Design in Context

Industrialization Social, political and economic change was accelerated by industrialization at the beginning of the 20th century. Literacy and education together with mechanization gave rise to a powerful middle class made up of business men,factory owners and entrepreneurs who became rich on the proceeds of mass production.

Industrialization Capitalism grew fast and did not sit easily with the concept of socialism. Intellectual and artistic factions of society felt this most sharply. They questioned societies values and the role of art and design within the modern industrialized age.

Movements Modernism Art Nouveau Jugendstil German Werbund

Modernism Major international movement of significant importance. Highly influential in design and architecture. Its philosophy reflected the ideals of democracy and social reform Thought that all levels of society should have well designed and functional, mass produced goods available to everyone.

Art Nouveau Early reforms in design came in the style of Art Nouveau. Characterized by ornament and decoration based on oriental and natural forms such as flora and fauna. It formed a transition between the excesses of Victorian style and the more functional qualities associated with Modernism.

Jugendstil German equivalent of Art Nouveau. Jugendstil had a closer integration between design of the product and the way it was produced. The emphasis is on functional at the expense of the ornament. This was a significant pointer as to the way design was going.

German Werbund Formed in Munich in 1907 under the influence of Jugendstil. Famous for bringing both clarity to design activities and cementing the partnership between technical and mechanical practices.

Peter Behrens Behrens was one of the founding members of the Werbund. His graphic design work for the German industrial and electrical giant AEG laid down the parameters in design which many others were to follow. AEG were one of the first world wide companies to have a coherent and total corporate identity.

New ideas in art emerged.They reflected a revolt against orthodoxy, representational images and decoration. Art was seen as a liberating force and through movements such as Cubism, Constructivism and Futurism a new vocabulary of visual language came into use. This was dominated by a return to basics reducing pictorial elements to an absolute minimum(lines,dots,the square and other geometric forms)

Art Movements that Influenced Graphic Design Constructivism Futurism Cubism De Stijl

Constructivism Formed after the Russian Revolution. Attempted to signify a rapport with machine production (did this through abstract form and colour. Attempted to communicate a sense of rational order in the wake of revolutionary chaos.

Rodchenko Russian Constructivist painter and photographer

Futurism Recognized the revolutionary force of technology and the conflict it sometimes caused. They expressed these ideas through painting and through the use of typography. Futurists saw that words were the main form of global communication. By using words in an unconventional way they developed and exploited the creative potential of the printed page.

Obsession with movement…..

Materia 1912 Umberto Boccioni

Cubism Formed in 1908when Picasso and Juan Gris met up and began working on paintings and sculptures. Objects are broken up,analyzed and then re- assembled in an abstracted form. Instead of depicting one viewpoint the artist depicts many simultaneously. Surfaces often intersect at random angles and there is no sense of coherent pictorial space.

De Stijl Dutch movement founded in 1917,it had the same name as Theo van Doesburg’s journal which was published to propagate the movements ideas. Aimed at a strict abstract and geometric form of representation. They saw this style as complimentary to a modern technical and industrial society.

Graphic Design & Modernism In typography the use of sans serif typefaces reflected a geometric quality. An overall simplicity prevailed i.e flat areas of colour, the use of abstract form to create both impact and aid communication of the message and the asymmetric layout.

Typographic Developments in Britain Edward Johnson designed and created a pioneering sans serif typeface for exclusive use of the London underground in 1916 The typeface was unsurprisingly called 1916 ! It was very geometric and the first truly sans serif face of the 20th century which inspired the design of Futura in 1920’s and the typography of Eric Gill.