To what extend did Bauhaus influenced the 20th Century? Bauhaus typography

To what extend did Bauhaus

influenced the 20th Century?

Bauhaus typography

A reaction against the class system and aristocracy

Architects were looking for a leading force behind the expectations to develop a “Brave New Word” A new way to integrate art, aesthetic & industry as a means of replacing the old approach in education & design.

New direction: ART TO INDUSTRY!

1. Context: the aftermath of World War I

Sinnde Photo Bauhaus Exhibition Barbican Center 2012

Walter Gropiu’s philosophy ”form follows

function” transformed advertising, typography,

architecture, people living’s spaces and

public’s esthetic expectations in fundamental

way

Information first, artistic flair after. Use your

design to reinforce your message never the

other way around

Form follows Function

Utility come first

II. Legacy principles:

Mission: to provide affordable artistic utilitarian

design for every class of person - proved to be a

success

Muuz lamp Norman Copenhagen

The school was founded on collaboration. It

achieved an openness and collaborative style

few groups had.

Gropius's vision towards a union of art and

design - Proclamation of Bauhaus”(1919) -

describes a utopian craft guild combining

architecture, sculpture and painting into a

single creative expression


Share & Collaborate

Towards design

enlightment

Work with each other, share ideas, don’t live in fear of

losing credit. Sometimes getting better and learning is

more important

Albers Stacking Stables

Their crisp geometric style and in some cases

primary colors are reflected in design

everywhere. The purpose: to honor

functionality with beauty and simplicity, to

please the eye and capture the mind.

Kandinsky strove for a visual style beyond

cultural differences. He believed certain colors

complement each other and communicate

specific ideas or emotions.


Color & Shape

There’s always a connection between

Bauhaus design still feels incredibly fresh and current.

Displaying the “perfection of geometry” is still highly

sophisticated

For Bauhaus, words were a graphic element.

Therefore they became a part of the

architecture.

Like a chair in a room – functioning on their

own as words, as artistic tools within the

space.


Clean Typography Matters

Be as imaginative with your typography as you are with

every other tool in your toolbox, but make sure it never

detracts from your visual message

Poster for Senator Obama in Berlin 2008

Young people come to Bauhaus! Teaching techniques and social principles aimed to

foster: Creativity / Happiness/ Friendship

III. Birthplace of a revolution:

Design education was seen as a means to create reaction against, rather than to follow.

Its spirit and ideas, the greatest legacy, were to influence many generations of architects designers and artists.

The Metal Party group photo – Oscar Schemler Traadic Costumes 1926

T lux Feininger – Sport at Bauhaus 1927

Bauhaus seal

Gropius decided that they should generate

design for mass production that were

simple, rational and accessible to everyone.

Their furniture - A new way of living-

became a signature of their work more than

architecture.

IV. Gropius ‘s input:

The school’s philosophy: the artist should be trained to

work with industry. Artists created prototypes for

industrial production, as they saw the machine as a

potential force for good both aesthetically and socially.

Katz Bau Bookshelf

M Breurer’s Wassily B3 club chair with woman seated wearing Schemler Mask

Red/Blue armchair 424 G. Rietveld 1918

He stressed on the social function of

architecture and design. Favoured the public

good rather than private luxury

The architectural focus shifted away from

aesthetic to functionality

IV. H. Meyer ‘s input:

His mission was to focus on the “needs of

the people, not on the needs of luxury”


Marcel Breuer Armchair 1922

Haus am Horn Kitchen (1923)

IV. Mies van der Rohe ‘s input:

Author of Less is more philosophy - the perfect summary for modernism

Added an increased emphasis on architecture & building at Bauhaus school; moved it to Berlin in 1930;

He designed The German Pavilion at the Barcelona Universal Exhibition

Lily Reich controlled the interior design

department

Became the most influential modernist

architect of the 20th century and an

inspiration for Ayn Rand‘s book ‘The

Fountainhead’


Mies Van der Rohe Barcelona chair and otoman

The Bauhaus Building designed by Gropius in Dessau in an industrial aesthetic with concrete and steel and a curtain of glass is a component of what we now recognize as modern architecture !

The Bauhaus paradox: it didn’t have an architecture department until 1927

V. Architecture:

Other Bauhaus hallmarks of modernist architecture:• steel-frame construction• an asymmetrical pinwheel plan• maximum efficiency• spatial logic

Bauhaus Manifesto Quote Germany circa stamp

showing Bauhaus architecture steel building

treated as “Silver Princess” by a awestruck USA when they moved there en masse

Successive leadership

Emblematic building

Unshakable place at the heart of Modernism

from three of the leading designers of the time

that embodied the philosophy of it’s founder in an unmistakable image

International student body & supporters

01

Celebrated faculty staff

VI. UNMATCHED IMPACT:

Bauhaus had what no other art school had:

the dominant movement of the 20 th century

Sinnde Photo Bauhaus Exhibition

Barbican Center 2012

The course of visual culture of the 20th century would have looked totally different

Between them, they touched everything from photography and theatre to painting and architecture

The middle classes lived in tasteful simplicity ever after

What would have happend if a

bomb would have denotated

under this group photographed

on the roof of the Dessau

Bauhaus’ building in 1926?

VII. Conclusion:

Bauhaus is everywhere!

L-R: Josef Albers, Hi. Scheper, Georg Muche, L. Moholy-Nagy, Herbert Bayer, Joost Schmidt, Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, V. Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger, Gunta Stölzl and Oskar Schlemmer

Typography with facial outline of its seal

List of cited works:

1. B is for Bauhaus, Deyan Sujic, Penguin Books, London, 2014

2. Young people come to Bauhaus – article inspired from Barbican

Center: Bauhaus Art is Life exhibition, 2013,

http://sinnde.com/blog/young-people-come-to-bauhaus/

3. Six Lessons from the Bauhaus: Masters of the Persuasive

Graphic: http://blog.visual.ly/six-lessons-from-the-bauhaus-masters-of-

the-persuasive-graphic by Anni Murray

4. Quick History: The Bauhaus & Its Influence:

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/post-241-93344

5. "The Bauhaus, 1919–1933". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art

History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000– Griffith

Winton, Alexandra, .

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/bauh/hd_bauh.htm (August 2007)

6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus

Documents

To what extend did Bauhaus influenced the 20th Century? Bauhaus typography