Contextual Studies

Wednesday, 31 December 2014

Swiss Design

The Swiss Design originated in the 1940’s and 50’s that was the basis of much of the development of graphic design during the mid-20^th Century. Swiss design also known as International style. This style has simplicity, legibility and objectivity. This style was led by the designers Josef Muller-Brockmann and Armin Hofmann. The work from this style was the most effective means of communication. They make use of sans-serif typography and photography.

The Swiss graphic designers were influenced by Jan Tschichold’s 1928 book Die Neue Typographie (The new Typography) which outlined these principles and how typography should be seen as the art of communication. The Swiss design was also influenced by the emigration of designers to Switzerland feeling Nazi occupied Germany and also the ideas of William Morris and the Modern Movements in Art. The Akzidenz-Grotesk was the most typeface used in the New typography then later it became the norm in Swiss graphic design. It was most likely for its clarity and precision, and the designers mainly used it in its lowercase form. Typography was used as Asymmetrical Compositions with sans serif typography placed in flush left and ragged right. Using mathematically constructed grids, photography and placing information clearly and factual.

Design was defined as ‘a socially useful profession’. Ernest Keller (1891-1968) was a graphic designer, lettering artist and a teacher at the Zurich kunstgewerbeschule (school of applied art), where he developed a professional course in design and typography. He was the key figure in the evolution of the international typographic style. His emphasis was legibility and simplicity; he did not look for the specific solution in Design but said that ‘solution should emerge from its content’. He initiated a climate of excellence in Swiss design.

Theo Ballmar (1902-1965) and Max Bill (1908-94) who linked earlier constructivist graphic design with the new movement that formed after the 2^nd World War. Ballmer studied under Ernest Keller and at the Bauhaus. Rigourous use of grid combined with De Stijl, rectilinear forms, primary colours and using an artimethic grid of horizontal and vertical. Bill was a Swiss architect, painter, graphic designer and sculptor. He studied at the Bauhaus (under Gropius, Meyer, Moholy, Albers and Kandinsky). In 1931 wrote a manifesto “Art Concert” Advocated a universal art of absolute clarity based on controlled arithmetical construction. He made use of simple case typefaces which he saw as being the ‘concrete element in his designs’.

Max Huber (1919-1992) He was born in Swiss. He is a graphic industrial and exhibition designer based in Milan. Complex and distinctive visual arrangements with overlapping bold colours and photography collaborated with Max Bill. His clients included La Rinascente stores, Olivetti, Automobile club Italy, Monza cars, De Agostini Geographical institute.

References:

Swiss Design : Design Is History. 2014. Swiss Design : Design Is History. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.designishistory.com/home/swiss/. [Accessed 29 December 2014]

Swiss Graphic Design. 2014. Swiss Graphic Design. [ONLINE] Available at: http://swissgraphicdesign.blogspot.com/. [Accessed 29 December 2014].

Art Deco in Graphic Design

Art Deco, a term first coined in Paris in 1925. This style was associated with the Exposition des Art Decoratifs et Industriels of 1925 in Paris. Also known as Jazz Moderne or just Moderne style which spread in all design aspects and architecture. Art Deco has its typical attributes like geometric shapes, bold curves, strong vertical lines, aerodynamic forms, motion lines, air brushing and sunbursts galore. We can see Art Deco in typography like the A.M. Cassandre’s bifur typeface, composed of thick base forms ornamented with thin filler lines, is nothing short of brilliant. Broadway and Peignot are two other Deco types we see all the time. Art Deco is used in fashion, advertising and retail design.

A softened and luxurious version of modernisme simplified, elegant and influence of Japanese prints. Art Deco had formative influences include the geometric forms of Cubism, Art Deco was also called “Cubism Tamed”, the machine – style forms of constructivism and Futurism, and the unifying approach of Art Nouveau. It’s highly intense colours may have stemmed from Parasian Fauvism. Art Deco borrowed also from Aztec and Egyptian Art, as well as from Classical Antiquity. Unlike its earlier counterpart Art Nouveau, however, Art Deco had no philosophical basis-it was purely decorative.

The Art Deco style was mostly popular around the world in the early 1930’s, and the years leading up to the Second World War. It suffered a decline in popularity during the late 30’s and early 40’s, when it began to be seen as too gaudy and ostentatious for wartime austerity, after which it quickly fell out of fashion. Art Deco appeared again in the 1960’s coincident with the movements effect on Pop Art and then again in 1980’s. The Art Deco style we are seeing it now like the poster of the movie “The great Gatsby”.

A.M. Cassandre

Cassandre is the most considered to be one of the greatest and the most influential poster designers of the 20^th Century. At the age of 22, he started designing posters under the pseudonym ‘Cassandre’. His images were designed with a combination of Art Nouveau stylised curves and with the geometric abstraction of ‘Cubism’ and ‘Futurism’.

References:

Art Deco: A strong, striking style for graphic design - Designer Blog. 2014. Art Deco: A strong, striking style for graphic design - Designer Blog. [ONLINE] Available at: http://99designs.com/designer-blog/2012/06/05/art-deco-a-strong-striking-style-for-graphic-design/. [Accessed 29 December 2014].

Deco | Graphic Design History. 2014. Deco | Graphic Design History. [ONLINE] Available at: http://visualartsdepartment.wordpress.com/deco/. [Accessed 29 December 2014].