Discourse 1

Kayla Pfrommer
History of Graphic Design
Discourse 1
2/28/10

ARTICLE 1:
Texts on Type Critical Writings on Typography “Designing Hate: Is There a Graphic Language of Vile Emotion?” (pp.42-44) – Steven Heller

Main Points:
• Adolf Hitler influenced the design of the Nazi party emblem, the swastika
• Giant sized buildings dwarfed the individual omnipotence of the state in Germany
• The Nazis developed graphics that dehumanized its enemy and promoted hatred
• Most of the design was racist propaganda
• Characterized Jews as vermin
• Nazis masterminded the aesthetics of hatred
• Certain typefaces, such as German Fraktur type, still evokes authority and looks frightening no matter what word is being spelled
• Certain American icons, such as the white hooded robe of the KKK is a living logo that denotes hate
• WAR, the tabloid of the White Aryan Resistance, has a default typeface and column width, but the graphics used in their adds denote hatred
• Burning swastikas, heroic mounted klansmen, and bloody daggers can be understood by any onlooker and the message of hatred is clear
• The design of hate must be painfully obvious so that the message is clear and unmistaken by anyone




The three images that I chose are the Nazi swastika, an example of a German newspaper articles from 1941 that features the typeface Fraktur, and the white hooded robe worn by the Ku Klux Klan. In the article, Heller explains that the display of hatred through graphic design must be completely obvious and unmistaken. In these three visuals that I have chosen, hatred can be denoted easily. The swastika is mentioned throughout the article because of its simplistic and easily recognizable display that denotes hate. The symbol, which is a sign for the SS, is geometric, bold, and is the sign of fear and hate that was especially used in Germany in the 1940’s. Even today this symbol is still one of the most recognizable visual and graphic displays of hatred. The German typeface Fraktur was the typeface used on Nazi signs and newspapers in the 1940’s and the font itself is menacing. Heller mentions that “even the most harmless words and phrases, takes on a decidedly ominous look,” (43) when set in Fraktur. Finally, the white hooded robe worn by the KKK is a symbol in itself. It is a threatening visual and symbolic of the hatred that is cast upon people by the Ku Klux Klan. The robe is easily recognizable by anyone, which makes it a successful denotation of hate through visual terms. All three of these images are examples of designed hate that shows the graphic language of vile emotion.

ARTICLE 2:
Texts on Type Critical Writings on Typography “Typographic Heresies: Some Notes on Experimenting With Type” (p. 182) – Eugene M. Ettenberg

Main Points:
• Typographic experimentation began with the movements of “Dada” and “Surrealism”
• The Dada painter-designers displayed the same vicious, mock-humor in their visual publications and posters as could be characterized by their pictures, sculpture, poetry, and music
• Dadaists protested against the mediocre, static, devitalized typography stemming from 1916-1922
• Surrealists pictured incongruities, fantasies and distorted perspective to images or collages
• Some Surrealists, such as Kurt Schwitters and Raoul Hausmann made use of typographic fragments
• The teachings of the Bauhaus from 1919-1928 also experimented with typography
• The Bauhaus experimented with new sans serif types such as Futura and insisted on sharp contrast between bold and extra bold faced types combined with text which went against the traditional polite gray pages of the 20’s
• All of these experiments in type have influenced the way typography exists today




The three images that I chose are a poster designed by Dadaists in the 1920’s, a collage by Surrealist Kurt Schwitters, and a poster designed by Jan Tschichold. These three examples show the experimentation with type design and graphic design in the 1920’s. The first image of a Dada collage shows how they scattered type and image on a page in a humorous way. There is no clear message in the poster, which is how the Dadaists worked. The point of their collages was to break the rules for the sake of breaking them. This is clearly embodied in their poster. The collage by Surrealist Kurt Schwitters is an example of how Surrealists worked in the 1920’s. They often used snips of newspapers, railway tickets, photographs, or even trash in their collages. In the article, Ettenberg mentions how certain Surrealists, such as Kurt Schwitters, used typographic fragments in their work. This can be seen in Schwitters’ collage. Finally, the poster designed by Jan Tschichold is a clear example of what the author mentions in the article about the ideas of the Bauhaus. According to Ettenberg, Tschichold was especially known for his use of “asymmetric design, radical use of white space, bold silhouetting of photographs, and substitution of color bands and rules for useless ornament,” (182). These elements can be seen in his poster, especially in the bold silhouettes of photographs he cut out. The color bands and rules used in his poster visually show the guides used in the design. All three of these pieces of art were revolutionary in their time because they broke the rules and because of their bold explorations and experimentations, graphic design has evolved into what it is today.

Class 2.24

Key points from tonight's lecture:

• De Stijl - Formalism exemplified - metaphysics and technology meet
• Philosophy of de Stijl - Visual forms developed from Mondrian’s paintings
• Everyday objects would be elevated to the level of art through careful application of the principals
• De Stijl did not survive after Van Doesburg’s death in 1931 at the age of 47
• The Bauhaus in Germany
• We watched a video about the Bauhaus
• The Bauhaus was a revolutionary landmark in the world of graphic design
• The thought process behind the Bauhaus was “To solve design problems created by industrialization”
• Weimar and Dessau were the two locations of the Bauhaus
• Moholy Nagy - "Bauhaus Master"
• Bayer developed a widely imitated recipe for a modernist page
• White space was given a new role as interval and structural element
• Tschichold declared families of sans serif fonts the modernist type
  

In class tonight we learned a lot about the Bauhaus in Germany. We watched a video that talked about it and it was very interesting to see pictures of what it looked like, the work that was produced there, and the people that were involved with it. The work that came out the Bauhaus was very geometric and used basic shapes and straight lines. Their philosophy was to use design for production and industrial purposes. It was interesting to see that the type of furniture that came out of the Bauhaus would be popular today, but was too early for its time when it was created back in the 20's.

Class 2.17

Key points from tonight's lecture:

• Suprematism- creates a theoretical model for an abstract visual language where form is understood as a set of forces soon aligned with those of revolution
• The emergence of the Constructivist Movement
• The three principles of Constructivism
• Rodchenko and Soviet Propaganda and Commerce Establishes a Soviet visual language revolutionary in its tone
• El Lissitzky- An unchallenged visionary and innovator of 20th century graphic design
• Geometric abstraction was adopted as a sign of functionality
• Modern graphic language becomes characterized by geometric forms and high-contrast arrangements
• Late Constructivism was instrumental in placing the radical typographic forms of Futurism and Dada into the commercial realm in the late 1920’s
• The Steinberg Brothers
• Visual forms developed from Mondrian’s paintings
• Russian Suprematist and the Dutch de Stijl are also the most hated (by the public) of all art movements of this or any other Century

Tonight's lecture discussed a few different movements in graphic design. Suprematism and the Constructivist Movement were first discussed. There are three principles of Constructivism: tectonics, which is a unification of Communist ideology with a visual form, texture, which is the nature of materials and how they are used, and construction, which is the creative process and the search for laws of visual organization.

We also went over the Soviet's way of displaying visual language. We discussed geometric abstraction and how it was revolutionary to the world of graphic design. We then ended with discussing how Russian Suprematist and the Dutch de Stijl are the most hated of all art movements.

It was interesting learning about the different movements and I found geometric abstraction especially interesting due to its simplicity and use of mathematics, shapes, and forms as design elements.

Class 2.10

Key points from tonight's lecture:

• Cubism replaced a rendering of natural appearances with purely invented form.
• Bernhard’s work considered the logical conclusion of the turn of the century poster movement where minimalism becomes the norm.
• Lucian Bernhard, like Berhens set the ground work for distinct professional idenity for graphic design.
• European poster design reached a zenith of importance as a mass communication propaganda medium during the World Wars
• Familiar realist poster styles softened the harsh realities of a world war
• German Art absorbes Cubism, French advertising art, the lettering, typography and spatial origination from the Russian Constructivism and Dutch de Stijl movements
• Synthetic Cubism: constructs “signs”- the graphic essence of an object rather than outward appearances of the object
• DADA “pointless mechanisms” subverts the idea of illustrated messages from the 19th Century.
• The DADA movement split into factions and In 1924 Breton launches Surrealism in Paris

Tonight's lecture focused a lot on Modern art and the introduction of DADA. I find the whole movement of DADA to be very interesting. We touched upon Duchamp and his ready-mades and also discussed other artists of the time. We also discussed Realism vs. Abstraction and learned about the first "Uncle Sam" posters with men pointing outward to the poster's viewer.

Along with DADA, we also touched upon Surrealism and Automatism which really was just more of a way of thinking than a particular style.