ARTH 176A Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: International Typographic Style, Adrian Frutiger, Rietberg Museum
30 Apr 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
The International Typographic Style
Need footnote
International style or called swiss style, international typographic style
● Start off in switzerland, neutral country
● Happening post ww2
● Coming from Zurich and Basel school
● Style: drawing from early artistic style
● Idea of grids
● Real investment in type as art
● Idea: using photograph and play with translucency
● New Typography
○ Asymmetric balance of elements
○ Content designed by hierarchy
○ Intentional white space utilized
○ Sans serif typography
● 40’s-50’s, start off from zurich then moved to bazzel
● Idea of legibility and objectivity, communicator
● San serif, asymmetrical layout, grids
● Clear communication, hard to see the artist's hand
● Seek to be anonymous
● Objective visual communication between producer and consumer
● Flush left and ragged right, or the opposite.
● Ideas: of what happened during ww2
● Artists are hire by government to produce propaganda, something you should say or hurt
● Artists have gone too far and can't be trusted, artwork cannot be trusted anymore
● Trying to produce art that the artist’s hands are not involve
○ Univers
■ Adrian Frutiger
○ Helvetica
■ Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann
■ Readable
■ New york city, metro, all helvetica
○ Johnston, Railway front for London underground, Uk, 1916
■ Readable because of how fast the train goes, you want people to read it
easy
○ Edward Johnston, The redesigned
○ Eric Gill, Gill Sans typeface, 1928
○ Ernst Keller - Museum Rietberg Zürich 1952
■ Worked at zurich school
■ Huge impact for the school
■ Produce Rigid posters
Document Summary
International style or called swiss style, international typographic style. Idea: using photograph and play with translucency. 40"s-50"s, start off from zurich then moved to bazzel. Clear communication, hard to see the artist"s hand. Objective visual communication between producer and consumer. Flush left and ragged right, or the opposite. Artists are hire by government to produce propaganda, something you should say or hurt. Artists have gone too far and can"t be trusted, artwork cannot be trusted anymore. Trying to produce art that the artist"s hands are not involve. Johnston, railway front for london underground, uk, 1916. Readable because of how fast the train goes, you want people to read it easy. Promote swiss style to an international audience. Lots of negative space, use of san serif. Josef muller brockmann, beethoven concert poster, lithograph, 1955. The n splits down and texts are all lowercase.
