Postmodernism

Postmodernism:

• pomo is cliche of post-modernism
• function and materials are modernist structures
• a lot of modernist structures didn't work
• postmodernism can be theoretical approach, embrace different things
• wrestling with dualities, mixing of cultures, high and low
• postmodernism seen in art, design, literature, architecture
• emphasis on feel rather than rationale
• emphasis on surface, texture and materials
• self-consciousness or self-referencing
• mixes high and low, historical references, vernacular
• Banksy is example, street artist, making lots of money off work
• emphasis on form over function
• direct confrontation to sterile office modernist aesthetic
• playing with design, putting text block at angle, expanding parameters
• in the 60s people reacting to modernism, others pushing boundaries
• language of poster, untraditional use of space and rags
• playing with logo, putting it on its side, bending it, maintains structure
• Wolfgang Weingart 1969 working with lead type, experimenting
• Weingart uses open systems, playful elements
• teacher at Basel School of Design, gets bored with international style
• starts experimenting and breaking from confines
• key proponent because he is a teacher at important school
• had very important students who became influential designers
• Weingart was teacher of Lee Willett (sp)
• experimenting with sans serif, letter spacing, stair-stepping rules
• uses diagonal type, reversing type out of bars, variations within word
• still underpinning of structure, but less conformity
• his student Dan Freedman uses variety of letterforms, float in space
• studied at Basel 60s and 70s and then taught at Yale
• tradition of Basel students teaching at prestigious US schools
• taking simple bit of text and saying what if, pushing variation
• mentality of having basis in theory and logic and pushing it farther
• 1980 ad for china club, elements of Lissitsky, contemporary
• Cal Institute of Arts lots of floating objects, texture orgy
• Memphis Design Group, based out of Milan
• want to erase International design, pull all textures and colors together
• pull from ancient, popular, function is secondary to style
• 70s artwork reflected arena rock music epicness of time
• the 80s is completely reactionary, saturation, objectification
• other reaction is punk, Sex Pistols and Buzzcocks
• Beatles transition reminiscent of aesthetics changing at time
• cliches of these musicians from their eras, iconic looks
• The Situationists modern group of Dadaists
• Situationists reacting to modernism, things have no meaning
• create situations, art that doesn't make sense, art poking fun
• absurdism in art, causing a reaction amongst people
• Sex Pistols form in 1976, first album in 1977
• Buzzcocks were poor kids from Manchester, just wanted to make band
• Charles Anderson appropriating cultural language and repackaging it
• up until this point in mid-80s, packaging didn't look like this
• Anderson uses illustration reminiscent of classical, changes language
• appropriating vernacular, not clean or modern, but rustic
• realized that historical vernacular affects customer more
• Peter Seville involved with music posters and graphics
• creates an aesthetic through industrial inspired graphics in The Factory
• creates famous Joy Division wave/mountain pattern
• Vaughn Olliver is another English designer, 4AD Records
• designers still using traditional means, shift happens with Mac in 80s
• Mac changes technology and therefore the way people design
• first uses were more about type setting than designing
• Layering, pixels, very digital looking due to computer
• Emigre was underground design magazine at time of formation
• Katherine McCoy was Cranbrook student, theoretical look at design
• student Jeff Keating? looking at French literature, deconstructive theory
• Ed Fella does everything by hand, creating expressive typography
• look for copies of Raygun or Beach Culture and buy them
• Dave Carson does same lecture every time, hide if he ever comes here
• post-modernists create work that shocks, readability not important
• active engagement becomes better form of communication
• the fact that it has become a more effective form in a way makes it modernist
• writing the type, doing it yourself, mixing high and low
• Sagmeister very charismatic, sincere German artist, hero worship
• lots of clean, competent work, with good clients

I've never really thought of myself in terms of modernist or postmodernist, but I guess if I had to choose then I'd say I'm a postmodernist. Even though technology is in many ways unavoidable in today's society, I would never really say I'm a proponent of technological growth. I think I'm too much of a romantic for that. I think there's so much to be valued in handcraft and using what's available, that I can't imagine a world run by technology. I think in many ways it takes away from the original idea or thought process behind the designer, unless your intention was perfection I guess. It's almost scary to me that there are these underlying rules or restrictions in the modern design aesthetic that I feel at times I am being forced to follow. Experimentation is so important to me and in many ways I feel I fail at even that..which is ridiculous to say because it's an experiment..there is no right or wrong. But I often feel like I can't make things that are unclean and random, and it frustrates me all the time. Vectors are frighteningly abundant and I just want someone to write in dirt and get away with it..even better if that person is me. One thing I will say about the negatives of postmodernism is that I think it can often cross the line into gaudy and overly cliche. I remember when I first saw Las Vegas..now I knew it was supposed to be disgustingly cheesy and bright, but I still held on to this idea that there would be this air of old glamour or that it would provide me with this sort of wave of nostalgia..but instead I just found it to be horribly fake and touristy..just so run down that it was no longer funny, but sad. So while I love the eccentricity and freedom of postmodernism and concept of dualities, I feel that form cannot always replace function.

Swiss Design & the International Typographic Style

Swiss Design & the International Typographic Style:

• it is more than just grids
• visual unity achieved by asymmetrical organization
• use of objective photography
• sans-serif type, flush left, rag right
• uses mathematical grids
• making things that are socially useful
• relates to Constructivism, things are useful
• synonymous with International Typographic Style
• more important than appearance is attitude
• roots in De Stijl, Bauhaus and new typography
• Max Bill and Theo Balmer are designers
• after WWI, Swiss start taking in ideas of Modernism
• Theo Balmer student is Dessau in 1920s
• structure overt, structure making art
• grid informs and becomes art
• open and asymmetrical compositions
• fitting units on page mathematically, modular grid
• Max Bill involved in planning ulm
• ulm is important school for including semiotics
• syntactics - order
• semantics - meaning or referred to
• pragmatics - how it is used
• Ferdinand de Saussyre - Dyadic Model - signifier is the form which the sign takes, the signified is the concept it represents
• Charles Sanders Pierce - Triadic Model - sign vehicle is the form of the sign, sense is the sense made of the sign, referent is what the sign stands for
• Frutiger completes Univers alphabet in three years, 1950s
• uses numbering system for different faces
• Frutiger still alive today, 82
• Univers is logical system of articulation, has same x-height
• Armin Hoffman born in 1920, still alive
• Hoffman evolves philosophy of point, line and plane
• develops system of contrasting elements
• "if you design the negative space, the rest will work"
• Josef Muller Brockmann creates semiotic relationships
• don't have to read poster to know what is going on
• three posters using basically the same grid, asymmetrical square
• European Modernism is theoretical, has belief and design system
• American Modernism in NY is pragmatic
• Paul Rand, Saul Bass, Ivan Chermayeff are major designers
• start to see development of NY school in 40s
• a lot of European immigrants, filtering in ideas
• Paul Rand christmas present wrapped in barbed wire
• language of both war and Christmas
• handcrafted works, quick and immediate collage

It's interesting that so many different theories on art aesthetics were coming out at the same time..and many of them seemed in complete opposition of one another..such as the idea of how or if the type should communicate a message. I think it's pretty remarkable that designers could use one simple grid over the span of their career to create a multitude of compositions. While in some ways I could see this getting tiring or boring, it challenges the designer to fully exercise all their design options from one starting point. And like you said, if a grid is limiting or constraining in any way then it's probably not a good grid. I really love the work of Saul Bass and the title sequences he did for the Hitchcock films. There's something so cool about his aesthetic and I can't really explain what it is. I think it's just this abstract simplicity that kind of takes elementary structures to a darker place..or something like that..but it's just really cool how a torn edge or straight edge convey entirely different meanings.

Bauhaus in America

Bauhaus in America:

• Jan Tschichold hand-lettered advertisement
• Tschichold is son of artist, studied calligraphy at young age
• Walker Evans photograph of design during time, Victorian-esque
• at the beginning, Bauhaus influence is very small, changes with WWI
• Tschichold sees Bauhaus exhibition in 1923
• 1924, year later, his work exudes essence of Bauhaus
• then writes pamphlet explaining to printers how to do it
• in 1925 he writes a book about typography, asymmetry in type
• at time, most German typography still printed in Textura
• he uses bars and blocks reminiscent of De Stijl
• publishes The New Typography, Die Neue Typographie
• only 25 years old when he publishes this, still famous and relevant
• he wanted to wipe slate clean, assert asymmetrical typography
• wanted to deliver message in most efficient manner, modernism
• 1927 invitation card, limited palette, grid, negative space, sans serif
• 1937 poster with circle and line, simple type and color
• underlying grid, mathematical in structure
• define problem, solution is there, what is geometry of area
• Nazis come to power in 1933, Tschichold and his wife arrested
• Nazis thought they were creating un-German typography
• found Soviet posters in his house, more incriminating
• held for 6 weeks, released and he flees with family to Switzerland
• returns to classical typography which is all centered, serif type
• The Form of the Book written later, published in 1991
• gives ideas of Bauhaus practical expression, helps propagate
• Herbert Matter did hundreds of sketches for New Haven Railroad
• Matter uses extreme perspective and scale shifts
• concise and efficient typography, clear and direct
• All Roads Lead to Switzerland poster promoting Swiss tourism
• Paula Scher virtually recreates the Herbert Matter poster, rip-off
• Matter uses basic vocabulary of flag, imagery to create travel brochures
• Matter brings style to America, installation of Eames chairs
• ad for Knoll Chairs, radically different then what had been going on
• Addison Dwiggins has modern design, limited palette, sans serif
• Lester Beall really brings modernist ideas to population
• Beall uses lots of arrows, bars, sans-serif, old wood type for contrast
• Beall known for work with Rural Electrification Administration
• Running Water poster from 1937, promoting electrification
• simplified negative form, could be understood without reading
• uses imagery and graphics as message, type not even necessary
• 1937 REA posters use limited palette of primary colors
• posters also use photo montage, heavy in graphic elements
• WPA Federal Art Project, supporting and promoting arts
• Robert Muchley poster Port of Philadelphia
• concern for negative space, silkscreen popular
• Sheer poster in 1936, wheat creates artist palette
• Jerome Roth WPA poster 1938, silkscreen, limited palette
• corporations start playing important role in design, spread gospel
• certain wealthy and intellectual people exposed to European influence
• develop cardboard boxes, Container Corporation of America
• would hire Europeans to create art and advertisements
• montage, non-classic type, negative space valuable
• poster with model sitting in chair, in one she is wrapped in paper
• Portfolio Magazine design by Alexey Brodovitch
• Ladislav Sutnar works with abstraction, open composition
• Sutnar uses geometric shapes, generous negative space
• Sutnar catalog design spread from 1950, open and simple
• International Style reaches everything, type, graphics, architecture
• started as great idea, looking for universal truths, pure, clean, efficient
• International Style and Swiss design gets bastardized by corporations

I find Tschichold's work to be very inspiring, and I really appreciated his hand-lettered typography in some of the works. Overall, I love this new approach to type, especially when it comes to asymmetry and negative space..I just feel it's so necessary in design..it's kind of weird that it took so long to be truly implemented and seen as commonplace. I thought a lot of Beall's work reminded me of Abram Games' posters. He did a lot of posters for the government, used a similar palette, worked a lot with forms becoming image and also used that sort of old wood-cut type..though I feel Games' were a bit more sophisticated. I'm really excited to talk about Alexey Brodovitch..I'm a big fan of his work for Harper's..everything of his has this surreal quality about it that I love.