By the beginning of the twentieth century there was an amazing variety of different typographic and visual styles and materials that were available for editorial and advertising design. The mechanical production techniques gave designers enormous freedom and print media thrived as a result. Photographs were becoming widely accepted while illustrations persisted, enhanced by color and new printing techniques. It wasn't until the early twentieth century did the artists and designers exploited and revealed the true potential of the technical inventions of the nineteenth century. Although there were no radical changes in technology, the designers did have to find a way to visually translate the social meanings. They readopted a more functional and anti historical approach to design.
The Graphic Impact of Futurism and Dada
Almost overnight a new movement developed where artists felt compelled to define their work by the dramatic rejection of all inherited aesthetics an values. In 1909 the Italian poet Filippo Martinetti exploded into the spotlight with his Futurist Manifesto. He attacked the decorative typography of the old-fashioned. The modern meant new, which meant machine made or at least something the looked machine-like.
1. A cubo-futurist painting by Kazimir Severinovich Malevich. This was a short lived movement lasting perhaps a year or two. It was a combination of French Cubism, Italian Futurism, and Neo-Primitivism.
However, not all avant-garde art was influenced by Martinetti's futuristic ideals. A second movement emerged and called themselves 'Dada'. This symbolized the outrageous attitudes of their movement. These publications and performances appeared in Germany, France, and even the United States. The Dadaists were comprised of a curious group of people including pacifists, anarchists, and radicals. Their behavior shook the citizens of Zurich and later other major cities in the world.
2. The Dada movement was based on the principles of anarchy, cynicism, and rejecting the laws of social organization and beauty.
Propaganda and Mass Communication Studies
In the beginning of the twentieth century many of the avant-garde's internationalism stemmed from social uprising. Political shifts caused large groups to move across nations and fostered artistic exchange. Technical advancements in communication provoked the revisions of traditional beliefs and values. World War I was happening during the 1914-1918 and it killed and traumatized millions of soldiers. The Great War ruptured and destroyed all that defined modern life and also promoted the development of mechanized military technologies. Propaganda developed because it could reach wide audiences and was tremendously effective with the use of vivid flat colors and bold lines.
3. UK World War I propaganda.
Graphic Persuasion and Its Effects
While the public relations campaigns were essential to maintain an effort to win the war, it also included a new form of communication: information graphics. The new information campaigns in a post revolutionary Russia included the task of educating the working class. At the same time in the United States, the women's suffrage movement launched their own campaigns to allow women to have the right to vote. Images were created for propaganda for both the supporters and opposers of women's rights.
4. Images of the women's suffrage for both sides of the argument used as propaganda.
Institutionalizing Graphic Design
Probably the most enduring legacy of the early twentieth century came from institutionalizing graphic design. Institutions were training young designers in accordance to the Constructivist principle and major figures of the prewar avant-garde sought new ideals and reforms. The Bauhaus could arguably be the most legendary of the new institutions for graphic design (established in 1919). The Bauhaus style characteristics included formal reduction, dynamic asymmetry, and a systematic structuring of the graphic design elements.
5. Laszlo Moholy-Nagy described typography as a "tool of communication" type must be clear, legible, and communicate its message.
Glossary
Bourgeoisie - a social class between the aristocracy and the proletariat that enjoys a ertain amount of material wealth and status and benefits from the status quo.
Duplicating Machine - mechanical devices that produce more than one copy of an image or text.
Futurism - an artistic movement of the early twentieth century that called for a radical break with the past and all tradition sin the name of creating an art for the future.
Suprematism - a name coined in 915 by Kasimir Malevich to describe experimental art that aimed to transcend the limits of all past art and create works that were concerned almost entirely with geometric forms.
Works Cited
"The Bauhaus." History of Graphic Design. 5 Nov. 2008.
"Dada art period, Dada paintings, Dadaism, Dada artists, and Dada history." Dada Movement, Dada Art Pictures, Neo Dada, Dada Period, Dada History. 5 Nov. 2008.
"The Futurist Manifesto." The Futurist Manifesto. 5 Nov. 2008
"Kazimir Severinovich Malevich: Taking in the Harvest (1911-1912)." Malevich: Harvest. 5 Nov. 2008
The National Archives. 5 Nov. 2008
"UK WWI Propaganda Poster." Listphile Beta. 5 Nov. 2008
No comments:
Post a Comment