April 10, 2012

1. Notes

April 10, 2012

Key Words & Topics

·      The International Typography Style

·      The Institute of Design in Ulm Germany

·      Semiotics

·      The New York School

·      Paul Rand

·      Saul Bass

·      Ivan Chermayeff

·      Wolfgang Weingart

·      April Greiman

·      Dan Friedman – Radical Modernism

·      Post Modernism

Swiss Design + The International Typographic Style

·      More than just grids!!

·      Visual unity I achieved through an asymmetrical organization

·      Embraces objective photography, san serif type, flush left, rag right

·      Designs should be socially useful

·      Mathematical Grid

·      More importance than the appearance is the attitude

·      Founded in the roots of De Stijl and the Bauhaus

·      Max Bill & Theo Ballmer – students of the Bauhaus

·      1950 – Max Bill helped build The Institute of Design in Ulm Germany. They introduced a system of semiotics.

·      Semiotics is just the philosophical theory of signs and symbols – what things mean in relationship to other things.

o   Syntactics – order

§  Red followed by yellow followed by green

o   Semantics – meaning or referred to

§  You should probably slow down

o   Pragmatics – how it is used

§  Fire

·      Ferdinand de Saussure

o   Dyadic Model

§  A ‘signifier’ – the form which the sign takes.

·      Charles Sanders Piece

o   Triadic Model

§  Sign vehicle: the form of the sign

§  Sense: the sense made of the sign

§  Referent: what the sign ‘stands for’

·      Armind Hofman

o   Born in 1920 and still alive

o   Designed the negative space, the composition will work

·      Joseph Muller Brockman

o   Looking for absolute and universal graphic expression

o   Used intensity and clarity

Swiss Modernism VS NYC Modernism

§  Paul Rand, Saul Bass & Ivan Chermayeff

§  1940’ begin to see effects of Modernism in advertising

§  European Theoretical – NY, pragmatic

§  “The Big Idea”

Postmodernism

           

§  Used to note a break with the earlier modernist principles by placing emphasis on form over function, by reintroducing traditional or classical elements or by carrying modernist styles or practices to extremes.

o   Seen in Art, Design, Literature, & Architecture

o   Emphasis on feel rather than rationale

o   Emphasis on surface, texture & materials

o   Self-conscious or self-referencing

o   Mixes high and low

o   Historical references

o   Vernacular

·      1963 – typesetting exam pioneers of the new type of the pre-digital age (Wolfgang Weingart)

2. Personal Thoughts


In today's class, I learned that Swiss Design + the International Typographic Style uses more than just grids. I also learned about Swiss Modernism VS NYC Modernism. Learned about the "The Big Idea". Then we learned about Postmodernism and the modernism principles by placing emphasis on feel rather than rationale. It was different not watching a movie clip.

April 3, 2012

1. Notes.

April 3, 2012

Keywords & Topics

·      Herbert Matter

·      Lester Beall

·      WPA: Works Progress Administration

·      The Federal Art Project

·      The Container Corporation of America

·      Swiss Design

·      The International Typographic Style

·      Theo Ballmer

·      Max Bill

·      The Institute of Design in Ulm Germany

·      Semiotics

Herbert Matter

·      Worked for a number of years with Charles and Ray Eames

·      Ad for Knoll – 1948 USA

·      Uses abstraction of the form to speak about the form.

·      The Container Corporation of America

Lester Beal (1903–1969)

·      Largely self-taught. Good reader

·      Moves his studio to N.Y.C and becomes very involved in the corporate design movement.

·      Visual contrast and elements.

·      Pioneers in Peoria – 1935

·      Rural Electrification Administration – 1937

·      Communicating the most information with the least means.

·      Arrows, dots, diagonals.

WPA: Works Progress Administration

·      Effort to try and employ millions of Americans.

·      European modernists were given jobs.

2. Personal Thoughts.


In today's class we learned about Herbert Matter and watched a short video about him. It was very interesting to know that having the wrong papers, America sent him back to Switzerland, they didn't even try to work it out, they just straight up sent him back. I like his style in his posters and all. It's very different and I didn't know they had the ability to do those things back then either. The movie was very interesting as well. I really liked how it showed us that Matter was as well a graphic designer and a photographer. Not only that but that the photography carried on in the family to the 3rd generation.

March 20, 2012

1. Notes

Bauhaus

·      School with a Utopian idea to change society.

·      Looking for a unity to bring arts man and craftsman together

·      1919-1925 Weimar

o   1923 - First Public Exhibition

o   1924 - Letter of resignation

·      1925-1932 Dessau

o   1928 - Groupius replaced by Meyer

o   1930 - Meyer replaced by van der Rohe

·      1932-1933 Berlin

 



2. Personal Notes
I really liked today's lesson. It was a continuation of last classes with the Bauhaus movement. We went into detail about who did what. I liked the typo-photo too. It would be cool to try some of that out. I really liked how they taught kids to not be afraid to do things, to be adventurous.

March 13, 2012

1. Notes

March 13, 2012

Key Terms

Avante Garde

Cubo-futurism

Kasimir Malevich

Supermatism

Vladimir Tatlin

El Lissitzky

PROUNS

Alexander Rodchenko

The Bauhaus

Walter Groupius

Utopian

Johannes Itten

Laszlo Moholy Nagy

Typo photography

Kandinsky – invents abstraction.

El Lissitzky – red square

·      PROUN – experiments between painting and architecture

·      Wrote a book called The Isms of Art

o   Developed a mathematical system for the book, written in English, Russian and German. Columns what divide the page

o   Sans serif type.

Alexandar Rodchenko

·      Art student

·      1921 – shows canvas at at show “I reduced painting to a logical conclusion, I affirm its all over”

·      Moves into constructivism

·      Leads us to modern graphic illustration.

·      Primitive – contemporary

·      Creativity has to have a social need, a social dysfunction.

De Stijl

·      1917- 1931

·      Based on a Utopian approach to aesthetics

·      Functionalism

·      Using primary colors and black and white.

·      Squares and rectangles

·      Sought to express mathematical system for universal harmony

·      Theo Van Doesburg

o   Embrace asymmetrical composition.

o   Embraced Dadaism

o   Before you can build something new, you have to tear everything down

·      Piet Mondrian

o   Broadway Boogie Woogie

Bauhaus

·      School with a Utopian idea to change society.

·      Looking for a unity to bring arts man and craftsman together

·      1919-1925 Weimar

o   1923 - First Public Exhibition

o   1924 - Letter of resignation

·      1925-1932 Dessau

o   1928 - Groupius replaced by Meyer

o   1930 - Meyer replaced by van der Rohe

·      1932-1933 Berlin

 2. Personal Thoughts

Today was a very different class. The notes were, or at least seemed, a lot shorter than normal. The movies we watched were probably the oldest movies I've ever seen. It was interesting to view different countries old black and white videos. It was a big sad and depressing but that was the obvious mood of the movie, I liked it. I really love the de stijl movement. I love the modern designs with the simple lines and shapes and colors.