Ch. 21 Conceptual Image

Chapter 21, "The Conceptual Image" is about an approach that came from Poland, United States, Germany and Cuba. In Poland, after WWII began, the design community basically came to an end until Communism was established. However, only state-controlled institutions and industries requested design work. Trepowski was a famous Polish poster designer because he was able to reduce imagery and words into a succinct statement. Tomaszewski was famous because after all of the somber and darker posters, he re-embraced a brighter, positive, colorful world of poster design. Jerzy Janiszewski was also an important figure because of his Solidarity logo design, which was a symbol worldwide for struggle versus oppression.
In America, photography began to replace illustration beginning in the 1950s. A more conceptual approach was then born for illustration; the “Push Pin” designs expressed an openness and reinterpretation of visual imagery, as well as an integration of words and image into a total design. Chwast and Glaser were two of the influential artists of this time with their experimental magazine, poster designs, and Glaser’s contoured, flat shapes of color with black outlines. These two also invented some novelty display faces. In 1980, design finally became a truly national profession for Americans.

I was really impressed with the Poland school of design and the community that outlasted the Communist reign and restrictions. I think it shows that design is an important part of this world if it could outlast the evil of those days, as well as keep a bond between professionals and create a community for them, even when illegal (Solidarity).

The question I have is about the advancement of illustration in the US after the 1950s. I can see the uniqueness of Glaser’s illustration, using black contour lines and flat colors; is this what the evolution was, or were there other major advances in illustration?

(I presented Chapter 20.)

Ch. 18 & 19

Chapter 18, The International Typographic Style, is about the 1950s movement that came out of Switzerland and Germany, also known less formally as Swiss design. These designs were asymmetrical yet very organized on a mathematically-structured grid. Objective design and copywriting did not put exaggerated claims on the design either. These designs also typically used sans-serif typography, set in flush left/ragged right paragraphs. It was seen as progressive design that was socially important. Ernst Keller set the "standard of excellence" for Swiss design, and the Basel School of Design was a major influence in its geometrically-based curriculum. Many widely-used fonts came out of this design time, too, such as Univers (by Frutiger), Helvetica (Hoffman & Miedinger) and Palatino, Melior and Optima (Zapf). The design style caught on quickly, becoming widely used in the 1960s corporate and industrial graphics, specifically by MIT. 

Chapter 19 is about The New York School, the influence of modern art/Swiss design on American design from about the 1940s-1970s. Paul Rand was a major influence, putting his knowledge of the modern movement into major graphic design. He designed many magazine covers, reducing the design to the symbolic essence that he wanted to convey--he used universal, ordinary signs and symbols to translate his visual ideas, and often used juxtaposition of  colors, ideas, or imagery to make a statement. Lustig, another important designer, used symbolic imagery to convey an essence of the contents of a book on its book cover. Yale University School of Art also had a major influence at this time, with Josef Albers as the director of the art school, and Eisenman as the director of the graphic design program. George Lois was a master at this time of completely integrating visual and verbal design, which he executed on many Esquire magazine covers, among other things. 

What I found most interesting in this chapter was that figurative typography was just emerging. Gene Federico was one of the first graphic designers at this time to use letterforms as imagery. Type also finally began to have connotative meaning in compositions as well. 

One question I have is, why did it take so long for typography to be used as connotative expression? Couldn't the Dada or futurism compositions be considered exploration of connotative typography? 

Weekly Sketches

Once again, I redesigned the Heinz ketchup label. The first design is inspired by Peter Behrens’ design in the early 1900s. His designs were very structured and geometrical, so I changed the shape of the label itself to be a rectangle with 90 degree angles, and then used linear elements as well as circles. I used the circles, which I would make red (to echo the image of a tomato) to hold each letter of the word ‘Heinz.’ I then made the bottom portion of the label primarily circular, but still intersected with some linear elements. Overall, the design is clean and neat and geometrical, like Behrens’ work. As for typography, Behrens used a bracketed serif font; on this matter, I would depart from his influence and use a simple, bold fat face. I think the thick, bold type would stand out more, as well as keep the clean and simple look of the label.

The second label is inspired by the Plakastil movement. The posters of this era used reductive imagery and flat planes of color. I mirrored these characteristics in my design by making the main imagery a giant red tomato with a simplified green leaf/stem on the top. Plakastil experimented with placement of type somewhat, so I aligned “Heinz” on the curve of the tomato to make the type and imagery work together. I think I would use a fancier font for this design, as Plakastil posters also experimented with sometimes.

3/29

The poster that I found had the most emotional impact on me was this poster:
http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Bravery-Posters_i372196_.htm
It is a poster of a soldier on the ground pointing his gun outwards, towards the viewer. The picture is lifelike and realistic, this is what the soldier must do--and seeing that is emotional enough. But on top of that, the gun is aimed at the viewer, which gives the feeling of being under fire, or at the wrong side of the gun. It makes me very uncomfortable to look at the poster because I feel like I am about to be shot down.

Sketches

This redesign of the Heinz ketchup bottle label is influenced by the Victorian era. I wanted to use typography that was more decorative and thick to make the “Heinz tomato ketchup” words stand out on the label, especially “Heinz.” I also put the word “tomato” on a curved angle, as that is representative of many Victorian era products as well. I carried the thicker, decorative type through to “America’s favorite” but on a smaller scale so that the phrase would not compete with brand name. Finally, I added a lot of embellishment through straight and scalloped lines around the border, as well as scrolls and curves in the white spaces to make sure I filled all of the larger areas of white, as Victorians did not like to leave any white space.

This second redesign of the Heinz ketchup bottle label is influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement. For typography, I was inspired by the woodtype typeface “Neuland” by Rudolf Koch, which was a slightly imperfect carved block letterface with very thick, even, angular strokes. I used smaller, contrasting types for less important words in the label to balance the thick, larger and more important words. Arts & Crafts design used very organic line-made elements, as well as celebrated nature, so I tried to do the same through using a tomato and vines to make linear elements that moved throughout the whole label, making it very busy, just like arts and crafts design. Also, the placement of the type was generally put near the top or bottom, so that is what I did with most of the type on the label; I wanted the Heinz pickle to stand out, though, so I put that more towards the center as one of the main elements as it is a brand identity for the company.

Readings 2/27

The American posters that were designed during WWII had many of the same elements that we have seen during these years when modern art influenced design. The posters are rather simplified and straightforward, with pistorial representations and limited color range (black, red, white, yellow, blue) to get direct points across. The war posters are especially dramatic as they hit on social, political and ethical nerves.
American Kitsch, on a completely different note, is the opposite of the simple designs that we have been seeing lately. Kitsch is often described as tacky, trashy, nostalgic or just plain junk. Some people can appreciate kitsch because they can find humor in how terrible looking a piece of art/collectible/carving/etc is. While I think this is funny to a point, I only think it'd be funny if someone else actually thought it was good art and one could laugh at how bad it really is. But who really knows what's good and bad?

In relation to WWII posters, I especially noticed Ben Shahn's poster about Nazi cruelty, which features a stiff man with a bag over his head and text saying that all the men of a Czech village have been killed. Even the brick wall in the background is striking as it brings about the imagery of the concentration camps and brick ovens to mind. It is an eerie and striking poster.

What are some other examples of kitsch? For some reason, I keep recalling to mind old garage sales I went to and all the old ugly figurines that I'd find at them and wonder who'd ever buy them.

Postcubist Pictorial Modernism

The reading for tomorrow’s class is about the postcubist pictorial modernist movement that occurred approximately around the 1920s-1930s. This movement, known as art deco, created graphic design that was geometrical and influenced by cubism, Bauhaus, the Vienna Secession, De Stijl and suprematism. One key graphic designer who used art deco was Edward McKnight Kauffer, who moved to Europe after seeing the Armory Show in Chicago in 1913 and decided that Americans were not yet attuned enough to the modern art movement. He applied modern art to design, particularly poster design, creating 141 posters for the London Underground. Other influential designers were A.M. Cassandre, who was a master of integrating words and imagery into one total design, and Jean Carlu, Paul Collin, Austin Cooper, and Joseph Binder.

I found it interesting that Cassandre went back to the Roman alphabet and tried to recreate it anew with the Peignot alphabet. Using all capitals as smaller forms for the lower-case letters was definitely different than people were used to reading as normal body text, it is not a comfortable way to read now that we are so used to reading lower-case letters. I think that is why Cassandre’s attempt to revive the Roman alphabet was unsuccessful, though it can be appreciated.

When did modern art/art deco finally come to America and influence the graphic designers here?