What I think about the History of Graphic Design

This is my blog for the History of Graphic Design class with Dorian Angello @ Ringling College of Art + Design. After each class we have got to post a response to what we think for that exact lecture. So I write, you read. Enjoy!

Final Blog Posts


Blogs for Test II


The Bauhaus: March 29, 2011 

BAUHAUS
It was created in a very chaotic time, during WWI. Gropuis wrote a manifesto in 1919 as the leader of the school called Bauhaus. Revolution of the education that is still used in many art + design schools today.
❑ Workshops
❑ Unlike other art schools, Bauhaus students were learning how to use the machines and how to use the tools + materials they are using. Working with talented craftsman and later creating their designs in the studios.

❑ Kandinsky drawings made no reference to nature, it was according to whatever he felt at that moment.

■ 3D structure of materials, textures of wood, wool, glass was used in the Bauhaus
■

The Bauhaus Stairway, drawings
■ OSKAR SCHLEMMER
■ ROY UNCHESTEIN

❑ Shift happens because of what’s going on in Russia
     ■ constructivism
     ■ suprematism

- World War I

UTOPIAN IDEAS
■  “how can we model perfect life?”
■ “how can we make the technology work in the human benefit?”

1919-1925 WEIMAR
■ 1923 — First Public Exhibition
■ 1924 — Letter of Resignation

1925-1932 DESSAU
■ 1928 — Gropuis replaced by Meyer
■ 1930 — Meyer replaced by Van deer Rohe

1932-1933 BERLIN

❑ Bauhaus is the start of the design roots that affects our design education + style today.
❑ Broken Wings, Jack Porter, 1933, Berlin
❑ Weimar, thinks that there should be an art school
❑ Walter Gropius - the first director of Bauhaus, from 1919-1928
   ■ He thinks that art should be done in like the old ways
   ■ Like John Ruskin, Gropuis directs his ideas towards the Cathedral, in another perspective
   ■ Art, architecture, painting, sculpture, should all be considered equally as important and should be united

LASZLO MOHOLY-NAGY - Hungarian Constructivist

❑ Photo-montage, letterform as art + function in art, typophoto, uses photography as the new technological element
❑ How do I make you release what’s inside you?
❑ Each students creativibility is important
❑ Fundamental basics (core foundation)
❑ Study based on contrasts (soft-hard, hot-cold etc.)
❑ Analysis on the old work
❑  There was no money due to the economic corruption due to the World War I. The Bauhaus members does not have a lot of tools, materials and expensive art stuff to create art. They used whatever was available to them in the countries conditions. This is why there are odd items, made-up items are always seen in Bauhaus works.
❑ Rationalism

❑ Gropuis - unity, craftsmanship, however after 1923 —> his ideas leans towards design
               -  thinks Van Doesburg is too dogmatic, so he didn’t want him to teach at the Bauhaus.

❑ Weimar - cultural center of Germany, away from Berlin’s chaotic situation


The Art Movement with Broken Wings: Bauhaus 

Mar 30th at 8PM / 0 notes

           Staatliches Bauhaus, commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term  stood for “School of Building”.

The Bauhaus school was founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar. In spite of its name, and the fact that its founder was an architect, the Bauhaus did not have an architecture department during the first years of its existence. Nonetheless it was founded with the idea of creating a ‘total’ work of art in which all arts, including architecture would eventually be brought together. The Bauhaus style became one of the most influential currents in Modernist architecture and modern design.[1] The Bauhaus had a profound influence upon subsequent developments in art, architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design, and typography.

The school existed in three German cities (Weimar from 1919 to 1925, Dessau from 1925 to 1932 and Berlin from 1932 to 1933), under three different architect-directors: Walter Gropius from 1919 to 1928, Hannes Meyer from 1928 to 1930 and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe from 1930 until 1933, when the school was closed by its own leadership under pressure from the Nazi regime.

The changes of venue and leadership resulted in a constant shifting of focus, technique, instructors, and politics. For instance: the pottery shop was discontinued when the school moved from Weimar to Dessau, even though it had been an important revenue source; when Mies van der Rohe took over the school in 1930, he transformed it into a private school, and would not allow any supporters of Hannes Meyer to attend it.


Mar 30th at 8PM / 0 notes

Bauhaus Store Logo & a Bauhaus store


BAUHAUS 

In class Dorian asked us what we know about Bauhaus, anything that comes up to our minds. The only thing came up to my mind was the Bauhaus stores just like Lowe’s, Home Depot, that are around Europe.


Art Nouveau | Febuary 22, 2011 

 Josef Hoffmann

(December 15, 1870, Brtnice. Moravia, now part of the Czech Republic – May 7, 1956, Vienna, Austria) was an Austrian architect and designer of consumer goods.
   He designed many products for the Wiener Werkstätte of which designer chairs, most notably “Sitzmaschine” Chair, a lamp, and sets of glasses have reached the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, and a tea service has reached the Metropolitan Museum of Art.Peter Behrens

Peter Behrens

(April 14, 1868 – February 27, 1940) was a German architect and designerPeter Behren.  ❦ Peter Behrens was a pioneer in everything he did in the first half of the 20th century and his ideas were spread around the world by his students, especially by Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier. The creation of the concept of corporate identity (see also: Corporate design) had a direct influence in other post WWII companies such as Braun (company) or McDonald’s.

AEG Logo Design

1809 - First underground system

Edward Johnston, CBE (11 February 1872 – 26 November 1944)

LUCIAN BERNHARD

Lucian Bernhard (March 15, 1883-May 29, 1972) was a German graphic designer, type designer, professor, interior designer, and artist during the first half of the twentieth century. He was born in Stuttgart, Germany, on March 15, 1883, as Emil Kahn to a Jewish family, but changed in 1905 to his more commonly known pseudonym.

He studied briefly at the Akademie in Munich, he was largely self-taught. He moved to Berlin in 1901 where he worked as a poster designer and art director for magazines. In 1920 he became a professor at the Akademie der Künste until 1923, when he emigrated to New York City. In 1928 he opened the Contempora Studio with Rockwell Kent, Paul Poiret, Bruno Paul, and Erich Mendelsohn where he worked as a graphic artist and interior designer. After 1930 he worked primarily as a painter and sculptor until his death on May 29, 1972.   Lucian Bernhard was the father of the photographer Ruth Bernhard

The Priester

poster was designed by Lucian Bernhard in 1906 for a poster competition sponsored by Berlin’s Priester Matches Company. The poster won first prize, and at the age of 18 Bernhard had created the first Sachplakat, or object poster, which spawned the movement Plakatstil (poster style). This new style would revolutionize the advertising world by utilizing bold colour, stark imagery and minimal lettering, a drastic change from that era’s visually complex style of Art Nouveau.

Julius Klinger

Julius Klinger (May 22, 1876 – 1942) was an Austrian Painter, draftsman, illustrator, commercial graphic artist, typographer and writer. Klinger studied at the Technologisches Gewerbemuseum in Vienna.  


Effects of Arts and Crafts Movement 

        The Arts and Crafts Movement of the late nineteenth century was an attempt to improve society by creating objects and architecture of a more worthwhile nature. The movement began in England in the 1870’s and soon spread to the United States where it was widely employed in the arts and in architecture. Advocates promoted its use among the middle class. Its continued endorsement among all social classes was seen as an empowerment to the poor who had suffered so much during the previous period of industrialization.

       Arts and Crafts Movement lead the designers to another movement which is called Art Nouveau. Its name comes from French which means “The New Art” and in German it is referred as Jugendstil which means the “the youth style”. This particular art consists of floral and other kinds of motifs that were inspired by plants, these designs were stylized and had curvilinear forms to them. Like the preceding movements, Art Nouveau evolved in Europe, Glasgow to Madrid, however the effects of the movement was global and spread through the whole world. One important fact about the movement is, it was a transition and was like a bridge between Neoclassicism and Modernism.

Blackletter text: the earliest typefaces that were used for printing press however today it is mostly seen on tattoos the most.

JULES CHERET
- known as the father of the modern posters
- was a French painter and lithographer who became a master of Belle Époque poster art.
- As his work became more popular and his large posters displaying modestly free-spirited females found a larger audience, pundits began calling him the “father of the women’s liberation.” Females had previously been depicted in art as prostitutes or puritans. The women of Chéret’s posters, joyous, elegant and lively—’Cherettes’, as they were popularly called—were neither. It was freeing for the women of Paris, and heralded a noticeably more open atmosphere in Paris where women were able to engage in formerly taboo activities, such as wearing low-cut bodices and smoking in public. These ‘Cherettes’ were widely seen and recognised, and a writer of the time said “It is difficult to conceive of Paris without its ‘Cheréts’

EUGENE GRASSET
- was a Swiss decorative artist who worked in Paris, France in a variety of creative design fields during the Belle Époque.
- he is considered a pioneer in Art Nouveau design.
- he uses flat colors and outlines them in black



- pattern design in 1900s is very popular
- one of Harper’s christmas cover designs was done by a French designer and printed in Paris, then shipped to NY
- the logo of La Maison Moderne, is very cleverly designed, it is on the window of the place that the lady is sitting in front of in the illustration

LOGO OF GENERAL ELECTRIC
- GE logo was created in the Art Nouveau era

EXOTIC BIRDS
EXTREME CONTRAST - ABSTRACTION

GLASGOW STUDENTS
- geometric
- recta-linear structure (curving+rectalinear)
- use symbolic imagery
- stylized forms + florals


01/25/2011 - William Morris + more 

William Morris

Fredrick Koening 1st double cylinder steam powered press from 1814

Thread, fabric> industrialization

1814 - London Times was printed by steam press machine.

  1. select audience
  2. similar interest/demographics

those who subscribe, avarage man on the street start to buy the paper, when the newspapers started to address to a wider community and mass produce.

1886 - Otmar Mergenhaller

VICTORIAN ERA GPRAHICS

- rise of lower class

- income> wanting things/stuff

example: if you live in small town then come to Time Square it’s like a shock that you would want to explore and buy stuff.

         As people earn money and do not know what to do with it, there are people to show them how to spend their money. No cognizant buyer/sellers, they just sell to make money, buyers just buy it because they want something different that they never had before. As they saw at other people’s house or see them use it, they wanted more and more..

       A lot of the things that are produced were all very bad quality because they were done to make money but people didn’t really care, just wanted to stuff so they were purchasing these items anyways.

1844 - Pencil of Nature

William Henry Fox Talbot

LITHOGRAPHY - COVER LITHOGRAPHY

1796 - when it was created around

Croma-Lithography

EPHEMERA: refers to printed/written, not meant to be collected.

Scrap cards: very good Victorian era graphics

Typical of Louis Prang’s work:

Great sense of Nationalism at the time era.

Carousels are big events in towns, entertainment was a good subject for graphical work. Such as depictions of the carousel events as graphics.

Carousel posters had an empty yellow rectangle for people around the world can write the date/time of the carousel and where it is going to be.

Tin Packages - it is hard to print on metal, the design would be printed on paper then in reverse printed on tobacco, tea, ginger, oats etc.

1901 - Quaker Oats

personalization on the packages

aunt jemima, uncle ben’s etc.

French designers used mixed types: croma + lithography

Thomas Nast, father of political illustrations

- donkey, colombia, uncle sam, santa claus

Female Work Force:

- good-looking women, some places even have pools, tanning areas because women > more customers, potential customers

John Ruscin - philosophical leader

EFFIENCIENCY = BEAUTY

WILLIAM MORRIS

Gabriel Rozetti


William Morris documentary + etc 

W.Morris as Wikipedia

William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement. Morris wrote and published poetry, fiction, and translations of ancient and medieval texts throughout his life. His best-known works include The Defence of Guenevere and Other Poems (1858), The Earthly Paradise (1868–1870), A Dream of John Ball (1888) and the utopian News from Nowhere (1890). He was an important figure in the emergence of socialism in Britain, founding the Socialist League in 1884, but breaking with the movement over goals and methods by the end of that decade. He devoted much of the rest of his life to the Kelmscott Press, which he founded in 1891. The 1896 Kelmscott edition of the Works of Geoffrey Chaucer is considered a masterpiece of book design.

Born in Walthamstow in east London, Morris was educated at Marlborough and Exeter College, Oxford. In 1856, he became an apprentice to Gothic revival architect G. E. Street. That same year he founded the Oxford and Cambridge Magazine, an outlet for his poetry and a forum for development of his theories of hand-craftsmanship in the decorative arts. In 1861, Morris founded a design firm in partnership with the artist Edward Burne-Jones, and the poet and artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti which profoundly influenced the decoration of churches and houses into the early 20th century. His chief contribution to the arts was as a designer of repeating patterns for wallpapers and textiles, many based on a close observation of nature. He was also a major contributor to the resurgence of traditional textile arts and methods of production.

II. Part of Documentary of W.Morris

In this part of the documentary, it talks about William Morris’s designs on textile products and his influencial flat designs and his success in it.

William Morris is the one who wanted to structure of the society, and converge these movement into more nice and liveble way. Universal harmony

Ruscin, rejected the idea or merchandided economy. the idea that your work should in service of society, as a model of this idea, he points the production of the gothic cathedral.

Thinking about society, not only thinking but getting into the depth. (He is the philosophical leader!) . He published his first book when he was 24.

The details of the carved wood are amazingly interesting. The weird thing about Morris was he was doing his design work on his own time to relax.

Morris had an interest in book arts.

Train of logic:  industrilazition -> printing a lot and print quality is bad -> ppl started to gain interest back in book art

The typefaces that Morris designed:

Roycrofters

Bruce Rodgers - cliche to collect his books

Fredirick Roudy - these people are the ones to bring the arts and crafts to America. America takes the European traits/phylosophies and adds/changes.

American craftsman is pragmatic.


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