Modernism in Graphic Design.

Modernity began when life shifted to the city
1750 -------- onwards.

Modernism begins late 19th Century

Rejection of ornament (Adolf Loos, Ornament & Crime 1908)
Vogueish style will date work
-remove it all to get pure design
-Sans Serif font created as a direct response to modernism.
Form follows function (Louis Sullivan 1896)
An office building should look like an office building!

Graphic design:
-Clear
-Legible
Road signs... Brilliant example of design in action.

Toulouse - Lautrec - 1891 - Believed the beginnings  of modernist design.
Tendency to depict modern life


WORK OF ITALIAN FUTURISTS.
'parole in liberta'
-Attempting to be new/experimental
-Change method of typography, against the linear forms created by the Gutenberg press.
-What is the use of looking behind at the moment when we must open the mysterious shutters of the impossible?

Marinetti 1905
Futurists see war.
Fortunato Depero 1927
Bolter book, Truth to materials.
Appolinaire 
Jan Tschichold 
-New typography - totally nuetral - simply for communication.
No fonts should be used other than grotesk

Switzerland post WWII
International typographic style.
Neue Grafik
-Helvetica
-Left aligned
-Grid layouts

BOYNE&ROTTANSI - postmodernist.
- Aesthetic self reflexiveness ( work makes comment on how it is made)
Jackson Pollock 
-Painting as much a reflection of the process as the painting itself.
-Montage
-Paradox, ambiguity and uncertainty  - optimism
-Loss of the integrated individual subject ( loss of confidence in the individual)

OPTIMISM&UTOPIANISM
-laying down solutions to better the world.
-standardising typography.
typefaces/sans serif
le corbussier.
AESTHETIC SELF REFLEXIVENESS
El Lessitsky - pelican ink
- shows off the process of how the image was created.
MONTAGE
Paul Citroen - metropolis
'Die Schon Madchen' Hannah Hoch 1920
Girl defined by advertising & design- loss of subjectivity


Modernism moves away from illusionistic realistic way of depicting the world, relying on signs and symbols.