Nadia Larashari Shabrina: The Modern Movement (in America)

Tuesday, 19 November 2013

Summary

Modernist european design did not become a significant influence in america until the 1930s
Graphic design in America 1920s-1930s was dominated by traditional illustrations (art nouveau billboards/posters)
However, the modern approach slowly gained ground on several fronts: book design, editorial design for fashion business magazine, and promotional and corporate graphics (logo, advertising)
When Tschichold "elementare typographie" insert was publicised in america advertising and graphic design arts venues, it caused considerable excitements for the americans.
Many editors and writers attacked it as "typographic fireworks" and a "typographic revolution" of "insane juggling of type by a band of crazy, foreign type anarchist"
However, there are small number of american typographers and designers recognised the vitality and functionalism of the new ideas
In the late 1920s typefaces like "futura" and "label" became available in america, moving the modern movement forward
Many famous book designers considered to participate in the transition between traditional goudy and rogers to the new typography of tschichold
Book designers like Willia, Dwiggins (knopf) began experimenting with uncommon title-page arrangements and two-column book formats

Immigrants to America

Cultural leaders from Europe including many graphic designers, came to America
The design language they brought with them, and the changes imposed on their work by their American experience, form an important phase of the development of American graphic design
There was this artist called Erte, who is russian-born, and french-educated immigrants who designed the illustrations cover for Harper's Bazaar

Also there was Dr. Mehemed Agha, who was the first art director trained in modern deisgn to guide the graphic design destiny of a major american movement. He designed major fashion magazines such as Vogue, American Vogue, and Vanity Fair, etc

And there was also Alexey Brodovitch, who was the art director for Harper's Bazaar, uses the open space balancing text was energized by the art of photography he learned from major european artist like A.M. Cassandre, Salvador Dali, and Man Ray

The rising tide of Nazism in Europe created the greatest transnational migration of intellectual and creative talent in history
Scientist, authors, architects, artist, and designers left Europe and fine new home in North America during late 1930s
Among them were the artists Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, and Piet Mondrian
When Nazi closed School of Bauhaus in 1933, most of the Bauhaus artists also move to America and make significant contribution to design
Sponsored by the association of arts and industries, Moholy-Nagy arrived in Chicago in 1937 and established the new School of Bauhaus

The War Years

While the war's trauma disrupted the ability of many governments to produce graphic propaganda, a diverse group of painters, illustrators, and designers, received commissions from the U.S. office of war information
America's wartime graphics spanned a range of posters to informational training materials and amateurish cartons
Lester Beall

The New York School

The first wave of modern design in America was imported by talented immigrants from Europe
While borrowing freely from the work of european designers, Americans added new forms and concepts to the tradition of graphic design
New York city became the new Paris, because it accepted new ideas and images during early 20th century

Paul Rand (1941-1996)

At the age of 23, Paul Rand began his career as a promotional editorial designer for the magazines Apparel Arts, Esquire, Ken Coronet, and Glass Packer
He was deeply influenced by the knowledge of the modern movement, particularly from the works of Klee, Kandinsky, and Cubist artist
His ability to manipulate visual form and skilful analysis of communications content, reducing it to symbolic essence without being sterile or dull
Direction Magazine 1940

Shows the important role of visual and symbolic contrast
The hand written christmas tag on a crisp rectangle created a collage element
A christmas package wrapped with barbed wire instead of ribbon was a grim reminder of the global war
The red dots are symbolic for holiday decoration or blood drops

Bill Bernbach (1911-1982)

A copywriter who work closely together with Paul Rand for the Weintraub advertising agency
He was one of the three founders in 1949 of the international advertising agency Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB)
He directed many of firm's breakthrough ad campaigns and had a lasting impact on the creative team structures now commonly used by ad agencies

Alvin Lustig (1915-1955)

He incorporated his subjective vision and private symbols into graphic design
At age of 21 he operated a graphic design and printing business in the streets of LA
His designs based on symbols to capture the essence of the contents and treating form and content as one, made him an influential book cover artist

Alex Steinweiss (b 1916)

Was the art director for Columbia Records
The modern design sensibilities of the 1940s were applied to record-album design of his visual forms and shapes to express music
He approaches space informally, elements were placed on the field with a casual balance sometimes bordering on random scattering of forms

Bradbury Thompson (1911-1995)

Emerged as one of the most influential graphic designers in postwar America
After graduated from Washburn College in Kansas, he worked for printing firms for several years before moving to New York
He uses good amount of knowledge in printing and typesetting, combined with an adventurous spirit of experimentation, allowed him to expand the range of design possibilities

Saul Bass (1921-1996)

A new york native who moved to California in 1950 and opened a design studio and got design jobs from motion pictures
He got inspired by Paul Ran's style of shapes and asymmetrical balance of the 1940s
For his designs, he reduced his graphic design to a single dominant image, often centred in the space
He stripped visual complexity from american graphic design and reduced message to simple pictographic images

George Tscherry

Is a native of Budapest, Hungary, migrated to US as a child and received his visual education there
He was head of graphic design department for the new york design firm George Nelson & Associates before he opened his own design firm in 1956
His vocabulary of techniques including typographic, photography, simple calligraphic brush drawing, and the bold, simple shapes from cutting coloured papers
He reduced complex content to an elemental graphic symbol expressing the underlying basic for, of the subject is constant

An Editorial Design Revolution

During the 1940s only a moderate number of american magazines were designed well (Fortune, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar)
Fortune magazine were art directed by Will Burtin and Leo Leoni
Vogue by Dr. Agha
Harper's Bazaar by Alexey Brodovitch

Cipe Pineles

Cipe pineles (1910-1991) made a major contribution to editorial design during the 1940s and 1950s
Pineles art directed glamour magazine, seventeen magazine, charm, and mademoiselle
Pineles often commissioned illustrations from fine artists, resulting in editorial pages that broke with conventional imagery
Her designs were characterised by a lyrical appreciation of colour, pattern, and form