Chapter 14 & 15

Constructivism

A new style of art that used simple geometric shapes, Sans-Serif Typefaces, Photomontage, and Primary color palette. It was born out of suprematism.

Alexander Rodchenko

Ardent communist; experimented with typography, montage and photography He believed in social responsibility instead of personal expression. His use of heavy sans-serif type with hand lettering was his signature style.

The Beggarstaffs

Brother-in-laws James Pryde and William Nicholson Trained artists in the fine arts; specifically painting opened an advertising studio in 1894 under a "psudo name" to protect their artistic reputations (name from a sack of corn). First design studio that we know of using a trade name They worked briefly with cut paper, collage style creating unique "flat and colorful" poster images. Artistically successful, but awful marketers and business men. Their studio collapsed financially and they returned to painting as their livelihood.

Vladimir Lebedev

Embraced bolshevism and designed bold, flat, neoprimitivist propaganda for the Soviet telegraph agency. He mastered simplicity, reducing forms to their basic geometric shapes, using primary colors and telling a story visually and in sequence. In the early 1920's, Vlad and other artists "fought for mastery and purity of art: they wanted fine art to be descriptive, not illustrative. He became Russia's "father of the children's picture book. "When I make drawings for children, I try to recall my own consciousness as a child."

Lucian Bernhard of Germany

He "moved graphic communication to its simplest form". His message: Take an illustration to its simplest form, place it against a flat background, and add abrupt text to the composition. Final message: short, concise, simple, direct, highly legible type He used flat color shapes, the product name and the product image; his poster was complete! In history Toulouse Lautrec started the simplification, the Beggarstaffs continued the style and he mastered it. his emphasis on reduction, minimalist form, and simplification brought about the constructivist movement. He moved to America in 1923, established himself as a graphic designer and worked for the American Type Founders Corporation designing new typefaces and fonts.

American Illustrator Charles Dana Gibson

He "offered his services" as art director to the Division of Pictorial Publicity, a US government agency that produced over 700 propaganda posters and printed materials during the war.

Joseph Leyendecker

He created the Boy Scouts Campaign "Be Prepared" In his career he produced 322 covers for The Saturday Evening Post, and many advertising illustrations for commercial use.

James Montgomery Flagg

He produced 46 war posters

Van Doesburg

He saw Dada and DeStijl as opposite but complimentary movements: Dada destroyed the old order and DeStijl built a new order on the "razed site of prewar culture". His energy and creativity CREATED DeStijl, and when he died in 1931 at 47, the movement died with him.

Paul Colin (1892-1985)

He started his design career as a graphics and set designer for the Theatre des Champes-Elysees in Paris. His style was simple; a figure or object in the middle with type above and/or below it. Vibrant color, a wonderful painterly style and simple type expressed "a joy in life" throughout his works. It is estimated that he created one to two thousand posters and eight hundred+ set designs. HE WAS THE MOST PROLIFIC AND ENDURING FRENCH DESIGNER OF HIS GENERATION. In 1930 he opened the first poster school where many of the most famous designers of the future generation were trained. He worked during the war and on into the 1970s designing travel posters.

The Leading German Plakat Designer, Ludwig Hohlwein

He worked as an illustrator for Jugend Magazine in the early 1900's. His WWI posters were simple, bold and powerful. When Hitler came on the scene, he used visual propaganda to promote his message. The swastika was adopted as the symbol for the Nazi Party and he was the chosen designer for Hitler's message.

El Lissitzky

His layouts were worked out on graph paper He embraced the commercial world, working for the Pelikan Ink Company Disliked metal type and used drafted construction and paste-ups to achieve his designs He predicted that the Guttenberg printing and typesetting systems would give way to photomechanical processes of the future He was a master of the grid. Designing with two/three column grid system He used lots of white space, silhouette halftones, and numbered images for captions. In the 1920s he spent time in Germany as the cultural representative for Russia. After being diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis, he entered a Swiss sanatorium. He continued to produce propaganda posters, books, buildings and exhibitions for the Soviet Union. In 1932 Stalin demanded artists conform to much stricter guidelines however he managed to retain his position as head of exhibitions. He died in December 1941, shortly after Germany invaded Russia. His friend, Jan Tschichold wrote "El was one of the great pioneers........his indirect influence was widespread and enduring.......a generation that has never heard of him.......stands upon his shoulders".

A.M. Cassandre's (1901-1968)

His posters were bold, simple, two dimensional and bright colored. He popularized air brush techniques that lent a machine-like surface to his images. His towering posters of the Normandie, Statendam and Atlantique ocean liners became icons of the Industrial Age. His finest works were for the railways and steamship lines. The exaggerated scale of his subjects along with strong powerful sans-serif type were his trademark. During the 1930's he worked in New York for Harper's magazine, Container Corporation and N.W.Ayer and Son in Philadelphia. He returned to Paris in the late 30's and designed and painted for the ballet and theatre arts. The last stretch of his life was a tumultuous time, he suffered from bouts of severe depression. On June 17, 1968, he committed suicide in his apartment in Paris. His work lives on today and is an inspiration for artists and designers across the world.

DeStijl

It was launched in the Netherlands in the summer of 1917. Its founder was Theo van Doesburg and joined by painters Piet Mondrian, Bark van der Leck and others. Their visions sought universal laws of equilibrium and harmony for art, all the while searching for "a new social order".

Gustav Klutsis

Master of "propaganda photomontage" calling it "the art construction for socialism." He used the poster as his means of communicating and he was often compared to John Heartfield's powerful political statements. He believed that "photomontage was the medium of the future and that it had rendered all other forms of artistic realism obsolete". Many of his works celebrated Stalin's achievements and ultimately it cost him his life. He was arrested in 1938 during the Stalinist purges, and perished in the labor camp in 1944.

Miami Beach Art Deco District

Miami Beach, Florida, is home to one of the world's largest collections of art deco-styled buildings dating from 1920's-1940's. This enclave of eclectic art deco is located along 30 blocks of South Beach; containing more then 900 apartment buildings, residences and hotels. In 1979, the District was listed on the US National Register of Historic Places

Plakatstil

The 1905 Early Modern German Poster style. Artists were searching for a new visual language that was devoid of decoration and rejected the modern experiences of the industrialized society. The new vehicle was "the poster".

America

The country that alone produced about 2,500 poster designs and approximately 20 million posters - nearly 1 for every 4 citizens - in little more than 2 years.

Bolsheviks

The ones who turned to poster art to help win their civil war. Lenin and his followers proved to be the pioneering masters of modern propaganda, and the poster became a weapon which would be used throughout the century in both hot and cold wars everywhere.

1885

The year color separated halftone plates were in red, yellow and blue and the black plate was added to give strength and definition to the prints (trapping color). This addition resulted in the four-color process that we know today.

1906

The year the halftone printing process goes commercial.

DeStijl artists

They embraced Mathematical structure and the harmony of nature Deeply spiritual ideals Intelligent thought Expressed through art "the general consciousness of their age and time" They applied horizontal and vertical structure to letterforms and layouts. CURVES were eliminated. Sans-serif type was only used. Type was often composed in tight rectangular blocks (very hard to read). The square was the "King PIn" of their designs and an open "implied" grid was used. Color was used as a structural element. Red and black were favored colors signifying "revolution".

The role of a war poster

To honor the soldier, and create national patriotism.

Propaganda

To promote a social and political message through visual persuasion.

Cubo-Futurism

When the Czar and his family of Russia were overthrown and executed in 1918, a new politically driven art and design movement began to emerge based on the use of: Abstract geometric shapes Bold rules Text set at right angles This new aesthetic was meant to embody the vision of the "new social order" With it's new leader, Kasmir Malevich, came a name change from it to Suprematism. Materials were course and colors were used sparingly. This had a lot to do with the post-war economy. Malevich was seeking "expression of feelings, seeking no practical values, no ideas, and no promised land."

Art Deco

a direct counterpoint to its decorative and organic predecessor Art Nouveau, was represented in every applied art, especially graphic design and architecture. In this machine age style, power and speed became the primary themes along with: Linear symmetry, Geometry, Sleek forms The term is derived from the "Decorative Arts" Exposition of 1925 in Paris. Three graphic designers incorporated this into their works after WWI. They were: Edward Kaffer's(1890-1954) great achievements were his 141+ posters for The London Underground and his many and varied travel posters. His used shapes, color, and type to create his simple, but impactful images.