TYPOGRAPHY

 

 

 

After World War I there was a radical change in social, political and economic thinking which resulted in a drastic shift in lifestyle.  An example of one of these changes was Modernism.

Modernist wanted to forget the past and show the people new ways to look at the world such as symbolism, impressionism, futurism, constructivism and more. In Architecture, they thought “function should always dictate form” which means the way buildings or objects are designed/built should primarily relate to its intended function or purpose.

MODERNISM had a massive impact on Typography and played a massive role, is the as typographers such as Jan Tschichold and Bauhaus typographer Herbert Bayer who are Known for their Modernist typefaces and are highly used in today's society. 

 

The modernist movement had a great impact on art and design, with one graphic designer playing a significant role is Jan Tschichold. Tschichold started using modern style in his work in 1923, but the Nazis feared his new unique typography and sent him to concentration camp. After 6 weeks he was released, and he emigrated to Switzerland. Tschichold’s final piece of work was his Laban typeface in 1964, and he died on August 11th 1974. 

 

Jan Tschichold Reworked the modernist design principles and in Jan Tschichold’s modern design book he disagreed on all typefaces but sans-serifs and favoured non centred designs which other modernist despises, however Jan uses a simple designs but the key points stand out with the use of different font size, he also uses a lack of colour and if used colour it would be neutral colours that are modern and Minimal. 

In Jan Tschichold book the first line says “the new typography is purposeful” which he shows how devoted he is to rules and that he believe he has truly perfected his work.

Jan Tschichold's “Phoebus Palast Poster” has bold  typography that stands out and uses his diagonal layouts, with minimal colour palette it is simple but effective.  

 

Another modernist designer is Herbert Bayer, who was born April 1900 in Austria. Bayer attended  the Bauhaus Art School, which was incredibly influential in this art and design movement that began in 1919 by German architect Walter Gropius, The movement encouraged teachers and students to pursue their work together. Bayer left Bauhaus to become Art Directer of Vogue magazine’ 

Architype Bayer font which is a geometric sans-serif typeface base upon Herbert Bayer's  experimentations. Herbert used the capitalisation for all nouns by abandoning upper case.  

Architype Bayer was released in 1997. Bayer also created abstract art. ’Building a House’ was created in 1969 by screen print on paper and now is in the Tate collection. This work only uses a minimal amount of colour and unusual but simple shapes, this gives it its appealing look.

 

Helvetica is a Swiss typeface that was created in 1957 by Max Meidinger in the time of the modernist movement  and its impact has spread worldwide and now is the world's most popular font. With its simplicity and neutral design, it is highly used in fashion and publicity. Street wear brands such  as Off-White is widely known for using Helvetica as it is aesthetically pleasing with their modern unique designs. Other brands such as Balmain have recently changed their font to Helvetica because of the impact of modernism.“Helvetica allows total freedom of expression unpolluted by the personality of script or serif fonts” meaning it has no deeper meaning and can be expressed in any way. Helvetica’s unique design lies within its simple and clean design. One characteristic of Helvetica is that it is oblique instead of italic which gives it a more formal and modern look. Helvetica can have an impact on any word as it can be an aggressive front ,a neutral , and more because of this it is well-used however some agree too much as “Helvetica is good for typographers who do not know what to say.” And from watching the film, Helvetica Erik Spiekermann stated, "Most people who use Helvetica, use it because it's ubiquitous. It's like going to McDonald's instead of thinking about food. Because it's there, it's on every street corner, so let's eat crap because it's on the corner.” And shows it is overused.

 

However, A French philosopher called Jean-Francois Lyotard stated “A work can become modern only if it is first postmodern. Postmodernism thus understood is not modernism at its end but in the nascent state, and this state is constant.”which implies its in a constant state which means with post modernism accusing modernism wouldn’t of occurred.  

 

Postmodernism began to compete with modernism in the late 1950s and gained ascendancy over it in the 1960s. It was the time of the ornamental designs that references to history, humour and the unpretentious. Postmodernist go against the modernist rules as their work is made freely with vibrant colours and disorganised collages. The art movement incorporated styles such as grunge and  techno. Postmodernist press their work freely without rules and can have fun creating their art work.

 

David Carson is an American Graphic designer who is a big part of Postmodernism. He is known for his unorthodox magazine designs. “Ray Gun” magazines explored typography, layout and visual storytelling that would shift the approach of many graphic designers. The magazine was founded in 1992 and led by the work of Carson. Carsons style of typography was experimental as it went against the rules of the modernist, His work was a deconstruction style of design. The experiment by Carson on the Ray Gun Magazine design were chaotic, abstract and distinctive most times it was hard to read and understand. 

“Don’t mistake legibility for communication” Carson’s most famous quote is trying to say that even though you might not be able to read it, you can still understand what it is saying and what message it is trying to tell. This is shown in most of his work.

Carson’s work was chaotic and complete opposite to the modernist view of how graphics should have been done. In this piece it is simple but complex to read at first with its upside down words, but as soon as you focus you can understand what it says, Carson’s work was complex, but as soon as you focus you will understand the message it is trying to portray.

 

Another postmodernist is Neville Brody who was born in April 1957, he is known for his work with The Face magazine and also the Arena magazine. His work had a heavy influence due to his taste in music as he said “Punk was probably the most influential thing to happen to me”, the punk “explosion” pushed all the rules of typography out the window. He believed that London was  a key part of his work as “there is such a high level of conservatism” and “there is a number of sources and ingredients”.

Neville Brody’s style of typography in the 1988 Nike advertisement “Just Bounce It” was the complete opposite to the modernist view. It used different sized letters that make the work stand out ,its abstract look gave it a complex look making it hard to read, but you are able to understand like Carson's work but less explosive and chaotic. It is a dynamic use of typography and mimics the idea of the movement which is seen by athletes on the basketball court.

 

To conclude, there was a clear shift in design of everything globally due to changes brought about by the war. This artist had a huge influence back then and still influence design to this present day.  

Overall, Typography has had a massive impact modernism and postmodernism design  and how we see things today as it adds feeling and expression to words and how it is a key aspect of a designer's work.