Research document

New Visual Language Sarah Davies U1358975 Module TFD1064 Design Practise 2

MODERNISM Modernism describes an array of cultural movements rooted in the changes in Western society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. I am going to look at how modernism had an impact on graphic design and changed the style of design today.

A lot of designers and art movements fit into the term “Modernism”. Modernism is highly based on the use of grids and “form

follows function”. Primary colours are often used, along with the use of 45 and 90 degree angles.

I have chosen to look at a select few, these include: De Stilj Bauhaus Futurism Helvetica Font Futura Font Swiss Design

THEO VAN DOESBURG Theo Van Doesburg was a Dutch artist born in the late nineteenth century. He is best known as the founder of the “De Stijl” art movement. The style itself is based on primary colours and black and white only. The “De Stijl” group gained many influences from Dadaists and the Bauhaus movement. Some contributors include: Robert van ‘t Hoff, Kurt Schwitters, Piet Mondrian and Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart.

I personally don’t think that this art movement will really influence me a lot when I create my magazine cover because it’s very simplistic and I’m not sure that it would work very well. I am however going to look into Kurt Schwitters work. Kurt Schwitter was involved with the “De Stijl” movement so it will be interesting to look at how he works.

JOOST SCHMIDT Joost Schmidt is highly known for his contribution in the Bauhaus Movement during the twentieth century. He was a teacher/master at the art school in Germany. Bauhaus was founded by Walter Gropius and is now one of the most influential styles in modern art and architecture. I really like the use of shapes in the Bauhaus movement to create quite a complex arrangement. The colours red, yellow and black are often used. I think I will experiment

with this style for my cover design and inner pages and produce my own version of the Bauhaus poster created by Joost Schmidt in 1923.

I will take on board the angles and use of shapes. I will also use the same colours that were used in the original poster.

PAUL RENNER Paul Renner was a typeface designer. He designed the Futura typeface in 1927 which went on to become one of the most successful and most-used type faces in the 20th century and is still used today.

The font itself is a sans serif type and was designed as a contribution for the New Frankfurt project. It is based on geometric shapes such as circles, triangles and squares. It is also based on the Bauhaus design style, even though Paul

Renner himself wasn’t associated with Bauhaus. The typeface “Architype Renner” is based on his early exploration of geometric letterforms for the Futura typeface. Altogether, Paul Renner designed 37 fonts.

JOSEF MULLERBROCKMANN Josef Muller-Brockmann was a Swiss graphic designer. He is well known for his simple designs and use of typography such as Akzindenz-Grotesk. His use of shapes and colours inspire many graphic designers in the 21st century. The grid system is also used by Josef Muller-Brockmann. He once said “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.� I would like to experiment with Swiss design. I really like clean and simple design and I think that it works really well for a magazine cover of this type.

I am also going to research the Akzindenz-Grotesk font because this font is heavily used today.

RICHARD PAUL LOHSE Richard Paul Lohse was a Swiss painter and graphic artist and printmaker. He used geometric shapes such as triangles and squares. His paintings are mathematically based and often feature a chequerboard or grid-like pattern. The colours chosen are often bright and warm colours such as yellows, reds and greens. His work is highly noted for it’s beauty. I would like to experiment with this style and do some media experiments in the style of

Richard Paul Lohse. I plan to use bright and warm colours in a similar style with a grid-like pattern or the use of triangles. I would also like to look into Swiss design because I feel that that style would work really well in my magazine.

HANS NEUBURG Hans Neuburg is very similar to Richard Paul Lohse. He is also a Swiss graphic designer. He also specialises in photography and was one of the leading exponents of the famous “Swiss School”. He later began work as an art critic for the newspaper “Dietat” Along with Josef Muller-Brockmann and Richard Paul Lohse, he created the Neue Grafik magazine in 1958. I have decided that I would like to experiment with this particular style of using

bright colours and geometric shapes to create a magazine design. I am going to look into Swiss design and the Neue Grafik magazine when I begin to create my media experiments in this style.

HELVETICA Helvetica is a widely used sans serif typeface that was developed in 1957 by the Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger, along with Eduard Hoffmann. The font was created to compete with the successful font Akzidenz-Grotesk which was already in the Swiss market. The aim of the new design was to create a neutral typface that was clear and could be used on a wide variety of design and advertising. The Helvetica family had many variants such

as language variants in Thai, Arabic and Greek. Helvetica Light, Compressed, Narrow, Textbook, Rounded and Neue were also created during the mid to late twentieth century as different versions of the original font. The font itslef is very similar to Arial and has become one of the most used typefaces today.

AKZIDENZ-GROTESK Akzidenz-Grotesk is a sans serif typeface originally released by the Berthold Type Foundry in 1896. It was the first sans serif typeface to be widely used and influenced many typefaces during the mid twentieth century. Several type designers modelled their typefaces from this popular font. The Helvetica font was released in 1957 and was heavily influenced by Akzidenz-Grotesk and was actually designed as a competitor for the font.

Common distinctive characteristics of the font include a square dot over the letter “i” and a double story “a”.

The horizontal line in the “A” is also lower than usual. Similar typefaces include the Folio font, Universs 55 and of course, Helvetica. I plan to use the Helvetica font in my magazine. I haven’t been able to find the Akzidenz-Grotesk font available to use so I will not be using this font.

POSTMODERNISM Postmodernism is a late twentieth century movement in the arts. It is often associated with deconstruction which is a method highly used by a lot of contemporty artists.

Postermodernism is a movement away from the viewpoint of modernism and is more about structure and commentary. Post-mordern art often has a mixture of elements that are old and new. Examples of postmodernism include Pop art, collage, dada, avant-garde and

abstract. I have chose to look at the artists: David Carson Neville Brody Kurt Schwitters Terry Jones Andy Warhol Barbara Kruger

DAVID CARSON David Carson is an American graphic designer. He is bet known for his innovative magazine design and use of typography. He was the art director for the magazine “Ray Gun”. “Ray Gun” made David Carson very well known and attracted many new admirers to his work.

He was featured in “The New York Times” and “Newssweek” in 1994 and 1996. I am going to research the “Ray Gun” magazine as part of my media experiments when I

begin to design my cover page. I will then create two designs in the style of David Carson that may be used for my cover page for my “New Visual Language” issue.

NEVILLE BRODY Neville Brody is quite similar to David Carson. He is an English graphic designer, typographer and art director. He is known for his work on “The Face” magazine during 1981 to 1986, as well as his work on the “Arena” magazine during 1987 to 1990. Neville Brody highly contributed to graphic deign and influences a lot of design today with his use of experimental typography. He started the “FUSE” project for other designers to share their

experimental typographic designs.

“FUSE” has promoted experimental design over the years as well as allowing designers to break through the barrier and take more risks in design.

KURT SCHWITTERS Kurt Schwitters was a German painter who worked in a variety of different art movements including Dada, Constructivism and Surrealism. He was also involved in graphic design and typography. He is most famous for his collages.

Although he worked with Theo Van Doesburg and contributed towards the De Stijl movement, and during that period his work became increasingly Modernist, I still believe that his colalge work was more

postmodern and inspires a lot of designers today. Kurt Schwitters influences include Ed Ruscha, Robert Rauschenberg and Damien Hirst.

I have decided not to experiment with this style because I don’t think it would work very well as a cover, however his work may still inspire me during the development of my inner pages.

TERRY JONES Terry Jones was a designer and former “Vogue” magazine art director who founded the British magazie “iD” which was dedicated to fashion, music, art and youth culture. The first issue was published in 1980 and was a hand-stapled unofficial magazine in which the text was produced using a typewriter. Over the years the magazine has evolved into a mature magazine but it has still kept the street style and youth central in every issue that has been

published. The magazine is best known for it’s innovative photography and typography. The magazine has had over 350 editions with over 30 years since it was founded. I am going to take the “i-D” into consideration when I start my research towards a masthead.

ANDY WARHOL Andy Warhol was an American artist who was a leading figure in the art movement “pop art”. Many of his creations are highly valuable and are collectibles. Some of his most famous paintings include the 1963 cavas titled “Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)” and his Marilyn Monroe pieces. Andy Warhol frequently used silk-screening from his drawings that were traced from slide projections. He was also well known for working across a wide

range of media such as painting, photography, drawing, sculpture and film making. Over 5 years he created over 60 films. I have decided not to use Andy Warhol’s work for my cover research because I would like to focus more on magazine designs and I’m not sure how this particular style could work as a front cover. Andy Warhol will always be an inspiration to me regardless, as well to many other people today.

BARBARA KRUGER Barbara Kruger is a North America conceptual artist. Most of her work consists of black and white photographs with a layer of controversial text overlaid. The text is usually white over red. She often uses the typefaces “Futura Bold Oblique” or “Helvetica Ultra Condensed”. Her work has the purpose of addressing cultural issues with sexuality and equal identity. One of her most famous and most recognizable slogans is front “Your body is a

battleground”, which is based on feminism and consumerism. Her black and white photographs are often taken from existing advertisements and magazines that sell the ideas she is disputing.

THE BRIEF Requirements: Body of original research based on Moderism/Postmodernism.

Evidence of thumbnail visual and design layouts.

Evidence of grid, layout, type and image selection and experimentation.

Evidence of multiple solutions and design refinement.

Masthead.

Inner Pages.

Back Cover.

Information to include in the design: Masthead - New Visual Language.

Sub heading - Form Follows Function.

Issue 1 Date May 2014 Other details: A3 page size Portrait

THE GRID SYSTEM Grid systems are a way of organising content on a page using margins, guides, rows and columns.

They are mainly used for designing press advertisements, brochures, cataglogues, books, periodicals etc.

therefore, a designer should always keep this in mind.

However, once the grid is established, it is up to the designer when and how to break of of the grid. It doesn’t mean that the grid should Using grid systems presents clear be completely ignored, but rather and logically set out titles, subtitles, elements can cross over onto facimages, captions, and the text body. ing pages, or just column to column. Breaking out of the grid can Everything is then better understood and read by the reader. This lead to much more interesting page has been scientifically proven, designs in magazines.

DESIGNER RESPONSES I have decided to look at Hans Neueburg, Josef Muller-Brockmann and Richard Paul Lohse for my first media experiments.

For my second media experiments I will look at the Ray Gun magazine covers by David Carson from my postmodern research.

Finally, I have chosen to look at Bauhaus and Paul Renner for my final experiments for the cover.

I will create two designs for each of these three catagories. I will then evaluate these and choose which I would like to use as my magazine cover for the New Visual Language issue.

MEDIA EXPERIMENT 1 For my first media experiment I am going to create two designs inspired by the work of Hans Neueburg, Josef Muller-Brockmann and Richard Paul Lohse.

I really like Swiss design because it is so simplistic and clean looking with such attention to detail and precision. I think that this style would work really well as a magazine cover because of this. I will create my two designs using

geometric shapes. I also need to take into consideration the use of minimalism and white space.

Next I am going to begin to create the designs using Adobe Illustrator.

DESIGN 1 I created design one based on the pixie poster from my research. I decided to use the colours orange, white and blue/grey. I started with an orange rectangle for the background, then made a six by six grid of circles. I changed to opacity of the circles so that when I created the white triangle it would have a change of colour. I really like this design and I think that it would work really well as my magazine cover.

However, I might be too simplistic.

DESIGN 2 This design is heavily based on the cube design that I looked at. I used triangles and rotated them at a 45 degree angle to create the pattern.

I chose to use a number of colours to make it more complex than my other design. I think that this one would work really well as a cover page for my magazine. The masthead could be located at the top in the off-white space, with “form follows function� along the grey rectangle or below the masthead.

MEDIA EXPERIMENT 2 For my second media experiments I have decied to use Ray Gun by David Carosn as my inspiration.

Ray Gun as an American alternative rock-and-roll magazine which as first published in 1992.

It was led and founded by David Carson who was the art director for the magazine. This gave him a lot of recognition and he was then well know for his chaotic, abstract style.

It wasn’t always readable but the

appearance was distinctive and it was very recognizable.

I am now going to go into Adobe Photoshop to create my own versions using my images from my street graphics photo shoot and some paint splashes.

DESIGN 3 I found this design really hard to make. I used one of my photographs from my Street Graphics project, because I thought that it would work best for this kind of design. I then added some typography in the same style used for Ray Gun. I finally added some paint splashes and texture to the image. This is probably my least favourite design so far. I don’t think it is my personal style and I’d rather use one of the others from my media experiments.

DESIGN 4 I found this design really hard to make as well. I used a photograph from my street graphics project then added typography and paint spills over top. This design was inspired

by Ray Gun from David Carson. I don’t think I will go with this cover design. I personally don’t think it would work very well for a cover for this kind of magazine.

COVER PAGE DESIGN I decided that out of all of the designs I created, that this was the one that best represented my personal style, and would also work best as the magazine cover for showcasing my work.

Next I am going to begin to research mastheads and start to draw up some ideas for my magazine’s masthead. My intial idea is that the masthead will be at the top in the off-white area. I also need to start to

think about where I’m going to include the text “form follows function” and where the issue date for the magazine will go. I think there is a lot of potential for this cover though.

MASTHEAD RESEARCH I looked at a variety of masthead designs from old and new magazine’s. I decided that I wanted to keep my masthead simple and that it would need to match the cover page colours. I think that something simple with just the letters would be affective, like the NME masthead but without the stroke around the letters. I think that if I use an abbreviation I will have to add the text underneath like how NME do in their masthead.

I am now going to start to draw some thumbnails for ideas for my masthead. I will then scan these in and start to create them in Adobe Illustrator.

Finally I will select my three best designs and see how they look on the cover page I have already selected.

MASTHEAD EXPERIMENTATION I have drawn up some ideas for my masthead. I decided to keep it simple and clean to fit with the rest of the magazines image. I decided that the text “form follows function� should be written in the Helvetica font because my magazine image is heavily based on modernism at the moment and this typeface was very popular with this style.

The next step is to scan in my drawings for my masthead and take

them into Adobe Illustrator to create them digitally and see how they would work. I am going to then select my three favourite designs and test them on my cover page to see which fits the design best and will be the final design for the magazine.

NEW VISUAL LANGUAGE

NEW VISUAL LANGUAGE NEW VISUAL LANGUAGE

New Visual Language

NEWVISUALLANGUAGE

NEW VISUAL LANGUAGE

New Visual Language

NEW VISUAL LANGUAGE

FINAL 3 DESIGNS I have scanned my drawings and created them in Adobe Illustrator.

I decided to use the colour orange because I think it works best with the cover design I have already chosen. I have then selected my favourite designs as my final three for the magazine. These can be seen on the left. I am now going to try all three of the mastheads on my cover design to see which works best and which will be used in my magazine.

NEW VISUAL LANGUAGE

New Visual Language

NEW VISUAL LANGUAGE

MASTHEAD DESIGN I have put my three masthead designs on my selected cover page to see how each would look. Below is my favourite design and the one I am going to use for the magazine.

I decided to use this one because I felt it was simplistic and matched the whole style of the magazine.

The text underneath is written in the Helvetica typeface. I decided to use this typeface as it is a popular font used in many modern designs.

New Visual Language

INNER PAGE DESIGNS I have drawn some thumbnails with designs for my inner pages and the layout I will use in my magazine.

The can be seen on the left. I am now going to go into Adobe Indesign and start to create the magazine with the layouts I have drawn up. I may change some things around when I create them but I’ll try to keep everything as close to my thumbnails as possible. I have arranged it so that I have the first two pages as the contents page,

six pages for my street graphics project, four pages for my cabinet of curiosities project, six pages for my earth artifact project and then two pages for my typography.I tried to use a lot of coloured lines which were perpendicular in places. This was influenced by Hans Neueburg.

BACK PAGE DESIGN This is the back cover design for my magazine. I decided to keep it simple and minimal. I put the masthead logo on the back. I also carried on the grey from the cover so that if it was layed out the grey would continue over the two pages. I am very happy with the way my magazine has developed and I think that it is well organized and showcases my work well.