New York School (updated)

Based on the research i have done the New York School emphasised mostly on the direct presentation of information and on the expression of ideas. 

Before and during World War 1, an influx of European designers to the United States from Europe gave rise to a wave of modern design. This influx had a great impact on American  design. The Europeans provided the Americans with first hand introduction the European avant-garde. New York was served a a cultural incubator in the middle of the 20th centuryPhilip B. meggs. and Alston W. Purvis.eds., 2012. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Fifth Edition. Hoboken Canada: John Wiley & Sons,Inc.pg 390

The pioneers of the New York School were Paul Rand, Bradbury Tompson, Saul Bass, Cipes Pinele, Iven Chermayeff, Henry Wolf, George Lois, and Herb Labalin.

 Work by Bradbury Tompson 

Bradbury Tompson was one of the most influential designers of post war America. Tompson had a thorough knowledge of printing and typesetting and experimented with both great success this allowed him to expend the range of design  possibilities. 

For the spread on the left Tompson used large, bold, organic and geometric shapes to bring a graphic and symbolic power to the page. Letterforms and patterns were often enlarged and used as a design elements or to create visual patterns and movements and often over printed to create new colours. Philip B. meggs. and Alston W. Purvis.eds., 2012. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Fifth Edition. Hoboken Canada: John Wiley & Sons,Inc.pg 393

The image on the right is a spread from Westvaco inspirations 1958 by Bradbury Tompson the photograph of the saxophone player has a multiple exposure. The saxophone player is reversed from a black circle on the left then on the right it is over printed in primary colours. Philip B. meggs. and Alston W. Purvis.eds., 2012. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Fifth Edition. Hoboken Canada: John Wiley & Sons,Inc.pg 394

Tompson than turned to classic approach to book and editorial design focusing on the readability, formality, and old style typefaces. 

With this design on the right Tompson combined the text "Learning Never Ends" with homage to the square "GLOW" that was painted by Josef Alberts.  Philip B. meggs. and Alston W. Purvis.eds., 2012. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Fifth Edition. Hoboken Canada: John Wiley & Sons,Inc.pg 394

Work by Saul Bass 

Saul Bass took a lot of inspirations from Paul Rand 

Paul Rand and Saul Bass both relied heavily on simplified shapes, but they were far more expressive that minimalist designs seen in constructivism. Bass cut out shapes by hand and assemble his design leaving uneven edges and corners which added a casual ability to forms. Bass's ability to evoke strong emotions from simplified forms is most apparent in the crooked arm from his work on the "Man with the Golden Arm"Biography | Saul Bass. 2014. Biography | Saul Bass. [ONLINE] Available at:http://thejoshparker.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/biography/. [Accessed 09 March 2014].

His work inspired many contemporary designs both in print and the film industry. Philip B. meggs. and Alston W. Purvis.eds., 2012. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Fifth Edition. Hoboken Canada: John Wiley & Sons,Inc.pg 394

Left billboard for Pabco paints early 1950. The proocess of painting is reduced to a multicoloured stripe, while happy customers are articulated by 3 simple marks. 

Bass had a remarkable ability to express design with images that became glyphs or elemental pictorial sins that exert great graphic power.  Philip B. meggs. and Alston W. Purvis.eds., 2012. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Fifth Edition. Hoboken Canada: John Wiley & Sons,Inc.pg 394

For the above poster Bass created a pictograph of arm reaching and struggling for refle, conveying the violence and strife connected with the birth of the nation of Israel. Philip B. meggs. and Alston W. Purvis.eds., 2012. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Fifth Edition. Hoboken Canada: John Wiley & Sons,Inc.pg 395

References

Philip B. meggs. and Alston W. Purvis.eds., 2012. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Fifth Edition. Hoboken Canada: John Wiley & Sons,Inc.

Presentation

Theo Ballmer (Updated)

Theo Ballmer

Theo Ballmer developed his modernist instincts when he worked as a graphic designer with one of Basel's largest pharmaceutical companies Hoffann-La Roche. This was when he developed a personal style characterized by geometric surfaces, in precise grid and a matching avant-grade typography. Ballmer briefly studied at the Bauhaus under Klee, Gropius, and Meyer, where he refined his style using De Stijl principles.  A History of Graphic Design: Chapter 54: A History of Typeface. 2014. A History of Graphic Design: Chapter 54: A History of Typeface. [ONLINE] Available at: http://guity-novin.blogspot.com/2012/03/history-of-type-face.html. [Accessed 2 February 2014].


Based on the research that I have done I fond that Theo Ballmer has been of great influence to modern design. Other than the fact that he has been a part of the International Typographic Style one can notice that his style is influenced by the Solvet Constructivism. He also mad strong use of the grid system and strong bold lettering are clearly seen in his work 

One can also notice that  Ballmer's work is based on asymmetrical layouts with sans-serif typefaces that stand out also there is purity in his work and the work is also readable. It is also hard not to notice that typography is the most important element in his designs.   

Thoe Ballmer created well balanced poster designs with geometric typography, which are influenced by Van Doesberg's experiments however, his appear to be more elegant and precise that at times the unbalanced types of Van Doesberg. According to Ballmer breaking the system at the right point is a way to make 

something exciting.

Josef Muller-Brokmann

Joseph Muller-Brockmann’s series of posters for the Zurich concert hall have endured as one of the most distinctive contributions to Swiss Graphic design. In these posters he attempts to find a visual equivalent to music. The series would continue over the next two decades, and Muller-Brockmann would pursue the goal of graphic purity. He replaced drawn illustration with a mathematical grid that echoed the rational structure of modern architecture. He reduced the colour palette to its most elemental - black and white - or at other times to one or two colours, and also replaced traditional typefaces with clean and straightforward sans-serif faces. The result was utterly straightforward and logical. The world had rarely seen posters that were more objective and pure in their approachSwiss Graphic Design. 2014. Swiss Graphic Design. [ONLINE] Available at:http://swissgraphicdesign.blogspot.com/. [Accessed 2 February 2014].

References

Swiss Graphic Design. 2014. Swiss Graphic Design. [ONLINE] Available at:http://swissgraphicdesign.blogspot.com/. [Accessed 15 February 2014].

Philip B. meggs. and Alston W. Purvis.eds., 2012. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Fifth Edition. Hoboken Canada: John Wiley & Sons,Inc.

A History of Graphic Design: Chapter 54: A History of Typeface. 2014. A History of Graphic Design: Chapter 54: A History of Typeface. [ONLINE] Available at: http://guity-novin.blogspot.com/2012/03/history-of-type-face.html. [Accessed 2 February 2014].

International Typographic Style (updated)

Based on the research that I have done I found that this style of design holds a lot of power today especially when it comes to corporate identity. The main aim of the Movement was to make the designs socially useful and to gain order and clarity. 

One can notice that the result of this was extreme abstraction and that it was based on geometrical forms. 

Joseph Muller Bruckman's designs are known to be the most influential designs of the Swiss era.








For example one can notice the typeface of this design and the use of scale Brockmann used to gain this kind of impact. also in some of Brockmann's work we can see some constructivism influences and the use of red and black. 






The Swiss style designers looked for asymmetrical layouts for their designs and made strong use of the grid system as a tool to organize their layouts 



This poster shows all the Swiss style approaches to poster design. 

• No Ornamentation 
• Strict Grid Structure 
• Sans-Serif typefaces 
• Minimalist
• Overlapping words.

Some of the major components of the International Style include: 

1. Sans-Serif typography (primarily Akzidenz Grotesk, Helvetica,and Universe)
2. Asymmetrical components
3. Flush left, ragged right text alignment 
4. Mathematical grids, often on a title axis 
5. Objective black and white photography
6. Extreme geometric reduction of illustrated images 
7. Bright flat areas of colour 
8. Universal symbols 

Left poster by Ernist Keller 1955 the poster is energized by repetitive geometrical elements 

The International Typographic Style is also known as the Swiss Style. It is a graphic design style that has been developed in Switzerland during the 1950's that emphasizes cleanliness, readability and objectivity. The hallmarks of the style are asymmetric layouts, the use of the grid, Sans-Sarif typefaces and flush left, and rigged right text. It also adopted constructivist elements of geometric reduction, photomontage and simplified palette. Contributors to the Movement aimed to create a unified international style based on clear visual communication. 

: The International Typographic Style Timeline :: .. . 2014. .. :: The International Typographic Style Timeline :: .. . [ONLINE] Available at:http://smearedblackink.com/swiss_style_timeline/. [Accessed 2 February 2014].

Some important figures of the movement are Ernst Keller, Theo Ballmer, Max Bill, and Max Huber. 

The Akzidens-Grotesk typeface became most frequently used in the New typography, and it almost the norm in later Swiss graphic design. The typeface was liked for its clarity and precision, and the designers normally used it in its lower case form.

References

: The International Typographic Style Timeline :: .. . 2014. .. :: The International Typographic Style Timeline :: .. . [ONLINE] Available at:http://smearedblackink.com/swiss_style_timeline/. [Accessed 2 February 2014].

Philip B. meggs. and Alston W. Purvis.eds., 2012. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Fifth Edition. Hoboken Canada: John Wiley & Sons,Inc.

Essay: Jules Cheret and Roy Liechtenstine

Jules Cheret 

Jules Cheret played an important role in the transition from the Victorian graphics to the Art Nouveau style. During the late 19^th century a new French law concerning freedom of press lifted many restrictions and allowed posters everywhere except on churches. The streets became an art gallery for the nation. The poster La biche au bois has a very Victorian approach starring Sarah Bernhardt. Both Bernhardt and Cheret took Paris by a storm as Bernhardt became the leading actress of her time while  Cheret pioneered the visual poster.Philip B. meggs. and Alston W. Purvis.eds., 2012. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Fifth Edition. Hoboken Canada: John Wiley & Sons,Inc.pg201

The above image is one of Cheret's early green and black poster used the multiple image format that was popular in the 1860's. the lettering is a harbinger of the swirling forms making his mature style.

He moved away from the Victorian by simplifying his designs and increasing the scale of his major figures and lettering. Cheret’s artistic influences included the idolized beauty and care free lifestyle painted by Watteau and Fragonard. Cheret than started to use a black line and primary colour (red, yellow, and blue).  

Cheret achieved a graphic vitality with these bright colours, and subtle overlapping allowed an astonishing range of colour effects. In Charet’s work one can see a vitality of bright colours and subtle overprinting allowed and astonishing range of colours and effects such as stipple and crosshatch, soft watercolour like washes and bold calligraphic chunks of colour, scratching, and splattering.  The women that Cheret painted had previously been depicted as either in purity or as whores. Cheret changed that freeing women from those corsets and allowing them to enjoy what was becoming a freer, open society. Ladies fashions became less confining and less concealing, and women began to engage in behavior once taught the exclusive province of man while establishing just what it meant to be a modern woman on the cusp of a new century. The Cherettes were emblematic of the cultural shift. 

Philip B. meggs. and Alston W. Purvis.eds., 2012. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Fifth Edition. Hoboken Canada: John Wiley & Sons,Inc.pg202

Roy Lichtenstein 

Roy Liechtenstein was the master of stereotype and the most sophisticated of mayor Pop artists. In term of his analysis of visual convention of past styles. Liechtenstein development as a mature painter, was marked by his tendency for working in successive serle groups. The later groups tend to be interpretations of earlier modernist styles, Cubism, Futurism, and Surrealism. Liechtenstein became famous in the early 1960’s for his deadpan reactions op popular imagery, particularly paintings based on was and romantic comics

 Liechtenstein pulled comics into a new paradigm, changing the form a humdrum existence with limited audience into a taught provoking art from where juxtaposed print, advertising and more to create a conceptual work for a more sophisticated audience. This work showed comics have stylistic characters that inescapably follow an aesthetic code. Primary colours (red, yellow and blue) and heavy black outlines were his favorite. Liechtenstein occasionally used greed. Instead of shades of colour Liechtenstein used the benday dot, which is a method by which an image is created, and its density of tone modulated in printing. Sometimes Liechtenstein selected a comic strip scene, recomposed it, projected it onto his canvas and stanciled in the dots.Roy Lichtenstein. 2014. Roy Lichtenstein. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.artchive.com/artchive/L/lichtenstein.html. [Accessed 2 February 2014].

References

Philip B. meggs. and Alston W. Purvis.eds., 2012. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Fifth Edition. Hoboken Canada: John Wiley & Sons,Inc.

Roy Lichtenstein - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2014. Roy Lichtenstein - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [ONLINE] Available at:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Lichtenstein. [Accessed 02 February 2014].

ules Chéret - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2014. Jules Chéret - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [ONLINE] Available at:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_Ch%C3%A9ret. 

[Accessed 02 February 2014].

Roy Lichtenstein. 2014. Roy Lichtenstein. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.artchive.com/artchive/L/lichtenstein.html. [Accessed 15 February 2014].

Herbert Bayer (updated)

Herbert Bayer was both student and teacher at the Bauhaus. Bayer worked in a wide range of workshops including painting, sculpture, typography, advertising and architecture. Bayer was trained in the Art Nouveau style but than he was converted by the Bauhaus Manifest. In his early years Bayer studied painting with Kandinsky, but in a short while he was teaching one of the Bauhaus first classes of typography.Herbert Bayer : Design Is History. 2014. Herbert Bayer : Design Is History. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.designishistory.com/1920/herbert-bayer/. [Accessed 1 February 2014] 

Universal Alphabet 

One can notice that Sans-Serif typefaces were used in almost all of Bayer's work. Bayer also designed the Bauhaus font which he named after the School.  The design of the Universal type face was based on geometry. As it is already mentions above Herbert Bayer was the head of the typographic workshop 

The universal alphabet by Herbert Bayer was an experiment in reducing alphabet to one set of geometrically constructed characters maximizes difference between letters for greater legibility. The lower letterforms shows different weights.

Philip B. meggs. and Alston W. Purvis.eds., 2012. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Fifth Edition. Hoboken Canada: John Wiley & Sons,Inc.pg 333

The above cover design is also design by Herbert Bayed of when he was a student at the Bauhaus the letter forms are geometrically constructed and printed in red and blue on a black background and are compressed into a square. Philip B. meggs. and Alston W. Purvis.eds., 2012. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Fifth Edition. Hoboken Canada: John Wiley & Sons,Inc.pg 329

The symbol for the Kraus stained glass workshop is another design by Bayer. It is made up of a square divided by a horizontal line into two rectangles. The top rectangle has a 3 to 5 ratio of the golden mean. Each rectangle formed is than divided with the vertical to forma square and a smaller rectangle. The proportion and balance is achieved by minimal means with the De Stijl influences.  

Philip B. meggs. and Alston W. Purvis.eds., 2012. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Fifth Edition. Hoboken Canada: John Wiley & Sons,Inc.pg 331

This image is one of Bayers most famous photo montages, the photo montage displays the tools of a graphic designers and the basic geometrical forms. 

The above image is the cover for the Bauhaus magazine also designed by Herbert Bayer in 1928. A page of typography joins the designers tools and basic geometric forms in a photographic still life. composed before a camera instead of at a drawing board, this cove achieves a rare integration of type and image. 

Philip B. meggs. and Alston W. Purvis.eds., 2012. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Fifth Edition. Hoboken Canada: John Wiley & Sons,Inc.pg 332

References

Herbert Bayer : Design Is History. 2014. Herbert Bayer : Design Is History. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.designishistory.com/1920/herbert-bayer/. [Accessed 1 February 2014]

Philip B. meggs. and Alston W. Purvis.eds., 2012. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Fifth Edition. Hoboken Canada: John Wiley & Sons,Inc.

  

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