Chapter 12

Chapter 12 “The Genesis of 20th Century Design” covers the span of Frank Lloyd Wright and the Glasgow School, the Vienna Secession, Peter Behrens, and the London Underground.

Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect who took a rectilinear approach to design; he thought organic architecture should work in harmony with its environment and with its purpose. His rectangular design was mirrored in the Glasgow School, where “The Four” had a lyrical, symbolic, stylized form that was both geometric and curvilinear. The transcendental style influenced many, including Jessie Marion King, who did many stylized and contradictory medieval fantasy illustrations.
The Vienna Secession in Austria began on April 3rd, 1897 when young members of the Viennese Creative Arts Assoc. resigned, led by painter Gustav Klimt. The countermovement to art nouveau loved clean, simple sans serif lettering, experimented with format and typography, and was fascinated with geometry. Peter Behrens was a German artist, architect and designer who was also concerned with typography; he was an early advocate of sans serif type, and he chose to use typography to express the spirit of the new era. In fact, he printed the first book in sans serif type in 1900. He was the first industrial designer, and used a grid system to structure the space in his design layouts. Behrens was the main designer for all facets of AEG, making their logo and a specific typeface for them, among many other things. The London Underground built in the 1890s found the help of Frank Pick, who handled the publicity of the station; he designed the simple Underground signs that are still used today.

I really loved “The Four” and their stylized drawings, as well as their inspired follower, Jessie Marion King. The style is much different than drawings that I do myself, and it makes me want to try different forms of stylized drawing to push myself to embrace more interesting and stronger styles such as theirs.

I love Frank Lloyd Wright and his architecture; however, I think I missed what his main contribution of print graphic design was? Or was it just his rectilinear approach that was so vastly different compared to the organic art nouveau movement that made him so popular?