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 Historical references, and vernacular.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.