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o Historical references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.
