Modernism
Introduction to the movement Modernism started in the first half of the XXth century, after First World War and the Industrial Revolution. Artists were brought up in the new, industrialised culture in which traditional values began to change diametrally.
Graphic design began to be known to the public as “The New Typography”. It used simple, sans-serif typefaces with no ornaments and decorations. Modernism mainly formed in art schools (e.g. Bauhaus, Swiss schools etc.)
Modernists wanted to change the world for better with their art. They were striving for the new world, which would be free from war, conflicts and human greed. Modernism rejected naturalism and academism and all past periods. Adolf Loos talks about this rejection in an essay written by him - “Ornament and Crime”. In this essay he explains that there should be no ornaments and decorations, but only forms stripped to their essential parts. Artists and designers in differnet proffesion started to share this thought. This rejection of ornaments was their expressionof rejecting past centuries that had tolerated war, poverty, dieseases, coflicts etc. They thought that using continuing to use decorations would be very much illogical. In the beggining of XXth centuty artists and designers were questioning what art, its principals and function is. Art started to be an expression of truth and tended for precision. It was very experimental and radical. Designers aimed at clarity, certanityand order. The usual centered composition of the page changed into de-centered, assymetrical layout. Colours and composition of the page were greatly influenced by abstract painters, such as Piet Mondrian. Art reflected needs and purpose. Everything in visual disciplines was logical, unsentimental, constructed of primary colours and geometrical figures. Functionality was the main message of the movement. Simply, form had to follow function. New principles of design started to form.
There were Swiss art schools and German Bauhaus, which educated young artists, designers, architects in new, very radical ways, in the spirit of times and the movement. Many great artists came out of these schools. Today Bauhaus is understood as the main source of modernism, many people think that Bauhaus is a name of an art movement and not a name of school working in this movement. Term Modernism in Graphic Design started to be used in 1925-1930 in the most significant period of this movement (which was dated at 1920s and 1930s). Modernism still has a great influence on today’s Graphic Design, with designers around the world working within the principles established by Modernists. Modernist typographers were aiming at pure, undecorated, simple letterforms, logical page layouts. They started to bring assymetry and hierarchy to the page composition, so that it would suggest the readind order and follow the natural eye movement. This meant fewer typeface sizes and weights used around the page. Some of the designers avoided uppercase letters, especially in Germany as there every noun starts with a capital letter. Jan Tschichold one of the leading typographers and designers in Modernism claimed that only sans-serif typefaces were following the spirit and needs of modern times. Typographers tried to create a universal typeface, which could be used in any form of design. It is thought that they’ve achieved this with Helvetica.
After the Paris Exposition showing modern artwork, Modernism started to appear in America. Artists immigrating from Europe brought the modernist spirit with them and inspired American architects to build skyscrapers.
In the mid-century modernism began to change slowly. Idea of using geometrical shapes and formal perfection started to fade away and was replaced with casualness and faked naturalness. This can be clearly seen in the way actors were posing in Hollywood photography. New typefaces were immitating the casual handwriting making designs look personal. It communicated warmer, human feeling. Designers aimed to create organic work rather than purely geometrical. Modernism, disliked by the public and attacked by totalitarian states for its too serious, strickt, pure and inhuman forms was slowly comming to an end. Replaced with the Post-Modernist era, which will fight everything what Modernism stood for.
germ an modernist school of art
Bauhaus was founded in 1919 by Walter Gropius and was the centre of design in XX century. It affected everything. It was founded in Weimar (small, provincial town in Germany) during political and economical chaos. Bauhaus started the revolution of the way in which people were educated in art schools. They have started the workshop based method of education. These workshops trained people as artists and craftsmen at the same time. Students didn’t design things on paper but were actually making them by hand. Workshops were taught by the craftsmen under the supervision of the artists. Before Bauhaus art students used to sit in the studio and all did the same thing, copying previous artists work, painting with watercolours etc. They also learned art history. Bauhaus was very free. Students could create whatever they wanted. Bauhaus allowed both men and women to apply to their courses. Bauhaus started to combine art with practical use of the object. They were producing designs whit future mass production in mind. At first, elegant and simple objects created in Bauhaus were considered very plain.
There was an emphasison use of primary colours and geometrical shapes. In 1923 more and more people were supporting socialism in Weimar. As Bauhaus were against National Socialists Party, they were communists and they had to close the school. In 1925 the Bauhaus re-opened in Dessau as it was politically more liberal. Typography in Bauhaus was bright, bold and simple without any decorations – even serifs. Graphic design was all about optics and communication theory. In theatre they were pushing the boundaries of design, architecture and form. They could experiment with everything. People wanted their children not to look at the Bauhaus students. Women from Bauhaus wore trousers and man ponytails. They were seen as the punks of Dessau. As Nazis took control over the Dessau’s council they have closed the school. Because of the fact that Bauhaus has been making connections between art and technology Nazis said that ‘they were on the wrong path’. Bauhaus re-opened in Berlin, where it then ended. Teachers and students of Bauhaus spread all over the world taking their ideas with them. In 1925 Bauhaus started Typography
and Advertising workshops directed by Herbert Bayer (previous student of Bauhaus). Herbert Bayer wanted to eliminate use of uppercase letters, as nouns in German were capitalized and he thought of them as a fragment of the past, past full of war and conflicts. He achieved his goal and Bauhaus banned use of uppercase letters in 1925, however they constantly broke this rule in designs. Typographers in Bauhaus wanted to eliminate serifs completely (which later on became banned by them) and use a geometric base for every letterform. Typographic philosophy began to be based on utility. Bauhaus is now understood as the main source of Modernism. Many greatest Modernist artists and designers were involved (as teachers or students) with Bauhaus. Between them we can find people like: Walter Gropius,Wassily Kandinsky,Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Herbert Bayer, Joost Smidt, Josef Albers, Marianne Brandt etc.
walter gropius manifesto
“The ultimate aim of all creative activity is a building! The decoration of buildings was once the noblest function of fine arts, and fine arts were indispensable to great architecture. Today they exist in complacent isolation, and can only be rescued by the conscious co-operation and collaboration of all craftsmen. Architects, painters, and sculptors must once again come to know and comprehend the composite character of a building, both as an entity and in terms of its various parts. Then their work will be filled with that true architectonic spirit which, as “salon art”, it has lost. The old art schools were unable to produce this unity; and how, indeed, should they have done so, since art cannot be taught? Schools must return to the workshop. The world of the pattern-designer and applied artist, consisting only of drawing and painting must become once again a world in which things are built. If the young person who rejoices in creative activity now begins his career as in the older days by learning a craft, then the unproductive “artist” will no
longer be condemned to inadequate artistry, for his skills will be preserved for the crafts in which he can achieve great things. Architects, painters, sculptors, we must all return to crafts! For there is no such thing as “professional art”. There is no essential difference between the artist and the craftsman. The artist is an exalted craftsman. By the grace of Heaven and in rare moments of inspiration which transcend the will, art may unconsciously blossom from the labour of his hand, but a base in handicrafts is essential to every artist. It is there that the original source of creativity lies. Let us therefore create a new guild of craftsmen without the class-distinctions that raise an arrogant barrier between craftsmen and artists! Let us desire, conceive, and create the new building of the future together. It will combine architecture, sculpture, and painting in a single form, and will one day rise towards the heavens from the hands of a million workers as the crystalline symbol of a new and coming faith.” - Walter Gropius , 1919
Walter Gropius in his manifesto states that all art schools should come back to workshop based teaching, as all artist should learn craft techniques first. He says that there is no difference between the artist and the craftsman because all of the artists need to know craft techniques and then apply some creativity to it e.g. if thy want to create wood sculptures they first need to learn how to operate the tools used for this and how to make particular cuts etc. Once they will know this they can then apply this to their creative ideas and produce a piece of an artwork. This manifesto calls for artists to combine practical use and aesthetic look in their work; they should aim at creating objects which would look more modern, simpler, but at the same time would keep their practical use. Walter Gropius also says that all of the artwork people produce should be influenced by architecture. They should learn composition of a building as a whole as well as of its components to be able to create work with true architectonic spirit. That is because all of the creative work produced in the world is always going to be used in surrounding of the buildings. Gropius wants to
unite architecture, sculpture and painting in a single form. This manifesto persuades people to create a world of art in which things are made, built by artists and not only drawn or painted onto paper, in which art schools would have workshops in which this work would be produced instead of having classes in which students would all draw the same figures and copy other artists.I think that Gropius achieved what he was talking about in this manifesto by building Bauhaus, as Bauhaus was all about workshops and architecture and many great designs and inventions come from Bauhaus students. Like in architecture in Bauhaus everything was based on primary shapes and primary colours. Throughout all of the artwork created in Bauhaus we can see architectural influence and how artwork produced there would complete the buildings. They were creating artwork which was very practical and could be used in our everyday life. Everything they design was actually created by them in workshops and not only designed on paper.
destijl & piet mondrian
the trurly modern artist is aware of abstraction in an emotion of beauty
- piet mondrian
De Stijl was founded in 1917. It was a Dutch srtistic movement with members such as: Theo van Doesburg, Piet Mondrian, Vilmos Huszar, Bart van der Leck, Gerrit Rietveld, Robert van Hoff and J.J.P. Out. Artists working in this movement wanted to achieve abstraction and universality, by using only essential colours and forms. Their works were constructed with horizontal and vertical lines, squares, rectangles and primary colours. Their compositions were strongly assymetrical. Aesthetic balance of the composition was achieved by artists with use of oppositions and contrast. The movement was greatly influenced by Cubist paintings. In 1924 Piet Mondrian broke with the grop, because he did not agree with their new theory that the vertical line is more important than horizontal and vertical ones.
After death of its founder Theo van Doesburg in 1931 the De Stijl group did not survive. mondrian was born in 1872 to a dutch aristocratic family and began to study art in 1892 in msterdam’s rijksakademie van beeldene kunsten. in 1912 he arrived into paris and began to refine his own style highly influenced by cubism. he tried to achieve the highest levels of simplicity in form and colour. he started to paint very pure compositions, based on primary colours and rectangles. he moved to new york in 1940 to escape world war ii and died in 1944. mondrian was the founder of abstract art. his abstract, geometrical paintings were a great influence for other artists and designers. they influenced the use of grid system on page layout, which graphic designers use to this day.
master of typography jan tschichold
“perfect typography is certainly the most elusive of all arts. sculpture in stone alone comes near it in obstinacy.�
- jan tschichold
Jan Tschichold was born in 1902 in Germany and died in 1974 in Switzerland. He was designer, writer and a teacher, very well aware of his own importance in the design world. In Britain he is most famous for refashoning Penguin books with horizontally banded covers. He attended the Bauhaus Weimar exhibition and since then he became involved with Modernist typography. The New Typography was his first major work published in 1928. In his book Tschichold talks about principles of design. He thought that we should all use sans-serif typefaces, photographs rather than illustrations and the layout should be assymetrical. Piet Mondrianand his paintings were a great
inspiration for Tschicholds page layouts. He was called a “cultural Bolshevist” by Nazis, who were against Modernist movement. In 1933 Tschichold was taken into custody and he has been told that his modern ideas would not be tolerated. After spending four weeks in prison Jan Tschichold left Germany and moved to Switzerland in August 1933. In 1947 he’s got a job in England with Penguing book designs. He set new rules and standards for book production in UK. Rules which Tschichold set as to fow to space letters and words on the page and what typefaces to mix are still followed by today’s graphic designers.
armin hofmann Armin Hofmann is a Swiss graphic designer, born in 1920. He completed a lithography apprenticeship and started to teach typography at the Basel School of Design by the time he was 27 years old. Shortly after he became head of the school. For most of his life Armin Hofmann was designing postersas he thought this is the most efficient form of visual communication. He experimented with composition, photo montage and typesetting in his designs. Posters designed by Armin Hofmann were in black and white, as he says: “A primary in blacka and white posters is to counteract the tivialization of colour as it exist today on billboards and in advertising”. Hofmann wrote a book titled “Graphic Design Manual: Principles and Practice”, which to this day is a reference book for all graphic designers. His posters can be seen in many major art galleries today.
“Typography has one plain duty before it and that is to convey information in writing. No argument or consideration can absolve typography from this duty.”
- Emil Ruder
Emil Ruder was born in 1914 in Switzerland. Ruder attended Zurich School of Arts and Crafts, where he was taught principles of Bauhaus and Tschichild’s New Typography. He was a typographer, one of the formers of Basel School of Design and Swiss Style. In his opinion the purpose of typography was to communicate ideas with writing. He used sans-serif fonts and like all Swiss Style designers he preferred asymmetrical layout. He was a really important designer of 1940s and 1950s and his use of grid system is a great influence for today’s web designers. He wrote a book on typography titled “Emil Ruder: Typography” which was published in German, French and English.
RAND “The public is more familiar with bad design than good design. It is, in effect, conditioned to prefer bad design, because that is what it lives with. He new becomes threatening, the old reassuring.” - Paul Rand
Paul Rand was one of the most influential American graphic designers, who was born in 1914 and died in 1996. He was working with illustration, advertising, typography and industrial design. Laszlo Moholy-Nagy used to say about Rand that “his fantasy is boundless”. Rand strongly believed in fundaments of modernism and defamiliarazing the ordinary. He used to change familiar, everyday objects into commanding symbols. Paul Rand was influenced by Cubism, Constructivism, Bauhaus and De Stijl and transformed these movements into his simple American design style. In 1938-1945 he designed covers for Direction magazine. He worked for free as he thought that this would help him create more honest art. However he is mostly known for designing logos (especially for his IBM logo) and a lot of them are still in use today.
PAUL
Typeface designs are greatly influenced by fashion and technology. In modernism, when Helvetica was introducend, there were massive changes in Europe. We were after I World War and Industrial Revolution; things began to be mass produced. Type designers were concentrated on creating a universal, neutral, sans-serif typeface, which could be used for any designs and had a great clarity. In 1957 Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann working for Haas Type Foundry designed a perfect typeface called Neue Haas Grotesk. Its design was based on another typeface Schelter Grotesk. To make
hhis typeface more marketable internationally they had to change its name to something simpler and that’s how it became known as Helvetica (Helvetia - Roman name of Switzerland) in 1961 and it became an identity of “Swiss Style�designs. As Swiss designers started to spread around the world, Helvetica went with them. This type spreaded into designs of big corporations such as BMW, Bayer, Lufthansa, Microsoft, Panasonic, American Airlines, Knoll, Bank of America etc. It became so popular, that people could see it everywhere around them on signs, logos, flyers and so on.
vetica started to take over worlds typography. When Apple introduced its first personal computer with very few typefaces to choose from in it and Helvetica among them it began to spread and became even more popular. Nowadays designers cannot avoid Helvetica, as they use Adobe suite and Helvetica is used for their interface. I personally think that Helvetica became too popular. A lot of people nowadays seem to think that anything with Helvetica in it is a good design, which is not always true. I tend to stay away from this typeface and replace it with something else.
I NF L U E N C E O F M OD E R N ISM AN D P O S T M O D E R N IS M ON TO D AY ’S G R A P H IC D E S IG N
Modernism and postmodernism had a great influence on today’s graphic design. Designers took something from both of these movements and applied to their work. I think that from modernism the most significant thing we took is grid, use of the grid system and hierarhy in our designs. We also still tend to go for sans-serif typefaces (not always, but in most cases) and simplicity. From postmodernism I think we mainly learned that we should allow some freedom in our designs, that we shouldn’t stick to the strick rules of modernism, but we should try to stretch boundaries and experiment with our own work. I observed that grunge typefaces and backgrounds, so popular in 80s are still being used nowadays. I think that we can very easily observe that
our designs are more frivolous than they have been in modernism in animation, advertisment, especially TV ads. Designers nowadays also still stick to the rule “FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION”. This means that even though people expect our designs to look good and proffessional our main aim is still function of the design, the job it intends to do. For example when we design an advert for orange juice, we try to make it look original, engaging etc., but our main goal is to persuade people to buy this product and form of the design (the way in which design is created) should reflect on its function; in simple words we should create this advert to look good, so that people would go out and buy this particular juice over different drinks that are on the market.