- 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.
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