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Mikayla Doggett

Ivan Chermayeff November 16, 2015

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Ivan Chermayeff

Part 1:
Chermayeff used words and images together to create poster designs. He was not only known for posters, but also his logos. He had his own design studio, where the Mobil logo was made. Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv, his design studio, was responsible for hundreds of clients, including the Showtime logo and the Smithsonian. He graduated from Institute of Design in Chicago and Yale University, School of Art and Architecture. He recieved many honors such as the Yale art medal. Chermayeff started off cutting shapes out of paper and pasting them. He came from a family of people who thought like graphic designers. His father encouraged him and supported him. He didn’t consider himself a great artist. He couldn’t draw or paint like others, so he would look in his trash and make creations out of scraps laying around. This helped him make a more graphic look and lead to clearer logos when he got older. He was the creator of the NBC logo, among countless recognizable others. In a time where people demanded clarity and simplicity while still having a sense of sophistication, Chermayeff’s work fit in well.

Part 2:
1-He made his own design studio, Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv.
2-He graduated from Institute of Design in Chicago and Yale University.
3-He created the NBC logo, one of the most recognizable logos.

Ivan Chermayeff-Red Talker-1995

 

 

Ivan Chermayeff’s Web Site
Ivan Chermayeff: The Logo Genius
Article in the The Guardian
Graphic Design Archive Online

The style is similar throughout the pieces. There is often a ripped paper look that unites all the pieces. Chermayeff’s earliest works included ripped paper. Although he is also known for his logos, the look of layering paper is a common look in his pieces and inspired his later logos. The images represent the event or idea, while still being simple and easy to read. The colors are often similar, bright and eye catching.

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Austin Drouin

Edward McKnight Kauffer November 16, 2015

Gallery:

E. McKnight Kauffer "Civil Aeronautics Administration" (1943)

Part 1:

About the Works:

The works selected above are a selections of works created by E. McKnight Kauffer. A large majority of these are from his time spent in London working for either Shell or the Underground transport system, and just an example of the near 140 posters he’s known for. The range of color used is limited due to its age, however the designs were fairly progressive for their time; including large bold shapes, scattered text, and clear images. Also in this gallery is a few of Kauffer’s artworks which hold a clear almost impressionistic style, which was likely picked up by Kauffer during his time studying in Paris.

Part: 2

About the Designer:

Edward Kauffer is an American born artist. He born in 1890, Great Falls, Montana – however he lived most of his life in England and elsewhere overseas. At the age of 20 Kauffer began to study at the California school of design where he worked both for his studies and independently. In 1912 a professor from the University of Utah took notice of Kauffer’s work and offered to mentor and sponsor him, and spent money to send Kauffer to Paris to further his studies. He studied at the Académie Moderne in Paris for about a year, until he met a textile designer, Marion Dorn. They fell in loved and they decided to reside together in London. There he began to complete some of his most famous works of art. Kauffer was most well-known for his work for the underground transit in london, in which he made 140 posters. These designs were fairly broad as Kauffer dabbled in various styles such as futurism, cubism, vorticism, and impressions from Japanese woodcuts.

Later he returned to American with his wife, however due to the perplexing advancements European styles had over the American art, many saw his art as being too much. In other words, as put by Frank Zachary “America was not ready for him”. This shows how rapidly graphic design changes and alters its borders as the culture around it does. While Kauffer was highly successful and well known in England his work was considered to be too progressive for American culture.

Part 3:

Main Points:

  • – Kauffer’s designs took much influence from European and British style arts
  • – Though he was born in America, Kauffer’s designs were considered too progressive for American culture revealing a cultural tendency in graphic design.

Part 4:

Sources:

MoMa Collection of art

AIGA Award

London Transport Museum

 

 

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Joseph Sullivan

Saul Bass November 16, 2015

Part 1 – About Artist

Bass was born on May 8, 1920 in New York City. He became a prominent figure in the graphic design field through his involvement in the film industry. Saul was introduced to Hollywood in the 1940’s and mad himself known by designing print advertisements for popular movies of the time. Bass continued his career with the film industry for quite some time and became quite important in the creation of film title sequences with the release of  “The Man with the Golden Arm” in 1955. Bass was introduced to his wife, Elaine Makatura, through this line of work in 1955 and the two became husband and wife in 1961. They put both of their heads together when taking on projects, making them a force to be reckoned with. The two took a step down from the industry when they decided that they had to raise their family in the mid-60’s and this sabbatical lasted through the 1980’s.

Saul Bass is also responsible for creating iconic and long lasting logos in the United States. Bass started his work with logos in the 1950’s and throughout this career made several pieces that are still in use today, such as the AT&T logo and the Boys and Girls Club logo. Bass passed away in 1996 at the age of 75.

Part 2 – Highlights

  • Started career in Hollywood in the 1940s
  • Began collaboration with Elaine Makatura, later becoming his wife
  • Created AT&T logo in 1969

Part 3 – Gallery

Saul Bass - Quaker Oats - 1969

This gallery features works that range from logos to movie posters. Bass had a very distinct style when it came to his design. Saul used a very blocky and almost abstract approach when tackling solutions to his design, as is evident in each of these works. It is also common to see Bass using silhouetting in his design, typically within his movie posters.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Bass

http://www.artofthetitle.com/designer/saul-bass/

http://www.saulbassposterarchive.com/

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Antonina Robinson

Peter Behrens November 16, 2015

02_peter-behrens

Part One – About Artist

Peter Behrens was born April 14, 1868 an died February 27, 1940. He was an artist and founder of modern objective industrial architecture and modern industrial design. As a young man he started out as an illustrator and his flowing designs, and curvilinear lines show the style of Art Nouveau. The Art Nouveau is a style of art that is haracterized by highly stylized, flowing, curvilinear designs often incorporating floral and other plant-inspired motifs. Behrens wanted to restrict every form to a two-dimensional plane, reducing everything to an ornament design. His work for the Bunte Vogel in 1899 shows how he uses the object to transform them into the border and the typography forms unity by using similar linear composition.

In his later works Peter Behrens focused more on simple geometric forms such as circle, triangles, simple lines, and squares. Using the influence of those form he designed patterns for the design of his home and also for the advertising posters for the Berlin-based electric company. He also created designs for daily used electrical products. It mainly involved copying the artistic pieces by their shape and the historical decoration (Design History Research). Behrens was the first German to create the first complex corporate identity. He connected art and industry together.

Part Two – Highlights

  • Started out as an illustrator transforming objects into borders.
  • Created designs for daily used electrical products based on their shape and historical designs.
  • Used simple geometric forms such as circles, triangles, and squares to create architectural, advertising and logo designs for industrial companies.

Part Tree – Gallery 

Peter Behrens, AEG Product Advertising, 1910

Design Style:

Peter Behrens concentrates his designs upon basic shapes such circles, triangles, squares, and simple lines. His main subject tend to be at the center on the page but it still conects through lines and shapes with the rest of the content on the page.

Research Links

Art Nouveau: Peter Behrens

Design History: Peter Behrens

Wikipedia:Peter Behrens

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Nick St. Amour

Herb Lubalin November 16, 2015

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Part 1

Herb Lubalin was a graphic designer, typographer, and publication designer who had worked his way from many firms to have his own design company. Lubalin had created the Avant Garde font which has been used in many logos everywhere.

In the mid 60’s Lubalin teamed up with American author, editor, publisher and photo-journalist, Ralph Ginzburg. These two had created the publications Eros, Fact, and Avant Garde, Lubalin being the typographer and designer and Ginzburg was the writer and publisher. Lubalin designed these publications with hard covers which held eschewed colors and simple black and white templates with illustrations which made the publications dynamically minimalist. Eros was the first of the three to come out which talked about topics in love and sex. The beach themed Eros cover caught my eye over all the rest. The yellow sand is great compliment to the red logo which would be the first word you would read on the publication. Once reading the title you can see two lovers just kissing in the sand. The illustration shows how passionate two lovers could go at it, this shows that Eros was super passionate about talking about love and sex. So after the fourth issue of Eros, the government wasn’t about having these going around in mail rooms or sent to people, which soon got Lubalin’s partner, Ginzburg in some trouble. However, the second publication was a magazine called Fact.

Fact had a similar approach from Eros except switched topics to 60’s culture and Politics. These artists seemed to love to unveil an untold truth about the culture back then and it got them into some trouble with presidential candidates. But would you blame them for how awesome the cover of Fact looks like. Off the bat the title’s typeface looks sharp with the slanted line which connects the lower case f and t’s ascender and bar. The title is just as sharp as the knife they are stabbing cultural and political truths with. Because of the political trouble that the publication got sued for, Lubalin and Ginzburg ceased Fact and created another publication combing both ideas from Fact and Eros, Avant Garde was born.

Avant Garde looks like a son to the parents Eros and Fact. The titles slanted A and V’s reminisce on the slickness and sharpness of fact, with sexual imagery on the cover, this shows Labalin and Ginzburg don’t hold back in this new publication. But Avant Garde was forced to shut down when Ginzburg got sent to prison for a scandal with the U.S postal service and Eros. After all this, Lubalin continued with a slightly less controversial publication dedicated to his interest in typography called Upper and Lower Case.

 

Part 2

Distinctive point 1.

Lubalin was in charge of design for such magazines Eros, Fact, and Avant Garde which shows a minimalistic modern design in both publication and type form.

Distinctive point 2.

The publications Eros, Fact, and Avant Garde used very risque illustrations and touchy topics which caused controversy. This is a perfect example of how graphic design is used in this world, informing readers the untold truths.

Distinctive point 3.

Lubalin worked hard enough after college that he soon began his own company, which he ended up creating a typeface that was used in multiple logos through out the last two decades.

Part 3

Herb Lubalin, Eros Magazine

Style

Lubalin had a style which you could say was dynamically minimalistic. Graphics wise, Lubalin would use high quality photographs which related to the idea of the publication. Some are silhouettes of objects/people making these photographs abstract to the mind. Lubalin didn’t have the same photoshop technology as we have today, so it must of been a longer process creating a red tint to a black and white photograph of two people kissing. Type wise you can tell Lubalin knew what he was doing with type because the titles of his publications relate to the meaning behind all the publications put out by the designer. Fact magazine’s type has a lot of distinct characteristics like the rounded terminals, the sharp tails, and the angled connection between the ascender and bar between the lower case letters t and f. This type defines the magazine as we see it, its a sharp well rounded publication which tells truths about the culture back in the 60’s. I dig Herb’s style because he didn’t seem to care about what they were talking about with culture, but was more focused on designing with a minimalist approach. The combination of graphics and type worked great with modern design.

 

Sources: http://www.aiga.org/medalist-herblubalin/

Herb Lubalin – Typographer Extraordinaire

http://www.designishistory.com/1960/fact-eros–avant-garde/

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Neula Ha

Shigeo Fukuda November 16, 2015

Shigeo Fukuda was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1932. Fukuda is considered to be “Japan’s consummate visual communicator” as the ADC Global puts it. He is the first Japanese designer to be placed into the Art Directors Hall of Fame. Fukuda is known for his illusionism designs as his biggest influence in life was a modern Japanese graphic designer by the name of Takashi Kohno. Fukuda is extremely well represented in his designs where he is very raw, truthful, and real with his artworks. He explains his work as “I believe that in design, 30% dignity, 20% beauty and 50% absurdity are necessary. Rather than catering to the design sensitivity of the general public, there is advancement in design if people are left to feel satisfied with their own superiority, by entrapping them with visual illusion.” Designers should be able to design things that make them happy and what they truly believe in, whether or not it is popular among others. Fukuda really exemplifies his beliefs and his true feelings in his work and he is a great designer in which he pours his heart into his pieces and people can either agree or disagree. ADC Global also talks about the “Victory 1945” which is his most famous poster. He won a grand prize in the 1975 Warsaw Poster Contest. As I looked up the poster, I was amazed at how simple the poster was as it only captured two images but it portrayed such a strong, powerful message. I also saw his work “Legs” and did not know that that was his work. This piece really holds a lot for me as this image was one of the reasons why I wanted to change my major to Graphic Design in the first place. Just the fact that I happened to be placed with the artist behind this work really baffles my mind and makes me really appreciate graphic design and especially Shigeo Fukuda. Fukuda’s illusion designs really cause the audience to really stop and think about his designs. All of them have such an incredible meaning whether it’s on peace in the world or the close knit relationships humans hold with each other, Fukuda has created a way where all his works all have a story and portray great importance.

1. Fukuda is an optical illusion designer

2. His works convey a special meaning towards world issues in his work.

3. Highly respected across the world especially in Japan (representative of Japan) as he was the first Japanese designer to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Shigeo Fukuda Shigeo Fukuda: Illustrick 421/GGG/Ginza (1986)

http://adcglobal.org/hall-of-fame/shigeo-fukuda/

http://www.designishistory.com/1960/shigeo-fukuda/

Shigeo Fukuda — Visual Prankster

http://www.opticalillusioncollection.com/2014/01/shigeo-fukudas-impossible-seating.html

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Cat Avery

Kazimir Malevich November 16, 2015

Part 1

Kazimir Malevich started to draw at age 12 and he knew at a young age that he wanted to take on an artistic career and attended many art schools in his youth. He was a Russian painter and art theorist. He founded Suprematism, which is a form of simple geometric shapes with abstract painting. He combined the elements of cubism and futurism to create an abstract geometric approach of figures in space. In his first paintings, he used geometric shapes in a limited range of colors, in black alone, or against a white background. Later on, he introduced a broader range of colors as well as triangles, circles, and curved shapes. Malevich supported the October 1917 Revolution, In the years that followed he worked in political propaganda, painting posters and contributing articles about new art to the “Anarkkhia” (Anarchy) newspaper. Malevich was very interested in the spiritual movement and in expressing a spiritual reality beyond the physical reality through his art. Malevich says, “By Suprematism I mean the supremacy of pure feeling in creative art. To the Suprematist the visual phenomena of the objective world are, in themselves, meaningless; the significant thing is feeling.” I like how his work is so simple, yet it still leaves an impact on you and you can tell he put a lot of thought into each piece. One of his works was a relatively small painting filled with a large black square in a white background. He is known especially for this piece in particular. In the museum, it acts like a sudden silence. But when socialist realism was declared the official artistic doctrine of the Soviet Union, this painting and many other works by Malevich were removed and hidden from sight. He died of cancer in 1935 and was buried in a coffin made with his own design, the image of the Black Square placed on its lid. His work became internationally famous and acclaimed, but, under Stalin, his art was thought as being anti-nature, and his works were destroyed.

kazimir-malevich-painter-1646

Part 2

  1. He founded a style of art called Suprematism, a geometric style with simple shapes and colors.
  2. Malevich supported the October 1917 Revolution, In the years that followed he worked in political propaganda, painting posters and contributing articles about new art to the “Anarkkhia” (Anarchy) newspaper.
  3. Suprematism, invented by Kazimir Malevich, was one of the earliest and most radical developments in abstract art. 

Kazimir Malevich, Black Square, 1915

Kazimir Malevich uses geometric shapes in his work. A variety of rectangles, squares, triangles, and circles all combine to form a relationship with each other. The overlapping of shapes shows movement and depth in his pieces. He uses the shapes in a variety of different ways to create a sense of space within the piece and contrast with the white background. All of the selections above contain lots of shapes and creates a unity with one another. The theme of geometric shapes shows his modern approach to his work.

The art history: Kazimir Malevich
Kazimir Malevich Biography
The Guardian- Tate: Kasimir painting
The modernism of Kasimir Malevich
Russian Art- Kazimir Malevich

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Christian Alejandre

László Moholy-Nagy November 16, 2015

Gallery

László Moholy-Nagy, Love Your Neighbor; Murder on the RailwayLove Your Neighbor; Murder on the Railway, 1925

Relationships Within His Work

The specific area of Moholy-Nagy’s work that I have chosen to focus on is his photomontage, which is seen within the gallery above. Photomontage in the wake of WWI was an attempt for artists and designers to help re-shape society by conveying how a gendered experience of modernity could be envisioned. There are two unifying characteristics of almost all of his montage work that specifically stood out to me: the first, being his use of women as subjects and the second being the inclusion of line and geometric shape. As an artist, he utilized a constructivist approach in placing the photographic elements to create dynamic relationships within his pieces.

About the Artist

Born in Borsod, Austria-Hungary in 1895, László Moholy-Nagy had picked up an interest in literature at a young age. His first ambition was to become a writer, but he was persuaded to study law in Budapest after graduation. His studies came to a halt when World War I began, and in 1915 he enlisted in the Austro-Hungarian army as an officer. Though he had begun to pick up drawing before joining the army, he turned this hobby into a more serious one during his hours in artillery observation posts where he would produce sketches on the backs of military-issue postcards. At the age of 23, he officially began his career as an artist. He became fascinated by the expressive power of lines and the effects of color on composition. His work was highly influenced by Russian Constructivism, and he strove to eliminate “personal touch” from his paintings. In addition to painting, he focused a lot of his time on creating collages on paper and dabbling into photography. He spent five pivotal years as a professor at the Bauhaus school, where his paintings continued to evolve. He then began work as a free-lance designer, creating book jackets, posters and exhibitions. In 1935, he set up a design studio with György Kepes. In 1939, he opened his own school, The School of Design in Chicago, and though it absorbed much of his time and energy, he still continued to lecture, paint, photograph and publish his works. He is noted to be one of the greatest influences on post-war art education in the United States.

Signature Points

  1. He worked predominantly with light as a photographer and painter.
  2. His time in the army played a fundamental role in not only his art but his teaching.
  3. He was an advocate of the integration of technology and industry into the arts.

Research Links

The Art Story: Laszlo Moholy-Nagy

Moholy-Nagy Foundation

Monoskop: Laszlo Moholy-Nagy Biography

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Danielle Vizard

Theo van Doesburg November 16, 2015

Part One:
Theo van Doesburg was born on August 30th 1883, in Utrecht, the Netherlands. His real name however is Christian Emil Marie Küpper, he would always refer his stepfather (Theodorus Doesburg) to be his main father, and that is why all of his work is signed Theo Doesburg he later added ‘van’ to his name. Theo van Doesburg was a writer, designer, an art critic, and a painter he was highly influenced by Wassily Kandinsky, who was a Russian painter that was credited to the first abstract work. His work was structured more around a simplistic geometric style. van Doesburg is mostly known for his lead in the artistic movement “De Stijl” it was said “he influenced many graphic designers with his many theories that conveyed the idea that there was a collective experience of reality that could be tapped as a medium of communication.” This appealed to other artist mostly because it pursued abstraction though primary color schemes and geometric shapes. His work would change to a mix of cubism and futurism mixed together.As I looked deeper into van Doesburg’s work I found some of it to be recognizable. It is very interesting to me that his work was something to start a movement in the art world.
Part Two:
1: This artist started an art movement known as “De Stijl” which is dutch for “The style” 
2. He was a known painter, writer, designer, and an art critic
3.

Part Three:

Theo van Doesburg, Design for a Tile Floor and Entrance Hall, 1917

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Kelsey Rogers

Armin Hofmann November 16, 2015

Part One:

Armin Hofmann, born in 1920 in Winterhur, Switzerland. Grew up to become a Swiss designer, that had a very tremendous  influence on the development of the graphic design style known as Swiss International Style. Hofmann believed in simplicity, legibility and objectivity which is the format for Swiss style. Hofmann worked at the Basel School of Arts and Crafts for 40 years and during that time became the head of the graphic design department. Armin thought Swiss International Style was all about communication and he believed the best form of communication was through posters using type and photography, but Hofmann also had written a textbook “Graphic Design Manual” which is still used to teach graphic design today. Hofmann’s former students speak highly of him, in 2011 he even was awarded the AIGA medal which stands for  “American Institute of Graphic Arts”.  For Robert and Alison Probst, who was also Hofmann’s student, these enduring designs are the work of “a master of his craft with a superior sense of aesthetics. His work deals with the universal language of signs and symbols, often including serendipity and always aiming for timeless beauty”(AIGA, the professional association for design). In the article on the AIGA award he received, they speak so highly of Hofmann and  all that he did to help them as students and that is what you want in a teacher.

Part Two:

1)  Hofmann had a good sense of structure and the ability to use space, which projected his personality as a designer and an artist.

2)  Hofmann sought for musical resonance, in his work and in his students.

3)  Hofmann’s teaching was thought of as unorthodox but he would bring you back to the fundamentals of design.

Part Three: 

Armin Hofmann, Theater Bau von der Antike Bis Zur Moderne,1955

Sources:

https://kscgd.com/2015fall/gdp1/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/GTGD_CH2.pdf

http://designishistory.com/1940/armin-hofmann/

http://www.famousgraphicdesigners.org/armin-hofmann

http://www.designishistory.com/home/swiss/

http://www.moma.org/collection/artists/2697?=undefined&page=1

http://www.aiga.org/medalist-arminhofmann/

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