dick bruna
Websites with research materials:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Bruna
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/3656988/I-saw-Matisse-and-came-up-with-Miffy.html
https://www.volkskrant.nl/cultuur-media/dick-bruna-1927-2017-creeerde-met-nijntje-een-universum-waarin-geen-cynisme-of-kwaad-bestaat~b0a31a99/
https://www.volkskrant.nl/cultuur-media/dick-bruna-1927-2017-creeerde-met-nijntje-een-universum-waarin-geen-cynisme-of-kwaad-bestaat~b0a31a99/
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/feb/17/miffy-creator-dick-bruna-has-died-aged-89
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaXkbdpLjX4
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/donotmigrate/3557810/Dick-Bruna-creator-of-the-Miffy-books-talks-about-his-life-and-work.html
https://nltimes.nl/2014/07/30/nijntje-creator-dick-bruna-retires/
https://nos.nl/artikel/2093095-dick-bruna-krijgt-de-max-velthuijs-prijs-voor-zijn-hele-oeuvre.html
https://www.nu.nl/boek/4325257/dick-bruna-ontvangt-max-velthuijs-prijs-2016.html
https://nos.nl/artikel/2158702-tekenaar-dick-bruna-89-overleden.html
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/feb/15/booksforchildrenandteenagers.lisaallardice
Design Biography - where they were born, lived, family, education, associations, and employment. Any background information you can cull regarding their development and ideology as a designer.
• Survey of Design Work - a sequenced collection of significant design work, including information regarding the context of the design such as the client, audience, message, and design objective.
• Design Ideology - a description, written and visual, of their personal philosophy of design and it’s relationship to visual communication. This main change over time.
• Methodology and Practice - an in-depth analysis of their approach to visual communication. Their working process, coupled with their ideology, manifested by their visual grammar, conceptual point-of view, imaging, typography, composition, media and style.
• Design Case Study - illustrate their process with a specific design project, using a schematic and/or information graphic, complete with text, visual investigations and examples.
The next phase of this project will be to present this information as a compelling poster, indicative of the designer. The final size will be 26 x 40.
It must include the following:
• A Headline
• A Subhead and/or Introductory Paragraph
• A Dominate/Sub-Dominate Visuals
- Designer
- Samples of Work
• Appropriate Text
• A Timeline with Personal Biography and significant Political, Cultural and Economic Influences
• A Delineation of their Design Ideology/Methodology
• A Case Study illustrating that Methodology
Reading Assignment #9
The Triumph of the International Style
Set the stage for International (Typographic) Style - development of corporate identities
Swiss Style
Jan Tschichold
- Arrested and fired from teaching position in Munich soon after the Nazis took over
- Published a book on Typographic Design in 1935
- the style conveyed an "anti-nazi" meaning by going against the black letter style they had used for their propaganda. Rationalism and logic through geometric abstraction
- preferred symmetrical, centered layouts
- started becoming interested in/pursing Chinese manuscripts in 1940s
- was criticized for betraying the principles of the New Typography
The Predominance of Akzidenz Grotesk
- typeface used by practicers of the Swiss Style
- first introduced int Germany in 1898 (foundery Berhold AG)
- was clear and functional without the political baggage associated with Russian Constructivism or the Bauhaus
- key to to the constructivist style not being associated with Communism anymore, but rather a universal style
New Typefaces
- key to to the constructivist style not being associated with Communism anymore, but rather a universal style
- Helvetica (initially called Neue Haas Grotesk)
- it is a variation of the Latin word for Switzerland
- Univers - Adrian Frutiger
- new, more rational system
- color-coded diagram by Remy Peignot
- Phototypesetting system - Diatype. type is reproduced from photonegatives rather than metal type like linotype and monotype machines
- had a detrimental impact on the appearance of mass media and cause the quaility to decline
The Swiss Style in Zurich
- it is a variation of the Latin word for Switzerland
- new, more rational system
- color-coded diagram by Remy Peignot
- had a detrimental impact on the appearance of mass media and cause the quaility to decline
- illustrator Josef Muller-Brockmann used Akzidenz Grotesk throughout his career
- "Accident Gauge"
- 1955 - Beethoven poster for Zurifch Tonhalle
- Swiss style "music model" - clear pure form and color + structure = visual pleasure to the viewer
- typophoto design for VOLG grape juice
- Hans Neuburg -Liebig Super Bouillon
- Utopian communist workers transformed into smiling consumers
- Richard Paul Lohse - Bauen and Wohen magazine (Construction and habitation)
Neue Grafik
- "Accident Gauge"
- 1955 - Beethoven poster for Zurifch Tonhalle
- Swiss style "music model" - clear pure form and color + structure = visual pleasure to the viewer
- typophoto design for VOLG grape juice
- Utopian communist workers transformed into smiling consumers
- Journal founded by Muller-Brockmann, Lohse, Nueburg, and Carlo Vivarelli (signed their collaborative essays as LMNV)
- summarized and established the Swiss Style
- never mix typefaces
- only use one or two weights
- provide functionalist hierarchy using scale to show importance
- modular grid composition
- asymmetry and use of positive and negative space (roots from De Stijl)
Design in Basel
- never mix typefaces
- only use one or two weights
- provide functionalist hierarchy using scale to show importance
- modular grid composition
- asymmetry and use of positive and negative space (roots from De Stijl)
- the designers in Basel were more likely to disregard the unofficial "rules" of the Swiss Style (Armin Hofmann and his students) - became an alternative Swiss Style 'scene'
- their works looked "whimsical" compared to works of Zurich artists
- Giselle ballet poster by Armin Hofmann
- Emil Ruder - joined faculty of Allegemeine Gewerbeschule in 1942
- Typographic Monthly (TM); trade journal for printing and paper union 1952
- used as a platform to espouse the gospel of Univers
- Typographie - enshrined and promoted the Swiss style to teach to new generations
- Karl Gerstner - was a student of both Hofmann and Ruder
- flexible approach to the compositional grid of Swiss Style
- Markus Kutter - produced Geigy Heute with Gerstner in 1958. In 1959 the two of them started up what would eventually become GGK, one of the most influential ad agencies of the 1960s
- saffa - swiss women's exhibition 1958
- Nelly Rudin created the poster for the exhibition
The Spread of the Swiss Style
the work created in the Swiss style was criticized for being rigid and repetitious, but it became and international phenomenon in Europe and the United States
The International Style and Corporate Identity at Ulm
- University of Design "HfG) founded in Ulm Germany in 1953 by Max Bill, Otl Aicher, and Inge Scholl
- measured axial grids
- crisp geometric forms
- sans serif type
- minimal use of text
- Semiotics- signs and symbols convey meaning
- Otl Aicher
- logo for Lufthansa in 1969
- pictograms for the Munich Olympics in 1972
- Anton Stanskowski (teacher at HfG) - designed new corporate identity for Duetsche Bank in 1974
- contributed to the design of the 1972 Olympics
- drew on the work of 1920s artist Otto Neurath - Isotype (international system of typographic picture education)
The Netherlands
- Wim Crouwel, Benno Wissing - Total Design NV in 1963
- International style in NL drew from the basic elements of De Stijl
England
Stanley Morison
- typographer and typographical historian
- First Principles of Typography
- a bible for British typographers
- published in 1936
- revival of a number of classic typefaces
- main typographic consultant to the Monotype Corporation
- chief book designer for Cambridge University Press
- consultant to The Times of London where he introduced the typeface Times New Roman in 1932 as part of the general redesign
Jan Tschichold at Penguin
- a bible for British typographers
- published in 1936
- Started working at Penguin Books in London in 1947
- the books were designed to be portable and functional companions for soldiers
- encouraged a used of a wide variety of typefaces but insisted upon the general principles of good design being followed
- Penguin Composition Rules - standardized principles for the layout and typography (rules) for his designers
- functionalism in typography
Hebert Spencer
- promoted geometric and abstract style in England - Swiss point of view well into the 1990s
- Design in Business Printing 1952 summarized his beliefs
- "Concrete Poetry" structural use of words as images 1st used in the 1910s by Marinetti and Apollinaire
Alan Fletcher
- Born in Kenya
- helps establish Fletcher/Forbes/Gill in 1962
- the firm mergers into and design partnership Pentagram in 1972
- made a new logo for Reuters news agency in 1968
- logo for Victoria and Albert Museum in 1990
France
France was resistant to the international style and corporate identity stuff. Poster art held a high status during this time
American Innovators
Alvin Lustig
Saul Bass
The International Style Comes to America
Container Corporation of America
Paul Rand
The Breakthrough: Paul Rand and IBM
Bauhaus Masters at American Universities
Unimark International
The Golden Age of Logos
The International Style in Corporate Architecture
The Tilted "E"
Reading Assignment #8
American Modern and the Second World War
- The term "graphic design" was first used in 1922 by Addison Dwiggins, but it is now more commonly called visual communication
- 1914 - AIGA is founded (focused on fine art printing at first, then shifts to commercial design)
- 1920 - Art Directors Club of New York established
- 1927 - Society of Typographic Arts in Chicago is created
- During the 1920s, the advertising industry expanded rapidly
The American Magazine
- Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes exhibits featured in NYC Metropolitan Museum of Art show an interest in the Art Deco style and department stores in major American cities copy this style
- Two streams of modern European design during this era:
- Commercial Modern - culminated from the art deco style: Edward McKnight Kauffer and A.M. Cassandre are some examples. Took inspirations from Cubism, Orphism, Futurism, Vorticism, and Purism
- "Functionalist" - De Stij, Russian Constructivism, International Constructivism, Bauhaus, and the New Typography. Emphasized graphic design over fine art
- in the 1930s American design was mostly made in the Art Deco/Commercial Modern Style
Fortune
- first appeared in February of 1930
- commentary on financial market and business related subject - target audience was urban businessmen
- Published and edited by Henry Luce
- straightforward grid layout
- employed bad-ass photographer Margaret Bourke-White
- all ads, photography, and illustrations seemed to be almost interchangable
- in 1937 they featured on of the most famous Art Deco designs of all time - Joseph Binder "Skyscraper Christmas Tree"
- Remained reserved in their designs until it was taken over in 1945 by Will Burtin who introduced a new modern style
Mehemed Agha and Vanity Fair
- Edited by Frank Crowninshield and Published by Conde Nast
- focused on modern art: cubist, futurist, and expressionist
- 1929 - Nast hires Mehmed Agha to take over the firs American Vogue, Vanity Fair, and House & Garden.
- Agha creates a new layout using Constructive with Art Deco
- Changes mad by Agha were pulled back such as his use of all lowercase letters and serifed type
- Agha was the first art director to use double page spreads and bleeds - photographs could now cover an entire page to create more sophisticated relationships between text and image
- He was a pioneer in the use of typography and photography
- Critized for his use of blank spaces and featuring his photography using "cock-eyed" perspectives
Cipe Pineles
- Was influenced by Agha when he mentored her and Alex Liberman among others at Conde Nast
- She was an Austrian immigrant - came to New York in 1923 and was hired in 1933 to work at Vanity Fair and Vouge
- artists were able to design the covers from scratch because Agha never set fixed principles for the cover
- Became the art director of Glamour in 1942 and was the 1st woman art director of a mass-market periodical
- She later worked Seventeen, Charm, and Mademoiselle as an art director
- She became famous for employing established artists as magazine illustrators
- Became the 1st woman member of New York Art Director's Club
Alexey Brodovitch
- Was hired onto Harper's Bazaar in 1934 by the editor Carmel Snow
- Worked in Paris during the 1920s where he became acquainted with the work of Art Deco illustrators
- He mostly used the serifed typeface, Bodoni for the the text in Harper's
- Oversaw the design of some of the most compelling double-page spreads of photography and text ever seen
PM Magazine
- The initials stand for "production manager"
- made in 1934 as a mouthpiece of the typography for a firm called The Composing Room (founded in 1927 by Sol Cantor and Dr. Robert L. Leslie)
- was made to educate a generation of young American art directors
- early issues were mainly about printing and typesetting but then eventually bring European styles to the attention of American art directors
- Started printing the work of Lucian Bernhard in 1936 who had immigrated to the US in 1923 and built a successful freelance design firm
- Created Bernhard Gothic in 1929 for American Type Foundery
- used many principles of constructivism when he was the guest art director for the March issue of PM magazine
- Lester Beall
- In June of 1940, PM becomes AD, an Intimate Journal for Production Managers, Art Directors, and their associates
- AD gallery was a small exhibition space started by Leslie and was devoted to progressive graphic design in the office of his firm and became an important meeting place for like-minded young designers
- Inaugural show featured the work of Herbert Matter (photographer for Vouge and Vanity Fair)
Conde Nast, Vogue, and Fashion Photography
- Created Bernhard Gothic in 1929 for American Type Foundery
- used many principles of constructivism when he was the guest art director for the March issue of PM magazine
- Inaugural show featured the work of Herbert Matter (photographer for Vouge and Vanity Fair)
Government Patrons
The Great Depression
- Some graphic designers were forced to turn to the government for employment during the Depression
- Franklin Roosevelt establishes the Works Progress Administration one branch was called the Federal Art Project (FAP) which was meant to provide government work for artists
FAP Posters
- American Artists pursued modernist styles that corporations had shunned
- Most of them were produced in New York City
- Richard Floethe
- AnthonyVelonis - Silk Screening
- banal subject matter and inexpensive production values
Lester Beall
- One of the most important homegrown American designers to adopt sophisticated European styles
- Rural Electrification Administration
- 1939 - Department of Agriculture; black and white photography with abstract geometric background
The Museum of Modern Art
- Established in New York in 1929 (November 7th)
The International Style
- The first show focused exclusively on architecture
- Curated by Henry-Russel Hitchcock and Philip Johnson
- The International Style: Architecture Since 1922 published as an accompaniment to the exhibit
- abstract geometric architecture
- 3 main atheistic principles that defined the International Style in architecture
- Emphasized volume over mass (The enclosure of space by planar elements = volume)
- regularity as opposed to symmetry
- dependence on proportion, not applied ornament, as the basis for its aesthetic achievement
- Lettering on buildings should only be functional and not decorative
The "Machine Art" Exhibition
- Opened in March of 1934
- focused on things like industrial products and mass produced furniture, scientific instruments
- Josef Albers
- Philip Johnson essay in "Machine Art" catalog
- Constructivist functionalism
The "Cubism and Abstract Art" Exhibition
- Curated by MoMA director Alfed H. Barr Jr. and opened int March of 1936
- survey of of abstract art from 1890 to 1935
- primarily focused on painting, but industrial design, theater, and abstract film were included. There was only a brief mention of typography and design
- Cubism and Abstract Art catalog modern painting in diagrammatic fashion - informational design like Harry Beck's map of the London Underground
- Political ramifications of constructivism were glossed over
- Abstraction was being banned in Germany at the same time it was just starting up in the United States (Nazis were hostile towards abstract art)
The "Bauhaus 1919 - 1928" Exhibition
- The art of the Bauhaus was brought to the MoMA int 1938 (the same year this exhibiton opened)
- many of the artists from the Bauhaus immigrated to the US
- catalog created to serve as a source book of primary material related to the Bauhaus that excluded all capital letters
- the text and images were structured with regularity and not symmetry
- reasserted the significance of Constructivism over the ornamental decadence of Art Deco
Pulp Magazines
- Thousands of covers created for pulp magazines (The paper used to print them was the lowest quality) and provided work for lot of artists and the majority of them were trained representational artists
- They were sort of a response to the great depression as a way to offer people a story to escape from the misery of their surroundings
- Had bold colors and bold design elements meant to catch the attention of passerbys
- realism and expressionist display of emotion were used and modern design was rejected
- Culture Productions - the most overtly obscene (explict scenes of sex and violence)
- H.J. Ward - Spicy Mystery Stories 1936 - he was responsible for the cover that put Culture Productions out of business
Germany in the 1930s
Nazi government strategies = use of violence and intimation + aggressive control of the mass media and related culture
The Nazis and the Mass Media
- One of the most media-aware governments of the 20th Century - they used mass media to sway popular opinion
- Officially sanctioned effort to control most aspects of German culture
- Graphic Design - was overseen by Department V and standards were set for the press, broadcasting, theater, music, and literature
- Modern styles were to be rejected and all other artistic work was expected to be representational in works that idealized the Nazi party
- Nazis close the Berlin Bauhaus in 1933 and the Dessau Bauhaus in 1932
- group of professors and students reopened the school in the outskirts of Berlin, but it was raided on April 11th 1933 and it was closed on the basis that they had illegal propaganda materials of the German Communist party
- many graphic artists were employed by the government to promote its policies and the reputation of the Nazis
- Leonid - "All of Germany Listens to the Leader with the People's Reciever" 1936 was evidence of the centralized control of the press
- Richard Klein embraced classical idealism which was a specific trend in Nazi design
"Degenerate Art"
- means "to have declined to a subnormal state"
- Entartete Kunst exhibition opens in Munich July 1937 - all styles of modern art and design
- deliberately displayed artworks in a skewed manner and had slogans decrying the suppossed degenerate nature of their art "crazy at any price - Teacher at the communist Bauhaus until 1933"
- attempt by the Nazis to distort the tradition of modern art
- "un-German" and "Jewish" art practices
Typography under the Nazis
- Die neue Typografies asserted that Fraktur was a dangerously nationalist way of lettering but once the Nazis gained power, they instituted a policy whereby all official government publications had to printed in Fraktur
- Shape of many of the letters are reminiscent of the long black boots worn by Nazi paramilitary forces
- In 1941, the Nazis instituated a total elimination of Fraktur and changed to Roman Type because it was considered to be "Judenletter - Jewish letters"
John Heartfield's Photo-montages
- Berlin Dada artist, used photo-montage to subvert the propaganda images of the Third Reich. He wanted to discredit the Nazis representative of everyday working people
The Second World War
Britain
Russia
The United States
Norman Rockwell
Reading Assignment #7
The Bauhaus and the New Typography
Dada and Russian Constructivism
German Expressionism
Expressionist Film
Metropolis
The Arbeitsrat fur Kunst
Weirmar Bauhaus
Expressionism at the Bauhaus
Constrctivism and the Bauhaus
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy
Women at the Bauhaus
The 1923 Exhibiton
Political Problems
Dessau Bauhaus
New Buildings
Herbert Bayer
Typophoto
Depoliticization at the Bauhaus
Type at the Bauhaus
Paul Renner and Futura
The New Typography
Die nue Typographie
Ring Neue Werbegestalter
- circle of New Advertising Designers
Reading Assignment #6
Revolutions in Design
The first world war influcenced cubism and graphic abstraction outside of US, France (Cubism, Orphism, Futerism, Purism), Britain, and Italy:
The Netherlands - De Stijl
Russia - Constructivism
De Stijl
- founded in Leiden in 1917
- created a sense of order in response to the trauma of the war
- its name is bland, impersonal, and uses universal principles, which is part of the group's ideology - a mix of admiration for the modern war machine that was sometimes mixed with a spiritual style or sorts that conveyed a sense of severe self-discipline and avoidance of all forms of indulgence
- it was believed that individualism and nationalist egotism was responsible for the savagery and violence of the war so De Stijl offered the world a universal language of geometric abstraction that was meant to heal the soul of Europe
- it was considered a universal style because it did not connect with one specific country or individual. "the old is connected with the individual, the new is connected with the universal"
- non-objective painting can be derived from the artist's study of nature by simplification and the addition of geometric structure - natural forms contain the essence of universal harmony
- The term used by the group that indicated that they wanted a fresh start in art as well as society:
- nieuwe beelding (new imaging) = Neoplasticism
- Theo van Doesburg - served in Dutch army for 2 years before moving to Leiden
- cow drawing in complete abstraction - eve a cow could be representative of a higher plane of Neoplatonist transcendence and also passes through a cubist phase before being further symplified
- was the publisher of the journal De Stijl, which was first printed in October of 1917
- 36 total publications were printed
- Created an experimental alphabet in 1917 that was based of boxes that were made of 5 rows of 5 and distorted the letters to fill the shape of the square - the grid was a key design element of De Stijl and also a representation of pure neoplatonic forms
- Peit Mondrian - described his style as Neo Plasticism. He rejected excess decoration, and emotional complexity.
- progressed to a Cubist phase when he moved to Paris in 1911 but he offered an even more radical type of simplification that Picasso or Braque
- His works became non-objective and he limited his formal elements
- straight lines
- orthogonal compositions
- austere palette - red, yellow, blue, black, white, and grey
- Bart van der Leck
- Gerrit Rietveld
Seeking Universal Harmony
- The group limited the amount of expressive elements in their works so they could represent common and abstract ideas in material terms and create a strong, utopian theme
- purified art and emotion to effect a broader social change
- details of social changes were brushed over so it was never clear what the specific utopia was being sought after by these artists
- Dutch traditional values of sobriety and Calvinist discipline are shown by this style and promoted a puritanical attitude towards art
- It was impossible for the Dutch artists to completely shed their nationality and fully embrace universalism and not all of the artists in this movement or (even founded it) shared the same visions of art and society
Typography and Journal Design
- First printed in October of 1917, the journal De Stijl allowed the artists to send their art to a wider public
- From 1917- 1932 the journal was active with the ideas of European avant-garde as well as a place that showcased the group's principles as they related to graphic design
- included essays mostly written in Dutch and mainly about Piet Mondrian's principles (He wrote about 70% of the content before 1920)
- The cover of the page combined a logotype made by Van Doesburg and a wood cut design by Vilmos Huszar
- letters made of squares and rectangles separated by discrete units
- they were the first group to start using negative space as a positive design element which would become a key component of the New Typography
- contrast in composition as well as color were both suggestive of the elemental forces of the universe and the idea that universal truths expressed were expressed through contrast (Dutch philosopher M.H.J. Schoenmaekers)
De Stijl Redesigned
- The redesign was done in 1921 to appeal to a broader European audience
- was published in Paris and Rome now as well as Leiden where it was first published - was also now published not only in Dutch, but in French and other launguages
- was mostly the brainchild of Van Doesburg even though Mondrian participated in its creation
- New cover has red letters NB (nieuwe beelding) with De Stijl printed over it in black
- white space is an active element "absence of design", color is used as a structural element
- avant-garde letterpress printing to create an new abstract language - beauty being found in mondane aspects of elements found in an average printer's typeset
- Van Doesburg had an openness to emerging trends that shared similar interests as his group
- published "Of Two Squares" - dutch poem for children, recreated by Russian artis El Lissitzky (awareness of Cubist Calligrammes)
- Van Doesburg creates "Contra compositons" by putting his rectangles at a 45 degree angle (increased vitality of composition, but still maintain rigorous geometry)
De Stijl Architecture
De Stijl Poster Design
De Stijl and Dada
Revolution in Russia
The Russian Revolution and the Bolshevik Poster
The Bolshevik Poster
Russian Supermatism and Constructivism
Kasimir Malevich and Vladimir Tatlin
A New Utopia
Constructivism and Alexander RodchenkoAlexander Rodchenko and Vladimir Mayakovsky
Photomontage and Film
Filmic Vision
Gustav Klutsis
Film Posters: The Stenbergs
El Lissitzky
El Lissitzky in Germany
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