POP influenced graphic design

Pop art was a movement which started in the UK in the mid 1950's and was fuelled by the LSD-infused flower powered hippies of the 1960s. Pop art was a rebellion against abstract expressionism and a desire to return to popular culture inspired art. It often contained photography, comic-style illustrations and references to TV. Warhol in particular, tried to make his art look like it had been created by a machine. Inevitably, pop culture influenced graphic design.

Warhol, self generated photo, MOMA New York

In 1969 The Beatles film and soundtrack Yellow Submarine were released, designed by Heinz Edelmann (below).

Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was another example (Blake and Hamilton) of Pop influenced design, from 1967:

Contemporary examples of pop graphic design from advertising are shown below.

Late modernism

Massimo Vignelli

Massimo Vignelli (1931-2014) was the foremost designer from the very late International Style or Modernist movement. Originally training as an architect, he was famous for saying “if you can design one thing, you can design everything”. He was a staunch supporter of the rational style and objectivity of the Russian Constructivists. He had a profound effect on corporate identity design in the US from the late 1960s.
He and 5 others set up Unimark International in 1965. It expanded rapidly and had several offices across the US and Europe. He is credited as main influencer in Helvetica being the most popular typeface of the International Style.

His most famous work was to redesign the NYC subway map in 1972. He was heavily influenced by the UK's London Underground map.

Along with Bob Noorda, Vignelli created the information graphics for the NYC subway (below).

In 1967 Vignelli designed the corporate identity for American Airlines which is still in use today.

Design Sponge has the following to say: One of the most well-known designers to popularize the “grid” technique of graphic design, the idea of structure informed much of his life’s work. Vignelli believed that design should be functional above all, following a strict stylistic guideline of grid marks, primary colors and typographic classics.

Referenceshttp://www.vignelli.com
http://www.nycsubway.org/wiki/Historical_Maps

International typographic style / Swiss style

Background

I have already written a post about The International Typographic Style at  http://sandrajt.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/modernism.html when we were asked to write about one area of Modernism. This posts adds further information and also details the work of Max Huber

The International Typographic Style or Swiss Style was a graphic design movement which started in the early 1950s and continued to be the dominant style until the late 1960's. The term International Style also included architecture such as the work by Le Corbusier.

Features

The main features of International Style graphic design were:

Asymmetric layouts
Use of grids
Clear minimal design
Sans serif typeface - typefaces should never be mixed
Type always horizontal
Flush left, ragged right justification
Photos were preferred to illustration

Influences and development

In 1918 Ernst Keller, a teacher at the School of Applied Arts in Zurich started practising the beginning of what was to develop into International Style. Theo Ballmer (who was influenced by the De Stijl style), supplemented Keller's style of work and made it more grid focussed. Max Bill, an ex-Bauhaus student practised Art Concret which was a further development, based on mathematical principles.

Major designers

Max Huber (Zurich School of Arts and Crafts) added photomontage to the style in the late 40s - including layers, overprinting, and dynamic design.

Huber (1950) poster for UNESCO

Huber poster (ND)

By the 1950s Josef Müller-Brockman was the dominant designer in this style. He studied at Zurich from 1932-1934 and was influenced by the De Stijl style, Suprematism and Bauhaus. Some of his most famous work included concert posters for Zurich Town Hall and the Swiss Automobile Club. Muller-Brockmann initiated the magazine Neue Grafik, published from 1958-1965 in 18 issues.

Muller-Brockmann (1953) poster designed for the Swiss Automobile Club.

LMN (1958) Neue Grafik journal cover

Adrian Frutiger developed the first mega-family typeface in 1957 - Univers. He was also responsible for upgrading Akzidenz Grotesk to Neue Haas Grotesk in 1957 which then became Helvetica in 1960 - the most popular typeface ever.

Basel

In Basel, Switzerland, a softer interpretation of the International Style was in use. Armin Hofmann and the students he taught there made Basel an alternative home for Swiss Style. Emil Ruder also started working there in 1942. Their style was considered more whimsical, with vertical text and merging the text and image together such as in the Giselle poster (below).

Hoffman (1959) Giselle poster

Max Huber

Max Huber was born in Switzerland in 1919 (died 1992). He was educated in Switzerland and practised graphic design from 1942-1980.

Huber was education at the Zurich School of Arts and Crafts from the age of 17. He was encouraged to study the work of Tschichold, abstract art and Constructivism. Hi work at this time was very much the Swiss style - grid based, flush left ragged right, sans serif type and clear hierarchy.

Huber (1957) book cover, Einaudi

After completing a graphic design apprenticeship, at the age of 21 Huber moved to Milan in 1940 where he worked with Antonio Boggeri. It was here Huber collaborated with a vibrant group of painters, photographers, illustators and designers and the event-garde. 

During WW2 he went back to Switzerland where he worked with the Alliance (a group of modern artists). 

After the war, in Milan again, working with Einaudi, Huber's career took off. Huber believed that design had the power to resolve the tragedy of war and restore human values, an idea which was popular in 1950s Europe. 

Huber was always a freelancer who enjoyed working directly with clients. He collaborated with the Castiglione brothers and spent much of his time with the left-wing artists and creatives based there. His poster of the Monza Grand Prix won first prize (one of those below - it is not clear which).

Huber (1957) 500 Miglia di Monza poster

Huber (1968) 1000 km di Monza

His graphic design style combined painting and photographic and he was of the avant-garde style. He was heavily influenced by Bayer and Moholy-Nagy and their utopian vision. He often mixed strips of colour with flat photography to connotate speed and dynamism. He used bold shapes and primary colours. 

Huber (1951) advertisement for store

Huber was often seen as the fashionable link to Italy, and as a major protagonist of the Swiss style, he was in demand to give talks and lectures worldwide.  He married a Japanese woman and spent time living in Japan. 

Huber enjoyed the ideals of Futurism, which were apparent in his sports posters, such as for Monza (above).

He was known for his book covers and jazz record covers, but his legacy will be in the logo design for La Rinascente department store (1950), Coin clothing (1955) and Esselunga in 1958.

Huber (NK) logo for la Rinascente

Huber (1960) ad for Esselunga

References

Eskilson, S (2012) Graphic Design History

http://www.howdesign.com/featured/international-typographic-style-brief-history/

http://www.domusweb.it/en/design/2010/02/16/max-huber-maxieland-jazz-.html

http://uk.phaidon.com/store/design/max-huber-9780714861104/

http://www.iconofgraphics.com/Max-Huber/
http://www.esselunga.it/cms/azienda/storia.html

Modernism and Utopia

Modernism was a collection of ideas, in part in response to the terrible losses of WW1, to create a better world by changes in philosophical thinking. It was about using art in a secular, apolitical way, to transform society into an utopian ideal by focusing on design and the way people live. Although originally rejecting politics, many of the idealogies are politically left of centre.

There are five ideaologies:

Communist utopia

It was bourne out of Constructivism and the Avant Garde having the desire ‘not to adorn life but to organise it’. The work was seen in architecture and propaganda primarily, but also in new ways of thinking.

Social utopia

Social utopia was adopted by De Stijl and the Bauhaus to utilise new industrial methods to create greater social equality within exisiting social and economic structures.

Spiritual utopia

Practioners sought to reject the sterile design aesthetic of the modern world, looking inwards at human intellect and the soul.

Dionysian utopia

The emotional and sensual obsession of the Italian Futurists was embraced in their utopia ideals of a world where everything was create by the machine.

Rational utopia

A practical and rational idealism, it sought to use mechanisation to fuel social change for equality, giving everyone access to a clean, bright and fresh life.

Modernism

International/Swiss Style

We were tasked with researching one area of Modernism. I decided to focus on International Style/Swiss Style.

International Style developed after WWII, originating in Switzerland as Swiss Style (1950s) but soon becoming adopted by many large US corporations as part of their identity. It took its cues from De Stijl, Constructivism, Bauhaus and the New Typography, but without the political influences.

Jan Tschichold, film poster, 1927

Students of the Bauhaus, Max Bill and Theo Ballmer, along with Jan Tschichold (a German refugee) were the founders of the Swiss Style. At first Tschichold dictated that very strict rules should be applied to all typography - flush left, sans serif, etc, which then became popular. However some years later he decided his views were too dictatorial and changed his ideas about what the ideal style was, and later became a serif type designer. Many of his contemporaries felt he had betrayed them.

Akzidenz Grotesk, the typeface on which Helvetica (formerly Neue Haas Grotesk) was based, was the most popular typeface. For many graphic designers, it was the only typeface they ever used. It was revered for its functionalist style, with no political connotations from Constructivism or the Bauhaus. Being politically neutral was key to International Style.

In 1957, Adrian Frutiger designed the type family Univers, which was the first of it's kind to have a numerical reference system defining weights and widths of the typefaces.

Josef Muller-Brockman designed the poster below, which includes key features of Swiss Style - a grid system, curves, and asymmetrical text.

Josef Muller-Brockmann, Beethoven, 1955

Brockmann believed that you should never use more than one typeface, and even then only 2 sizes were allowed, and that text should always be horizontal.

In 1951 HfG (University of Design) was founded by Bill, Aitcher and Scholl who were the first to teach semiotics in relation to graphic design. As a result of this, their graduates found they were in demand. They designed logos for Deutsche Bank, Lufthansa, and the pictogram based designs for the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Jan Tschichold was recruited by Penguin Books in 1947. After rejecting his New Typography dogma, he set some loose design rules in place - Penguin Composition Rules, and established what is now the Penguin style.

Another proponent of International Style was Alan Fletcher, who designed the V&A logo, and co-founded Pentagram.

In the USA, corporations raced to adopt International Style which reflected their aggressive ideals of capitalism. Paul Rand was its most famous designer of corporate identities. His worked includes the IBM logos, and those for UPS and Yale. Paul Rand's website says the following about logo design:

The effectiveness of a good logo depends on:

a. distinctiveness
b. visibility
c. useability
d. memorability
e. universality
f. durability
g. timelessness

It says “We care.”

Paul Rand http://www.paul-rand.com/foundation/thoughts_logosflags/#.Vh4XoHg0O9o

Paul Rand, logos for IBM, 1956-1990

Cultural impact reading material

Thanks to Natalia, my stepdaughter, I have plenty of reading material on the subject of semiotics and cultural impact!!

Semiotics

Denotation, connotation and myth (Daniel Chandler)

Notes from the above book, chapter 7

Barthes' theories of semiotics are summarised in this chapter.

1st order of signification (denotation-literal) = sign (the signifier and the signified). For instance a picture of an apple (the signifier) and apple (the signified). REPRESENTATIONAL

2nd order of signification (connotation-interferred) = denotive sign (perhaps denoting fruit, healthy, fresh) = signifier making an individual signified (if on a sign outside a shop, signifying a green grocer). EXPRESSIVE VALUES

In photograhy the denotation is what is photographed, the connotation is how it is photographed.

There is no definitive distinction between denotation and connotation. Connotation is totally subjective and is determined bycodes the interpretter has access to.

Changing forms of the signifier (with the same signified) can generate different connotations.

Barthes' theory of myth is the 3rd order of signification. This is a combination of the denotation and connotation - it "points out and notifies", "helps us understand and imposes". These concepts are are culturally variable. MYTHOLOGICAL/IDEALOGICAL

See the image of the young black French soldier:

Myths are extended metaphors. They turn a shared concept into something natural, automatic: "it goes without saying". To analyse your own culture, you need to be aware of your own cultural values.

In summary, for an image of Marilyn Munroe:
Orders of signification
1st: photo of Marilyn (signifier), Marilyn (signified)
2nd: glamour, beauty
3rd: myth of Hollywood, build you up - knock you down