ADV 2151 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: International Typographic Style, Saul Bass, Armin Hofmann
5 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Graphic Design
• The early years
o Before W. A. Diggis oied the ter 'graphi desig' i a 9 Bosto
newspaper article to describe the wide range of jobs he personally tackled,
'commercial artist' was the accepted label for the inter-related acts of drawing,
spec-ing, comping and layig outs.
- Steven Heller
o When improvements in printing technology made it possible to add color to
lithography and increase the size of the printing base, commercial possibilities
ballooned. Advertising was revolutionized in the 1880s and 1890s by the
production of bright mural posters. In these days the printing companies were
the desig firs ad adertisig ollateral as reated y typesetters, artists
and illustrators.
• The Bauhaus
o The Bauhaus School was founded in 1919 by Walter Groupius in Weimar, then
the capital of post WWI Germany. In this era of change and disillusionment, the
movement sought to embrace 20th century machine culture in a way that
allowed basic necessities like buildings, furniture, and design, to be completed in
a utilitarian but effective way.
o The school encouraged the embrace of modern technologies in order to succeed
in a modern environment. The most basic tenet of the Bauhaus was form
follows function.
• Swiss Design
o Often referred to as the International Typographic Style or the International
Style, the style of design that originated in Switzerland in the 1940s and 50s was
the basis of much of the development of graphic design during the mid 20th
century. Led by designers Josef Müller-Brockmann at the Zurich School of Arts
and Krafts and Armin Hofmann at the Basel School of Design, the style favored
simplicity, legibility and objectivity.
• Paul Rand
o Born in Brooklyn in 1914, Rand attended art school in New York City at both
Pratt Institute and Parsons School of Design. Despite this formal training Rand
found these institutes not stimulating and ultimately taught himself design,
studying the works of A.M. Cassandre and Lazlo Moholy-Nagy through European
magazines. Although, Rand began his career designing covers for Direction
magazine, his most notable contributions to the field of Graphic Design have
been his corporate work for companies like IBM, ABC, UPS and Westinghouse.
• Saul Bass
o A native New Yorker, Saul Bass moved to LA in his mid-twenties to pursue a
career in Graphic Design. Bass is a jack of all design traits, dabbling in both print
desig ad oie aiatio. You ay e failiar ith Bass’s ork if you’e eer
flown United or Continental, supported United Way or the Girl Scouts, or have
seen the title sequences for Psycho, Anatomy of a Murder, Spartacus or The Man
with the Golden Arm, a trend Bass spearheaded.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Graphic design: the early years, (cid:862)before w. a. D(cid:449)iggi(cid:374)s (cid:272)oi(cid:374)ed the ter(cid:373) "graphi(cid:272) desig(cid:374)" i(cid:374) a (cid:1005)9(cid:1006)(cid:1006) bosto(cid:374) newspaper article to describe the wide range of jobs he personally tackled, "commercial artist" was the accepted label for the inter-related acts of drawing, spec-ing, comping and layi(cid:374)g out(cid:894)s(cid:895). (cid:863) Steven heller: when improvements in printing technology made it possible to add color to lithography and increase the size of the printing base, commercial possibilities ballooned. Advertising was revolutionized in the 1880s and 1890s by the production of bright mural posters. The most basic tenet of the bauhaus was form follows function: swiss design, often referred to as the international typographic style or the international. Style, the style of design that originated in switzerland in the 1940s and 50s was the basis of much of the development of graphic design during the mid 20th century.
