ModernismModernists devised new windows on the world; postmodernists offered a shattered mirror. Modernism dreamt of utopian visions , which would transform society; postmodernism threw together a new look for a night on the town. Modernism declared itself to be beyond style (style was mutable, but modernism was “universal”). For postmodernism, style was everything. Instead of authenticity, postmodernism celebrated hybridity. IN place of truth, postmodernism had attitude.

Modernism seeks to find a global style that is above all functional. Clean and clear communication. Based on rational

thought and proof, modernists were trying to look at the world in a new way.

- Postmodernism: Style and Subversion,

Postmodernism was the exhaustion of modernism - what was there left to change?

Postmodernism

Postmodernists believed there must be more than just that which can be seen or proven. It was the rejection of rationality and science following two world wars.

Suddenly there became a lot of choice in every aspect of life which would lead to consumerism.

Postmodernism is a theory born in the 60’s out of French philosophy

Postmodernism was the exhaustion of modernism - what was there left to change?

PSYCHEDELIC POSTER ART MILTON GLASER POSTMODERNISM

Having looked at the impact of modernisma and postmodernism on poster and magazine design, I decided to have a look at the impact on corporate branding. The above changes in Apple, Shell and VW’s logos clearly show

how they have changed with the times and visual movements. They go from very illustrative, accurate representations of what the icon includes, then become more and more simplified before reaching a happy mediam between modernistly

Helvetica is a very interesting film, covering how the typeface once known as ffkege came to be.

It is argued that at the time there was a desparate need for a

clear and versitle typeface

to provide clarity and consistency, especially on transportation signage.

When watching the film

you will be amazed just how many times you see Helvetica on a daily basis

without even being aware of it.

The film delivers a nice overview of modernism and the it’s goals. You also hear from several notable designers and typographers, each putting accross their view of the use of Helvetica, its usability and modernist style in general

Adrian FutigerIs a Typeface designer, best know for creating Univers and Futiger. Born in Switzerland on May 24th, 1928 he was a big influence on modern type

He created Frutiger for the purpose of “Way-Finding Signage”. A hybrid of Univers and Gill Sans, it was designed to be easlily read from a far and at an angle.

“To bring together in

harmony two disparate

systems necessarily

presupposes a greater

depth of artistic

perception and the

courage to embark upon

new trains of thought

and novel formulations.”

Armin Hoffm

ann, G

raphic

Design M

anual:

Princip

les & Prac

tice

Armin

Hoffman

n

“To bring together in

harmony two disparate

systems necessarily

presupposes a greater

depth of artistic

perception and the

courage to embark upon

new trains of thought

and novel formulations.”

Giselle ballet poster, 1959The Dot, 1965

Josef Müller-Brockmann became well known for his striking use of perspective and alteration of scale. The road-safety poster “Mind that Child!” shows a tightly cropped image of a motorcycle speeding toward a child. Only the front tire of the bike can be seen and it has been enlarged to cover most of the poster, towering over the child

Together with Richard P Lohse, Hans Neiburg and Carlo Vivarelli, launched Neue Grafik, a magazine celebrating modernist art and Swiss designers. The magazine title translates to New Graphic Design

Josef Muller Brockman

Josef Muller Brockman

Josef Müller-Brockmann

Born 1914, Rappersil, SwitzerlandDied 1996, Zurich, Switzerland

Neue Grafik Magazine—

Published quarterly in Zürich, Switzerland from 1958-1965 (17 issues, 18 numbers – the last issue 17/18 was a double issue), Neue Grafik was arguably the most important journal responsible for disseminating contemporary and historical Swiss functional design ideas and philosophies referred to as the “International Typo-graphic Style”, “Swiss New Typography” or “Objective-Functional Typography”.

bayerherbert

believed that the principle aim of typogography

is to clearly communicate

a message

herbert Bayer, a principle instructor within the Bauhaus School, was responsible for the reduction of typography to the bare essentials. Within “On Typography”, Bayer begins by assessing the disgruntled

designers awaiting the typographic revolution.

Bayer’s method of layering and masking images creates unusual visuals which look very current today. I will definitely explore this option for the magazine vover

Davie, Alan(b Grangemouth, Scotland, 28 Sept 1920).

Scottish painter and printmaker. He trained as a painter at Edinburgh Col-lege of Art from 1938 to 1940, initially favouring poetic imagery and com-ing into contact with modernism at exhibitions held in London of works by Picasso (1945; V&A) and Paul Klee (1945; Tate). He explored a diverse range of activities, however, before returning to painting: from 1949 to 1953 he earned his living by making jewellery and in 1947 he worked as a jazz musician, an activity he continued in later life. He wrote poetry during the early 1940s.

From 1947 to 1949 Davie travelled extensively in Europe; in Italy he stud-ied pre-Renaissance art and saw a wide range of modern art, including the Peggy Guggenheim collection in Venice, to which he later continued to have access. Among the works owned by Guggenheim were paintings of the

http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T021582?q=alan+davie&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit

early 1940s by Jackson Pollock, which led Davie to adopt mythic imagery and forceful painterly gestures. He also adopted from later Pollock a proce-dure of painting rapidly with his canvases on the floor. From this time his pictures concentrated on themes of organic generation and sinister ritual, fluctuating between turbulent paintwork, animate presences and more geometric forms, sometimes in the same work, as in Golden Seam (1952; London, Brit. Council).

From 1953 to 1956 Davie taught in London at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, where he became interested in African and Pacific art. Encour-aged by his critical and commercial success from the mid-1950s and by the large studio space made available to him during his Gregory Fellowship at Leeds University (1956–9), Davie increased his scale in works such as the Creati. Influenced by his reading of Eugene Herrigel’s Zen in the Art

of Archery (1953) in 1955, Davie became interested in Zen Buddhism and concluded that conscious decision-making was incompatible with a spiritual quest; as a result he rejected the emphasis on existential choice and immedi-ate emotionalism central to Harold Rosenberg’s definition of action paint-ing.

As early as 1958 Davie emphasized the importance in his work of intuition, as expressed in the form of enigmatic signs. During the 1960s, both inbean influences to bear on his suggestive imagery, as in Bird Gong No. 10, Opus 730 (1973; London, Brit. Council). Taking on the role of a disinherited sha-man, Davie created a synthesis of mythologies from a variety of cultures for a modern civilization devoid of its own village myths.

Alan Davie painting in Huddersfield art gallery

Many modernist tendancies are still popular today. I researched modernism in today’s graphic design and found that many designers

are finding new ways to create it. 3D and paper crafts used to create geometric

compositions are a good example of this.

Composition made on paper crafts for the design contest of a magazine cover, “Ha-zlo tú”, for Yorokobu by Noelia Lozano. In japanesse Yorokobu means to be happy.

Lucie Thomas teamed up with Thibault Zimmermann to form Zim&Zou, a french

studio based in Nancy that explores different fields including paper sculpture,

installation, graphic design, illustration. Both aged 25, they studied graphic design

during 3 years in an artschool.

Rather than composing images on a computer, they prefer creating real objects

with paper and taking photos out of them. A number of intricate illustrations

actually come from the three-dimensional installations made by Zim&Zou.

Their choice of paper is due to the versatility and good quality of the

material, especially when it is sculpted and photographed. Zim&Zou’s strength is to be

a complementary and polyvalent duo.

Great use of colour, cleaver visualisation of each brief

Graphic designer and illustrator Beomyoung Sohn created this series of post-er illustrations based on a real bank robbery that occurred on September 24, 2010 in Miami. Beomyoung Sohn used only illustrations and action words to convey the narrative without the fill text. The style of the poster is inspired by 60s movie posters.

The layout, colour scheme and graphics is very much in keeping with Swiss style.

Three Robbers Poster Series by Beomyoung Sohn

I designed a Crystal Maze themed party invitaton and decided to try my hand at a bit os Swiss Style.

Geometric shapes, sansserif typeface and diagonal text.

A minimalist design vocabulary is currently being reinvented by a troop of young graphic designers who are rediscovering the stylistic elements reminiscent of classic graphic design such as silkscreen printing, classical typography, hand lettering, woodcutting and folk art and integrating them into their work.

Naive documents this extaordinary renaissance of Classic Modernism, from the 1940’s to 1960s, in contemporary graphic design.

Inspired by 20th century American legends such as Saul Bass, the undisputed master of film title design and iconic logos as well as modernist graphic artist Alexander Girard, these burgeoning designers are creating new and striking imagery using palettes of earthly and pastel shafes, reduced strokes, patterns and shapes with a strong folkloristic element.

Naive illustrates this new development in graphic design and showcases a multitude of vivid and inpiring examples ranging from illustrations, poster art, editorials, book covers and record sleeves to stationery and textiles.

- Modernism and Folklore in Contemporary Graphic Design

I think the title text works nicely on this over image. Also putting the rest of the title copy outside in the frame around the main image makes it stand out more.

Stina Personn

I began researching into the use of text and message withing modernist desing and came

across work by Stina Personn. Above is an examoke of how she combines type with

illustration so the twpp fee; as though they belong together

Postmodernism A very Short IntroductionPostmodernism A Very Short Introduction by Christopher Butler gives a good background into the philosophy of Postmodernism. Beginning with an overview of how postmodernism came to pass the book presents postmodernism in five relatively concise chunks: The rise of postmodernism, New ways of seeing the world, politics and identity, the culture of postmodernism and the “postmodern condition”.

Postmodernist art aimed to make an audience think about the work. Often making them feel uncomfortable, “guilty or disturbed”, postmodernism was more focused on the process undertaken in creating rather than the aesthetics or composition of a piece.

Postmodernism was not merely an art movement but a way of thinking. Butler explores this, looking at postmodernist theory as a whole rather than purely focusing on postmodern art, highlighting that postmodernist thinking depends on the maintenance of a skeptical attitude.

This skeptism is expressed in more detail in chapter five with reference to “fictionalized information”. Following the world wars and nuclear bombings there was distrust with science and politics. Thus resulting in the questioning of all that is presented to us. The postmodernist view that even real news is dramatized or manipulated to suite the end needs be them political or corporate.

Only this book is quite condensed I found it hard to digest in places due to the language used and long sentences. It does give an in depth look at the philosophies behind the movement and threw up many other aspects for me to research further. It would have been helpful if there was more of an in depth look at the art itself. Images backing up key points would have made it much clearer in understanding how these theories and beliefs manifested themselves in postmodern art.

CA: Are you finding exciting design around?

NB: No. Absolutely none.

CA: None at all?

NB: When was the last time you saw some exciting design, truly exciting design? I did a talk last month at Le Book’s Connections event, and the theme I picked up on was dangerous images. I drew a line that star ted in Dadaism, Futurism, went through John Heartfield and people like Richard Hamilton, Malcolm Kennard and Jamie Reid, and then to the French punk graphic scene until, effectively, 1983, which was when Reaganism and Thatcherism came into its prime and the curtain was drawn on radical culture - radical culture and the idea that culture or art was about helping society to improve itself, that the work you do could actually be of benefit to society. That just hit a brick wall called Thatcherism.

CA: Did we get greedy?

NB: No, it wasn’t greed. It was really so clever. She successfully restated that culture wasn’t there to make you think. It was there to make you shop. That was a watershed moment.

CA: Watching that happen, how does it make you feel?

NB: You get caught up in it! The brainwashing is so successful. You lose sight. Part of what we’re looking at in 2009 is how culture has changed by the words we don’t use anymore, the phrases. In the 1970s and 1960s they were ‘Ban the Bomb’, ‘People Power’ or ‘Uprising’ or ... ‘Progress’. When did you last hear the word ‘Progress’?

CA: Has technology made it too easy for people to call themselves ‘designers’?

NB: You could buy a pencil and a piece of paper for 10p before. What’s the difference? Designers are going through college now - a guy I used to work with on Actuel magazine, Jean-François Bizot, said it’s the comfort and prestige generation - they’re not looking for design that’s going to shock the world unless it can reinforce those two values.

I’ve asked designers, “What do you want to do?” and they say, “I want to make design that my peers will like.” And I’ve said, “But why?” [And they respond,] “So that they like my work, because I want them to recognise that I’m a good designer”. There’s no social contextualising at all going on. It’s about income and exposure.

- Part of a Computer Arts interview with Brody, 2009 (http://www.computerarts.co.uk/interviews/neville-brody)

CA: Might that change?

NB: Well, the collapse of the economy does two things: it says that you’re not guaranteed that [income and exposure] anymore; and suddenly there’s a window of opportunity - I think the deep freeze has thawed. I don’t know if it’s going to thaw for a long time, but right now there’s a window of opportunity. It needs people to recognise it, to star t key things happening again and taking risks. It’s about doing something that’s going to re-engage people, re-engage culture and society, and re-engage possibility.

interview

A lot of what Brody says rings true with me. The First Things First 2000 Manifesto and my own is partly directed at this mentality and calls for a change in the prominence of consumerism and fame being the main purpose of graphic design

GoGo logo design. Forcing the letters to take the shape of the diamond creates an

interesting and distinctive logo

- Part of a Computer Arts interview with Brody, 2009 (http://www.computerarts.co.uk/interviews/neville-brody)

CA: Might that change?

NB: Well, the collapse of the economy does two things: it says that you’re not guaranteed that [income and exposure] anymore; and suddenly there’s a window of opportunity - I think the deep freeze has thawed. I don’t know if it’s going to thaw for a long time, but right now there’s a window of opportunity. It needs people to recognise it, to star t key things happening again and taking risks. It’s about doing something that’s going to re-engage people, re-engage culture and society, and re-engage possibility.

Front cover of V&A magazine, designed by Neville Brody. Theme was a postmodernism exhibitioin

Brody is the epitome of Function following form - a Modernist Nightmare!

Brody is the epitome of Function following form - a Modernist Nightmare!

It’s no wonder many adopters of Swiss style were up in arms over Brody’s work and his utter disregard to the Grid system.

While the modernist were working towards clarity, a universal style and to ensure the message was the most important thing, Brody ‘s work was very much

about visual style and impact. Words are overlaid, letters disjointed, flipped rotated and obscured with legibility being pushed much further down the priority list than the likes of Brockman would have liked. That’s not to say that Brody’s work lacks thought or fails to serve its purpose. When you look at his work you may not be able to read the message

instantly but it grabs your attention and makes you look at it further. Once you do this the content is easily deciphered.

Being so far from the Modernist idea gave Brody’s work a feeling of excitement and freedom in stark contrast to the rules and conformity of modernism

Brody’s period as art director of The Face was marked by innovative design and layout... More than any other British designer, largely owing to his early and progressive experimentations with desktop computer technology, it is thanks to Neville Brody that postmodern design succeeded in reaching and appealing to a broad and wide-ranging audience.

- Graphic Design The 50 Most Influential Graphic Designers in the World

The Punk subculture includes a diverse

array of ideologies, and forms of expression,

including fashion, visual art, dance, literature,

and film, which grew out of punk rock. Punk is

largely characterized by a concern for individual

freedom and anti-establishment views.

Early punk had an abundance of antecedents and influences, and Jon Savage

has described the subculture as a “bricolage” of almost every previous youth

culture that existed in the West since the Second World War “stuck together

with safety pins”.[7] Various philosophical, political, and artistic movements

influenced the subculture. In particular, punk drew inspiration from several

strains of modern art. Various writers, books, and literary movements were

important to the formation of the punk aesthetic. Punk rock has a variety of

musical origins, both within the rock and roll genre and beyond- wilapedia.

Early punk had an abundance of antecedents and influences, and Jon Savage

has described the subculture as a “bricolage” of almost every previous youth

culture that existed in the West since the Second World War “stuck together

with safety pins”.[7] Various philosophical, political, and artistic movements

influenced the subculture. In particular, punk drew inspiration from several

strains of modern art. Various writers, books, and literary movements were

important to the formation of the punk aesthetic. Punk rock has a variety of

musical origins, both within the rock and roll genre and beyond- wilapedia. Anarchy in the U.K. fanzine, UK, 1976. Photo: Ray Stevenson. Design: Jamie Reid. Source: Punk: An Aesthetic

Sex Pistols record cover

Text is used almost entirely as decoration, running both in front and behind the image of Andy Warhol who is obscured by text and paint.

Ray Gun was an American alternative rock-and-roll magazine, first published in 1992 in Santa Monica, California. Led by founding art director David Carson, Ray Gun explored experimental magazine typographic design. The result was a chaotic, abstract style, not always readable, but distinctive in appearance. That tradition for compelling visuals continued even after Carson left the magazine af-ter three years; he was followed by a series of art directors, including Robert Hales, Chris Ashworth, Scott Denton-Cardew, and Jerome Curchod.In terms of content, Ray Gun was also notable for its choices of subject matter. The cutting-edge advertising, musical artists and pop culture icons spotlighted were typically ahead of the curve, putting such artists as Radiohead, Björk, Beck, Flaming Lips, PJ Harvey and Eminem[citation needed] on its cover long before its better-known competitors. Those choices were guided by Executive Editor Randy Bookasta and an editorial staff that included Dean Kuipers, Nina Malkin, Mark Blackwell, Joe Donnelly, Grant Alden, Mark Wood-lief, and Eric Gladstone.Ray Gun produced over 70 issues from 1992 through 2000. Own-er-founder-publisher Marvin Scott Jarrett (one-time publisher of a late-1980s incarnation of Creem) also created the magazines Bikini, Stick and huH.[citation needed] Jarret is currently editor-in-chief of Nylon, a New York-based fashion magazine.[1] The most notable common thread among all of Jarrett’s magazines (from his latter-day Creem through Nylon) has been an attraction to dynamic next-gen-eration graphic design.

I have looked into the different styles of mastheads: bold text, initials, illustrative text, symbolic etc to compare their effectiveness . In particular I have

looked at how the masthead works with different cover images and themes as well as how distinctive and identifiable they are.

The masthead title New Graphic Design is quite long so I looked at titles with a longer name

Distinctive typefaces which demand as much focus (if not more)

than the cover image. This makes both publications easily distinguishable and identifiable on the news stand.

I find that these mastheads do not fight with or intrude on the cover photo but at the same time do

not get lost in the cover image designs.

Elephant and Shop have quite simple bold mastheads which work

well on any cover. Elephant is more distinctive than Shop even though the main colour and shadow colour change from cover to cover

I find that these mastheads do not fight with or intrude on the cover photo but at the same time do

not get lost in the cover image designs.

Self Contained MASTHEADS

Self Contained MASTHEADS

Title, YearSWB Ausstellung, 1950

Cover DesignerHans Neuburg (1904-1983)PublisherKunstgewerbemuseum, Zürich, Switzerland

Graphic covers

Graphic Cover Designs

Typographische Monatsblätter ( founded in 1933 before it merged with two other companies called Typographical Monthly)

And

Pagina, International Review of Graphic Design. This quarterly from Milan only printed 6 issues between 1962 - 1965

(found via the silverliningblog + Display )

Layout Examples

I have been looking at a number of different design magazine layouts both current and old. I have also looked at fashion and beauty magazines as they

also use a lot of interesting layouts which would lend themselves quite nicely to graphic content. While it is important to know what other magazines in the

graphic design genre are doing and to keep that relevance in the final magazine, I think it’s good to look at other sources in order to gain more unique ideas and

to create a point of difference.

Black and whire images next to colour create impact. I think the division of the page horizontaly with a main image and text is very striking, especially with the sarif typeface and drop caps.

The modular placement of images overlaid onto a main image works well here. This layout also allows for a section related to the main story (5 must haves) underneath (complete your look). This could work with design content.

Taking a prominent part of the main images (in this case the dress fabric pattern) and using it as a backdrop this page really

stands out and is visually pleasing.

Thumbnails & Ideas

masthead experiments

masthead experiments

masthead experiments

FormFollowsFunction

FormFollowsFunction

FormFollowsFunction

Taking inspiration from Swiss Style and Nevelle Brody I began to experiment with the issue title, Form Follows Function. I was aiming for a happy medium between the two.

The overlapping of letters were a little too hard to see so I added a little transparency to separate the two lines.

Form and Follow are easily read however the S appears to be connected to “Funct” which I believe would be too hard for the reader to decipher.

This is along the same lines, with the letters arranged slightly differently. I laid the R horizontally to help ease reading the word Form from left to right.

Follow shares the first F and has the rest of it’s letters cascading diagonally down and right to join the S. The second O mirrors this diagonal movement.

The second half of Function is pushed off the edge of the page but visible enough to allow you to identify the letters.

I then experimented with colour to create more impact and to see if I could make the words more readable.

Here I have worked with geometric shapes, transparency and blending modes.

Used used a sans serif typeface and contempory modernist colours, experimenting with the layout of the title initials and words Form Follows Function.

The aim was to create a modernist feel with a slightly postmodern twist.

Using illustrator I created a title heading inspired by modernist art using geometric shapes.

Starting with the same Bayer photograph I created a new image to posibly be used as a background for the magazine cover.

I edited the images further and also added some colour.

Here I am experimenting with

a purely typographic visualisation sticking

to Swiss Style fonts and colour scheme

I began with the below image which I created using several over lapping triangular shapes of different transparencies and texture.

I wanted this to form a backdrop for the lettering already created but did not want it to be too strong.

I added depth and further layers to balance the composition and softened the overall image.

Masthead contained within a top banner: Works well at separating the masthead from the image, preventing a clash between that and the cover design. Gives a flexibility in cover designs.

Framed masthead: less common, would stand out and easily be identified as NGD magazine on a news stand/shelf.

Floating Masthead: A little lost on this particular cover. Further experiments needed.

Testing the above masthead layout with an alternate cover image. This masthead is equally as effective with the change in cover design.

Top banner with masthead overlapping to right: combines masthead and cover image nicely while allowing for space for additional issue details without compromising or obstructing the cover design.

Top banner with masthead overlapping cover image: unites the two without being too intrusive or overbearing. Masthead stands out well.

Issue 1May 2013Form Follows Function

The masthead overlapping the frame creates an awkward space to work around on either side of circle with this cover image.

The masthead overlapping the frame creates an awkward space to work around on either side of circle with this cover image. This could be taken in to consideration when designing the cover image or when selecting the cover image to rectify this.

Floating masthead: Again, this masthead does not have as much impact as the banner designs.

Continued examples of banner and circluar masthead.

.

Testing with the additioin of headline copy and barcode

Masthead and cover mocked up with an example of headline. Text is too large but stands out well.

Adding in the issue title.

Reduced headline size.

Based on ny research of current day modernist design I have narrowed down covers, frames and masthead options. I feel the colour pallets and visuals are in keeping with this but also stand out to the potential customer.