New Visual Language Research by samanthajaynebutler

new visual language ISSUE 1 RESEARCH 1FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION

CONTENTS 4-5 Modernism 6-7 Post Modernism 8-17 Art Movements 18-25 Artist Research 26-33 Grids and Type 34-45 Development

what is modern ism? 4

MODERNISM Modernism began at the end of the 19th Century and was influenced by the new technologies and ideologies that permeated the period (automobile, airplane, telephone, radio, telegraph, theory of relativity, theory of evolution, Marxism, and Freud’s views about the unconscious). The result of these influences was that artists felt they no longer had to adhere to strict conventions of what needed to go into creating a painting, sculpture, architecture, music, and so on. In other words, “tradition” was no longer a sacred cow. While traditional art and all tradition, for that matter, emphasized the importance of continuity -- that is, one generation should more or less maintain the same standards and practices of the previous ones, modernism suggested art must be investigative, similar to the way new technologies and ideas were investigations, so that the arts and what artists did could now be greatly expanded -- basically to art became ‘whatever you could get away with.’

what is post modern ism? 6

POST-MODERNISM Postmodernism was a response to decades of modernist art. What postmodernism asserted (during the second half of the 20th Century) was that there were no new ideas or forms to be found in art, as 100 years of experimentation were enough to explore new forms, so that creating something “new” or “modern” would simply be a benign and insignificant variation of something that was already investigated or created. Thus, postmodernist critics claimed newness was “exhausted.” They did claim, however, that the next logical progression in the arts and for the activity of artists was to borrow, combine, refer to, imitate, comment on, etc., previous works of art. So, postmodern artists should no longer seek entirely new means of creating art, but artwork would now become an investigation of what was already new. A secondary idea of postmodernism is/was that the creator or artist should no longer be considered as being “creative.” Rather, creativity was a natural aspect of being, so that an artist, if she/he tuned into this vast pulse of creativity, would be more of a vehicle for transmitting principles of art.

art move ments 8

1900-1970 Fauvism Cubism Dada De Stijl Bauhaus Surrealism Abstract Expressionism Pop Art

FAUVISM 1900 - 1907

Fauvism began in the 1900s by a group of early twentieth century Modern artists. The style emphasised strong, strident colours with seemingly wild brushwork. The movement was lead by artists Henri Matisse and AndrĂŠ Derain who were described as Fauves (wild beasts) by art critic Louis Vauxcelles during their exhibition at Salon dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Automne in Paris. The term was applied to the artists after they introduced unnaturalistic colour and vivid brushstrokes into their paintings in the summer of 1905, working together in the small fishing port of Collioure on the Mediterranean coast. It was the first of the avant-garde movements that flourished in France in the early years of the twentieth century. The Fauve painters were the first to break with Impressionism as well as with older, traditional methods of perception. Their spontaneous, often subjective response to nature was expressed in bold, undisguised brushstrokes and high-keyed, vibrant colours directly from the tube.

CUBISM 1908 - 1914

Cubism is an early 20th century avant-garde art movement that was created and pioneered by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. It is known to be one of the most influential art styles of the 20th century and one of the main influences of Cubism is the representation of three- dimensional forms. The objects are analysed, broken up and reassembled in an abstracted form - instead of depicting objects from one viewpoint, the artist depicts the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to represent the subject in a greater context. The French art critic Louis Vauxcelles coined the term Cubism after seeing the landscapes Braque had painted in 1908 at L’Estaque in emulation of Cézanne. Vauxcelles called the geometric forms in the highly abstracted works “cubes.”

DADA 1916 - 1922

Dada was another avant-garde art movement of the early 20th century. Although it was claimed to have started in Zurich, Switzerland in 1916, spreading to Berlin shortly after, the height of New York Dada was actually the year before in 1915. It was an international movement that was started by a group of artists and poets associated with the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich and was born out of the negative reaction to the horrors of the first World War. The origin of the name Dada is unclear; some believe that it is a nonsensical word. Others maintain that it originates from the Romanian artists Tristan Tzara’s and Marcel Janco’s frequent use of the words “da, da,” meaning “yes, yes” in the Romanian language. The movement mainly involved visual arts, literature, poetry, art manifestoes, art theory, theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti- war politics through a rejection of the prevailing standards in art through anti-art cultural works.

DE STIJL 1917 - 1931 Dutch for â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;The Styleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and also known as Neoplasticism (new plastic art) is an art movement that was founded in 1917 in Amsterdam. The movement proposed ultimate simplicity and abstraction in both architecture and paintings by using only the geometry horizontal and vertical lines and rectangular forms as well as being limited to the primary colours of red, blue and yellow and the primary values of black, white and grey. They were to avoid the use of symmetry but then attained the aesthetic balance by the use of opposition. An example of some artists that followed this particular movement would be Theo van Doesburg, Burgoyne Diller and Kurt Schwitters.

BAUHAUS 1919 - 1933

Bauhaus was a school in Germany that was founded by Walter Gropius. It combined crafts and the fine arts, and was most famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught - which is also stated and celebrated in it’s very own manifesto that was published when the school opened. It operated from 1919 to 1933 and at that time the German term Bauhaus stood for “School of Building”. In spite of its name, and the fact that its founder was an architect, the Bauhaus did not have an architecture department during the first years of its existence. Its core objective was a radical concept: to reimagine the material world to reflect the unity of all the arts. Gropius developed a craft-based curriculum that would turn out artisans and designers capable of creating useful and beautiful objects appropriate to this new system of living. The Bauhaus style became one of the most influential currents in Modernist architecture and modern design.

SURREALISM 1924 - 1939 Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s. It is best known for its visual artworks and writings and the aim was to “resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality.” Artists painted unnerving, illogical scenes with photographic precision, created strange creatures from everyday objects and developed painting techniques that allowed the unconscious to express itself and/or an idea or concept. Surrealist works feature the element of surprise and unexpected juxtapositions Many Surrealist artists and writers regard their work as an expression of the philosophical movement with the works only being an artifact. Leader of the movement André Breton was explicit in his assertion that Surrealism was above all a revolutionary movement. Surrealism developed out of the Dada activities during World War I and the most important center of the movement was Paris. From the 1920s onward, the movement spread around the globe, eventually affecting the visual arts, literature, film, and music.

ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM 1946 - 1956 Abstract expressionism was developed in New York in the 1940s and was a post Second World War art movement within American painting. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York City at the center of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris. A small group of loosely affiliated artists created a stylistically diverse body of work that introduced radical new directions in art—and shifted the art world’s focus. Breaking away from accepted conventions in both technique and subject matter, the artists made monumentally scaled works that stood as reflections of their individual psyches—and in doing so, attempted to tap into universal inner sources. These artists valued spontaneity and improvisation, and they accorded the highest importance to process. The imagery was primarily abstract and even when depicting images based on visual realities, the Abstract Expressionists favored a highly abstracted mode.

POP ART 1954 - 1970 The art movement Pop Art emerged in Britian during the mid 1950â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s while emerging a little later in the late 1950s in the United States. The movement challenged the traditions of fine art by including imagery from popular culture such as advertising and the news. Material is sometimes visually removed from its known context, isolated, and then sometimes combined with unrelated material. Pop Art employs aspects of mass culture, such as advertising, comic books and mundane cultural objects. It is widely interpreted as a reaction to the then-dominant ideas of abstract expressionism, as well as an expansion upon them. It is one of the earliest examples of post modern art and was carried out by artists such as Andy Warhol and Richard Hamilton. Some of the ket characteristics of the movement include recognizable imagery, usually very bright colors, flat imagery influenced by comic books and newspaper photographs and images of celebrities or fictional characters in comic books, advertisements and fan magazines. Pop Art ended the Modernism movement and appreciated popular culture. It does not critique the consequences of materialism and consumerism; it simply recognizes its pervasive presence as a natural fact.

artist research 18

ARTISTS Walter Dexel El Lissitzky Joseph Muller-Brockmann David Carson Armin Hofmann Neville Brody

WALTER DEXEL Walter Dexel is a German painter and graphic designer and is most well known for his work during the 1920s Constructivism movement. He studied art history under Heinrich Wölfflin and Fritz Burger in Munich from 1910 to 1914 while also receiving private drawing classes from H. Gröber. In 1916 Dexel graduated from university with a doctorate under Botho Gräf. Hisearly work was influenced by Cézanne’s landscapes while his later work was influenced by Cubism and Expressionism.

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EL LISSITZKY A Russian artist, designer, photographer, typographer, and architect, he was an important figure of the Russian avant garde. His development of the ideas behind the Suprematist art movement greatly influenced the Bauhaus and Constructivist movements after experimenting with production techniques and stylistic devices that would go on to dominate 20th-century graphic design. He did not limit himself to developing a form of abstract painting but rather extended the new functionalism to photography, book design, architecture and urban planning. His enormous versatility enabled El Lissitzky to forge links between the Russian Constructivists and NeoPlasticism (De Stijl), the Bauhaus and Dada.

JOSEPH MULLER -BROCKMANN

Josef MĂźller-Brockmann, (May 9, 1914, in Rapperswil â&#x20AC;&#x201C; August 30, 1996), was a Swiss graphic designer and teacher. He studied architecture, design and history of art at both the University and Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich. In 1936 he opened his Zurich studio specialising in graphic design, exhibition design and photography. was influenced by the ideas of several different design and art movements including Constructivism, De Stijl, Suprematism and the Bauhaus. He is perhaps the most well-known Swiss designer and his name is probably the most easily recognized when talking about the period.

DAVID CARSON David Carson is an American graphgic designer and art director who is most well known for his experiemtnal typography and innovative magazine designs. Some of his msot popular work includes being the art director for the alternative Rock and Roll magazine, Ray Gun in 1992. With his â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;grungeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; typography and creative layouts and designs, his work is instantly recognisable and most influential in the post modern era. Regularly creating work with distorted typefaces and fractioned imagery, his work shows lots of character and imagination.

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NEVILLE BRODY Neville Brody (born 23 April 1957 in London) is an English graphic designer, typographer and art director. The founder of design agency Research Studios, Brody established his reputation working with record labels, magazines and a range of international clients. Recent projects include redesigning the BBC in September 2011 and The Times in 2006 with the creation of the font Times Modern. He was also one of the founding members of FontShop in London and designed a number of notable typefaces for them including include the updated font for the Times newspaper, Times Modern, New Deal as used in publicity material and titles for the film Public Enemies and Industria.

grids and type 26

GRIDS & TYPE Grid Systems Typography Helvetica

GRID SYSTEMS Grid systems can be very useful and bring organisation and visual structure into your piece of work. They are a good tool to use within design and can be helpful when presenting information and organizing the layout of text and images. They can help to enhance the user/readers experience by creating a predictable pattern for them to follow as they go along. For the designer it helps to create systomatic layouts that have a purpose.

â&#x20AC;&#x153; 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.

- Joseph Muller-Brockmann

â&#x20AC;? 29

TYPOGRAPHY The typography that you use within a piece of work is all part of the main design. A suitable typeface is the key part to a design and must be relatable to every other aspect. Good clean typography is a fundamental skill and can be developed over time of being a designer. Simplicity and structure is sometimes just as important as being outrageously creative. The three main points of adjustment and things to keep an eye out for is the Leading, Kerning and the Tracking, which usually cause some confusion. The difference is simple but yet easily confused when you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t fully understand how it differs. The Tracking refers to the uniform of spacing between all of the letters in a given selection of text whereas Kerning is the spacing between two specific letters. The Leading then refers to the vertical spacing between the lines of text.

ABCDEFGHI JKLMNOPQ RSTUVWXY ZABCDEFG HELVETICA IJKLMNOPQ RSTUVWXY ZABCDEFG HIJKLMNOP

HELVETICA

“

Helvetica was a real step from the 19th century typeface... We were impressed by that because it was more neutral, and neutralism was a word that we loved. It should be neutral. It shouldn’t have a meaning in itself. The meaning is in the content of the text and not in the typeface.

- Wim Crouwel

”

Helvetica is a widely used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger. Originally called Neue Haas Grotesk, its design was based on SchelterGrotesk and Haas’ Normal Grotesk but was changed in the 1960s by Haas’ German parent company Stempel to Helvetica (meaning Swiss in Latin) in order to make it more marketable internationally. The aim of the design was to create a neutral typeface that had great clarity, no intrinsic meaning in its form, and could be used on a wide variety of signage. It isthe most popular choice for commercial wordmarks and has been adapted with many different versions, for example, Helvetica Narrow, Helvetica Condensed, Neue Helvetica and many more. In 2007, director Gary Hustwit released a documentary film, Helvetica, to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the typeface. The independent feature-length documentary film about typography and graphic design, centered on the typeface and consisted on the history of the typeface interspersed with candid interviews. The film aims to show Helvetica’s beauty and ubiquity, and illuminate the personalities that are behind typefaces. It also explores the rift between modernists and postmodernists, with the latter expressing and explaining their criticisms of the famous typeface.

develop ment 34

DEVELOPMENT Mast Head Development Cover Design Development Final Cover Design

MAST HEAD DEVELOPMENT

COVER DEVELOPMENT

FINAL COVER This is the final design that I have decided to use as the front cover of my magazine. I decided to use this cover as I liked the idea of actually using my work to produce the design as it fits with what is being shown on the inside, as most magazines do. The photograph shows part of my ‘Cabinet of Curiosity’ and I have presented it in this way so that you want to look inside to find out what the cover is actually showing and what it’s about. The mast head that I have chosen is a combination of some of the ones I tested as I picked my favourite elements from each and merged them together. I think this masthead works well with the image as both of the colours are actually used in the image but aren’t the main colours so that they don’t clash. The white circle with low transparency helps to add another element of detail without taking away any attention from the photograph but also helping to make the masthead stand out a little clearer.