April 19th

The argument between Modernism and Postmodernism is an ongoing struggle in which designers are torn as to which to identify with. Postmodernism is used to describe the break away from Modernism. We see it in Art, Design, Literature, and Architecture. Ther is an emphasis on feeling rather than rationale. Emphasis on surface, texture and materials. Self-conciousness or self-referencing. Mixes of highs and lows. Historical references, and vernacular.

Manifestations of postmodernism arrive in the 1960s.

Wolfgang Weingart starts EVERYTHING. he begins to push the styles of modern design, except without a computer; he uses the letterpress. In 1969, he works with lead type and open systems in a playful way. He is important because of the experiments he does. He opens up the doors for us designers today. His characteristics include: changing letter spacing on sans serif type. Stair stepping rules (lines) diagonal type, reversing type out of bars.

Vaughn Oliver and Peter Saville create new design that looks like the way we work now.

When the macintosh is introduced, things go crazy. It revolutionizes design and morphs it into the way we design today.

Sagmeister and Carson... Very... interesting styes that I am not a fan of.

Chip Kid is a book designerm creating competent design. Clean work for great clients.

Paula Scher creates equally clean design, working at Pentagram.

In my opinion, the work of Sagmeister and Cason, even though helping along the way design is developing recently,, is not the kind of design we should be moving towards. There are plenty of people who like this design, but from things that i have seen, design should not be random, it should not be composed on a page according to "feeling" it should have an underlying structure.

April 5th

Review on the Bauhaus: Its open from 1919 - 1933, and its in Weimar, Dessau, and Berlin.

Jan Tschichold studied caligraphy as a kid, because the ideas of open grids being the norm was not yet established. The design of the time is more assosiated with the victorian era because of the quality of the articuloation. In 1925, he makes an insirt about asymmetrical typography. Most type is being printed in textura in germany, but aesthetically when you look at this work, it makes you think of lissitzky and distijl. The aim of all typographic work should be to deliver a message in the shortest most efficient matter. That is modernism.Sans serif typography, limited palet and nice, open space works so well.

Herbert matter's approach to type was different. his type/image relationship is very matt mitchell esque. diagonals are used very dynamically, and the images fill the posters. They fill repeat over the poster and activate the space. His ads are very interesting, and bring a new style to the modern ideas of poster design. He uses a limited palet and a sans serif typography in order to create a very modern looking design that we might see today. the widely spaced sans serif typography really hits home with design today.

Leister Beil creates posters using the simplified negative form with the electrification posters. They try to convince that if we have electrification, we can defend our homeland. you are better if you use electrification. Using a limited palet becomes extremely popular because of the rise of the use of silk screen.

Corporations begin to make a large impact on design. They spread the gospels of the design. when people create design for corporations, the designers can send their message to everyone.

March 29th

The Bauhaus is the big cheese.

It existed from 1919 - 1933, in Weimar till 1925

Walter Gropius is the Director of the Bauhaus from 1919 - 1928. He is very important. He has a new idea that maybe we have to go back to the old ways. In publishing the Bauhaus manfesto, he has a woodcut of a cathedral. He is using the Cathedral to represent Painting, Sculpture and architecture. A work of art that represents a new social unity. People put their entire lives into the Bauhaus, they move from other countries to just to be there.

Gropius has his Council of masters; Gerhard Marks in charge of sculpture, Lyonel Feringer of painting, and Johannes Itten of the Priliminary courses.

Itten is extremely interesting, because he invented the way we think about core classes today. He talks about things in relation to their opposites (e.g. soft/hard). Always using contrast and hierarchies.

The movie very interesting explains the rise and fall of the Bauhaus, then the reopening of the Bauhaus in Dessau. It is interesting how it is driven away to somewhere that is more liberal. I think even to this day, art school are more accepted in more liberal areas. The discussion about the addition of architecture to the Bauhaus is extremely interesting, because we dont have anything like it here at ringling, and it is the most interesting because of how much it changes or the Bauhaus. As much as i love sans serif typefaces; Its nice to at least have the option to use serif faces, therefore when the bauhaus gets rid of serif faces, i personally think its crazy!

Learning about the Bauhaus has been extremely interesting, because its amazing to see how such an important historical school progressed, and even though it was only open for 10 minutes, it has made such an incredible impact on art. Why hasnt Ringling made an equal impact on art? are the students just not good enough? or has everything just been done before?

The Bauhaus

All I know about the Bauhaus is that it is a school in Germany that established a lot of influential design. I know there was more than one school in germany associated with the Bauhaus, and they output many famous artists.

March 15th

El Lissitzky moves onto constructivism. He begins to use his work to prove a point, applying it in practical ways such as his USSR photo montage poster. This is built above his base of cuprematism where he uses just simple shapes to express a new form of art. Photography is seen as a tool of the modern age; a tool of the new age... a machine. Its a new way to create art, and its wonderful.

Serge Eisenstein: Potempkin rules over all past films, and opens new doors with its violence, montages, and new tricks in cinema.

This is the iconic scene; the massacre on the steps of odessa literally sets the stage for many future movie scene ideas. This movie also obviously has the greatest soundtrack to ever have been featured in any movie since the dawn of time. I wish it was on iTunes. The untouchables has the same scene! It is extremely strange... in my highschool english class, we watched both of the same scenes from the untouchables and potempkin. Very strange but interesting Deja Vu.

Alexander Rodchenko: The key person of russian constructivism. He attends art school from 1910 onwards. He creates very non representational suprematist work in school, and builds on his style from there. Left front of the arts is a magazine that he works on. Using black bars as graphic elements as we do today! Very lissitzkyesque. In 1932, Stalin is in power, and artists are decimated. No-one wants to center their governmental direction around artists propaganda anymore.

De Stijl: "The style" A utopian approach to aesthetics. If you take a step back and look at suprematism and constructivism, they are creating something that is theory based, based on functionality or spirituality. De Stijl asks the question; what is the key to good art? How can everyone make good art? They use squares and ratios. Dorian is obsessed.

Mondrian, Theo VanDoesvurg. De Stijl dies with him.

De Stijl evolves. In 1921, there is a formal change that explores Asymmetrical composition (Dorian gets goosebumps) It is the foundation of modernism design and composition; very beautiful. There are implied rectangles of the elements, but the air moves around and flows. Theo VanDoesvurg publishes Dadaist poems in his magazine. It is curious to think that it took graphic designers so long to come up with these asymmetrical uses of rectangles and white space, as we take it for granted these days.

Everything keeps builind upon other things before, and moving towards what we are creating as designers today. It will be interesting to see how it came about that we create things exactly how we do today, as i can not pin an exact way that people are designing today. Not like in the past when you can tell exactly when they are from because of the style.

March 1st

reductive reductive reductive. the forms in the new posters by the axis powers are reductive. When hitler looks back at the world war I posters, he thinks that they are not good because they should all speak to the lowest common denominator. They were too intellectual for the average german. Hohlwein has badass posters that are pretty high above the rest. Edward McKnight Kouffer: cubist birds. Uses the language of cubism. you can look at it and decode it baded on relationships. Cubism starts of as an intellectual form of art. But when it catches on, it explodes. A.M. Cassandre makes very structured posters because people are looking to science. Looking to apply logic and science to design.

Cubo futurism is taking the ideas of futurism and cubism, and mushing them together. If youre looking for something new, thats a good direction. Then comes suprematism, then constructivism. suprematism rejects utilitarian function. we do not need any more pictures of trees and cows. The black square form 1913. ridiculous. frick yeah! he is forced to start painting things that arent quite as much BS.

Art should not have utilitarian function: suprematism

the only meaningful art has function. things that have function are art: constructivism.

vladimir tatlin, rodchenko, lissitzky. THEY RENOUNCE art for art's sake. art should serve the new communist society.

Kandinsky invents abstract painting.

Lissitzky invents suprematist paintings.

proun is an acronym. looking for the intersection between painting and architecture. buildings and architecture become very important. beat the whites with the red wedge: bullshevic army vs the white forces who were conservatives opposed to the bullshevics. lissitzky is looking how to construct things and explore space.

february 22nd

Josef Hoffman creates flat patterns. These are a reoccurring theme, seen in the pattern work of aubrey beardsley and mocha. peter berrins (sp?!?!) creates the androgynous kissers with long tendrils of hair. Berrins starts to set type in sans serif, and uses rectilinear images alongside the type. Compositions begin to be created using geometry. elaborate systems using nothing but circles and squares. He develops a logo for an electrical company, AEG, using a honeycomb as a metaphor for division and structure within the factory system. He develops a logo, typeface, and consistant layout system. he even applies the system to tea kettles.

Lucian Bernhard is a young painter. Living on his own as a painter, because when he was a kid, he went to an exhibition and saw paintings, went home and painted the walls. his dad kicked him out.

Placastil. dominant typographic element. THE THING. flat background. This is around the time of WWI, there is more abstraction, and metaphor. the axis powers have badass posters. the allies have shitty illustrations that look outdated.

This film has shed a lot of light on the way design has changed in the past century. it is interesting to see hwo much the times have altered design, because of certian things such as presidential shift.