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.