszar, and J.J.P. Oud they founded the magazine De Stijl in 1917. De Stijl was made up of many members, Van Doesburg was the “ambassador” of the movement, promoting it across Europe. He moved to Weimar in 1922, deciding to make an impression on the Bauhaus principal, Walter Gropius, to spread the influence of the movement. Gropius did not feel that Doesburg should become a Bauhaus master so Doesburg then installed himself near to the Bauhaus buildings and started to attract school students interested in the new ideas of Constructivism,DeStijlandDadaism.
“
We speak of concrete and not abstract painting because nothing is more concrete, more real than a line, a colour, a surface
�
PAUL RAND
Paul Rand was a modernist designer born in Brooklyn in 1914. He was best known for his logo designs for big name companies. His work is said to be one that originated the Swiss style in Graphic Design. Rand was both a realist and idealist, he was known to think “in terms of need and function”. Rand worked on logos and corporate identities with companies such as ABC, Westinghouse and IBM. HIs work is stripped back similar to the style of many postmodern designers he believed “ideas do not need to be esoteric to be original or exciting”. Rand later created a brand identity for Westinghouse is said to epitomize the “ideal of minimalism and proving the point Rand made that a logo “cannot survive unless designed with the utmost simplicity and restraint”. Looking back on all of Rand’s work it is clear a lot of designers today are inspired by his designs. An example of this could be given on Rand’s UCLA 75 poster where it shares similar links to the movie poster of Ocean’s 12 which was created by Pulse Advertising in 2004. The colours and typefaces used in Rand’s work don’t hint at what year the designs were created simply because his work was designed with the future in mind, all of these colours are still in fashion or have come back into fashion at some stage.
“
Design is so simple, that’s why it’s so complicated.
”
LÁSZLÓ MOHOLY-NAGY László Moholy-Nagy was a Hungarian painter, photographer and professor in the Bauhaus school. His work was influenced by constructivism and he was strong advocate of the integration of technology and industry in the arts. In 1923, Moholy-Nagy became the instructor of the foundation course at the Bauhaus. He excelled in sculpture, photography, typography, painting, printmaking, and industrial design, with his main focus being photography. Moholy-Nagy was shaped by Dadaism, Suprematism and Constructivism, his interest in photography encouraged his belief that the “artists’ understanding of vision had to specialize and modernize” Artists had become dependant on tools used to creat perspective drawing, Moholy-Nagy hoped with the invention of the camera that artists could learn to draw from eye again.
“The reality of our century is technology: the invention, construction and maintenance of machines. To be a user of machines is to be of the spirit of this century. Machines have replaced the transcendental spiritualism of past eras.” - László Moholy-Nagy. With his interest in photgraphy taking centre stage he became much more experimental with the skill, including the use of photograms, Moholy-Nagy later published Malerei, Fotographie, Film in 1925. He Resigned from the Bauhaus in 1928 and returned to Berlin, where he temporarily gave up painting to make stage designs, abstract films and typographical work.
Jan Tschichold Jan Tschichold was a German typographer and book designer. Tschichold claimed that he was one of the most powerful influences on 20th century typography. His father painted signs so Tschichold began working with typography at a very early age. He worked with Paul Renner who designed Futura. During the rise of the Nazi party he fled to Switzerland to design typography, he wored on new typography escpecially sans-serif typefaces which were seen as a threat to the culture of Germany and the Nazi party who had previously seized some of his work when he lived in Germany. Tschichold converted to Modernist design principles in 1923 after visiting the first Weimar Bauhaus exhibition. He later became a lead backer of Modernist design where he designed an influential 1925 magazine supplement, a 1927 personal exhibition and lastly his most famous work the book Die neue Typographie. The book was a manifesto about modern design, inside he condemned all typefaces but sans-serif. He also stated that he favoured non-centered design and many other Modernist design rules. Tschichold spent part of his career with Penguin Books, while he was there he developed a standardized practice for creating the covers for all of the books produced by Penguin. He oversaw the development of more than 500 books between the years 1947-49.
POSTMODERNISM
Introduction
The Postmodernism movement started in the late 20th century, it was seen as a way to break free against the structure of Modernism. The movement was made possible with the new technology given to designers, they were suddeniy able to do things they hadn’t before, they were able to manipulate and do things with type that they couldn’t do before. Postmodernism in architecture began from a perception that the Modern way of “less is more” translated into “less is bore” as Venturi famously said. Postmodernist architecture was one of the first movements to openly challenge Modernism as antiquated and “totalitarian”. Postmodern designers were in the beginning stages of what we now refer to as “graphic design”. They created works beginning in the 1970s without any set adherence to rational order and formal organization. They also payed no attention to traditional conventions such as legibility. Another characteristic of postmodern graphic design is that “retro, techno, punk, grunge, and pastiche and many more were all considered trends. Each had its own sites and venues, detractors and advocates”. The Postmodernism movement was an expressive and playful time for designers who wanted to explore more ways to go against the system.
PAULA SCHER
Paula Scher is an American Graphic Designer who focuses mainy on creating typography in her work. I first came across her work in 2007 with her book and design of Maps. The maps show the names of each places as any map would but instead she fills the gap in between with words she associates with each place including filling parts of the sea with just the word sea over and over. A key theme in her work is the slotted typography she creates, from close up this allows you to read all the information but as you get further away you see blocks of bright colour stretching across the page. Scher was heavily influenced by her father when creating these maps saying “My father invented a device called ‘stereo templates’ for the government which corrects the lens distortion in aerial photography. There would be no Google Maps today without that advancement”. Without
her fathers work she would not have wanted to created what is a distorted large scale collection of maps. The patterns and colour palette of the typography on the maps is often compared to aboriginal art, the typeface also influences this idea which also holds the visual appearance and technique of the art style. In her other work Scher has created the logo for Windows 8 the style, while still holding characteristics of Scher’s work is stripped back to reflect more of the company than of Scher’s personality. The more noticable change in the logo is the flag-like shape which now take the appearance of a window which takes the company back to it’s roots. Early on in the design process Scher asks “Your name is Windows. Why are you a flag?” The answer is that the brand started as a window, but over the years, as computing systems grew more powerful and graphics grew more complex, the design
eventually evolved into a flag. Scher made the assumption that the waving flag was probably a result of typical industry comments that a plain window looked too static, and that straight lines were too severe, however this is now seen as modern and sleek today in design. “I think the waving flag was meant to be a flag in perspective,” says Scher. “All of the clichés of technology design are based on the idea that icons should look dimensional like product design that tech designers call ‘chrome’––look at the iPhone interface where everything has gradation and drop shadows.”
RAYGUN RAYGUN
RAYGUN RAYGUN
RAYGUN RAYGUN
RAYGUN RAYGUN
Ray Gun was an American alternative rock-and-roll magazine, It was first published in 1992 in California. The magazine was led by founding art director David Carson, Ray Gun explored experimental magazine typographic design. The result is a chaotic, abstract style which isn’t always readable, but had a distinctive look so the reader could always tell what magazine it is. The magazine continued running for three years after David Carson left continuining it’s unique style. Ray Gun was also recognisable for the content each magazine was about. With “cutting-edge advertising, musical artists and pop culture icons spotlighted were typically ahead of the curve” with artists like Radiohead Björk and Beck on its cover long before other magazines. Ray Gun’s covers experiment with more hand made outcomes such as print and cut out with their type which gives Ray Gun such a unique look. This style is what would go on to inspire other magazines after Ray Gun stopped producing copies in 2000.
STEFAN SAGMEISTER
Stefan Sagmeister is a New York based Graphic Designer and typographer. Sagmeister became famous in the 1990s as the designer who self-harmed in the name of design: He created a poster by carving the details onto his torso. His designs focuses on the belief that anything is possible, anything can be made. To me his work is a lot like a fairytale in the way, he thinks of bizarre ways to display his work and makes it happen. In a recent work of his he talked about how he struggles to create the opening sequence for The Happy Film because of the loss of his mother and ended up
training wild animals to create the typography and leaving them to place it. The film shows monkeys, pigs and other animals eating and creating Sagmeister’s specific style of typography. His typohgraphy work consists of weird and amazing shapes. He likes to play around with words in the above example you see the beginning stage of him writing always on some flowers which contradicts the point of the flower, the next image you see the outcome of the flower which is all shrivelled up warped Sagmeister’s writing. A large majority of his typography work is made by hand, it is this that
initiially drew me to his work because i am always trying to find a way to step away from the computer and work with materials I have. His work requires the viewer to think about what his work means to him and what he wanted it to mean to the viewer, he talks a lot about happiness and fun in his work and you can see how this is reflected in the design. His work makes me question what I could do, if I could create something as wild as my imagination in the future.
FITEI
The FITEI (International Festival of Iberian Expression Theatre) are a group who promote theater and the performing arts. They set up a yearly festivals to promote the arts. These magazines and posters caught my eye instantly when looking into magazine design. I have just finished creating typography which had been inspired by origami and was interested to see if I could incorporate it into the cover of my magazine. The cut outs and colour are so bold and vibrant on each of the covers, I was also interested in the angular shapes the (top
right) they create in their work. They have managed to stick with one logo yet translate it in so many different ways on each of the designs, this is something I would like to do with my work. My final cover for the magazine was inspired by the their computerized style collage. I wanted to create something which looked so simple upon first glance yet when you look closer. The top left image is interesting to look at, the medium used looks to be paint and the designer has cut out parts of the
text so that the paint flow over the image which gives the appearance that the image is still in motion. If I were to create images like this for a cover I would want to strip back the background a bit so the type wouldn’t be so overwhelmed, otherwise the viewers would have to strain to read the information. I like how the bottom right poster looks to be simulutaniously wrapping and unwrapping itself from the design. Pieces have been cut out of the image and stuck on somewhere else.
Time magazine is one of the worlds most famous magazines covering every possible subject. Models included on their covers include politicians, singers, actors and business people. The style of the cover is in between magazine and newpaper in terms of professional style. The typeface used is also similar to that of a newspaper probably to show the reader that that is the sort of content that Time covers. The way they stack the content of the magazine down the side of the image is incredibly neat compared to other magazines, this is not only because of their tight professional grid structure but because Time’s magazine doesn’t need headlines and quotes to sell a magazine all they need is the masthead and the power of a photograph to sway
their readers to buy. Their audience will be interested in buying this because whereas a newpaper is just as factual - maybe even less they have colour which would make the buyer even more interested. Red being used on the cover naturally draws the eye, the frame around the face would entice the readers eye to view the content before even turning a page. The first feature I see when looking at the cover is the eyes, they have either been hilighted with make up or with studio lights. Eyes are the first thing a person is drawn to on the face, eyes are used a lot in advertisement because of this and the use of both red, the eyes and tigher grid structure make this cover one of the most powerful ones around.
A few years ago I would have said Esquire was a mens magazine but since then their brand and style has “grown up” somewhat and can sometimes be compared with the style of Time magazine. The colours have softened in the pages and the masthead now looks more formal now the colours have been stripped off. Logos in magazines now only need one colour, they no longer need to stand out as much as they used to in order to get sales. In the eyes of the audience of the magazines it’s all about who you can get on the cover. Esquire have cleverly used colour on their covers to show personality of the cover’s model. Grey can be associated with dull and boring but the use of it on their pages shows the model in a more classic and timeless light. This style is one I would say has been inspired by Time magazine. The use of the handwritten and cartoonish features adds the jokey, fun side of Esquire to the cover. The fresh new colour schemes will bring a huge new audience to their magazine including a lot of women whom were not their target audience years ago with a “lad’s mag” appearance of some sort.
Whilst creating this magazine Esquire’s masthead style had a large influince in whether or not I created something handdrawn or computerized, the final look of the logo has the same sweeping features as the masthead. I wanted the look to have a calligraphy style similar to this as the end result. A recurring theme in Esquire’s covers is for the model to be wearing patternless or nearly colourless clothing so that the background and type colour can shine through the model and masthead giving them both a silhoutte-like effect.
Vogue magazine is a fashion magazine which also covers important issue such a politics from time to time. The colours schemes of the cover and the contents change with the seasons. In Winter the blues blend with greys and whites, Summer issues tend to have a lot of bright blues and pinks. Vogue typically has their models in the centre of the page making it easy to filter in the information around them. Not including the masthead each cover has 2-3 fonts used on each cover with a thin font being used for the headline so it doesn’t disrupt the main image. The font being used is very similar to the Gotham font which i am using in this magazine, which adds a sleek, classy, modern stamp on the cover. Usually pattern or texture is added to the photograph so the image looks less flat and that the eye is drawn in, an example of this is bottom left where Charlize Theron is wearing a textured dress which mimics the sea behind her. Without the texture or the bright pink added to the cover the viewer might have got lost in the background of the cover.
Rebel magazine is a fashion & lifestyle magazine who feature new creatives and their work. They change their logo to fit the magazines theme, some magazines do this because of their brand is so big they have people actively seeking out their name on a page so their don’t need to keep their masthead the same. Doing this also fits with the magazine’s aim of promoting creative work and new styles, this would also give a chance to other designers to design the masthead and experiment with different styles. Having the masthead with different
covers will also allow designers to experiment with new colours that aren’t accosiated with the brand. The above masthead looks to be influenced by the 1970s and 80s from the colour choice and they chosen font style. This would suggest that recent articles are about that style or time period. Looking at other recent issues of the magazine this is a huge contrast to the covers the usually publish. With bright colours and patterns this cover would stand out to a wider audience who don’t usually read this magazine.
This is another example of a masthead by Rebel Magazine, as you can see it has taken on a totally different style. The ink/paint look suggests that this is more focused on art in this issue. This type will not be readable to most of the audience, this back ups the point I started earlier on how the don’t rely on the masthead itself but rely more on the model or the cover layout. Rebel magazine sometimes reuse these logos on their magazine - possibly for monthly issues or seasons. Their website also updates with each new
logo so the audience can see what to look out for on the cover if they can’t find it. For this magazine to change their masthead so often they also rely on their online audience more than they do their store, with everything moving online it makes sense they would focus on this because of that is where the majority of their audience will be. Doing this makes it faster and easier for their viewers to find and get a copy. This masthead is similar to the style of Interview magazine.
Hunger magazine focuses on everything from music, fashion to business. Their magazine caters to an audience of young adults which is made clear by the content. The masthead is easily readable on most covers but can be covered up by models, however still remain recognisable from it’s use of a constant logo. Their models on the cover also remain constant with a small selection remaining on nearly all of their covers. The logo is either black or white on their cover as they want it to remain bold and in contrast to everything on the
page. The use of serifs is not common on mastheads although many big name magazines use them such as Vogue and Time whom also use contrasting colours on their page in order for each letter to stand out. The sharpness on the serifs go well with the title slightly suggesting imagery of teeth or claws.
Wonderland magazine is similar to Hunger magazine but is aimed at a slightly older audience. This masthead is what people would typically see in stores but the tracking adds a fresher, more eyecatching look. This masthead has been changed to the lowercase version in hopes to draw in an wider audience with the lowercase looking similar to clothing companies. In most issues with the uppercase type they have a black strip on the top of the magazine where they place the white type however it can
cut a lot of the image off the page. The lowercase masthead being used on covers now is less intrusive on the image and is far more readable.
THE MAKING OF
THE MAGAZINE
GOTHAM BOLD 60pt Gotham Book 13pt
Gotham Book 10pt, 12pt Leading, -20 Tracking, 2mm Right Indent, Justified last line aligned left. Gotham Book 10pt, 12pt Leading, -20 Tracking, 2mm Right Indent, Justified last line aligned left. Gotham Book 10pt, 12pt Leading, -20 Tracking, 2mm Right Indent, Justified last line aligned left. Gotham Book 10pt, 12pt Leading, -20 Tracking, 2mm Right Indent, Justified last line aligned left.
I chose to go with the font Gotham because of the size of the font family. I feel like this font was the perfect mixture between bold and thin that I am looking for to reflect my style in this magazine. The shape and curve of the type is easy to read yet has a modern and stylish appearance on the paper which also blends into the work whilst not overpowering or taking away from the image. This font has always been my “go to” font when working on InDesign, it’s smooth edges makes it very soft on the eye.
ARIAL BLACK 40pt
HELVETICA NEUE LT 40pt
Helvetica 13pt
Gotham Book 13pt
Gotham Book 10pt, 12pt Leading, -20 Tracking, 2mm Right Indent, Justified last line aligned left. Gotham Book 10pt, 12pt Leading, -20 Tracking, 2mm Right Indent, Justified last line aligned left. Gotham Book 10pt, 12pt Leading, -20 Tracking, 2mm Right Indent, Justified last line aligned left. Gotham Book 10pt, 12pt Leading, -20 Tracking, 2mm Right Indent, Justified last line aligned left.
Helvetica World 11pt, 12pt Leading, -20 Tracking, 2mm Right Indent, Justified last line aligned left. Helvetica World 11pt, 12pt Leading, -20 Tracking, 2mm Right Indent, Justified last line aligned left. Helvetica World 11pt, 12pt Leading, -20 Tracking, 2mm Right Indent, Justified last line aligned left. Helvetica World 11pt, 12pt Leading, -20 Tracking, 2mm Right Indent, Justified last line aligned left.
GRIDS Grids are a guide for designers when creating booklets or magazines. They create a structure in a document which would create a design which is organised, easy to read and visually exciting. A grid can be used to organize graphic elements in relation to a page, in relation to other graphic elements on the page, or in relation to other parts of the same image or shape. “ The grid system is an aid, not a guarantee. It permits a number of possible uses and each designer can look for a solution appropriate to his personal style. But one must learn how to use the grid; it is an art that requires practice. ” - Josef Müller-Brockmann. Throughout all my projects - especially in the creation of my magazine I have noticed I naturally create a grid layout which works around an image, I find this layout more exciting to look at not only because it breaks up blocks of text but because it allows the image to explain what the page is talking about before the viewer can interpret it through the text. Without grids and guides a designer couldn’t create a theme and look consistently and their work would lack visual harmony. High quality brands have grid systems so that they produce high quality outcomes each time.
Final Cover Designs
I chose the bottom right design for my final magazine cover because out of all of them this one looks like a finished piece, everything slotted into place out of all my ideas. This cover is heavily influenced by my City in Flux work, the image itself is taken from my research and the pattern was created from the basic crane structure from my Under Construction Typeface. In the top right picture you see the beginnings of the final cover with the placement of the logo being nearly centered. I found the bue of the sky too overpowering and flat so I chose to place the pattern over the top breaking up the colour which created the look of a collage. I think the final logo, colour scheme and overall style of the cover has been unconsiously influenced by my time at the fashion company Joules. Their brand use very earthy tones coupled with bright bold pattern. Overall I am very pleased with my cover I couldn’t have predicted what it would look like in the end because it was the result of an experimentation with resources, however the outcome is exactly what I was looking for in a final magazine cover.
CITY IN FLUX
The City in Flux brief required us to research and explore cities and get a feel of what a city is about, what makes it. At the beginning I went around Huddersfield and York, taking pictures and drawing in response to the images I had taken. I played around with an image of cranes that I had photographed and created 2d letting to spell out City this later transformed into 3d when I attempted to draw the rest of the words “in flux” After creating the words City in Flux on illustrator in 3d I came up with the idea to build the letters out of material found on the street and in stores. This idea was changed later in order to complete it in time for the deadline because of the lack of rescourses. Instead of creating a small scale model of the type I realised I could create a whole typeface with the same amount of detail I had in mind. The end result of this project was a small booklet showcasing the alphabet in both linedrawing and full colour. I am very pleased with this outcome as it’s something that I can use and I created something new inspired by machinery that creates something new everyday.
Under Construction Font
EARTH ARTEFACT
The brief for Earth Artefact asked us to create our own version of the Golden Record. The Golden Record is a record which holds information about the Earth and it’s inhabitants which is strapped onto the Voyager 1 spacecraft by NASA. The Golden Record has a wide range of topics I could depict, it wasn’t necessary to cover all of them. I came up with a wide range of topics to research such as Emotions, Human Propoganda, Elements and Archaeology. Many of these themes interlinked early on so many more ideas could be created. Throughout the project Emotions and Elements is something I was extremely interested creating a piece for. The result of this project brief is two animations about a fox, the first one shows three foxes which transition emotions as the world and weather affect them. The second is an animation short inspired by the animation company Animade who create quirky shorts about creatures.
The main animation created for this brief focuses on the world’s weather and it’s effect on our moods when we don’t realise it. At the beginning of the animation you see a happy fox swinging in one of the world globes but the globe hits the middle globe which causes it to shake violently and cause a storm which startles and angers the second fox, however much it swings it doesn’t reach the end globe and the last fox is left alone so it is left sad on it’s own in the end globe. This animation gave me a chance to learn more about animation and about AfterEffects. The outcome of the animations were better than expected. Without doing any complicated animation before I was determined that the outcome be of a certain standard. The colour schemes in the final two clips use earthy colours which is a theme throughout my work even in this magazine.
ALPHA
HABET
Our brief was to create a set of typefaces inspired by a range of material we had collected. I created one inspired by the patterns of Veekee Workshop, another was created taking inspiration from a poster and the angular shapes of folded paper, the final one is inspired by swirling patterns similar to hair or smoke. The final typeface was the hardest of all to create because I find creating these sort of shapes difficult without having control over the angles. Each letter is extremely detailed and took from thirty minutes to an hour to make. This typeface is by far my favourite because of how the lettering looks from far away.
Created by Phoebe Whitehead