Unit 4 (chapter 14) History of Graphic Design
Ludwig Hohlwein
The maverick from Munich leading A leading Plakatstil designer, _______ ________ Munich, began his career as a graphic illustrator with work commissioned by Jugend magazine as early as 1904. 1) During the first half of the century, Hohlwein's graphic art evolved with changing social conditions. The Beggarstaffs were his initial inspiration, and in the years before World War I Hohlwein took great delight in reducing his images to flat shapes. 2) Unlike Beggarstaffs and his Berlin rival Bernhard, however, Hohlwein applied a rich range of texture and decorative pattern to his images (Figs. 14-37 and 14-38). Many of his early posters were for clothing manufacturers and retail stores, and it seemed that Hohlwein never repeated himself. 3) In the posters that he designed during World War I, Hohlwein began to combine his simple, powerful shapes with more naturalistic imagery. As evidenced in a poster (14-39) for a Red Cross collection to benefit the recovering war wounded, Hohlwein's work straddles the line between the Central Powers' symbolic posters and the Allies' pictorial posters. After the war Hohlwein received numerous advertising poster commissions. His work became more fluid and painterly, with figures frequently arranged on a flat white or color ground and surrounded by colorful lettering.
a
A direct application of cubism to graphic design was made by Austin Cooper in England. In a series of three collage-inspired posters, he attempted to spark memories of the viewers earlier Continental visits by presenting fragments and glimpses of landmarks (14-62). 1) Lively movement is achieved by shifting planes, sharp angles, and the superimposition of lettering and images. 2) In 1924 Cooper made an interesting foray into the use of pure geometric shape and color to solve a communications problem for the London Underground (Fig. 14-63 and 14-64). A) Geometric forms rising from the bottom to the top of each poster change in a color spectrum from warm to cool to symbolize the temperature changes as one leaves the cold street in winter-or the hot street in summer-for the greater comfort of the underground railway.
Swastika
Adopted in WWI as the symbol for the Nazi Party... represented the German "master race"... Ludwig Hohlwein's posters conveyed these images all across the nation.
swastika
After an unsuccessful attempt to seize power in the Munich Putsch of 1923, Adolf Hitler was sent to prison, where he spent his time writing Mein Kampf, which set forth his political philosophy and political ambitions for Germany. He wrote that propaganda "should be popular and should adapt its intellectual level to the receptive ability of the least intellectual citizens. Hitler was convinced that the more artistically designed posters used in Germany and Austria during World War I were "wrongheaded" and that the slogans and popular illustrations of the Allies were more effective. Hitler had an almost uncanny knack for visual propaganda. When he rose on the German political scene, the ___________ was adopted as the symbol for the Nazi party. 1) Uniforms consisting of brown shirts with red armbands bearing a black swastika in a white circle began to appear throughout Germany as the Nazi party grew in strength and numbers. 2) In retrospect, it seems almost inevitable that the Nazi party would commission posters from Hohlwein, for the evolution of his work coincided closely with Hitler's concept of effective propaganda. As Hitler delivered passionate radio addresses to the nation about the German "master race" and the triumphant superiority of German athletes and culture, Hohlwein posters conveyed these images all across the nation (Figs. 14-40 and 14-41). As the Nazi dictatorship consolidated its power and World War II approached, Hohlwein moved toward a bold imperial and militaristic style of tight, heavy forms and strong tonal contrasts (Fig. 14-42). Hohlwein's oeuvre evolved with changing political and social currents, and his reputation as a designer was seriously tarnished by his collaboration with the Nazis.
A. M. Cassandre
At age fourteen ____ ______ immigrated to Paris from Ukraine, where he had been born to a Russian mother and French father. 1) He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Julian. 2) His graphic design career began at age 22with fulfilling poster commissions (14-49) from the Hachard & Cie printing firm, to earn money for art study and living expenses. 3) 1923 until 1936 he revitalized French advertising art through a dramatic series of posters. Cassandre's bold, simple designs emphasize two-dimensionality and are composed of broad, simplified planes of color. By reducing his subjects to iconographic symbols, he moved very close to synthetic cubism. His love of letterforms is evidenced by an exceptional ability to integrate words and images into a total composition. 4) Cassandre achieved concise statements by combining telegraphic copy, powerful geometric forms, And symbolic imagery created by simplifying natural forms into most pictographic silhouettes. A poster for the Paris newspaper L'Intransigeant (14-50) is a masterful composition. Cassandre cropped the paper's name as it thrust from The upper right-hand corner, leaving the often-used shortened version. Many of his finest works were for railways (14-51 and 14-52) and steamship lines. 1) poster for the ocean liner L'Atlantique (Fig. 14-53), he exaggerated the scale difference between the ship and the tugboat to achieve a monolithic quality signifying safety and strength. The severe geometry is softened by the smoke and fading reflection. 2) Only the ship's massive smokestacks are shown in the poster for the Statendam, a passenger liner of the Holland-America Line (14-54). 3) The iconography of his cinematic sequence of word and image was used to advertise the liqueur Dubonnet (Fig. 14-55) for over two decades. Consumption of the beverage transforms the line drawing into a full-color painting. The figure became a popular trademark used in formats ranging from notepads to press advertisements and billboards. In the 1964 book Language of Vision, the designer and design historian Gyorgy Kepes described Cassandre's method: One unifying device employed by Cassandre was the use of a contour line common to various spatial units. The double outline takes on a double meaning, similar to a visual pun. It refers to inside and outside space simultaneously, ... [and] the spectator is therefore forced into intensive participation as he seeks to resolve the apparent contradiction. But the equivocal contour line does more than unify different spatial data. It acts like a warp, weaving the threads of color planes into one rhythmical unity. The rhythmical flow of the line injects the picture surface with a sensual intensity. For Deberny and Peignot type foundry: 1) Cassandre designed typefaces with daring innovations. 2) In the quintessential art deco display type, Bifur (14-56), the eye is able to fill in the missing parts and read the characters. 3)Acier (Fig. 14-57) contrasts outline and solid black portions of the letters 4) Peignot (Fig. 14-58) represents the attempt to revolutionize the alphabet by reviving an earlier roman form. All lowercase letters are small capitals, except the b, d, and f. The small H, K, and L have ascending strokes. During the late 1930s Cassandre worked in the United States for such clients as Harper's Bazaar, Container Corporation of America, and N. W. Ayer. After returning to Paris in 1939, he turned to painting and design for the ballet and theater, which were his major areas of involvement over the next 3 decades.
James Pryde
Brothers-in-law James Pryde and William Nicholson decided to open an advertising design studio in 1894... they adopted pseudonyms to protect their reputations as artists... one of them found a sack of corn in a stable labeled "the Beggarstaff Brothers," and adopted the name... they also developed a new technique, later named collage... forged this new working method into posters of powerful colored shapes and silhouettes.
William Nicholson
Brothers-in-law James Pryde and William Nicholson decided to open an advertising design studio in 1894... they adopted pseudonyms to protect their reputations as artists... one of them found a sack of corn in a stable labeled "the Beggarstaff Brothers," and adopted the name... they also developed a new technique, later named collage... forged this new working method into posters of powerful colored shapes and silhouettes.
Alfred Leete
Gipkens (14-26) often contrasted stark graphic shapes boldly against the white ground. When it became evident after 1916 that submarine warfare was the only possible way Germany could break the English blockade, Erdt (14-27) celebrated underwater heroes and rallied the public behind them. 1) Showing the destruction of enemy symbols or flags was a frequent propaganda device. A most effective example is Cologne designer Otto Lehmann's (b. 1865) poster depicting industrial workers and farmers holding on their shoulders a soldier taking down a torn British flag (Fig. 14-28). The Allies' approach to graphic propaganda was more Illustrative, using literal rather than symbolic imagery to address propaganda objectives. 1) British posters stressed need to protect traditional values, the home, and the family. Perhaps the most effective British poster of the war years is The widely imitated 1915 military poster by _____ ______ showing the popular Lord Horatio Kitchener, British secretary of war, pointing directly at the viewer (fig. 14-29). 1) This image originally appeared as the 5 September 1914 cover of London Opinion magazine above the headline "Your Country Needs You." Some posters appealed directly to sentimentality, such as Saville Lumley's (d. 1950) 1914 image, "Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War?" (14-30).
Jean Carlu
He fell under the wheels of a Paris trolley car, his right arm was severed from his body... he understood the modern movements and applied this knowledge to visual communication... seeing the need for a concise statement, he made a dispassionate, objective analysis of the emotional value of visual elements... tension and alertness were expressed by angles and lines; feelings of ease and relaxation, and comfort were transmitted by curves... he sought to convey the essence of the message by avoiding the use of "two lines where one would do" or expressing "two ideas where one will deliver the message more forcefully"... some of his best work was created during WWII, notably his posters for the american and allied war efforts... in his finest designs, word and image are interlocked in terse messages of great power ________ , who taught himself to draw with his left hand after an accident, experimented with the effectiveness of communications by moving posters past spectators at varying speeds to test their legibility and impact.
word, image
In Vienna, Joseph Binder (1898-1972) studied at the Vienna School of Applied Art, which was under the direction of Alfred Roller, from 1922 until 1926. While still a student, Binder combined various influences, including cubism and the work of Koloman Moser, into a pictorial graphic design style with strong communicative power. 1)hallmarks of his work were natural images reduced to basic forms and shapes, like the cube, sphere, and cone, and 2 flat color shapes used side by side to represent the light and shadow sides of a figure or object. 2) His award-winning poster for the Vienna Music and Theater Festival (14-65) is an early manifestation of the uniquely Viennese approach to art deco. 3) Binder traveled widely, settling in New York City in 1935. As with so many immigrants to America, his work evolved in his changed environment. He developed a highly refined and stylized naturalism in posters and billboards advertising throat lozenges, beer, travel, and public services. Between the world wars, Germany became a cultural hub as advanced ideas in all the arts flowed across its borders from other European countries. Geometric pictorial images inspired by cubism and French advertising art-along with lettering, typography, and spatial organization from the Russian constructivist and Dutch De Stijl movements (discussed in chapter 15)-combined with vigorous Teutonic forms in a unique national approach. Superb printing technology and rigorous art training institutes enabled German graphic designers to achieve a high level of excellence. Heinz Schulz-Neudamm, staff designer for motion picture publicity at Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft, is prominent among the many German designers who created memorable graphics during this period (14-66). In England, Abram Games extended the philosophy and spatial ideas of postcubist pictorial modernism through World War II and well into the second half of the twentieth century. He began his career on the eve of World War II and produced educational, instructional, and propaganda graphics during the war. About his philosophy, Games wrote, "The message must be given quickly and vividly so that interest is subconsciously retained. The discipline of reason conditions the expression of design. The designer constructs, winds the spring. The viewer's eye is caught, the spring released." Games's poster for the Emergency Blood Transfusion Service (14-67) asks the viewer, "If he should fall, is your blood there to save him?" Ordinary images of a hand, a bottle, and a foot soldier are combined in a compelling statement that provokes an emotional response from the observer. Modernist pictorial graphics in Europe focused on the total integration of ____ and ____, which became one of the most enduring currents of twentieth-century graphic design. The approach began with Bernhard's 1905 Priester matches poster, responded to the communications needs of World War I and the formal innovations of cubism and other early modern-art movements, and emerged to play a major role in defining the visual sensibilities of the 1920s and 1930s. It retained sufficient momentum to provide graphic solutions to communications problems during World War II and beyond.
Jean Carlu
In addition to Kauffer and Cassandre, many other graphic designers and illustrators incorporated concepts and images from cubism into their work. When _____ ______, a promising 18 years old French architectural student, fell under the wheels of a Paris trolley car, his right arm was severed from his body. His survival was miraculous, and during long days of recovery he thought intensely about the world and his future. WWI had turned northern France into a vast burial ground, and the country struggled for economic recovery in the face of devastation. 1) abandoning his dream of being an architect, young Carlu vowed to become an artist and apply his talents to the needs of his country, and with commitment and concentration, he taught himself to draw with his left hand. He understood the modern movements and applied this knowledge to visual communication (Fig. 14-59). 1) Realizing the need for concise statement, he made a dispassionate, objective analysis of the emotional value of visual elements. 2) Then he assembled them with almost scientific exactness. Tension and alertness were expressed by angles and lines; feelings of ease, relaxation, and comfort were transmitted by curves. 3) He sought to convey the essence of the message by avoiding the use of 2 lines where one would do" or expressing "2 ideas where 1 will deliver the message more forcefully." 4) To study the effectiveness of communications in the urban environment, he conducted experiments with posters moving past spectators at varying speeds so that message legibility and impact could be assessed and documented. In 1940 Carlu was in America completing an exhibition entitled "France at War" for the French Information Service display at the New York World's Fair. On 14 June German Service troops marched into Paris, and Carlu was stunned to learn that his country was capitulating to Hitler. He decided to remain in America for the duration of the war; the sojourn extended to 13 years. Some of his best work was created during this period, notably his posters for the American and Allied war efforts. In his finest designs, word and image are interlocked in terse messages of great power.
Lucian Bernhard
Lucian Bernhard was influential in helping create the design style known as Plakatstil (Poster Style), which used reductive imagery and flat-color as well as Sachplakat ('object poster') which restricted the image to simply the object being advertised and the brand name. He was also known for his designs for Stiller shoes, Manoli cigarettes, and Priester matches. self taught Plakatstil (poster style) 14.17: circle with letter in middle (contrast rococo, neoclassical, Victorian over the top ornaments/decoration, realism, perfection) -precursor to minimalist (modern to simplified to essence) In 1898 he began to repaint the proper nineteenth-century decor of his family's home... he saw an advertisement for a poster contest sponsored by Priester matches... his first design showed a round table with checked table cloth, an ashtray holding a lit cigar, and a box of matches... he painted the tablecloth and ashtray out leaving a pair of matches on a bare table... the contest entries had to be postmarked by midnight on that date so he hastily painted the word Priester above the matches and sent the poster... the jury's immediate reaction was total rejection, but a tardy juror Ernst Growald convinced the rest of the jury and his first attempt thus became the now-famous Priester matches poster... he had moved graphic communications one step further in the simplification and reduction of naturalism into a visual language of shape and sign. Who designed the typeface Bernhard?
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Many posters emphasized the public's contribution to the war effort by appealing to patriotic emotions. In a poster for the American Red Cross (14-34) by Jesse Willcox Smith: 1) the viewer is asked if he or she has a service flag, which signifies that the household has supported the Red Cross effort. Although it was not a common practice at the time, Smith often signed her work, which included designs for Campbell's soup, Eastman Kodak, and Ivory soap. 2) Smith shared a studio with Elizabeth Shippen Green and Violet Oakley, both of whom she met while studying with Howard Pyle. The three were very active as illustrators specializing in magazine and children's book illustrations portraying children, motherhood, and the everyday life of the times. Though well-known for his Harper's advertisements, Edward Penfield's work appeared in a variety of posters for early twentieth-century consumer goods and in print ads in publications such as the Saturday Evening Post and Collier's. 1) His male figures typically displayed strong jaws and broad shoulders, while his women seem to display a passive aloofness. 2) In his later posters supporting the Allies in World War I, Penfield featured stronger, more active females engaged in the war effort (14-35 and 14-36).
Armory Show
Moved from New York to Chicago... it was the first American exhibition of modern art and it caused and uproar throughout the country... a New York Times headline about the Armory show proclaimed "cubists and futurists make insanity pay" 1913 - The first art show in the U.S., organized by the Ashcan School. Was most Americans first exposure to European Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art, and caused a modernist revolution in American art.
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Paul Colin started his career as a graphic designer in 1925, when an acquaintance from the trenches of World War I asked the thirty-three-year-old painter if he would like to become the graphics and set designer for the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris. 1) In program covers and posters, he often placed a figure or object centrally before a colored background and type or lettering above and/or below it. These strong, central images are animated by a variety of techniques: creating a double image, often with different drawing techniques and scale changes; using the transparency of overlapping images as a means to make two things into one; adding color shapes or bands behind or to the side of the central figure to counteract its static placement. 3) Vibrant color, informal compositions, and energetic linear drawings expressed joy in life (14-60 and 14-61). His simple, sketchy design tendencies enabled him to produce a substantial oeuvre. Estimates of the number of posters he created range from 1,000 to 2,000, and some sources credit him with as many as 800 set designs. 1) He was the most prolific and enduring French designer of his generation. 2) He produced propaganda posters during World War II until the fall of France, and new Colin posters were still being commissioned, printed, and posted throughout Paris during the early 1970s.
Beggarstaffs, James Pryde, William Nicholson
Pictorial Modernism: If the European poster of the first half of the twentieth century was in many ways a continuation of the 1890s poster, its course was nevertheless strongly affected in the second decade of the century by new modern-art movements and the communication needs of world war. Although influenced by cubism and constructivism, poster designers were cognizant of the need to maintain a pictorial reference if their posters were to communicate persuasively with the general public; they walked a tightrope between the desire for expressive and symbolic images on the one hand and concern for the total visual organization of the picture plane on the other. This dialogue between communicative imagery and design form generates the excitement and energy of pictorial graphics influenced by modern art. One of the most remarkable moments in the history of graphic design is the brief career of the ________. British painters ______ ____ and ______ _____ were brothers-in-law who had been close friends since art school. Respected academic painters, they decided to open an advertising design studio in 1894 and felt it necessary to adopt pseudonyms to protect their reputations as artists. One of them found a sack of corn in a stable labeled "the Beggarstaff Brothers," and they adopted the name, dropping the "Brothers." 1) During their collaboration they developed a new technique, later named collage. Cut pieces of paper were moved around, changed, and pasted into position on board. 2) The resulting style of absolutely flat planes of color had sensitive edges "drawn" with scissors (14-1). Often, an incomplete image challenged the viewer to participate and decipher the subject (14-2). The Beggarstaffs ignored the prevalent trend toward floral art nouveau as they forged this new working method into posters of powerful colored shapes and silhouettes. 3) Their work was an artistic success but a financial disaster. They attracted few clients, and only a dozen of their designs were printed. They were unable to find clients for some of their more generic designs, which never got beyond the collage stage (14-3). Some of their most famous poster designs, such as those for Sir Henry Irving's productions of Don Quixote and Robespierre at the Lyceum Theater (Figs. 14-4 and 14-5), were never printed, because Irving considered both bad likenesses. They billed him only fifty pounds for the Don Quixote poster; he paid them twice that. Later, the poster was published in a limited edition, in reduced size, for collectors. When it became economically advisable for Nicholson and Pryde to terminate the partnership, each returned to painting and received some measure of recognition, 1) Nicholson also developed a woodcut style of illustration that maintained some of the graphic economy of Beggarstaff posters (14-6). Like Nicholson and Pryde, British painter and illustrator Dudley Hardy (1866-1922) also turned to poster and advertising design. He was instrumental in introducing the graphic pictorial qualities of the French poster to London billboards during the 1890s. Hardy developed an effective formula for theatrical poster work: lettering and figures appear against simple flat backgrounds. His poster for the play A Gaiety Girl (14-7) provided Londoners with a media icon (the Gaiety Girl) akin to Parisians Chérette.
Plakatstil, Lucian Bernhard
Plakatstil The reductive, flat-color design school that emerged in Germany early in the twentieth century is called _________ (Poster Style). In 1898 _________ __________ attended the Munich Glaspalast Exhibition of Interior Decoration and was overwhelmed by what he saw. 1)Returning home "just drunk with color" from this avant-garde design show, Bernhard began to repaint the proper nineteenth-century decor of his family's home while his father was away on 3 2)day business trip. Walls, ceilings, and even furniture traded drabness for a wonderland of brilliant color. Upon his return home, the elder Bernhard was not amused. Lucian was called a potential criminal and severely rebuked. He ran away from home that very day and never returned. 2) In Berlin, Bernhard was trying unsuccessfully to support himself as a poet when he saw an advertisement for a poster contest sponsored by Priester matches. The prize was 200 marks, so Bernhard, who had excelled at art in school, decided to enter. His first design showed a round table with a checked tablecloth, an ashtray holding a lighted cigar, and a box of matches. Feeling that the image was too bare, Bernhard painted scantily clad dancing girls in the background. He decided that the image was too complex and painted the girls out. When a friend dropped by and asked if it was a poster for a cigar, Bernhard painted out the cigar. Then, deciding that the tablecloth and ashtray stood out too prominently, Bernhard painted them out as well, leaving a pair of matches on a bare table. Because the entries had to be postmarked by midnight on that date, Bernhard hastily painted the word Priester above the matches in blue, wrapped the poster, and sent it off. The jury's immediate reaction to his poster was total rejection. But a tardy juror, Ernst Growald of the Hollerbaum and Schmidt lithography firm, rescued it from the trashcan. Stepping back to study the image, Growald Proclaimed, "This is my first prize. Here is a genius." Growald Convinced the rest of the jury, and Bernhard's first attempt thus Became the now-famous Priester matches poster (Fig. 14-8), which reduced communication to one word and two matches. 3)He had moved graphic communications 1 step further in the simplification and reduction of naturalism into a visual language of shape and sign. Toulouse-Lautrec had started the process and the Beggarstaffs had continued it, Bernhard established the approach to the poster of using flat color shapes, the product name, and product image (14-9). He repeated this approach over and over during the next 2 decades. In addition, he designed over 300 packages for 66 products, using similar elementary graphics.
Edward McKnight Kauffer, A. M. Cassandre,art deco
Postcubist pictorial modernism The era between the 2 world wars began with a decade of unprecedented prosperity in much of Europe and North America. 1) Faith in the machine and technology was at an all-time high. This ethic gained expression through art and design. 2) Fernand Léger's celebration of mechanical, machine-made, and industrial forms became an important design resource, and cubist ideas about spatial organization and synthetic imagery inspired an important new direction in pictorial images. Among the graphic designers who incorporated cubism directly into their work, an American working in London, ________ ______ _____, and a Ukrainian immigrant to Paris, _____ ________(born Adolph Jean-Marie Mouron), played major roles in defining this new approach. The term ____ ___ is used to identify popular geometric works of the 1920s and 1930s. 1) To some extent an extension of art nouveau, it signifies a major aesthetic sensibility in graphics, architecture, and product design during the decades between the two world wars. 2) The influences of cubism, the Bauhaus, and the Vienna Secession commingled with De Stijl and suprematism, as well as a penchant for Egyptian, Aztec, and Assyrian motifs. 3) Streamlining, zigzag, moderne, and decorative geometry- these attributes were used to express the modern era of the machine while still satisfying a passion for decoration. (The term art deco, coined by British art historian Bevis Hillier in the 1960s, derives from the title of the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, a major design exhibition held in Paris in 1925.
James Montgomery Flagg
Public patriotism ran high when the United States entered the war to "make the world safe for democracy" in the war to end all wars." Illustrator Charles Dana Gibson offered his services as art director to the Division of Pictorial Publicity, a federal agency that produced over 700 posters and other propaganda materials for 50 other governmental agencies. Working without charge, leading magazine illustrators turned to poster design and grappled with the change in scale from magazine page to poster. Persuasive propaganda replaced narrative design, and suddenly the illustrators had to integrate lettering with images. ___________ _______ _____ (1877-1960), whose sketchy painting style was widely known, produced forty-six war posters during the year and a half of American involvement in the war, including his American version of the Kitchener poster, a self-portrait of Flagg himself (Fig. 14-31).
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Spanish Civil War Posters The Spanish Civil War arose out of tensions between the liberal Republicans and the conservative Nationalists. Shifts between monarchy, military, and democratic governments fractured the nation into many ideological, social, cultural, and geographic subgroups. Leading up to 1936, the newly established Republican government gained popularity by promoting a liberal state through the development of a constitution, democratic elections, secular education, and agrarian reform. 1) However, support for these initiatives quickly dissolved, as the military, clergy, and large Catholic population felt threatened by a government that was veering too far left. 2) At the same time, socialist communist, and anarchist left extremists made themselves visible by assuming more seats in parliament, giving credence to that threat. 3) the military, the clergy, Catholics, and capitalists united as Nationalists and sought to preserve Spain's religious and feudal tradition. 4) In 1936, the Nationalists took over the government in a coup that marked the beginning of three years of violent civil war, which effectively divided the population into two ideological halves, while devastating many of Spain's historical landmarks and causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. Political propaganda played an important role throughout this war. Under the auspices of fighting fascism, Republican unions representing communists and anarchists commissioned posters to communicate ideas about centralized command, discipline, and labor interests. 1) The noncombatant population was a key target of the propaganda poster war, as the average citizen was encouraged to join militias to push back the Nationalist, rebel front. 2) Compositions featuring bright colors, heroic characterizations, and encouraging messages elicited volunteers for industrial and agricultural production and help in Madrid and on the front lines. 3) Artists referenced contemporary avant-garde aesthetics in the posters. Cubism's flat, stylized, and dynamic forms and constructivism's elemental and plastic aesthetic permeated the scale compositions. 4)In his 1938 account of the Spanish Civil War, Homage to Catalonia, George Orwell wrote when arriving in Barcelona, "revolutionary posters were everywhere, flaming from the walls in clean reds and blues that made the few remaining advertisements look like daubs of mud." These posters became the symbol of antifascist unity and the ongoing growth of the Popular Front. Because posters were one of the principal methods of gaining support, artists associated with the left-wing radicals were critical to the Republican effort; the artists fought with their weapons of communication. Artists and lithographers worked under the difficult conditions. Most posters were created during the early stages of the war; paper and color inks became scarce as the war endured. Air raids, rationed food, and inadequate power for lights and machinery hindered artists' productivity. Despite this, about 1,500 to 2,000 posters were created in this era, in editions of 3,000 to 5,000 copies. The posters were reproduced on a lithographic plate and printed offset with 3 or 4 colors. In some cases, artists drew directly on the lithograph stones to speed up the slow reproduction process. Despite all efforts, the Nationalists out dueled the Republicans and reinstated an authoritarian regime under the leadership of Francisco Franco, who reigned until his death in 1975. While the revolutionary left succumbed to the rebellious right, the posters remain an emblem of success and a tribute to their utopian ideals (14-43 and 14-44).
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Switzerland and the Sach plakat In Switzerland, a land with three principal languages, poster design was affected by German, French, and Italian cultures. Like the Netherlands, Switzerland is a small country amidst large neighbors, and many outside influences are apparent. The country has long been a popular vacation spot, and travel posters filled a natural need. 1908 poster of Zermatt (14-19), Emil Cardinaux (1877-1936) created the first Sach plakat Swiss poster, sharing many characteristics with the Plakatstil in Germany. Even after modern production procedures such as offset printing began to be used in most poster production, traditional lithographic crafts were retained in what was known as Basel realism. This style was promoted by Niklaus Stoecklin (14-20), Otto Baumberger, and later Herbert Leupin (14-21), whose Sachplakate (object posters) were characterized by a simple, laconic, and sometimes hyperrealistic approach. Baumberger's 1923 poster for the PKZ department store consists of a life-size drawing of a coat showing the actual hairs of the fabric with the text restricted to "PKZ" (14-22).
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The Berlin lithography firm of Hollerbaum and Schmidt recognized that an important direction for German poster art was developing in the hands of Bernhard and other young artists. It signed exclusive contracts with 6 of them, including Bernhard, Hans Rudi Erdt, Julius Gipkens, and Julius Klinger. This farsighted business decision effectively forced anyone wishing to commission designs from these artists to work with the Hollerbaum and Schmidt printing firm. Comparison of Bernhard's Stiller shoes poster with Erdt's "Never Fail" and Opel motorcar posters (14-10 and 14-11) demonstrate how well Erdt was able to apply the Bernhard formula: flat background color; large, simple image; and product name. Gipkens, like Bernhard, was a self-taught graphic designer who developed a large clientele in Berlin. His fluid, linear drawing gave a nervous wiggle to both his lettering and images and became a trademark in his work (14-12). Born and educated in Vienna, Julius Klinger had been associated with the Vienna Secession artists. He eventually moved to Berlin, where he veered from floral art nouveau toward decorative shapes of bright, clear color and concise, simple lettering. As with posters by Bernhard and Erdt, Klinger's De were highly reductive designs (Figs. 14-13 and 14-14). During the early years of Bernhard's design career, he developed a straightforward lettering style painted in broad brushstrokes. 1) At first he did not employ any particular concept, but over time dense alphabets of unique character gradually developed. 2) This lettering impressed a staff member from the Berthold Type Foundry in Berlin, which based a sans-serif typeface design on it in 1910. A) Three years later the Flinsch Type Foundry in Frankfurt am Main issued the minimal typeface Bernhard Antiqua. (14-15). 3) His sense of simplicity was also applied to trademark design. For Hommel Micrometers, in 1912, Bernhard constructed a little mechanical man holding one of the client's sensitive measuring devices (14-16). For Manoli cigarettes, in 1911, Bernhard reduced the firm's trademark to an elemental letter within a geometric form printed in a second color (Figs. 14-17 and 14-18). Bernhard was a pivotal designer. 1) His work might be considered the logical conclusion of the turn-of-the-century poster movement. 2) His emphasis on reduction, minimalist form, and simplification anticipated the constructivist movement. 3) As time went on, Bernhard tackled interior design and then studied carpentry to learn furniture design and construction. This led to a study of architecture; during the 1910s Bernhard designed furniture, rugs, wallpapers, and lighting fixtures as well as office buildings, factories, and houses. 4) A visit to America in 1923 excited Bernhard, and he returned to live in New York. His work was far too modern to gain acceptance in America; it took him five years to establish himself as a graphic designer. During that time he worked as an interior designer. 5) In 1928 Bernhard contracted with American Type Founders to design new typefaces, producing a steady stream of new fonts that captured the sensibilities of the era.
a
The poster goes to war The poster reached the zenith of its importance as a communications medium during World War I (1914-18). Printing technologies had advanced rapidly, while radio and other electronic means of public communication were not yet in widespread use. During the war, governments turned to the poster as a significant medium of propaganda and visual persuasion. Governments needed to recruit armies and boost public morale to maintain popular support for the war effort. 1) In this first conflict fought with the armaments of technology-airplanes, zeppelins, heavy artillery, and tanks-fund- raising drives were used to collect vast amounts of money to finance the war. 2) As resources were diverted to the war effort, public support for conservation and home gardening was required to lessen the risk of acute shortages. 3) The enemy had to be assailed for its barbarism and threat to civilization. The posters produced by the Central Powers (led by Germany and Austria-Hungary) were radically different from those made by the Allies (led by France, Russia and Great Britain, and joined by the United States in 1917). 1) In Austria- Hungary and Germany, war posters continued the traditions of the Vienna Secession and displayed the simplicity of the Plakatstil pioneered by Bernhard. Words and images were integrated, and the essence of the communication was conveyed by simplifying images into powerful shapes and patterns. 2) In expressing this design philosophy, Julius Klinger observed that the United States flag was the best poster America had. Klinger's war posters expressed complex ideas with simple pictographic symbols (14-23). Bernhard adopted a medieval approach in several war posters, such as the hand- drawn red-and-black lithographic Seventh War Loan poster Fig. 14-24). 1) In an almost primeval expression of the ancient Germanic spirit, Bernhard depicted a clenched fist in medieval armor thrusting from the top right corner of the space. 2)His 1918 poster "Frauen" was designed for the first elections in Germany open to women (14-25).
Joseph C. Leyendecker
_____- J. C. Leyendecker (March 23, 1874 - July 25, 1951) is one of the preeminent American illustrators of the early 20th century. He is best known for his poster, book and advertising illustrations, the trade character known as The Arrow Collar Man, and his numerous covers for The Saturday Evening Post. Between 1896 and 1950, Leyendecker painted more than 400 magazine covers. During the Golden Age of American Illustration, for The Saturday Evening Post alone, J. C. Leyendecker produced 322 covers , as well as many advertisement illustrations for its interior pages. No other artist, until the arrival of Norman Rockwell two decades later, was so solidly identified with one publication. Leyendecker "virtually invented the whole idea of modern magazine design. Arguably America's most popular illustrator between the early twentieth century and the early 1940's... created a canon of idealized physical beauty in the mass media... his career received a boost from his popular posters, honoring soldiers and creating a cult around national leaders or symbolic figures were two important functions of the posters; ridiculing or disparaging the leaders of the enemy forces was another. Saturday Evening post, ads,
James Montgomery Flagg
_____- J. M. Flagg's 1917 poster, based on the original British Lord Kitchener poster of three years earlier made his poster based on Alfred Leete confrontation poster 14.31: noting like Plakatstil, social realism (greek, idealized) His sketchy painting style was widely known... he produced forty-six war posters during the year and a half of American involvement in the war, including his American version of the Kitchener poster, a self-portrait of himself James Montgomery Flagg was an American artist and illustrator. He worked in media ranging from fine art painting to cartooning, but is best remembered for his political posters. This artists portrayal of Uncle Sam encouraging Americans to enlist for WWI became the most famous recruiting poster in American history.
Edward McKnight Kauffer
______- He was among the graphic designers who incorporated cubism directly into their work... a steady stream of posters and other graphic design assignments enabled him to apply the invigorating principles of modern art, particularly cubism, to the problems of visual communication... he designed 141 posters for the London Underground Transport... he uses simplification, distortion, and transposition, and especially cubism, producing not a copy, but a simplified, formalized and more expressive symbol. 14.45- influence of cubist and futurist and restrain of Plakatstil Cubo-Futurist Poster for the London newspaper the Daily Herald, designed by E. McKnight Kauffer, 1918. 14.55:
The Beggarstaffs
______- The Beggarstaffs, otherwise J. & W. Beggarstaff, was the pseudonym used by the British artists William Nicholson and James Pryde for their collaborative partnership in the design of posters and other graphic work between 1894 and 1899. One of them found a sack of corn in a stable labeled "the Beggarstaff Brothers," and they adopted the name, dropping the "Brothers." During their collaboration they developed a new technique, later named collage. Cut pieces of paper were moved around, changed, and pasted into position on board. The resulting style of absolutely flat planes of color had sensitive edges "drawn" with scissors (Fig. 14-1). Often, an incomplete image challenged the viewer to participate and decipher the subject (Fig. 14-2). The Beggarstaffs ignored the prevalent trend toward floral art nouveau as they forged this new working method into posters of powerful colored shapes and silhouettes. Unfortunately, their work was an artistic success but a financial disaster. They attracted few clients, and only a dozen of their designs were printed. They were unable to find clients for some of their more generic designs, which never got beyond the collage stage (Fig. 14-3). Some of their most famous poster designs, such as those for Sir Henry Irving's productions of Don Quixote and Robespierre at the Lyceum Theater (Figs. 14-4 and 14-5), were never printed, because Irving considered both bad likenesses. sudanem used by 2 British artist (James Pryde and William Nicholson) influenced by Toulouse-Lautrec Pieces of paper on color background, left figure in complete for the viewer to decipher it (called gestalt: humans have a tendency to complete things) Two artists, James Pryde and William Nicholson, "The Beggarstaffs" developed a new visual technique later called collage, in which paper is glued together to form a composition.
Art deco
______- visual art and architecture design style that started out in France just after WW1 Started in out in late 20s and flourished internationally in the 30s and 40s Had characteristics of art nouveau and also embraced machine technology (emphasize on geometric shape/forms (spheres, polygons, rectangles, trapezoids, zigzags, chevrons, sunburst motifs) lavish ornamentation, chrysler building spire: build in 1928-30 -symmetrical, laid out in aluminum, stainless steel, chrome, plastic) A term coined by British art historian Bevis Hillier, it identifies with popular geometric works of the 1920's and 1930's... it signifies a major aesthetic sensibility in graphics, architecture, and product design during the decades between the two world wars... the influences of cubism, the Bauhaus, and the Vienna Secession commingled with De Stijl and suprematism as well as a penchant for Egyptian, Aztec, and Assyrian motifs, Streamlining, zigzag, moderne, and decorative geometry... these attributes were used to express the modern era of the machine while still satisfying a passion for decoration Descended from Art Nouveau, this movement of the 1920s and 1930s sought to upgrade industrial design in competition with "fine art" and to work new materials into decorative patterns that could be either machined or handcrafted. Characterized by streamlined, elongated, and symmetrical design. The 1920's modernistic art style that captured modernistic simplification of forms, while using machine age materials. (p. 482)
Ludwig Hohlwein
_______- A leading Plakatstil designer, he took a delight in reducing his images to flat shapes... he applied a rich range of texture and decorative pattern to his images... in his poster designs during World War I, he began to combine his simple, powerful shapes with more naturalistic imagery... worked in collaboration with the Nazi party master of Plakatstil 14.39: angle looking up a figure, neoclassical pose Joined Hitler to make propaganda 14.41: Glorifying German culture 14.42: And You? This propaganda poster brings detail to Plakistil
A. M. Cassandre
_______- pseudonym of Adolphe Jean-Marie Mouron (24 January 1901 - 17 June 1968) was a Ukrainian-French painter, commercial poster artist, and typeface designer painter, commercial poster designer, and typeface designer Advertisements of travel: trains, ocean liners 14.53: ocean liner, horizontal of ship and page 14.55: wine company, cinematic sequence 14.56: Bifur type, simplifed and the viewer has to fill in some of the lines in their mind Another type: Acier and Peignot (art deco) His graphic design career began with fulfilling poster commissions from the Hachard & Cie printing firm... by reducing his subjects to iconographic symbols, he moved very close to synthetic cubism... he possessed an exceptional ability to integrate words and images into a total composition... he also combined telegraphic copies, powerful geometric forms, and symbolic imagery created by simplifying natural forms into almost pictographic silhouettes... One unifying device employed by him was the use of a contour line common to carious spatial units... the rhythmical flow of the line injects the picture surface with a sensual intensity... he also worked in the U.S. for such clients as Harpers Bazaar Art Deco poster and advertising designer, used cubist and futurist design devices in posters
Edward McKnight Kauffer, Armory Show,
________ _______ _________ 1) Kauffer was born in Great Falls, Montana. His formal education was limited to eight years of grammar school because his itinerant fiddler father abandoned the family when Kauffer was three, and at age twelve Kauffer began to work at odd jobs to supplement the family income. 2) At age sixteen he traveled to San Francisco and worked in a bookstore while taking night-school art classes and painting on weekends. 3) On his way to New York late in 1912, he stopped in Chicago for several months to study at the Art Institute. There he saw the famous _________ _____, which had traveled to Chicago from New York. This first American exhibition of modern art caused an uproar. The 16 March 1913 New York Times headline proclaimed "Cubists and Futurists Make Insanity Pay." 4) 22 year-old Kauffer responded intuitively to the strength of the work, decided his Chicago teachers were not on top of recent developments in art, and moved to Europe. After living in Munich and Paris, he journeyed to London in 1914 when war broke out. Kauffer's 1918 Daily Herald poster (Fig. 14-45), although flawed somewhat by the type choice and placement, showed how the formal idiom of cubism and futurism could make a strong communications impact in graphic design. 5) Winston Churchill even suggested that Kauffer design an emblem for the Royal Flying Corps. For the next quarter of a century, a steady stream of posters and other graphic design assignments enabled him to apply the invigorating principles of modern art, particularly cubism, to the problems of visual communication. 6)vHe designed 141 posters for the London Underground Transport (14-46 and 14-47). Many of these promoted weekend pleasure travel to rural areas at the end of the lines. Kauffer achieved visual impact with landscape subjects on posters by reductive design, editing complex environments into interlocking shapes. Later his posters tended to display art deco attributes (14-48). 7) March 1937 PM magazine article, Aldous Huxley observed that in contrast to the predominant use of money and sex in advertising for everything from scents to sanitary plumbing, Kauffer "prefers the more difficult task of advertising products in terms of forms that are symbolical only to those particular products. ... He reveals his affinity with all artists who have ever aimed at expressiveness through simplification, distortion, and transposition, and especially the Cubists," producing "not a copy, but a simplified, formalized and more expressive symbol." When World War II began, Kauffer returned to his native America, where he worked until his death in 1954.
Plakatstil
________- (Poster Style), which used reductive imagery and flat-color as well as Sachplakat ('object poster') which restricted the image to simply the object being advertised and the brand name poster style made by Lucian Bernard Sometimes used interchangeable with Sachplakte (object poster) doesn't have large, flat color (still single object) reductive imagery, flat color, restricted image to just object being advertised with the brand name A flat-color pictorial design style that maintains a balance between 2-D design structure and imagery. It emerged in Germany early in the 20th century.
Alfred Leete
_________- Lord Kitchener Wants You was a 1914 advertisement by Alfred Leete which was developed into a recruitment poster. It depicted Lord Kitchener, the British Secretary of State for War, above the words "WANTS YOU". Kitchener, wearing the cap of a British Field Marshal, stares and points at the viewer calling them to enlist in the British Army against the Central Powers. The image is considered one of the most iconic and enduring images of World War I. A hugely influential image and slogan, it has also inspired imitations in other countries, from the United States to the Soviet Union. Created the 1915 military recruiting poster illustrating the popular Lord Horatio Kitchener, British secretary of war, pointing directly at the viewer... this image originally appeared as the September 1914 cover of London Opinion magazine above the headline "Your Country Needs You." 14.19, lord kitchener poster, propaganda, British
Joseph C. Leyendecker,
__________ __ ________ (1874-1951) was arguably America's most popular illustrator between the early twentieth century and the early 1940s. 1) His cover illustrations for the Saturday Evening Post first appeared in 1899, and such commissions led to subsequent covers for Colliers, the Inland Printer, Scribner's, and the Chapbook. 2) Leyendecker followed Gibson by creating a canon of idealized physical beauty in the mass media. 3) His career received a boost from his popular posters. A) Asked to honor the role of Boy Scouts in the Third Liberty Loan Campaign (Fig. 14-32), Leyendecker combined common visual symbols-Liberty clad in the flag, holding an imposing shield, and taking a "Be prepared" sword from a scout-that promoted patriotism within all levels of American society. 4) His ability to convey the iconic essence of a subject was emerging. This skill held Leyendecker in good stead after the war, for his 322 covers for the Saturday Evening Post and countless advertising illustrations, notably for Arrow shirts and collars during the 1920s, effectively captured the American experience and attitudes during the 2 decades between the world wars. A) Honoring soldiers and creating a cult around national leaders or symbolic figures were 2 important functions of the poster B) ridiculing or disparaging the leaders of the enemy forces was another. C) In Paul Verrees's attempt at humor (14-33), a strategy seldom seen in propaganda posters, the Kaiser is "canned."