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.