OUGD401 - Graphic Design and Modernism Seminar

'Graphic Design & Modernism' seminar

Modern, Modernity and Modernism saw a shift, a revolution in the new world embracing industrialisation and innovation in the everyday at a rapid rate. Modernity at it's birth was celebratory of it's utopian world surrounding it. Modern art became an almost socialist project in that art became for everyone, everyday.  It gave everyone an equal access to culture, and therefore bore a simple language that everyone could understand, which was welcomed by the new internationalised world. 

Postmodern, Postmodernity and Postmodernism saw an uproar of negativity, rivalism and a multiplex of ideas and opinions. Art for only those who 'get it'. A celebration of the everyday, but in a sinister, scarcastic manner: 'Crap is good'.

Modernism in Graphic Design

• rejection of ornament. (Adolf Loos, 1908 Ornament and crime)
• form follows function. (Louis Sullivan, 1896, 'the tall office building artistically considered')
• Communication should be prioritised, not aesthetics.

'Good Graphic Design should be invisible'

In 1927, a sort of rule book for Modernism was released. It stated that;

• No fonts are to be used except for Grotesk
• It is nationalistic
• Not historic , not looking backwards moving forward.

While at the same time, the overpowering force of Nazi Germany was anti modernist, celebrating fonts such as Fraktur.

Postmodernism in Graphic Design

• Function follows form. 
• Message doesn't necessarily have to be communicated through words, if at all.

Artists such as Cheret and Toulouse-Lautrec starting experimenting with modern / postmodern attitudes as early as 1884. They played with type with a tendency towards the abstract. They innovated with manufacturing techniques.

Futurism

The Futurist manifesto is a strange response to that of Modernism. It is industrial and innovative yet self destructive. It celebrates war and the good that can come out of it, almost obsessively.

'Parole in Liberta' is a 1914 poem about the 1912 war. This poem is drastically visually different to the design that had gone before, and illustrates the feel of the poem visually not just through the words. The type used is sans serif and typical of the futurists' design. The poem is also onomatopoeic, which also reflects its experimental nature.

A new Modernist international Graphic style:

• Originating in post WWII Switzerland
• fundamentally neutral design, that can be globally understood
• no hand drawn images, only photography - a showcase of modern practice
• consisting of a controlled grid for design layouts
• the reduction of individually, and a 'one size fits all' attitude

Helvetica - the roman name for 'Switzerland'

Neue Grafik 

A quintessential modernist graphic design magazine. It was universal, 'a publication for the whole world' in that it read in 3 languages throughout. It consisted of left aligned, sans-serif type with no images and functional hierarchy. There is no fussy composition - no confusion, just simple logical order.

Massimo Vignelli's 1972 subway map 

Massimo Vignelli speaking in the film Helvetica:

• 'Modernism will never fade' - because it is for everyone.
• 'Postmodernists are a wasted generation' 
• Graphics should be based on logic and not emotion.

David Carson also speaking in the film Helvetica:

• Graphic design is more about style, not communication.
• Being open to an an accident might turn out to be your best work
• Only a few things you can do with Helvetica. I don't love it & I don't hate it.