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"100 Ideas That Changed: Ven Heller & V

The document discusses '100 Ideas that Changed Graphic Design' by Steven Heller and Véronique Vienne, which explores significant concepts that have shaped contemporary graphic design. It emphasizes the importance of these 'big ideas' in the evolution of visual communication and their impact on design practices over time. The book aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of these ideas rather than merely categorizing them under historical movements.

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100% found this document useful (1 vote)

235 views220 pages

"100 Ideas That Changed: Ven Heller & V

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Steven Heller and Véronique Vienne

Laurence King Publishing

Introduction

100 Ideas that Changed Graphic Design

Glossary

Ever since Gutenberg introduced moveable type in the

fifteenth century, the book has been a laboratory for writers,
artists, designers and typographers. And despite the advent
of digital media, print is not dead. John Plunkett, creative
director of Wired magazine, predicted that ordinary
information would gravitate to electronic media, but that
‘extraordinary content is going to stay in the print domain’.

While a great text will evoke mental ened publishers aimed for the integration and meaning. And Fortunato
pictures, a great design will give the tion of type and image. Depero’s Depero Futurista (bound with
reader added levels of perception. Even By the early twentieth century, two metal bolts) energized typography
the most rudimentary design compo- design became an integral part of the so that reading the text was like experi-
nents — the texture of the paper, a fine content as well. The Italian Futurist encing the movement of a high-speed
cut oftype, the style of the running head Filippo Marinetti’s 1914 sound poem vehicle. These books were not neutral
— are more than aesthetic niceties. The Zang Tumb Tuuum turned book composi- containers, but stages upon which
designer’s role has always been to aid tion on its head by introducing on the words and images performed.
the reader by complementing the narra- same page multiple typefaces in varying Innovation in book design is not
tive. In the 1908 edition of Nietzsche’s weights and sizes; the type was further defined solely by radical departures.
Ecce Homo, architect and designer Henry arranged so that it conjured the roar of Frederic Goudy’s 1918 The Alphabet is
van de Velde replaced antiquated compo- the machinery and engines described in based on central axis composition
sition with Art Nouveau ornamentation. the text. In 1923 the Russian artist and (when type is centred on the printing
While a majority of commercial designer El Lissitzky collaborated with plane or surface) born of seventeenth-
publishers were content to produce the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky on a and eighteenth-century Italian and
pages of uninterrupted text, enlight- collection of the latter’s poems, For the French book traditions, but not bound
Voice, designed to be read aloud at public by them. This book was composed using
gatherings: Lissitzky transformed text Goudy’s own typefaces and ornaments
type into pictograms, giving the reader (influenced by the past) in an effort to
additional cues to follow for both inflec- achieve balance and harmony.
In the late twentieth century an
experimental revival took place.
Volumes such as S,M,L,XL by Bruce Mau
and Rem Koolhaas, and Jonathan
Barnbrook’s 1997 Damien Hirst (a veri-
table catalogue of pop-ups, pull-outs,
slipsheets and die-cuts), not only tested
the limits of the book but redefined the
bookas-object. The book designer’s
increasing role as both form-giver and
S,M,L,XL (1998), designed by
Bruce Mau, created a publishing content-provider, brought on by new
trend in large scale, primarily in technologies, continues to make the
visual art, design and architecture printed book ever more fertile ground
monographic tomes. for creativity. =
Depero Futurista (1927), also
known as ‘the bolted book’ for the
two industrial-strength screws
binding it, was a self-promotional
collection of words and advertising
images by this Italian Futurist.

‘The type conjured the roar of .

machinery and engines.’

Ecce Homo (1908), title page ©

spread of Nietzsche's masterpiece,
designed by Henry van de Velde,
rendered in a contemporary
Jugendstil decorative style.
Typographic tattooing

IDEA N° 2

BODY TYPE

At least one graphic design genre dates back to Neolithic

times. The tattoo, whether as decoration or symbolic icon,
has stood the test of time — even if the actual injected images
tend to fade and degrade as skin ages and wrinkles. Tattoos
are more popular in some cultures and subcultures than
others - sometimes even sacred — while other cultures
strictly prohibit them.

The notion of tattooing and its cousin, is painted, are the ‘O’s of the word. This BELow: Obsession and Fantasy ABOVE: Sagmeister (1999),
body painting, has been frequently idea riffs on the cliché of the sailor with (1963), a poster designed by designed by Stefan Sagmeister,
his chest tattooed with an image such as Robert Brownjohn for a Pop is a self-promotion piece for the
applied as a method of conveying typo-
art exhibition at the Robert AIGA. Sagmeister had his intern
graphic or illustrative messages in a ship, a girl or a flag. Brownjohn’s itera-
Fraser Gallery in London, scratch the details onto his chest.
advertising art and design since the tion is not as elegant as most tattoos, uses the nipples as essential He said he had scarring that
1960s. Painting tattoo-like messages on but the message is clear, and the image parts ofthis visual pun. would show up for months
the body can involve visual puns, such is memorable. afterwards under a tan!
as Robert Brownjohn’s poster for the Perhaps the most typographical
1963 ‘Obsession and Fantasy’ exhibition body-markings are the ranchers’ brands
at the Robert Fraser Gallery in London. burned into the flanks of animals as
A tattoo is not meant to be a commercial marks of ownership. Some look like
advertisement, but in this case it is one, modern-day logos. Perhaps brands were
and rather brazenly so. The pun part is what Stefan Sagmeister had in mind
that the nipples of the model, across when he took a razor-blade to his body,
whose naked flesh the word ‘obsession’ literally cutting words into his flesh, in a
kind of temporary designer-selfmutila-
tion for a poster advertising an AIGA
(American Institute of Graphic Arts)
lecture of 1999. Forget about the pain-
free body painting of the Brownjohn
poster (and countless other examples) -
cutting himself was a commentary on
the absurdity of indelibly inking the
body with tattoos. And yet it served its simply catch the eye. The Russian
purpose. It was not only a startling way designer Peter Bankov’s 2003 cover for
to communicate a message, but also an Russian advertising trade magazine
unforgettable lettering composition. Kak, in which words cover the female
Placing words on the human body is body, follows the Brownjohn model of
an everyday occurrence. Drawing, the naked female form, but without the
AND FANTASY printing or tattooing letters, alphabets nipple pun.
and words is a staple of the design Whether indelibly inscribed or
toolbox, used on magazine covers, book temporarily tattooed on skin, body
jackets, CD covers and in advertisements type’s long tradition of use gives it
to convey headlines or quotations or continued resonance. =

10
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Below: Ich&Kar tree decals (2005), opposite: Letraset Instant Lettering
featuring arms and hands (1970s) was a popular system

Instant gratification
branching out, are an example ofdecals that allowed anyone
ofa new type ofwall motif. to create professional-looking
Today, more and more graphic headlines and signs in a number
artists and illustrators are of typefaces, sizes and alphabets,
creating witty rub-on designs including Hebrew and Arabic,
for residential use. shown here.

IDEA N° 3

RUB-ON DESIGNS

Presented at first as an alternative to hand lettering, dry-

transfer letterforms stood, for a brief moment, at the
intersection of crafts and technology. Easy to use, the
method nonetheless required some dexterity. Words had
to be set carefully, one letter at a time, and rubbed down
in perfect alignment. When done correctly, it could replace
traditional typesetting. Anyone could feel the rush of
composing elegant headlines within minutes.

For a graphic designer in the 1970s, keen understanding of typographical of applying uneven pressure on a thin
holding a brand-new polyester sheet of rules (once the letters were down you layer of gouache to give it a myste-
24 point Helvetica Medium Condensed, could not move them), the result could rious-looking texture. In the 1950s,
its neat rows of caps and lower cases be stunning: depending on how much ready-to-transfer cartoon characters
ready to be applied on a clean surface, pressure you had applied, the words were popular with children. But kids
was pure ecstasy. or sentences could look letterpressed or had trouble mastering the delicate
Letraset, a UK company specializing silkscreened. process, involving sliding the wet
in art supplies, was the main provider of The idea of transferring motifs images off their transparent backing
these handy alphabets, which were from one surface to another used to be onto a page, resulting in crumpled
ubiquitous in design studios worldwide called ‘decalcomania’. It was popular figures so bizarre they inspired the
because they could be used to create in the nineteenth century for pressing term ‘cockamamie’, a deformation of
high-quality camera-ready artwork. decorative patterns on to everything ‘decalcomania’.
Even though setting headlines with from plates to guitars. The Surrealists Decals today are peel-off designs,
these decals required a sure hand and a used the same word to describe a way their sticky backing formulated to bond
permanently with anything from auto-
motive parts, model aeroplanes and
surfboards to mobile phones, computer
cases, furniture and walls. Letraset is no
longer known for its innovative transfer
letters - the company went back to its
craft roots, selling such products as self-
sticking adhesive film and metallic ink
markers. Cockamamie is not dead,
though. Wallpaper manufacturers are
now proposing lines of mural-size
rubdowns that reproduce eccentric or
quirky patterns designed by artists
whose sensibility is steeped in comic-
book culture. Domestic, a French
company, publishes wall stickers by
avant-garde European graphic designers
such as Antoine+Manuel, Marti Guixé,
Geneviéve Glaucker and Ich&Kar. m=
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Mickey Mouse (2008) received a makeover
for his 80th birthday. His radiant smile
looks even more dazzling thanks to the
addition of rays radiating from his head,
1 technique used on Chinese propaganda
posters for Chairman Mao
as 2
Radiating lines confer special status ~ ae
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IDEA

RAYS
N°4

One of the most ancient iconographic symbols, rays were

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the attribute of gods and heroes, the hallmark of their
supernatural power. Radiating from the head of Apollo,
Buddha or Christ, rays were the graphic interpretation of
a rare optical phenomenon known as an aura, which occurs
VL
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when moisture in the air is diffracted by sunlight around
an object, creating a dazzling circular rainbow.

The first widespread non-religious use have since inspired designers who see in
of rays was on the flag of imperial Japan, them a powerful graphic motif, similar
‘the Land of the Rising Sun’. It featured to that of the red stripes of the American
16 red beams emanating from a red disc. flag, but with the added reference to the BELOW: ‘Having Reached a ABOVE: ‘Smarter Planet’ campaign
After World War II, with Japan defeated, now-nostalgic ‘red, bright and shining’ Climax at the Age of29, I Was (launched 2009), developed by
the flag lost its rays to become the red iconography of the Mao cult. Dead’ (1965) was the title of Ogilvy & Mather New York for
a retrospective exhibition of IBM, heralds the repositioning
circle it is today. Communist China Rays showed up in the work of the
Japanese graphic designer ofIBM as an energy- and
promptly appropriated them for its own American designer Seymour Chwast, Tadanori Yokoo. Among the environment-conscious company.
propaganda, displaying them as a full who liked their Art Deco flavour but many visual references in his Circular emblems, symbolizing
aureole surrounding Mao Zedong or as knew how to harness their graphic art are radiating rays, similar various industries or issues, all
a sweeping fan of searchlights on the impact, as seen in his 1968 End Bad to the rays on the flag of sport a diadem of rays, evidence
imperial Japan. oftheir special status.
horizon, seemingly announcing the Breath anti-war poster. Rays were also
dawn of a new age. The rays, often red ubiquitous in the posters of Japanese
on a white, yellow or blue background, designer Tadanori Yokoo who, influ-
enced by Chwast, Milton Glaser and
Push Pin graphic artists, was weaving
culturally charged imagery in_ his
compositions, often layering red rays
with other traditional Japanese motifs. bargain or a promotion. As short bursts
Rays were recently mobilized to give of energy, they give an aura of moder-
Mickey Mouse a radiating halo not nity and excitement to a logo, aname or
unlike that emanating from the an emblem. They also do wonders on
portraits of Chairman Mao. With his detergent packaging to express the idea
bright yellow aura, the face of the of ‘squeaky-clean’.
beloved rodent is now a sacred icon. The latest “Smarter Planet’ IBM
Rays are today a staple of Shepard campaign, by Ogilvy & Mather’s creative
Fairey’s artful graffiti, deliberate rein- director Michael Paterson, features the
terpretations of Maoist posters, co-opted Earth with ‘think rays’ popping out on
to serve a politically disruptive agenda. the top, as if it has just had a bright idea.
Meanwhile, rays have found their As the campaign has developed, more
way into the commercial realm as ads with glowing spheres have been
graphic gimmick. Surrounding an created. From brains to gears, the round
object, they highlight its importance. emblems all wear a tiara of short beams,
Flaring up around a price, they signal a not unlike the Statue of Liberty. =
Historical elements signal a
period aesthetic

IDEA N25

PASTICHE
Above: The Works of Geoffrey opposrre; Chez Panisse
Chaucer (1896), printed by Second Birthday
William Morris at the Celebration (1973), a
Throughout the history of modern graphic design, designers Kelmscott Press, featured type poster designed by David
designed specifically for the Lance Goines in an homage
have reprised elements from the past, as pastiche, either to book and woodcut illustrations to the Jugendstil styie of
by Edward Burne-Jones the Vienna Workshops and
signal a particular period aesthetic or to make a philosophical (1833-1898). Vienna Secession movement.
point. William Morris adopted medieval gothic for his
setow: Old Advertising
Kelmscott Press editions as emblematic of the Arts and Crafts Cuts From A~Z (1989),
Movement’s rejection ofindustrial standardization. Pastiche published and designed by
Charles Spencer Anderson for
openly imitates the previous works of other artists, often with the French Paper Company,
borrowed 1920s and 1930s
satirical intent and as a hodgepodge of incongruous parts. advertising clichés, making
nostalgic imagery into
David Lance Goines’ 1973 poster cele- Art Nouveau, his own graphic signature contemporary visual language.
brating the second birthday of San Fran- for much ofhis work.
cisco restaurant Chez Panisse may not Why would a brand want to employ
have the same political underpinning as pastiche? Borrowing existing manner-
Morris’s Arts and Crafts aesthetics, but isms provides familiar codes with
Goines does reference Charles Rennie limited risk. They are further designed
Mackintosh and Ludwig Hohlwein as to tap into some ersatz nostalgia for
primary influences, with emphasis on sensibilities popular, often, long before
the latter. Like Morris, however, Goines the target audience was even born,
has made the pastiche, in this case of suggesting a primal effect that the
power of pastiche can evoke. Brands
need to appear new yet familiar, and samples) historical artefacts as Taw
pastiche design reconciles this paradox material, the fact remains that histor-
by giving new brands instant heritage ical pastiche is useful for telegraphing
and old brands a chance to flag their specific codes that are used to manipu-
origins and authenticity. Liquor and late perception and trigger consumer
beer companies value the vintage look: response. Some examples of styles and
Fernando Creative’s design for Meztizo their intended implications include:
beer hybridizes a Mayan look with a Victorian = historic; Russian Construc-
heavy metal typography, while their tivism = revolutionary; Bauhaus =
package for Chocolate Beer builds on a progressive; Art Deco = elegant; Stream-
nineteenth-century aesthetic of wood line = speed; American Socialist Realism
type and Victorian cartouches. = optimistic; Psychedelic = drugs; 1950s
American designer Charles Spencer Atomic and 1970s Disco goofy; and
Anderson, who has created a body of 1980s = hipster.
work using vintage icons and cultural Arguably contemporary design tech-
kitsch, perhaps surprisingly — finds nology has no look and no form to
graphic time-travel cynical and manipu- inspire a visual movement. This leads to
lative. He says the need of marketers to the perpetual question that designers
inveigle their products into the consum- from all disciplines constantly deal
er’s consciousness accounts for the with: what should it look like? It is in a
increase of pastiche in mass-market stylistic vacuum that pastiche tends to
packaging. While Anderson ‘quotes’ (or be frequently used and abused. =

16
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IDEA N° 6

POINTING FINGERS

Whatever its intended message, a pointing finger is a

declarative statement and a behavioral cue. Originally
employed in graphics as a printer’s cut (pre-made
illustration), its primary purpose was to indicate direction -
‘This way’, ‘Turn here’, ‘Detour’. Pointing fingers were also
SOME COUNTRIES THINK THAT CIVILIAN DEATHS CAUSED BY
commonly used in nineteenth-century printing, on posters, A WEAPON’S FAULTS AND INACCURACIES ARE ACCEPTABLE.
CLUSTER MUNITIONS. IT’S TIME TO POINT THE FINGER.
bills and advertisements, to be emphatic. When a finger WWW.STOPCLUSTERBOMBS.ORG
pointed directly at a word or sentence it was a benign
ABove: Point the Finger opposite: Auch Du bist liberal
command to read whatever was being pointed out. (c. 2011), poster designed for (You too are a liberal) (1959),
‘Beat the Drum to Ban Cluster poster designed by Karl Gerstner,
Bombs’. The accusatory finger influenced by the famous
The pointing finger acquired more Montgomery Flagg, 1917), Italy (Achille indicates those nations who pointing fingers from World
gravitas when in 1914, at the outset of Luciano Mauzan, 1917), Germany (Julius have not signed the Convention WarI used in posters by
on Cluster Munitions. England, France, Russia,
World War I, the British designer Alfred Ussy Engelhard, 1919) and Russia (Dimitri
Germany and the United States.
Leere created the famous recruitment Moor, 1920). These were demonstrative,
Below: Are You Doing All You
poster featuring a picture of the secre- patriotic calls to arms rendered by both
Can? (1942) is a World War IT
tary of state for war, Lord Kitchener, sides in both world wars, each side real- poster of Uncle Sam created and
pointing directly out of the poster at the izing the innate power ofthe trope. published by the General Cable
viewer, above the words ‘wants you’. This Yet the militarist application was Corporation — one of many
was the first of many wartime (and preceded by a less aggressive promo- pointing fingers designed to
boost morale on the home front.
postwar) recruitment posters to use the tional point-of-purchase display for a soft
pointing finger in a similar way. It was drink. In 1911 Moxie, a popular American
later copied in the United States (James beverage, produced a sign showing a
stern soda-fountain attendant in a white
coat pointing directly at the customer
over a label exhorting the viewer to
‘Drink Moxie’. In line with the subse-
quent iterations, this was about winning
a war: in this case against Coca-Cola.
The pointing finger has been used
frequently and ubiquitously ever since.
In some cultures it is considered offen-
sive or rude to point, yet used decora-
tively or Conceptually, as it is in much
graphic design, the pointing finger none-
theless retains its benign character. And
in the digital age, this pointing digit has
taken on new relevance as the cursor on
all computers, What the 1960s television
show Laugh-In referred to as ‘the fickle
DOING ALL YOU CAN? finger of fate’ is now the stalwart direc-
tional in the virtual world. =
liberal
ONALE CONTRE L'APAR
Perse omen
Designers grappling with mortality

VANITAS
EEE EOE: BERETS Wa SRI LS bie RUT ey TS

Macabre images involving skulls have been popular since

antiquity; in ancient Rome the expression memento mori, meaning
‘remember you‘ must die’, was coined to remind the rich and aBove: The Hourglass
BELOW: Ossario (2006), a 400-metre-
famous of their mortality. Few icons are as recognizable as skulls, long fresco by street artist Alexandre Sanatorium (1973), a film
Orion. He turned a tunnel in Sao poster by Polish artist Franciszek
and every period of history has found a use for them, as religious Paulo into a hellish vision by Starowieyski, turns an eyeball
cleaning the walls with a wet into a cranium, while the lower
emblems, as anti-war symbols, as danger signs, or as expressions rag to trace a garland ofskulls. jaw suggests the bars of the cells
in which inmates are left to die.
of spiritual angst. Only the Moderns, those incurable utopians,
opposite: Apartheid/Racisme
seemed immune to their charm. (1986), a poster by French collective
Grapus, denounces racism by
representing Africa as a skull
An artistic genre known as ‘vanitas’ Decades later Polish poster artist
in which eye sockets and nasal
flourished in Europe during periods of Franciszek Starowieyski, the master of cavities are maps within maps,
prosperity, with illustrations of beautiful phantasmagoric dreams, rediscovered an image that evokes the divide
women peering at the face of death in the skull for his generation. In 1973, between blacks and whites,
the mirror as a recurring theme (Allan from the other side of the Iron Curtain,
Gilbert’s 1892 All Is Vanity is a prime he promoted the Polish cult film The subjects of visual meditation. In 1986,
example). During the first part of the Hourglass Sanatorium with a nightmarish the Grapus collective in France designed
twentieth century, when wars tore the vision: a bony jaw, its clenched teeth the one of the most effective images against
world apart, skull imagery was mainly bars of a festering prison, on top of South African apartheid by turning a
used to denounce violence: John Heart- which sat a cranium that was a huge jagged map of Africa into the black
field’s gruesome 1928 photo-collage The menacing eyeball. Skulls were Starow- silhouette of a skull whose lower jaw
Face of Fascism, a decaying portrait of ieyski’s speciality: he used them to had been viciously ripped off.
Mussolini, was devoid of sentimentality. depict female forms, lunar landscapes Theatre posters for Hamlet have long
In 1935, Magritte painted a rare vanitas, or bristling weapons. After him, graphic been a favourite venue for designers to
a nude woman with a skull as a head. designers competed to turn skulls into muse on death. In 2004, Daniel Kunzi for
Atelier BLVDR produced a masterly
scribble for the Théatre St. Gervais in
Geneva. In 2006, Polish designer Piotr
Miodozeniec created a striking cut-paper
version of the scene in which the Danish
prince stares at a skull as if it were his
own image. But the prize for the most
dramatic vanitas to date goes to the
Brazilian graffiti artist Alexandre Orion
for his macabre mural in ‘reverse graffiti’
inside a tunnel in Sao Paulo. While cars
were racing by, he drew a long garland of
skulls by removing the soot from the
wall with a wet rag. The fresco was about
400 metres (% mile) long before a
cleaning unit hosed the wall down,
erasing it all - a gesture as eloquent as
the tempus fugit motto itself. =

21
Icon of militancy and power

IDEA N° 8

CLENCHED FISTS

The left have long claimed the clenched-fist salute as their

exclusive property - a symbol of solidarity and defiance.
During Germany’s liberal Weimar Republic in the 1920s, for
example, the raised fist was used by the Communists and the
straight-arm salute by the Nazis. But images from World War
I show that the iron fist was first a symbol of military power.

The term ‘iron fist’ refers to the unbri- Fascists borrowed from the Roman
dled strength of a leader, perhaps emperors, whose imperial greetings
coined to characterize the nineteenth- included raised arms and fists on chests.
century Prussian statesman Otto von The Communists took their clenched-fist
Bismarck, dubbed the ‘Iron Chancellor’ gesture from the 1871 Paris Communards, Above: Clown (1906), an opposite: Strike (1969), silkscreen
for his famous speech about attaining the earliest Socialist revolutionaries. anti-Czarist Russian satiric print by Harvey Hacker at the
power ‘not by speeches and votes of the ‘The fist was always part of some- periodical with cover illustrated Strike Poster Workshop, Graduate
by Vasilii Beringer, shows the School of Design, Harvard
majority’, but through ‘iron and blood’. thing — holding a tool or other symbol,
clenched fist not as a symbol University. The image enumerated
Since all political parties require part of an arm or human figure, or ofleftist revolution but as the eight demands ofdissent.
symbols to propagate their ideologies, shown in action,’ states cultural histo- representative ofthe masses.
whoever repeatedly uses a given symbol rian Lincoln Cushing. ‘But graphic
will usually end up claiming ‘ownership’. artists from the New Left changed that BELOW: Citizen Designer (2003),
In the war of body-part language in the in 1968, with an entirely new treat- with cover designed by James
Victore created on a copy
early twentieth century, the Nazis and ment.’ The new image was stark and
machine, suggests the radical
simple, and, given its political echoes of
spirit of citizen activism in
German socialists and, indeed, Spanish art and design.
Civil War Republicans, it was the perfect
pospelices on Log vnsof icon of militant rebellion. Its first New
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Left iteration was a poster by San Fran-
cisco Bay Area graphic artist Frank Cieci-
orka for ‘Stop the Draft’ week in 1968,
protesting the arrest of the anti-Vietnam
War ‘Oakland Seven’. The image was
adapted from a poster he had done
previously for ‘Stop the Draft’ in 1967, Populaire, the poster workshop set up
which used a large, blocky figure by the students in the Paris 1968
wielding a fist. uprising, issued fist images during
The fist was raised high at all major strikes by students and _ workers
rallies on posters and flyers for student, protesting the policies of the president,
anti-war, women’s, and other political Charles de Gaulle. And the fist is still
activities throughout the world. In the employed as a symbol of dissent, if
United States the fist was adopted by sometimes commercially co-opted — as
Students for a Democratic Society in was the case with the promotion for
1968 and by Harvard student strikers a controversial American — shockjock
year later in a poster created by Harvey Howard Stern when he moved from
Hacker, a design student. The Atelier commercial to satellite radio. =

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Make a statement that can’t be missed

IDEA N°9

MONUMENTAL IMAGES

Monumentality has long been a tool for perpetuating myth

and building heroes. Take the Colossus of Rhodes (292-280
BcE). This statue of the Greek god Helios, intentionally or not,
is a model for the gargantuan advertising display; it celebrates
Rhodes’s victory over the ruler of Cyprus in 305 sce. Similarly,
the Statue of Liberty, designed by Frédéric Bartholdi, might be
considered a giant advertisement ‘mascot’ for the idea of
freedom and the American way oflife.

Architects working for bishops or kings own sculpted, oversized visage in Rome,
have always understood the virtues of with the word si (yes) repeated as a back-
larger-than-life scale. These rulers them- ground pattern, reflected the advertise-
selves may have been human-sized in ments for commercial wares hawked on
reality, but in images they could tower grandiose displays in every town and
high above the multitudes. The gigantic city in the world.
figures that Benito Mussolini commis- The enormous eye that menacingly
sioned in 1935 for his Fascist city, EUR overlooked the busy intersection of Fifth
(Esposizione Universale Roma), exempli- Avenue and 42nd Street in New York was
fied the marriage of power and graphic not the portentous Big Brother of
monumentalism. A billboard with his Orwell’s 1984; however, it was a decidedly

resolute display of corporate confidence.

The eye in question stared froma bill-
board with the headline ‘Watch the
1SISISISISIE Fords Go By’, and was designed by A.M.
oon i Sie Cassandre for the Ford Motor Company
i =
in 1937. And watch it did: doubtless
many Fords - the largest-selling marque
in the United States at that time - passed
that corner every day. Cassandre’s image
was possibly the most monumental close
crop ofa human feature ever printed and
. isS1 SI SISISISIS was a paradigmatic example of agrowing
trend in graphic monumentality.
Cassandre’s eye, with the V8 logo
emblazoned on the pupil, was one of
the many large-scale advertising ‘spec-
taculars’ (the term applied to the
mammoth Times Square electric-light
billboards) commonly used to sell
consumer goods, starting in the late
nineteenth century. Today, scrims cover
AUS
opposiTE: Si Si Si (Yes Yes Yes) apove: Watch the Fords Go By
entire buildings in the middle of cities,
(1934). The designer of this (1937), a surreal image designed
on which are emblazoned immense enormous three-dimensional by A.M. Cassandre for Ford Motors.
icons that through picture, colour and billboard hanging acr ross from A multi-sheet billboard, it looked
type can transmit messages on the street the Palazzo Braschi in Rome down upon the vehicular and foot
more effectively and imposingly than is unknown. It is likely Benito traffic on 42nd Street and Fifth
Mussolini gave permission Avenue in New York City.
any common poster print.
for its design
The world indeed cowers and bows
before monumental imagery, no matter
what the message or image. Big reaps
its own reward. The simple fact that
something is incredibly larger than it
should be triggers a sense of awe. To
make the boldest statement possible,
increasing the size of the most common-
place objects or physical features, and
adding the right words, phrase or
slogan, does wonders. @

25
Down with stereotypes

IDEA N° 10

FEMALE ARCHETYPES

The French painter and lithographer Jules Chéret invented

one of the first commercial female archetypes at the end of
the nineteenth century. She was a free-spirited Parisian girl,
with a plunging neckline and a dizzying hourglass figure.
Her twirling silhouette was posted on every wall of the
French capital to advertise nightclubs, theatrical
productions, horse races and cabaret shows, but also
liquors, perfumes and cosmetics.

The image ofjoie de vivre, the Chérettes, cial message. By the end of the 1930s, ABOVE: Rei Ayanami (1995), opposite: Folies-Bergére, La Loie
as the figures were called, were typical Coca-Cola perfected the genre, presenting a fictional character created Fuller (1892), a poster promoting
of the fin de siecle frivolity that preceded cheerful colour illustrations of seduc- by Hedeaki Anno and drawn a cabaret act in Paris, was one of
by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto for many by the celebrated French
the birth of Modernism. Portrayed with tive housewives. Alluring but never
the Japanese television series affichiste Jules Chéret, who often
expressive hand gestures and a relaxed risqué, these happy homemakers were Evangelion, was adapted as represented women as twirling
upper body, the young girls displayed not as provocative as the popular bomb- a Manga female figure with gures.
the kind of self-confidence that would shells by Alberto Vargas whose like- a fetching silhouette but an
soon become associated with the libera- nesses were also used to adorn military enigmatic personality.
tion of women. A lively smile illumi- aircraft during World War II and the
BELow: BEople #4 (2002), art
nated their faces as they looked over Korean War. By the mid-1940s, the
directed by Base Design in
their shoulders at their admirers. demure Coca-Cola females were Brussels, was a short-lived
Though they looked sexy, their replaced by more flirtatious beach beau- fashion magazine that featured
erotic appeal was carefully veiled in ties sipping from the iconic bottle. models in non-traditional poses.
order not to interfere with the commer- The term ‘pin-up’ was coined in 1941
to describe the way young men liked to
display glamorous images of scantily
dressed girls. However, one of the most As photography replaced illustra-
popular pin-ups of that period was not a tion, watercolour pin-ups morphed into
classic beauty. ‘Rosie the _ Riveter’, carefully retouched portraits of movie
depicted in a painting by Norman Rock stars, with Marilyn Monroe, Sophia
well, was featured on the cover of the Loren and Brigitte Bardot making head-
Saturday Evening Post on 29 May 1943. An lines in the 1950s. Playboy Playmates
allegorical figure who stood for the 11 and Bond girls were not far behind.
million American women working in Today, actresses and TV personalities all
factories during World War II, she was over the world sell products with as
shown eating her sandwich during her much abandon as the Chérettes a
lunch break. Portrayed as a_ sturdy century ago. But new female archetypes
maiden in work clothes, she sat in a are being introduced: some provocative,
graceful pose that was just as compelling like the Manga character Rei Ayanami,
as that ofa sex kitten. She too looked over others deceptively demure, like the
her shoulder at the world at her feet, her partially disrobed masked model
can-do attitude evidence of the power of gracing a 2002 cover of BEople, a maga-
her femininity. zine about a certain Belgium. =
Gf.Oo
|
=
ro ~Y
ts LJ
éD

ue CHAIX (Aelie Chéret / zo.Aue Bergere Paris

Cut out of colour, white forms become
focal points RUNNING WATER—

IDEA N° 11 AURAL ELECTRIFICATION ADMINISTRATION AURAL ELECTRIFICATION ADMINISTRATION

COLOUR BLOCKS

French artists experienced a mini-renaissance at the end of

the nineteenth century when they discovered traditional
Japanese woodblock prints, or ukiyo-e - ‘pictures of the
floating world’. The Impressionist movement, and later Art
Nouveau, owed a great deal to what was then perceived as an
entirely novel art form.

Poster artists, and Toulouse-Lautrec in Colour-blocking, as a style, acquired Asove: Rural Electrification opposrre: Boccaccio (2007),
particular, adopted the bold style of the a life of its own, as poster artists world- Administration posters (1934) theatre poster by Swiss designer
primitive ukiyo-e printing technique, wide kept inventing new ways of inter- demonstrate the versatility of Stephan Bundi. Theflatness of
Lester Beall, who combined the the white form is emphasized
which had been popular in Japan from preting the trend of ‘Japonisme’. In the
geometric impact of Russian by the horn-shaped fingers that
the seventeenth century onward. United States in the 1930s, Lester Beall Constructivist compositions poke fun at the cuckolded hero.
Lautrec’s illustrations, with their flat used flat colour-fields as if they were with the graphic simplicity
colour-fields, assertive black silhouettes stencils, a visual effect that had been ofJapanese ukiyo-e prints.
and loose brushstrokes, became instant mastered by Japanese printers but
icons. His lithograph of the celebrated largely overlooked by their Western BELOW: La Goulue (1891) shows
Moulin Rouge dancer La Goulue lifting admirers. Beall’s posters for the Rural how Toulouse-Lautrec used large,
her white petticoats to reveal her frilly Electrification Administration use flat fields ofcolour in a dynamic
fashion, often turning the white
knickers is one of the most renowned geometric patches ofblue, red or yellow
area into the most dramatic
examples of this phenomenon. to trap, or ‘block’, white silhouettes that shape, as here with the white
pop up as dynamic graphic motifs knickers of the can-can dancer.
against flat colours. The interaction
between positive and negative space, so
crucial in typography, had never before
been applied to illustrations with so
much vivacity.
Today, a number ofgraphic designers
are still fascinated by the versatility of
this blocking process, in which blank
space becomes the focus of a composi-
tion. In 2004, Apple promoted its new
iPod with a series of posters in electric
colours featuring black silhouettes of Solothurn, is a consummate illustration
hip-hop dancers. What made the posters of how powerful such an approach can
memorable was the fact that the small be. Against a solid orange background,
earphones, thin cables and diminutive the striking white cutout of a man’s
iPod were white, and seemed to pop head stands out, its flatness emphasized
against their acid-green, dazzling-yellow, by the realistic photograph of two
hot-pink or bright-purple backdrops. fingers that look like his horns.
In 2007, Swiss art director Stephan Poking fun at cuckolded husbands, the
Bundi updated, yet again, the ukiyo-e Boccaccio poster is also a graphic ‘V’
technique. His two-colour poster for the sign - a victory sign for minimalist
operetta Boccaccio, for the Theater Biel graphic expression. =

IDEA N° 12

ORNAMENTATION

Is it fundamentally wrong to use decoration? Although

architect Adolf Loos asserted with high-minded certainty
that ornament was a sin in his 1908 essay ‘Ornament and
Crime’, decoration is neither inherently good nor bad.
Although it is all too frequently applied to conceal faulty
merchandise and flawed concepts, it can nonetheless
enhance a product when used with integrity, to illuminate
rather than obscure content.

A decorator taps into aesthetic allure to looks both official and human at the
evoke a certain kind of pleasure. Critics same time.
argued that Art Nouveau (and later Art Decoration is a combination of
Deco and Postmodern) decoration on forms (colour, line, pattern, letter,
buildings and furniture and in graphic picture) that does not convey a literal eeCe ION
design rarely added to a product’s func- message, but serves to stimulate the
tionality or durability, and locked the senses. Paisley, herringbone or tartan Squaaronsese
respective objects in their own time, patterns are decorative yet can elicit a ] ‘IME ates
thereby rendering everything eventu- visceral response. Ziggurat or sunburst
LACK CAA Sa es ee
ally obsolete. However, decoration can designs on the facade of a building or VAANAAAAADAANAANA
AVA KiAAV AAV A AL
UTrwOAVCK A. BEAGEA WICH VilI/2
also play an integral role in the total the cover of a brochure spark a respon-
design scheme. Good decoration is that sive chord even when type is absent.
BELOW: Kusmi Tea (2008) package. Asove: Ver Sacrum (1902), poster
which frames a product or message. The The worst decorative excesses are
This Russian-style tea brand designed by Koloman Moser
euro paper currency, for example, is not the obsessively baroque borders and was started in 1867 by Pavel for the XIII Vienna Secession
more appealing than the staid American patterns such as the vines and tendrils Michailovitch Kousmichoff, exhibition, exhibits the
dollar. Although the dollar has ornate that strangulated the typical Art in St Petersburg, Russia. decorative tendencies that
rococo engravings, each bill lacks the Nouveau poster or page, but those that rejected realism and the
academic art ofthe time.
dynamism ofthe euro, which invests, so stem from the careless application of
to speak, in vibrant graphic elements in anachronistic details without function.
opposite: National Poetry
a variety of bright and pastel colours; it A splendidly ornamented package, such
Month (2010), poster designed
as many of today’s boutique tea, soap by Marian Bantjes, features
and food wrappers, will have a quantifi- kaleidoscopic figures turning
rae[o$Kusm TEA
able impact on consumers. beneath a star-filled sky, inspired
With the computer making complex by the poetry of Wallace Stevens
decorative compositions easier, the with lettered lines from ‘Final
Soliloquy ofthe Interior
2000s have seen a revival of both old
Paramour’.
and newer decorative tendencies. A cult
of the squiggly - modern-day Art
Nouveau ~ has crept into the design of
everything from type and letters to emerged as the contemporary master.
posters and packages. Some is stunning But some is just excessive — an overabun-
in terms of craft and artistry. The dance of twigs and tendrils that have
Canadian letterer Marian Bantjes has not yet been pruned. =

30
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Inspired by commercial art from
the past

IDEA N° 13

DECORATIVE LOGOTYPES

‘If in the business of communications, image is king,’ wrote

Paul Rand in Design, Form and Chaos (1993), ‘the essence of this
image, the logo, is the jewel in its crown.’ Although Rand
also said that a logo ‘cannot survive unless it is designed
with the utmost simplicity and restraint’ (Paul Rand: A
Designer’s Art, 1985), corporate marks come in many shapes,
colours and configurations, not all of them so restrained as
to be void of decorative tendencies.

Some logos are indeed as ornate as jewel- The advent of the proto-Modern
lery. Quite a few of the world’s most object poster in 1906 put a temporary
famous, and lasting, early commercial halt to the era of Victorian decorative
logos, including the GE (General Electric) practices, and replaced them with stark,
monogram designed by A.L. Rich and simplified logos and trademarks
trademarked in 1899, were imbued with (although not everywhere). It was a
restrained Art Nouveau ornamentation. move away from ornament but not a
Stylized and abstracted ornamental total end to it. Although the Modern
motifs have been significant compo- design movements vociferously encour- Top: Sant Ambroeus (2008) logo, opposite: GE (General Electric)
nents of the designer’s toolbox from the aged elementary composition - bold designed by Mucca for a bake (1900) logo, designed byA.L.
nineteenth century to the present. linear and geometric forms ~ there have shop and restaurant, suggests Rich, evolved from an 1892
Parisian patisserie papers monogram in the Victorian
Despite warnings by reductivists, like been many who saw decorative manner-
script style. This iteration
Rand, who adhere to economy and for isms as a means of identification. The continues to use the Art Nouveau
Above: Artone Studio India Ink
whom, as Adolf Loos pronounced in more unique attributes a logo has, the decorative flourishes.
logo (1964), designed by Seymour
1908, ornament is a crime, decorative longer it will stick in the mind’s eye. Chwast, is an Art Nouveau
approaches have more often than not The letter ‘A’ from Seymour Chwast’s letterform created with a drip
proved effective within the bounds of 1968 typeface Artone has that quality, of ink in the positive and
taste and intelligence. Like the GE logo, borrowing its curvilinear grace from Art negative parts of the A.
Coca-Cola’s swirl of Spencerian script (a Nouveau (the ‘A’ is derived from a type
formal penmanship style) designed by style named ‘Smoke’ because ofits ethe-
Frank Mason Robinson was conceived in real nature). Used on its own as an ‘A’ it
1885, when Victorian decorative tenden- is further decontextualized, so that it can
cies dominated commercial art and be read as both letter and abstract symbol.
popular culture. Although it has been Today the freedom to draw on
fine-tuned over the past century, the historical precedents for inspiration or
logo continues to possess the decorative direct pastiche, without being
attributes of that time. Similarly, the condemned as (too) passé, has caused a
original Ford Motor Company logo was a resurgence in decorative logotypes and
complicated seal with neo-Baroque fili- marks, such as Mucca’s Sant Ambroeus
gree, which was changed in 1912 to an logo, which suggests classic French and
oval with a Spencerian ‘Ford’. This more Italian patisseries. m
decorative approach has been retained
despite attempts to change it.
en vente Q
Irresistible trade characters ORANGINA LA PULPE D° ORANGE

IDEA N° 14

NAIVE MASCOTS

During the late nineteenth century, words were preferred

to pictures in advertising. However, as the reproduction of
images became cheaper, businesses that had relied solely
on brand names and clever slogans sought new visual icons. GAZEIFIE
SANS
PASTEURISE
COLORANT

Older pictorial trade characters evolved into contemporary

mnemonic logos. To gain the public’s trust, industry
turned to signs and symbols - some abstract, but many
with human characteristics. opposite: Michelin Man (1898), ABoVvE: Orangina Man (1955),
a.k.a. Bibendum, designed by created by Bernard Villemot,
One of the most successful mascots ever Edouard, observed that a stack of tyres Marius Rossillon and one of the was a caricature of the frivolous
world’s oldest trademarks, was yet endearing Frenchman,
was designed for Michelin, the French looked similar to a human form.
conceived to look like a pile of a Maurice Chevalier lookalike,
tyre company founded in 1888. Its trade- In 1923, Aleksander Rodchenko white tyres. The mascot eventually complete with straw boater
mark figure, Bibendum (dubbed ‘Bib the created an unusual advertisement for got the reputation of a cigar- and silly grin.
Michelin Man’, among other nick baby pacifiers. Designed in the Construc- smoking ladies’ man.
names), was created by French artist tivist manner, it featured a wide-eyed,
‘O’Galop’ (a pseudonym of Marius puppet-like infant with no fewer than BELOW: Pacifiers (1923), by
Rossillon), and introduced at the Lyons nine rubber teats stuck between his lips. Aleksander Rodchenko and
Varvara Stepanova, claims that
Exhibition of 1894, where the Michelin There was nothing cute about the child,
‘Better pacifiers there have never
brothers displayed their wares. André yet the overall effect was endearing
been nor ever will be’. The image
Michelin commissioned this friendly, because neither Rodchenko nor his suggests that Russian babies
bulbous figure after his brother, client felt compelled to present a rosy were as vocal as their
picture: the red and green baby looked revolutionary parents.
like a hollering brat.

NS4WAX COCOK In France in the 1950s, a group of

illustrators brought about what many
Ms HE GbINO VM HET Rees consider to be the golden age of poster
design with their carefree and naive - and make the ad look smart ~ as he did
drawing style. Cassandre’s Dubonnet for Orangina.
Man (see p.122) and Raymond Savignac’s Marketers, eager for brands to
Monsavon cow are probably the most appear sophisticated, almost managed
famous, but there were many more who to put an end to this delightful trend.
worked in the same genre: Jean Carlu, From time to time, though, some
who drew goofy-looking clowns for the graphic designers are able to get away
Perrier ‘Pschitt’ campaign; Hervé with a ludicrous concept that is both
Morgan, who developed the simple- absurd and marvellous, as was the case
hearted Banania man; and Francis in a 1983 poster by Woody Pirtle for
Bernard, known for his candid, working- Knoll furniture. It featured a childlike
FOTOB COCATb 210 CTAPHIX NET class, broom-wielding housewives. drawing of an office chair upholstered
Bernard Villemot, whose bright colour in the guise of a chilli pepper. ‘Hot
ME IPODAMTCA E30 e ee palette and minimalist brushstrokes Seat’ was the tagline. In advertising,
PESWRUTPEET were almost Matisse-like, could turn an
orange peel into the face of a silly man
simple and brilliant are not mutually
exclusive terms. =

35
Original design hits the marketplace

IDEA N° 15

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

BELOW: Target ClearRx (2005), ABOVE: CSA Images (2008) is

Design authorship — arguably synonymous with by Deborah Adler, began as the website of Charles Spencer
entrepreneurship — has been practised since the late nineteenth a thesis project for her School Anderson’s archive, which sells
of Visual Arts MFA. The ‘clear’ old, new and customized spot
century, when William Morris’s Arts and Crafts workshops in typographic concept was and stock art: just one of the
purchased by Target stores latest internet business models.
London hand-produced objects, from typefaces to books to and used as their signature
pharmacy product.
furniture, destined for sale in a marketplace. The movement
extended to Aurora, New York, where Elbert Hubbard and his
Roycrofters sold a wide range of products through catalogues
and stores. The tradition evolved in Austria and Germany with
the Wiener Werkstatte, Deutsche Werkbund and Bauhaus, and
in the nascent Soviet Union with the Productivists.

In the United States, Contempora, a Designers like to make things - yet

design collective founded in 1928 design is rarely an end in itself, but rather
that included the contributions of a vessel into which ideas are poured.
poster and type designer Lucian The concept behind the design author is
Bernhard, graphic artist Rockwell Kent similar to that of the film auteur, where
and furniture designer Paul T. Frankl the top creative roles are in the hands of
among others, produced textiles, home a single individual, although this need
accessories and objets dart sold in stores not imply that the individual visionary
and galleries. Although the word does it entirely alone.
‘author’ was not expressly used, these The designer and ephemera enthu-
design authors and _ entrepreneurs siast Charles Spencer Anderson created opening and then creates the concepts
dreamed up concepts that largely the CSA Archive in 1995, based entirely to fill the specific requirement - and
fulfilled their own creative and profit- on his passion for vintage graphics. But sells them if lucky.
driven needs. simply acquiring the graphics is neither In 2005 a design student in New
an idea nor a product. The entrepre- York, Deborah Adler, realized that a new
Target AGuest neurial concept was to transform and prescription drug labelling system and
AMOXICILLIN 500MG manipulate them into distinct works of redesigned bottle could save lives. Her
| “Capsule _—__— Ganache art that could be sold or licensed to prototype, which began as a thesis,
Take one capsule by
mouth three times designers in need of unique imagery. turned into a real product when it was
daily for 10 days The business has grown to include a taken up by the giant retailer Target as
wealth of paper products and books part of a radical revision of its drug
“eg.
TSE BIT ‘NDC:00781-2613-05 based on the materials in or inspired by packaging. A self-generated, authorial
ond
(8771798: 2743 966660561375 the archive. work became a widely used alternative
©
TARGET PHARMACY
However, authorship is not always to the status quo.
entrepreneurship along the CSA Archive The design author takes a leap away
model. Often it involves developing from the safety of the traditional
(indeed inventing) new ideas to fill designer role into that precarious terri-
the needs of a market, culture or tory where the public decides what
society. The design author pinpoints an works and what does not. =

36
Rook HAJENIUS Sigaren

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A Catalog of Roycroft Books : .Furore (July 1975) is. the magazine of

(1905?), designed at the Roycroft Piet Schreuders, Amsterdam designer and
workshop in East Aurora, New York. writer, whose entrepreneurship centres on
Influenced by William Morris’s Arts ‘pop culture archeology’. He is publisher
and Crafts Movement, Elbert Hubbard of De Poezenkrant (about cats) and ;
established a crafts colony that sold ; r Furore (about, he says, ‘everything else’).
books, textiles and other products.
Novelty letterforms underscore
words’ meaning

IDEA N° 16

METAPHORIC LETTERING

The word ‘novelty’ when applied to typefaces now implies

letters that are ephemeral or silly. However, when novelty
typefaces were at their commercial apex during the mid-
to late nineteenth century and again throughout the late
twentieth, ‘novelty’ was a term of distinction, meaning
that an alphabet was something other than classic,
and frequently metaphoric.

Metaphoric letters were imbued with commonly used to underscore visually At their peak, two or three novelties
symbolism and served as vessel and as specific businesses and services - were released for every serious text or
idea. Often visual puns, they were used including icicle-shaped letters for ice headline face. Many faces and one-offs
to enliven the printed word and add machines or air-conditioning, and chop- were used on bills for carnivals and
dimension to a page. stick or bamboo letters for Chinese food fairs, where a large array of parlant can
‘Rustic’ (later copied and renamed — was used by commercial job printers be found. The rationale behind creating
‘Log Cabin’) was designed in the 1840s when customized illustration was too such a face is its hoped-for commercial
by the London foundry owner Vincent costly or unavailable. While such faces viability, or, alternatively, its use as a
Figgins, who had also begun cutting might be considered typographic stereo- means of solving a particular concep-
Tuscan letterforms (ornamented type types today - and perhaps even racially tual problem.
with fishtail serifs) around 1815. Rustic derogatory - they were meant as ‘typog- An avid lettering metaphorist,
had cut logs forming the letters (even raphy parlant’ (akin to architecture Austrian-born designer Stefan Sagmeister
the round ones), came only in capitals, parlant, a structure that serves a basic transforms everyday natural and indus-
and was used in periodicals, bills and function yet also conveys a secondary, trial objects into letters to convey
posters to inject a trompe l'oeil illusion, semiotic meaning, as in a hot-dog stand messages in which the metaphors
but also to imply naturalism (decades shaped like a hot dog). The face called trigger deeper understanding of the
prior to Art Nouveau). In its various Fire, with flames emerging from the message — and they look intriguing too,
subsequent incarnations it was used to letters, has been part of novelty cata- which is the primary function. =
advertise in an obvious way rustic prod- logues for years; as has Banana, with its
ucts and ideas, such as campsites, letters in the shape of the fruit — this
hunting cabins and related items. had more limited usefulness, but is still
This genre of illustrative lettering, ripe for exploitation in some typo-
which in the twentieth century was graphic realms.

CHRISTMAS COMES BUT ONCE

AYEAR
CONFUCIUS SAY TAKES 2 TD MAKE QUARR
Bollyberry O*M Vol.2 p.706

Governale Bamboo Od Vol.2 p.707

CONIFEROUS-OR DO NOT FORGET TH

Novelty lettering specimens (c. 1890s).
Hollyberry, Bamboo and Rustic (also
~20 known as Log Cabin) are among
Rustio No.222 TM Vol.2 p.707
many nature-inspired lettering styles.

38
Death to Traitors (c. 1860) was
printed on envelopes and letters as
vividly illustrative propaganda at the
time of the American Civil War. The
letters formed by-soldiers, flags and -
the most ominous - gallows, spell the’
traitor’s fate.

Trying to Look Good Limits My .

_ Life (2004), part of Stefan Sagmeister’s
typographic project ‘20 Things I Have
Learned in My Life So Far’. Words are
formed from natural and industrial
materials and composed in situ.
Emphatic and elegant

IDEA N° 17

SWASHES ON CAPS

Adding a flourish to an upper-case letterform is not unlike

pinning a silk flower to the lapel ofa grey flannel suit. [t could
look needlessly gaudy. Yet this is exactly what type designers
have done since the end of the nineteenth century. They have BeLow: Marcus Aurelius’s ABovE: Métropolitain (1901),
Meditations (2004) was a a distinctive typeface with top-
fitted the capital letters of classical typefaces such as Caslon, breakthrough book cover by Phil heavy calligraphic strokes, was
Baines for the Penguin Books designed by the young architect
Bodoni, Baskerville and Bookman with special alternative ‘Great Ideas’ series. Its design, Hector Guimard for the signage
characters adorned with curvy tails, tears and strokes. judiciously mixing swashes and of the Art Nouveau entrances of
ligatures, spearheaded a medieval- the new Parisian Metro system.
inspired typographic revival.
In doing so, they are harking back to version, complete with filigrees, curl- opposite: Bookman Swash (1858),
medieval illuminated manuscripts. cues and coiling ornaments. In the eigh- originally designed by Alexander
Phemister, has gone through
Swashed capital letters, so the reasoning teenth century, swashes were also added
many different revivals, but
went, would be useful to mark the to some lower-case letterforms to confer
it has always had its coterie
beginning ofa sentence or a paragraph, a distinctive calligraphic edge to of fans who love its cursive
emphasize the first letter of a name or announcements and calling cards. As flair and high legibility.
highlight the title of abook. Like scribes long as they were used sparingly - and
before him, Gutenberg treated capitals never in words set entirely in capital
as special characters, with each move- letters — these elegant squiggles gave the
able initial letter available in a fancy printed page a stylish swagger.
Pioneer of the Arts and Crafts Move-
ment William Morris made extensive
MARCUS AU use of swashed capitals, combining
them with generous borders, large
RELIUS: MD margins and woodcut-style illustrations.

ITATIONS:-A
His black and white compositions recre-
ated the rich feel and variegated texture graphic designers. In San Francisco in

LITTLE FLES of the most elaborate Gothic manuscript.

No sooner were the rules established
the 1960s, psychedelic poster artists
reinterpreted Guimard’s alphabet,

H, A LITTLE than someone had to break them. In

1901, the French architect Hector
turning blocky capital letters into delir-
ious letterforms. More recently, a new

BREAH,AN Guimard created an alphabet of capital

letters with ornamental offshoots
generation of type designers are going
back to Gothic sources and, inspired by
D A REASON whose top-heavy slabs and droopy the work of Claude Garamond, are

TO RULE AL
swashes actually increased the legibility setting text in capital letters with a
of words. First used for the graphic iden- generous mix of ligatures and swashes.

L—HATISM
tity of the Castel Béranger, a Paris apart- One of the most brilliant examples of
ment building Guimard himself had this revivalist trend is Phil Baines’s cover

YSEE:-PENG designed, the face was eventually

perfected and standardized, and used to
in 2004 for a book of meditations by
Marcus Aurelius, part of the Penguin

UIN BOOKS label his famous entrances to the Paris

Metro stations.
Books ‘Great Ideas’ series, and Marian
Bantjes’s cover of IWonder, a small gilded
GREAT IDEAS Trying to put a spin on capital letters
is an irresistible challenge for some
volume as precious as a medieval
breviary (see p.61). m=

40
AcACAB‘BSBCGDD
EEF'F GGH‘AIIJJ
IL MMNN
OPP RRRSSTT
UUVVV WWW
WXXYY ZZACE
OH&&E'C2.(",:;%)Plza
b6cddeefffighfijk
"ppg

567890123456789
O¢S/eLHGE <a@
:
jal
ahh teeth moleod NUMERI —— = ot
Dal volume, dé proasina I PAROLIBERI FUTURISTI,,: —

Words become visual artefacts D, CORRENTI,

JANNELLL,
M. DEL GUERRA,
MARINETTI, AWMANDO
DEL
Ni, BUZZ,
ESTA. L.
CAMIMGLE, CANGIULLO, CARRA, CAVALLI, GRUNO CORRA, —
FOLGORE, 4. FRANCHL, C GOVONI, GUIZZIDORO, ITTAR,
MAZZA, PRESENZINI-MATTOM, RADIANTE, SETTIMELLL, TODINI, exc)

S>
iS
pe Eee
Sia
Pee
SSH

IDEA N° 18

TEXTS AS IMAGES

The relationship between words and images is one fraught with mocasinmis”~
dont domt
freingsien
x x + x vronkap
"ond
eee
Verbalisatlon
creative tension. Text people command the moral high ground dynamique
vronkap x % X X X angold
angol) angolé angolin vronkap eRe
Ree
Re
de + dior direnky filasd fala
as custodians of the printed word, while visual types fa route
<dhh falasd pieple vwassAR :
vamelokranu -biesbim
counterattack by claiming that a picture is worth a thousand AU Tan = =e=e =
vated iat viar wir

words. Their feuding is now legendary. In the publishing world,

it is the responsibility of art directors to arbitrate their quarrels,
above: Parole in Liberta (1912) opposite: Chaumont Festival
but the conflict that pits words against images is as old, and as by FT. Marinetti uses phrases (‘in (2010), a poster by Dutch
freedom’) to paint metaphorical designer Karel Martens for a
vexing, as the war between men and women.
pictures that are visually noisy. French international graphic
design festival, treats the title
At the beginning of the twentieth radical strife whose objective was ‘the ofthe event as a pretext for a
BELOW; Suckcess (1965) is a
century, Italian Futurist Filippo Marinetti destruction of syntax’. cult image from Bob Dylan’s typographical tour de force.
led a charge against printed matter, Paradoxically, the best way to over- ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’
using words as ammunition to turn the throw authority may be to become an video, in which the singer’s
page into a visual battlefield. The layout author. Marinetti, who penned the deliberate misspelling conveyed
of his 1912 Irredentismo composition is Futurist manifesto in 1909 (see p.56), his distrust of the cultural
and political establishment.
an example of how to transform typog- started what soon became a tradition
raphy into a weapon against bourgeois among anti-establishment artists. Today,
values. Collaged over a map of Italy, countless avant-garde painters,
fragments of newspaper headlines designers, illustrators, photographers,
became rockets. Low-flying brushstrokes conceptual artists and even performers
provided what looked like air support. use text as a form of visual protest. Bob in 1965, he shot the music video of his
For Marinetti, art was supposed to be Dylan was a pioneer ofthis genre when, ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ single.
In this amateur black-and-white film, he
is seen casually tossing aside a series of
cue cards inscribed with misspelled
words from his lyrics. The frame that
shows him holding the ‘Suckcess’ card
is an underground favourite.
Among contemporary graphic
designers, texts as images are now
commonplace. Recently, Dutch typogra-
pher Karel Martens indulged in some
optical play when he was asked to create
a poster for Chaumont 2010, a French
graphic design festival. Easy to decipher
from a distance, the sideways composi-
tion falls apart as you get closer, until all
that is left is a kaleidoscopic experience.
As the colours of the letters blend into a
pixellated rainbow, the pleasure of the
viewer increases. Pure white light seems
to emanate from the words, =
X
SeEH E

Setoten
e¥x oli
XY,

Me xXaie
, 4
%

x
y.
»&

LLRX

ePreo:
<XKBBM
KM
><
let my people

O
A design essential: conveying
multiple messages

VISUAL PUNS
opposite: Let My People Go (1969), asove: Gun Crime (2010),
by Dan Reisinger, appealed to the _ illustrated by Noma Bar, is a
Soviet government to allow Jews to commentary on the tragic toll
A visual pun is an image with two or more meanings which, leave the USSR. The biblical saying — of gun-related violence in the UK.
bi d. vield c 1 al red fe hi juxtaposed with the hammer and _ The trigger servesas the mechanism
once combined, yle a singie yet layered Message. Graphic sickle makes the message clear. and outcome ofgun attacks.

design could not exist without visual puns. Transforming or

BELOW: Families (1980), designed
tweaking the meaning of images in ironic and comic ways, by Herb Lubalin as the logo for
a Reader’s Digest magazine. How
so that double meanings are possible, is the conceptual lucky he was to have three letters
that suggested a family; how
mainstay of a ‘visual idea’. Forcing the viewer to decipher astute he was to see them.

visual codes triggers both recognition and surprise.

Dan Reisinger’s 1969 Let My People Go, moment of recognition that creates a Purely pictorial puns may seem
referring to the Soviet Jews who were comedic ‘spark’, which releases tension easier than typographical ones, but are
not able to emigrate to Israel, is a memo- in the form of a smile or a laugh. The not necessarily so. Milton Glaser’s 2004
rable visual pun, for it spells out the latter provokes comparison between one Olympic poster Column with Rings may
message while provoking a secondary idea and another. trigger a moment of recognition, but
level of understanding - and emotion. Then there are puns that use conjuring the pun takes a keen wit. Here
Using the hammer and sickle as a ‘G’ pictures, letters and words, like Reising- Glaser pulls the rings of the Olympic
indicates that the Soviets are the antag- er’s. There are also more complex puns logo apart into a ring toss. The Greek
onists; using Moses’ demand of the where letters and words are fused column (representing the Greek games)
Egyptian Pharaoh adds drama to the together, like Herb Lubalin’s Families, becomes the stick on which the rings are
missive. So the pun enters the conscious- where the letters ‘ili’ are transformed tossed. Finally there are suggestive puns,
ness through many openings. Similarly, into ciphers for mother, father and son; made by combining two or more unre-
in one of Reisinger’s series of posters for likewise, in Mother & Child the amper- lated or disparate references, sometimes
Israeli airline El Al (1968-72), to evoke sand fits inside the letter ‘o’ of mother, as a substitution for a more literal refer-
the destination Zurich the ‘A’ is replaced suggesting a foetus in a womb. These ence, conveying two or more meanings. #
by a snowy mountain peak, leaving no puns appear easier than they are. Trans-
doubt what is on the airline’s route. forming ‘ili’ into a family required keen
These examples are evidence that perception. And making the ampersand
not all puns are humorous in a slapstick fit so perfectly in the ‘womb’ demanded
way. In Visual Puns in Design (1982) author typographic skill. For Lubalin, each of
Eli Kince notes that puns have a these elements were keys to the doors of
‘humorous effect’ and an ‘analytical perception, where for another designer
effect’. The former is a mental jolt or ‘ili’ or ‘o’ might just have been letters.

Familes
45
graphis diagrams

, a square book.edited by
Walter Herdeg, was a striking
departure from the magazi
rectangular format. Just as
* unusual was its subject matter,
the visualization ofabstract
data. Square formats often
signal a distinctive intention.
A symbol of modernity — for over
a century

IDEA N° 20

THE SQUARE FORMAT

Art Nouveau was not all curves and floral motifs. In England,
Scotland, Austria and Germany, protagonists of this
movement were just as interested in angularity as in
serpentine lines, and they used squares as the central
motif of many of their experiments. In these countries, BELOW: Ver Sacrum (1899) was ABOVE: ‘Design&Designer’ series
the official organ of the Vienna (2001—11), a collection of square
publications with a square format were considered avant- Secession, an art movement volumes by French publisher
characterized by square motifs Pyramyd. Each book presents
garde, showcasing the work of such artists as Gustav Klimt, and geometric designs. At the the work of a graphic designer,
Joseph Hoffmann and Koloman Moser. Compact, solid, same time, the stylish square typographer, photographer
publication was ushering in or product designer whose
flawless, the square was considered a pure form and was the Jugendstil style and its Art unique vision shapes the
Nouveau decorative patterns. contemporary scene.
heralded as the ultimate anti-bourgeois motif.

In 1898 the art magazine Ver Sacrum advantage ofthe versatility of the square
(Sacred Truth) chose the square format format, and from 1918 to 1932 turned
to publish the work of Austrian Art out some of the most exciting cover
Nouveau artists. Short-lived but influen- designs to date. A monthly publication
tial, it made even the most ornamented for architects and interior decorators, it
designs look spare and economical. displayed the work of sculptors, cerami- Herbert Bayer’s Bauhaus catalogue, 1923;
For designers at the beginning of the cists, painters and graphic artists. Its art Walter Herdeg’s Graphis Diagrams, 1974;
twentieth century, the square format director, architect Hendrik Wijdeveld, Milton Glaser’s Graphic Design, 1973;
turned out to be the providential shape, had picked the name of the magazine Takenobu Igarashi’s Alphabets, 1987; and
one that seemed to accommodate (‘rotation’) as a veiled reference to the later editions of Herbert Spencer’s 1969
within its neat perimeter the most revolutionary spirit of Modernism, yet Pioneers of Modern Typography.
extravagant layouts. at the same time he unwittingly Unlike square books, square maga-
After World War I, the magazine described the very thing that makes a zines have been few and far between,
Wendingen in the Netherlands took full square format such a powerful shape: and have retained an aura of unique-
you can turn it every which way and it ness. In the late 1920s, Das Neue Frankfurt
always looks good. This contrast between imposed a horizontal grid on a square
the stability of the square and its format, always a winning design solu-
dynamic qualities was best exemplified tion. In the 1970s there was Avant-Garde,
by a 1921 cover designed by El Lissitzky. designed by Herb Lubalin. ‘Almost’
A collage of abstract forms that were square magazines have also been
assembled to give an impression of launched from time to time, from the
depth, it was a witty graphic exercise first editions of Dada, in 1917, to the
that pitted the supreme geometry of ground-breaking issues of Raygun,
Mondrian against that of Malevich. designed by David Carson in the early
Since then, numerous art books 1990s. Today, square formats are still
have adopted the square format, the popular with publishers for books on
unusual shape of their cover often design or architecture - the square
signalling the artistic nature of their remaining a symbol of uncompromising
content. Among the most iconic are modernity.

47
The human figure is reduced to bonjour voisin!
graphic elements

PRIMITIVE FIGURATION
Primitive figuration — the simplification of body, head, arm,
leg and facial features — is the reduction of realistic forms
into raw, abstract, interpretive shapes. It stems from
primitive African art, which in 1905 was introduced to
the West largely through German Expressionist graphics.
Deformation of the figure was employed to heighten the
intensity of personal expression, yet the method eventually
became the cornerstone of Modern logo and trademark
design after World War I. ABOVE: Bonjour Voisin! (1994), opposite: Anatomy of aMurder
designed by Michel Quarez in (1958), by Saul Bass, was
a raw brushstroke, emphasizing influenced by the outline drawn
Initially practised by a group of rebel- representational Romanticism that had the oversized red hand as a by police to indicate the position
lious painters and printmakers, the swept over German art during the late symbol of welcome — ‘hello of amurder victim. Bass added
Expressionist aesthetic vigorously repu- nineteenth century. In the hands of such neighbour!’ a German Expressionist nuance
to give it a more artful look.
diated the academic constraints that artists as Emil Nolde, whose periodical
BELOw: The cover woodcut for Die
were strangling mainstream German art. cover for the 1919 Der Anbruch (A New
Aktion (1918) by Hans Richter is
Primitive woodcuts symbolically served Beginning) uses a limited number of emblematic of the political wing
as the protest medium but also suggested aggressively gouged marks to create an of German Expressionism, which
something more introspective - it was emotionally searing portrait, primi- critiqued society through
the opposite of the overly rendered, tivism spoke viscerally and immediately distorted imagery.

rather than soothingly or contempla-

tively. This stark simplicity was the blue-

DieAttion
print for graphic revolution.
Expressionism filtered through the
avant garde and into the popular culture
WOCHENSCHRIFT FOR POUTIK, LITERATUR, KUNST
amid various artistic genres, painting, act of shooting up or needle marks to
Vil. JAHR.HERAUSGEGEBEN VON FRANZ PFEMFERT NR. 5 sculpture and prints, as well as scene make the point. Substituting a sharp-
RA
INWACT: eeSon
Fass Richer Wie ne le Ge AKTION ROO (Teas) miwig Rice,= jareernts Ze I916
1016 |[On Ona
’ Birosasin, Halleisatiriche Observation Te design on stage and screen. The latter edged black abstracted form that
influenced the New Yorkborn, Los suggested a tense, pained arm and hand
Angeles-based designer Saul Bass, who did everything the live-action film accom-
designed the (unique in its day) film plished yet in a fraction of the time. In
poster and opening title sequence for The 1959 he reprised this primitive figuration
Man with the Golden Arm (1955) (see p.156), a with the poster for Anatomy of a Murder,
movie that plumbs the depths of heroin which kinetically constructs a body in the
addiction, starring Frank Sinatra. What abstracted form of a police outline.
separated Bass’s work from the conven- Although it can project mixed signals
tional static movietitle cards was his when used primarily for the stylistic
kinetic, sequential imagery representing aesthetic - as was the case with the
an addict’s needle-stained arm. controversial logo for the 2012 London
is :
VERLAG + DIE AKTION ¢ BERLIN- WILMERSDORF The raw impact was a direct result of Olympics by Wolff Olins — neo-primitivism
animating the primitive graphic is still used as a counterpoint to more
HEFT 5O pra.
elements. Bass did not have to show the sterile graphic approaches. m=

48
JAMES STEWART
LEE REMICK
BEN GAZZARA
_ ARTHUR O'CONNELL
EVE ARDEN
KATEIRYN GRANT
and JOSEPH N. WELCH as Judge Weaver
Influencing the thoughts and deeds
of an entire population

IDEA N° 22

PROPAGANDA

During the early twentieth century Edward Bernays’s 1928

book Propaganda ensured that the word became synonymous
with advertising and publicity. When Bernays was laying
the groundwork for a new field called ‘public relations’,
advertising was a profession of copywriters and designers
selling goods and services. In the 1930s the term ‘propaganda’
took on more sinister meaning with the establishment of the
Nazi Ministry of Propaganda and Enlightenment, making
designers cogs in the propaganda machine’s wheels. ABove: Hope (2008), Shepard Fairey’s opposire: Destroy This Mad
independent expression ofsupport for Brute (1917), illustrated by H.}
Barack Obama’s presidential election Hopps, a World War I U.S. Art
Propaganda was never entirely inno- branding of the Jews as less than human.
campaign. It was propagated through enlistment poster. An ape, wear
cent, but it was certainly naive. The The film poster for The Eternal Jew exag-
an internet campaign — one of the first a German pickelhaube helmet
concept of propagating a message gerates clichéd ‘Jewish’ physical traits to in U.S. presidential politics. and holding a ravaged womar
through textual and visual narratives, portray a frightening spectre. demonstrates enemy brutality.
signs and symbols — the backbone of Fearsome messages are not only the Below: Der Sttirmer (1941), edited
by Julius Streicher, was a rabidly anti-
branding today — was always designed to product of extremist and fringe groups;
Semitic weekly in Nazi Germany.
be manipulative, but not venal. And yet much is government sanctioned and
Its slogan, The Jews are our Misery,’
today propaganda is synonymous with professionally produced. To produce was writ large in every issue.
spreading the big lie, whether a commer- mass hostility towards one group or
cial one or a political one. One of the another, the object of abhorrence must
biggest lies in recent times was the Nazi be stripped of its human characteristics.
‘The war of icons, or the eroding of the of behaviour be called? Ads push ideas
collective countenance of one’s rivals,’ through the idealization of products:
noted Marshall McLuhan in Understanding convincing consumers that one brand is
Media (1964), ‘has long been under way. better than another is propaganda.
Ink and photo are supplanting soldiery However, commercial messages, in
and tanks. The pen daily becomes Bernays’s meaning, may have positive
Was Juden mightier than the sword.’ implications in a capitalist society,
Politics is often a war of duelling where the market is driven by indi-
unter Gleidheit yerjtehen propagandas. Whatever breaches the vidual passions.
Sh mote mae Rese, teasineWie Mémofec bee brveren
4 x
individual’s defences and touches the Propaganda can be a dangerous
right mental buttons wins the prize. weapon, yet is not exclusively meant to
During the 2008 U.S. presidential elec- induce fear. National virtues and patri-
tion, Shepard Fairey’s Hope poster for otic fever must be promoted and stimu-
Barack Obama managed to circumvent lated. Visual depictions that instil pride,
the innate resistance to propaganda and such as Fairey’s poster, are every bit as
rouse the electorate. Hope is the graphic necessary as those that trigger a nega-
essence of that campaign. tive reaction. Heroic, blemish-free effi-
jie Juden sind unser Ungiliick! These days commercial advertise- gies of leaders are de rigueur. This kind
ments are not viewed as propaganda per of propaganda is free from ambiguity,
se, but what else should manipulation but not romanticism. m
The simpler the image, the more
powerful the communicaton

IDEA N& 23

THE OBJECT POSTER

The early twentieth-century advertising fashion known as tence lhe frutlya

(A lvenia
‘Sachplakat’, or the object poster, originated in Germany and tslilled fen gain Goa
took the advertising and design world by storm. It was the fields
of, Southern
ug ermal fae ij
a
jewel in the crown of a large stylistic movement called
ry
Plakatstil, or Poster Style.

With the advent of chromolithography competition sponsored by Berlin’s

during the late nineteenth century, a Priester match company. As the story
grand shift in advertising form and goes, Bernhard’s first - rejected — sketch
content altered the way design was prac- was typically Art Nouveau (called
tised. The ability to reproduce colour Jugendstil in Germany): a cigar in an
pictures gave birth to a popular art that ashtray on a checked tablecloth with
not only persuaded but also entertained. dancing nymphets formed by the inter-
Thanks to the new technology artists twining tobacco smoke. Next to the
developed looser painting styles, and ashtray were two wooden matches. A
the resulting posters resembled grand friend mistakenly complimented Bern- BELOW: Priester Matches (1906), Above; Absolut Pears (2007)
canvases filled with fanciful figures and hard on the excellent cigar advertise- by Lucian Bernhard, is the first is one of hundreds in a
cool colours, all capped by artful letters. ment, which forced him to rethink the ‘Sachplakat’ or object poster. long-running series showing
With only two matches to Absolut vodka bottles, starting
Then, as though in reaction to composition. Immediately he elimi-
illustrate the product along in 1985 with a rendering by
complexity, a more simplified style nated the tablecloth, ashtray, cigar and with the brand name, the Andy Warhol. The bottles have
emerged, one that was easy for passers- smoke, until he was left with only two poster bucked the trend for been used in ironic contexts,
by to read on jam-packed streets. simple matches. Next, he enlarged the fanciful advertisements. but also as objets d’art on
Sachplakat’s inventor was an matchsticks, made them red with their own.
18-year-old German cartoonist, Lucian yellow tips, and placed them on a
opposite: Prevent Loose Heads
Bernhard, who, in 1906, entered a poster maroon field. At the top of the image
Inspect Daily (c. 1947), by Tom
area he hand-lettered the brand name Eckersley, was created as a
‘Priester’ in bold block letters. cautionary message for industry.
The object poster remained in vogue Simply showing the object in
until 1914, when World War I brought question with unambiguous text
commercialism to a halt. After the war, was at once graphically startling
and completely understandable.
advertising techniques shifted again
and a variety of new methods, including
Art Deco styling, began to take hold.
The Sachplakat lost its currency, but
it was nonetheless influential. Eventu-
ally, it became just one of many tools
in the advertising toolkit, along with
more conceptual illustration, and
later photography. =

52
A LEGENDARY SEDUCER TELLS
Playful colours and shapes WANTS LO

IDEA N92 24

PAPER CUTOUTS

Child’s play and graphic design go naturally hand-in-hand.

Cut-and-paste collages similar to those made in childhood
are not inconsequential in the history of Modernist image-
making. When Henri Matisse began to feel the effects of
deteriorating health, he turned from paint to collage made
from bright coloured paper. AN INTIMATE DISCLOSURE
74 SUESBY1350

Matisse’s 1947 Icarus, featuring a roughly The Fauvist Matisse had begun
cut black human figure floating against playing in his visual sandbox in 1943 BELOW: Icarus (1947), a cut-paper asove: A Legendary Seducer
a sky of blue with cutout stars of yellow, when working on the limited edition collage by Henri Matisse from (1990) is a layout by Alexander
influenced the approaches of Paul Rand, book Jazz (published in 1947 by Tériade), his Jazz portfolio and book, Liberman for Self magazine.
designed to suggest the A powerful creative at Condé
Saul Bass, Henryk Tomaszewski, Alan an improvisational series of prints,
improvisation of the music. Nast from 1943 to 1994,
Fletcher and Ivan Chermayeff, among which combined gouache-painted paper The portfolio includes around Liberman treated letterforms
many fine and applied artist acolytes. cutouts with handwritten text. ‘These 20 images. as pieces to be used in freestyle
Each at one time or another employed images with their vivid, violet tones are collages.
similar techniques to effect an expres- grounded in crystallized memories of
sionistic graphic outcome. Although a the circus, of popular tales or journeys,’
time-honoured method of early do it he concluded in the book, adding that
yourself art, collage was viewed in the he did them as ‘reactions to my chro-
early twentieth century as a Modern matic and rhythmic improvisations, as
alternative to the even more traditional pages that form a kind of “ambient
arts of painting and drawing. sound”.’ Although they appeared ad
hoc, they clearly were not.
Whether as abstracted forms used
for handmade lettering on the cover of
Alan Fletcher’s The American Art Book
(1999), or Henryk Tomaszewski’s poster
promoting sculptor Henry Moore (1959),
or as back- and foreground texture in
Alexander Liberman’s layouts for Self
magazine (1990), cut papers trigger a
host of visceral responses in the receiver. with a demonstrative finger pointing in
Yet one common denominator is a sense the air. The cut showed a distorted view
of lightness and informality. Cut paper of Mencken’s head and shoulders yet did
suggests youth - or at least play. not accurately follow the contours. He
One of the most wittily ironic uses then surrounded it with brightly
of this abstract manner - indeed one of coloured (red and turquoise) boxes filled
the most informal - is Paul Rand’s HLL. with the lettering. The intention was to
Mencken, Prejudices: A Selection (1958). make it rough and sloppy, as though
Instead of settling for a frequently seen an untutored hand had made it. The
publicity photograph of the author for result, however, was a sophisticated
the cover, Rand cut it up in a childlike emblem for Mencken as well as a playful
way into an abstract humanoid shape, book art object. =

54
Wystawa

neib

Henry

Moore'’a

Moore (1959), poster by Henryk

Tomaszewski, uses paper cutout
letters to suggest Henry Moore's
emblematic abstract sculpture.
* Atop the second ‘0’ sits one of
his distinctive stone works.
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mes nos premitres crits inutiles!... Ils viendroot contre tables chacan trouva wn tres joli —
6 : F nousde tn’s loin,departoutenBohdis- |menu. oraé dun dessia de de Losques etre | La plus goatée, la plus appréciée do
ios: «Le Bol's & UBlysée... i tsurla cadence légire de leurs pre a ob embrassant | 9oa hy > nos grandes marques francaises la
te cork 1 Caillave :Ux Rewsrrc 4. Nous voulons chanter amour du roohts, ct humant, aux portes |telme, qui furent chacune exactement cen | Vincennes. —Gagnanis du Kigaro + eratique de nos marques, Ja Lorraine
eat fra nco-angiais mooacé : Lowis| | danger, Vhabilude do I'énergle et de la spritsacadémies,
te comerce pourrissants 1a bonne odeur aux
4éj& promis de nos
ca- |
|fois
Y de suitecomedie
Vespiey d délureCaillavet,
petite You-|Ro. Pris Micke’ ole ;Fringante.
Sourgortcs Dietrich
Une admirable six-cylindres Loraine-
fheo'clock du " Figaro”: Fautes, 2. Les éléments essenticls do notre |weombes des bibliothbques beredeFlers et Emmanuel Arén
te fre ole crristoire d'un ingtituteur :Pas-| podsio seront Je covrago, Faudace et Ja |.Mais nous ne serons pas li. Us nous | Je renones 4 yous donnerune idée de V'ax-|
| acnéze ; Frégol.
7;Escapad:
Dietrich, cestinéo Vaulomobile,
dilettante de
au prince vientOrloff, ce
précis,
bre oF trouveront enfin, par une nuit dhiver, |péct ferique que prisentalt alors cette foul lecta; Eclaireur. | mont d’arriver a Monte-Carl
peorde 12aonpolitique
pal oreus:Avcusre Avni | 3, Lalittérature ayant jusqu'ici magni- |en pleine a caropagne, sous un triste han- |de jolies actrices aux parures brillantes et
PsLa reprieentation |16Vimnmobiité pensive, Vextase ot le | S&F pianoté par ta pluie monotone, ac- |chatoyantes encadréce do dominos stde cos-
‘yarn; f Elisabet,
3
Elle l'a gagné pac la route, conduite
par Rougier, ca mattre du volant, qui,
Comment Meron GeonoEs BOURDON. mil, Nous youlons exalter Je mon- | oF apis res de nos uGroplatics ‘ pi- Sats baae ins varids 4 Vinfini, et échan-| = — si elle, a bralé tes pes. Ne disons
yop gressif, Vinsomnie Aévreuse, le | dants, en train-de chauffer nos mains |geant d'ene v propos joyeus 5 .pas.en combien pou de temps, pour ne
Paces 4, 6 a7 6 pas
fle syrmnastiqao
ole eoup Je saul périllevs, Io) sur
de.polng. ivresEe ane rom que Gath
d'aujourd’hnl gi@ment is |
etd
vent eon
spirituel e 6 plus sou- A Travers Paris point effaroucher les eélérophobes.
a a0 thbdteo =GHEY 4, Nous déclarons quela sptendeur du |sous le vol étincélant di nages. | Ala table dhoncear Somue! Je |_12 roi desBulgares a chargé M. Stan ie vcs
a ecuxe avorture
teecarious avert
¢CKARIS DA | monde siest onrienis dune beaulé nou- | Tiss ameuteront aitlour denovs, hale-
alle; la beaulé do Ja vitesse. Une anto- |ants d'angoisse et de dépit, et, tous, % G
‘ise, |déposer
cloMf, ministro de Bulgarie & Paris, de
en son nom uno couroane surle |
chasseur-statisticien
it pas d'un adepte de seint
enande raligleu : 1 Inabilo de course avee son colfre orné de |exaspérés par notre fier courage infali- | ot Mily Meyer, Beiacoup plus p cercueil du marquis Costa de Beaure- mais du chasseurduthédtre Mi-
edsainedeIaGirone: | : gros luyauy, tels des serpents i Phateine |gable, s'élanceront pour nons tuer, avec |savoorer Vexcelleat menuquede {i gard ctd'offrir ses:condotéances
&le.fa. En effet, ce jeune factotun sétant
explosive... une uulomobile rugissar Mautant plus de haine que leur ‘coeur |portage, j'avouc A roa, honte de soi mille du défunt, Sonu py lever chaque eolr; endant les
« BaneLAne ae
de Bare
Buri-| |qui a Vair
det plus bellean courir
que la surFictoire
de la demilraille,
Samo. |nous.
|Sra ivre Ft d'amoue
Ja forts etet dadmiration pour |
la saine Injustice |voir
Coutes pasIos soagé bel s A noter
invicsesexactement
;aureste, lemes
nom deuxdo — Lala Ch
laillerdia
et. Fenlaoo Merede
deFeu Poke
Madame,les
epétition gentrale de «tu| thrace Gclatera radiousament dans leurs yeux. |manchettes et mon plasiconn'yauraieat pas |_M-Jean Richepin a fait jeudi son ening lourdissantes prices
Mchotile nombre d
du théatre
tos et de voitur
KM1s voul donthantoy
Nous f volank qui |
Mhomme trae peut Clee que violence, |suff...
Car Vartet noInjustice Copendant en forgant mon souvenir, |Coyey Ya Coupolo au son du famdoue:
Meren
Ville L’Ane de ts tige ideale, | crmanté y devantmes yeux fer | C'est Ie rite. Lorsquiun nouvel académi- |de matlre dont il a ouvertles portiore:
Hee Lesa Fuens ex} xp| verse
obra Dxpu Furns la terrg,’
ohrcul: do In jeememe sure ||cord
Lesplus axes el Won " antla lourde
}olnisles porte verte, de des milt- |tomobiles,
obiles,%S12 44,985 voitures atlelées en dou-
ihedoBuridan >:Roser circuil de sonson “nblle
ort ; : tronte Gis,
inset pourtant
pourtanl nons
nous ave ernie
AVONS | aimeg sayatiine,.en déllciawrSaeite
yoit6 devaotla)
lines portent armes et lo tambour |bleet voitures altelses d'un. seu
a br UMLLAVER G. Hi faulque le podle se-dépense aveo |deja gaspillé des trésors, des. tré | jouse |bone bat ux champs. Depuis Napoléon I=, |cheval. a
chaleor,
mentor faéclat olprodigalité,
ferveue enthousiasio. despour auk- |force,
mts d'amour,
i Lae on de ¢ lie, sans4 compte
d'Bpre VO- |Santer
I en on.Hollandaite
toiletts Dist
181; Ger ilyPalas,a Lovjours
aux jourseo iedans le vestibule
réception académi-da] |aulos
1 n'a ni des
pas flacres.
daigné s'occuper per desdes taxie
menls primordiaux,
Mera pibecco pedulé qua dene’ i tour de bras, PhOLs i p|Nous iol
Ne sons pos E ersas a que,
gir un UOypiquet d'honneur et un tam mee
une fois,Lamy volla trois | 14s “ceptions académiques ont tou-
Le Futurisme do chief-d’onuyro
latte. asagressif.
| ractine
saul vidlent Jaa podsio
contre
ans unotro unca: |CORTES
sdoit
les forces inc
Ca reatnourel de(ou,ol
haine cl do‘ vitesse! Cele vous étonne > yaWal;
l Juliette
Jo
Ugalteyatayelte
m(Atasleutee Clagene,
shbpall Loute gracten
erie ol ans, PO quand M.saufee
Toujours, Filienne vint preaTT rs &6dieeince do tres scequsiee
Drillantes manifesta-
Tee
a | nucs, mmet Crest que vous no vous souvenez meme a
Tues pons Oe: er Sr eneetWEEHE #n Soo OCiKl
piquet d'honneur, mais le tambour
Sait A su pluce,
man- |Coupole prote un peu de son imposante
“§. Nous son du monde, nous langons encore une fois |n Un elabron! tou tle ily uvait un olatton solennité. Celle de M. Jean Richepin nt
monde fut diac. |Point failli & une tradilion qui moins
M, Morlaetth, lo jeave poste Stollen at extrémo des siecle le déf ax étoiles * a rec at cord pour leprier de se taire. M. Etienne | utre risquedepérichiter. Aussi
(2iais au (aleotrofnarquable et fougucux, | Gxt rire ni
toneJeo pays. lauins, { faut défoncer tes Vantauxmystérioux do conbalst Gestealendull Nousz savone
moment quill nous | Vos objections? Assez te at Vordee alph: Lamy ful regu sans tambour ni trom- | {hele pour le « Parfum de la Dame
Beane Sie Saqantgateaelie euThine Riel ‘ | pert Noir» comme un baptéme défuitit deen
Gividane pldiade Wenthousiastes disciplox, | Vimpossible? Le Temps etlEspaco sont yv.] _Le seerélairo do !Mustitut
fitau minis--| SUPeme légan comme une consé-
vient do fonder I’Exole du « Futurisme» dont | morts r. Nous vivons gonce nous affirm Nous ne sommes <, Yv, Ba- |tere a guerm les démarches néces- |ChAlOn dernier capliy
¥s Untories dépassool co hardiesto toates |solu, puisqua aievitle, Th | Saires pour dviter W'un pareil |dorablement nt odeur »
sere’
saites, decles, antéricures ou contem | Teimmndhhe vitessenous onsnipresenic
avons dca ordé |dit
mnentde nosque angatres lo résumé le protonge:
—Pent-biro!
16vou soit
at Le Figaro quiaelles,
dé} servi
et nonde tre | _A© Nee Viens aloriiier he guer e, — |Qu'importe?.,. d Mais nous
incident. On Inipr amais plus |fit sienne ,
Centre des | ea, )on ne yerrait de clairon sur le passage | 28M! qu'elle doptée par toutes les
pte fourd’but &woelectonra to senlo ] hygiene du monde, — le milita- |onlendre! Gardez-vous de réps Desprex Debdrion.|
Do“ | du(tude récipiendaire
he secrete's wee sour plus decer. |Parisiennes.
fase Eset besointoute dela ||risme.
dons Ptnciaten».ausignataire rem, le patriotisme,
jotisme, esto, destrnc-desire: Shots
le Ye, gesle
Debout
inffes
sur
f Laver pluldt la vale|
la cime du mond
: Miti-Dall), eee. | — —
Jire geenoys latasong (ur des anurchistes, les bel Ges CU noasiencore lune fos le dad insolent fois qu'il écrit au ministre pour lui
repeat dws Hessg0 bemniny” | tuant eLle mépris deo femme _ |eesens enc s | Bselent | nonin Fae elani Boy sied, |Mandortepiquet, prend soin dejouter Nouvelles c5 la Main
P-T, Marinott. \ eS Les crédits de la marin
Vaestmivenmont rospectablesat| Jes biblotheques, compattre le i
adeaaet
Kereusemeat, partout
respectées’? itty le férminisme et toutes i ——-|3 aks —— —On assure M. Caillaux et M,
nt de réserver Anos lecioure auprone Picard ne slentendent gudre. Ilya choc.
Hip manifoetation
| aul serandes foules LA VIE DE PARIS cep. Lausién — Ilva méme abordage..
? iespar le travail, le plaisit ou la ré ee a y ;s 0 quat oom
ies ressacs multicol poly- ofr dagens quittant la Coapole; Les agents des B, T. T. malmenent
Ra
woosat avions ques des As fans les : cap saatse tort
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mor sousvellé
destools
Iarapestanuit, me finsartonans
Adornes'
ot deschanters sousoatorne
tearstc
|"LO ROL” yp& TElysée,.. Palace
Bea |eei" ae n e : Sea
Cotes eae eisbalun Sapte e epee,a gaaSana § i ard
ijaée dont les coupoles de ouivre aussi | violenies lunes él ctriques; les gares Simoo-Glrard, Mazy Stally, | To U'shordal, Ai
it vous ple! Wt ='Sur ses employes?
Malenen. sacs patel
tiourées que notre Ame avaient pour-| gloulonnes uvaleuses de serpents qui os ne, Spirisco, Tursanne: d
lant des cours Gleotriques. Et tout| fument; les usines suspondues aux nua- SOT an Richopin t i 5
autenteeisantlapis
naire nates,ous.
perzansy, paresse‘tur|gor
avions par
Sonks Tasbonds
aus fcetlesdofogymnasies
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set ;
| DS_ Comment
oo
fn
daculé aux frontivres extrémesdé la.lo-| sur la coulellerie diaboliqne des Nenves teignent les demniéres chandclles ct of lex a¢-| Lorsqua tout le rond 5, on : des postiers
ape cl BriNG Te papier do démentes
|ensoleillés; Jes paquebols \aventureux |cistes remplacent en hat lours sombres |trer non sang stupéfact a } < Meille —On cn fourrera quelques-uns a la
centure: flairant I'borizon; les locomotives aw |vérements familiors Wes sompruenx et écla- |son frac irriprochable, ta leehapal &claque, botte...
Co immense orgveil gonfait nos poi-| grand poilrail qui piaffont sur tes rails, | canes orips earauuich : et |Gla Darbe, chenue Jens, quit Ls Masquedo Fer.
fines Anoas sentir debout tous sculs,
|{els d’énormes chevaux d'acier bridis de ear beals rata eatuctinccoet paver lew Facts a reofreqaewtart
romme des phares ov comme des senti- | Jongs tuyauxot Je vol glissant des adre p 4 j F aoaneelaeeolaal aaide Cardnaon c st doramage t
neiles avancées, face ik Varmée des élailes | planes, cont Phélice o des olaquem i Cette étonnante M. ait sutte quel'ex. |
ravens,qu)campent
dens duns les inferaales chaulferies
dans lenis De dedrapeaux ado
tanemids. qui campeat dans lenis bi- |de drapeanx otdes applavdissements
des| C'est en Ilalic «ue nous langons ce
arth ie s
Siiianorsnsesid
on sitet
Apr!
| ellen Hague auuno Ct de ple
RAgaster oe
ouper, on
i |
3s
; L | t Caill
e complo aux
rrands naviros, souls avec lesnoirs fan- |manifeste do violence enlbutante ¢t in- vids 3 ‘ eprésen- |Vexpression consacrie—d 1 agers
Wines qui fourragent dans le ventre | ire, par lequel nous fondons “asR <| 00, aprée queI'on ent écout | Je ne roa
rougo des locomotives afc jourd'huileSeturisme, parce que NOUs |ges Varios hanson improvisée par Fursy otavole regarde | POL tparcron genre,bclimpertequel prix! {_M. Caillaux fomente un petit complot
avec les ivrogacs battant desailes contre |youtons ddiivrer I'ilalic de sa gangrine |“Te, Thoure of, les autres nuits,éilent seule- | une pideo fF tes chanson- | Dede!doitme metizo d La pa (lout petit) contre se collégues du mi
Ksmurs ! de professeurs, d’archéologues, de clet- |ment dane limmense avenw es autos | niersdola A Bee ee aes n particulier contre leprési-
Bt nous void brusquement distraits |rones et d’antiquaires Ree ga re aRERE Reet von endiablé que i Dauquelitcecamit nina
ar lo roulement des énormes tramways | L'Iialiea ét trop longtemps te march4 Jtoail tes amateurs do spectacle, estat la| Etpeadant cetemps lesprojecteurs répan
Léouble étage, qui passent sursautants, |des brocanteurs qui fournissaient au | Coricuse ct ininterrompee chevaucher ja s danseure des falsceaux k rancho lard éclaterait au lendemain du
teriolés doJumitres, tels tes hameaux |monde lemol de nos ancitres, sans |Srp de tous formats, de tous mrs ot'de 3 t lemagnéslam d Timpot sur le revenn et pac
taftle que le Pd déhordd ébranle tout a|cesse renouveld ct soigneusement ini- |cous vernis conséquent i ts veilla de la discussion
capot déracine, pour Jes entratner, sur |traillé pour simuler to travail dos tarets | °"y.c5 autos s’arrdtalent Sin fut "Auroe aux .doigts eq des credits surlamarine
‘weascades et les remous d'un déluge, | vénérables tons ashore asser | minee do \'Elyade-F - t qu'el | Alphonse Lemerre, éditeur du Par-| oi s8htsue a Alfred Picard va ¢
qn Jamer. | Vitalie des musées innombrables qui 18 |go curieux acharnds autant que noctambitles, |de 1 Orient r Vhomme qui béche fout nu», ;mander au Parlement les 225 millions
Pais Ie silence s‘aggrava.Comme nous |conyrent diinnombrables slmotiores. —|Yaposaicnt des pelts paquets d 3) |oe VetysteePal f 2 Ville-d'avray, de: |qu'il estime indispensables pour la mis
toutions la pridre exténude du vieux| Musées, cimetldres'... Identiques vral- |f;ouranes quistaient des. temenes Sean ep cont ie « 4 Jen Gat de notre Notte actuelle, cest-a-
canal cl crisser les 08 des pslais mori-| mont dans leursinistre coudoioment de|cc des pantins plus ov me . : es Or hier ila ion au |dire do la flotte qui est sur meron dans
hends dans leur harhe de yerdure, sou-| corps qui no se connaissent pas, Dor- | geaiontdeshommes déguists nay ————--——- | prisfet de Soine-et-Oise. Les motifs sout | les ehantiers. Daulres sommes seront
dainrugirent gousnos fenéires les auto-| toirs publies ol Yon dart i jamais |”Ye seuil tranchi, i) fala ordre politique, nous dit uno dépache. | par 1a. suite volées pour Yanementa-
Bobiles atfamées, les Gres bals Ou IN- |ptanche et carte Doig sile préfet sera content. |tion de nos escadres, si nous ne voulons
~ Allons, dis-je, mes amis! Parlons! |connus. Féroclté réci no des peuntres |juges revetus de pourpre. qui, gravemout, s do Vill j- |pas tomber A bref délai au cinquitme
Enfin, la Mythologie
etI'Idéal mystique |ot des soulpteurs s'entre-Luanticoups de| Sointaiont los arrivants sur une ¢ s regrets. Tang des puissances nay
senlsurpassés. Nous allons assister & la |lignesctde couleurs dans le méme mu- |£ (Quand on yalefrspch NidessE Chaq en effet, au pied du| Mais en co moment il n'est question
naissanco du Centaure et nous verrons |S60, ar et Rhadamante, il fallalt remetere s iS Xo malre fatsail dresser |que des dépenses immédiatement néces-
(Ot voler les premiors anges !— Quion y fasso une visite chaque an-| 4 ua cerbere, ot alors seiement on R une tente foraine of des artistes céld- |saires pour V'entretien, l'achavement,los
faudra ébranter teeportes de la vie pour |née commo on va voir ses isons uae antorisé & recevolr Ja poignée 7 La Température venaient donner les plus belles bres répar soe hassins di
es esayer les gonds otlesvorrous! Par-|fois par an!... Nous pouvons bien l'ud- |tienveoue d'un doge 4 lorgnon« , : représentations du monde. C’étaient |matériel d'armement,
lons} Voila bien le premier soleil levant |metire |...Quon dépose meme des Meurs |qstait autre que Ferna muel; directenr ¢ tsbellejournée, hior, a Pacie Worse et Mme Barretta-Worms; ¢'é- |que nolre défense nationale exige
sac laerro!.. Rion n'égalo Is splendeur |unefois par an avx plots delaYoconde, |Jc rneurenx theatre des Varitéset maire da tac deIapls grande pare, ot le 10-|(afent les oux Coquelin. Lo prix des |pois longlemrs et quit est urgent de
deson épée rouge qui sescrime pour Ia |nous Ie concevons!... Mais que l'on palais sans soucis de triou rolrda C a Printemps — | places tombait dans |etronc tricolore des | Yoter
Premibro fois dans nos téndbres millé- |promener quotidiennomont dans les mu- |Ssono. 1 Quant 4 ta vempéra-| Eavres municipeles. On ignore si te | Crest sur cettequestion de d#fonso na-
aires
Nous nous approchémes des trois ma- |ct séesnotrenos inquiétude,
trisiesses, nosnouscourages frag | 425Unepiorfoulefulies
ne Padmettons compacteactriceset biga et let vellle, laométrematinéc.marquait
A wept2 beu- au.||Suecesseur
maine Tui de M- Alphonse
suceédera aussi Lemerre
comme iim-la |Uonale M.(laCaillaux
|que chose aest,décidé
a peine croyabl la
d'engager
chines rendolanies pour {flatter Jeur poi- |pas! ; Jtce hommes qui de tout pris ov d'excessi- |dessous de zéro ;m: mid) on notait ario. On en rout douter. Et tant pis |lutte contre te cabinet Clemen
rail. Jo mallongeat sur la mienne Admirer un viewx tableau, c'est verser | vement fein ont des raisoas do sintéresser |11* au-dessus. Ls pression barométrique,qui|pour les pares D'apris le ministeo des flnane
, Legtand balesde folie nous arrache | noire Sensibilité dans uno u funds | aux choses du thettre,allait et venait dans | 949509 Fro Tera accuse 5h ops | Sern g.auaune urgence pourlovolo do ces
Ynoas-mémes etnous poussaa travers |raire au liew do la lancer on avant par |jes immenses salous éclaires @ giorno, cba- | Use aie andeycloai Pe sea 25 millions, et ily a en outre exagéra-
lsrues cscarpées et profondes comme | jetsviolents de création et d'action, Vou- |¢ con colaie eee annanstls centrale, pres etde le Vienne
manimsum barométrique se] Réponse . collective. lion dans I'évaluation do ees dépenses,
des orsaie desséchés. CA ch la, des | lez-vous done gicher ainsi vos roeilleu- } e toutA coup sous Vaccoutrement te |trouve “hoe f jules (77020)
sont tombées dans} Pout répondre aux nombreuses d
Tl faut, selon lui, connattre d'abord les
pes malheurenses, eux iendtres, nous|res forces dans une admiration inutile plus baroqce ct le plus imprévu ua grave |ie nord et I'e! cot. Fa Franer, le |Mandes de renseignements qui Jui sont | Téformes que M. Alfred Picard prépae
tascignaient & mépriser nos yeux ma-| du passd, |dont vous sortez forcémont |cénfréro inséparable, dans son souvenir, de |temps a été bean partout, mais la mt adressées, Henri Petit, le grand (ailleur- |ns le personnel des arsenaux, dans lo
imatiques. | épuisés, amoindris, pistinés? la plus sévére jaquette ou de la plus trdg houleuse sur lex cotes dT» Méditerra-| couturier, annonce que l'inauguration |mode de nos constructions navales, ete.
~ Le fair, criai-je, 1 fair suffit-eux| En verité, la fréquentation quolidienne | celte redingov ch, de ses nouveaux salons du boulevard |Ces niformes, quidemandent encore pi
faves’... | des musées, des bibliotheques <, La température5 se reléve notablement sur |Mulesberbes aura lieu dans une huitaine |Sieurs mois d'études et que M. Picard
Sortons de la Sagesse comme d'une | académies (0 bres d'efforts per- = Frio ay ua.atin, auctessus de aéro ;|28 JOUrs. Ses clients ne perdront rien |veut faire connaltre avec le programme
fangue hideuse et entrons, comme des |dus, ces salvaires de réves orneifiés, © e| sphoulogne, 4 lite dAlg, 2°& Cherbourg,«|Pour attendre, car il leur promet des |des commandes futures, M. Caillaux pri
suils pimentés d’orgueil,dans bouche |registres d’élans brisés '.,) est por S e de Biarrite etd Bordeaux, 3° "A Ouersant, ea |Pévélations et des créations sensation- |tend qu'elles doivent précéder tonts
fomonse et lorse du vent!... Donnons- |artistescequ’est Ja tatelle prolongés des|s'avancer, puis ve former en.rond woe fanlare |Trulguse, 6° a Marseille, §* & Perpignan ct a.| Helles au point de vue du, gonre,et. des |pense, quellequ'en soit In date, eb. {l
foo & mangeriI'Inconnu, non par dé |parents pour des jeunes gensinte}ligents, |do gardes républicains, qui, sous 1a condulte |Ceutc, 114 & Ora 5 prix spécialement établis.pour celte:oir- |firme que son collégue de la marine
‘espoir, mais simplement pour enricbir |ivres de tour talent et de lour yolonté |d'un cbef de musique graszouiligt & la mise | “Au 4 | constance. exagere d'ailleurs le péril de la flott
ls insondables reservoirs
doTAbsurde! |ambitious geates prodigicusement comiques, ¢ |Limoges, 1° 4 Nantes, au Maos et 4 Lyon, ——— le vide de nos arsenaux.
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Artists taking a subversive stand

IDEA N2 25

MANIFESTOS

Provocative pronouncements by groups of artists tend to oprosiTe: Manifeste du ‘BOVE: First Things First (1964),
Futurisme (1909), written published by British designer
share one characteristic: they favour stark black-and-white by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Ken Garland, who intended to
published in French in Le radicalize the design practice
typography, on the assumption that colourful statements Figaro, an elitist newspaper, that was fast becoming a subset
could be construed as frivolous. In fact, many of them look which did not support Marinetti’s ofadvertising. In 2000 an
revolutionary ideas. Its publication updated version was printed in
like ordinary pamphlets, as if their authors had gone out of launched Futurism on the magazines including Adbusters,
international scene Emigré, Items and Eye.
their way not to let the form of their proclamations detract
seLow: Altermodern (2009) is
from the content of their subversive messages. an example of a museum
introducing a new art movement
as a ‘manifesto’. The Tate Gallery
One of the first such art manifestos, a seminal art movements of the twentieth
poster, designed by M/M (Paris),
diatribe by Filippo Marinetti, looked century. Futurism would soon be known addressed ‘the death of
like a regular newspaper article, and as a celebration of speed, violence, war postmodernism and the rise of
was printed in French in Le Figaro in and machine art. a new modernity, reconfigured
1909. The medium the Italian Futurist The Futurist manifesto predicted to an age of globalization’
chose for his ‘mission statement’ was the kind of seditious attitude that was
reminiscent of Emile Zola’s famous to spread across Europe in the coming
open letter J’accuse, published in LAurore decades. Many more art manifestos
11 years earlier in defence of Alfred would follow, with different purposes
Dreyfus, an army captain falsely accused and rhetorics, but all adopting the
of being a spy. At first glance one could format pioneered by Marinetti — that of
not guess that Marinetti’s mild-looking an official announcement. The 1918 drafted on an old typewriter. A recent
manifesto would launch one of the most Dutch De Stijl manifesto listed nine manifesto, First Things First, originally
bullet points, the 1930 French Art written and published in 1964 but
Concret six. Later manifestos expressed updated in 2000, attempts to spell out
their philosophy using the typograph- the social responsibilities of graphic
ical vocabulary of newspapers, with designers. Given the subject matter, you
bold headlines and well-marked para- might expect a provocatively laid-out
graphs. One important detail was statement, but true to form, it is a
always the list of signatories. The fact low-key graphic artefact.
that these texts were endorsed by a But things are changing. Today, one
group ofartists is one reason why their could argue that contemporary art itself
layouts were not more distinctive. To is a formidable statement: artists who
reach a consensus between supporters work on manifestos are creating anti-
with big egos, whoever designed and establishment pronouncements that
penned these manifestos had to adopt must be deciphered carefully, each work
as neutral a style as possible. an ‘open letter’ to the public. In 2009,
There were some exceptions to the London’s Tate Britain chose the mani-
neutral style, though none uses colour. festo approach to introduce the theme
Among the more graphically arresting of its fourth Triennial, ‘Altermodern’.
documents are the 1963 Fluxus mani- The poster, representing a world map, is
festo, a mostly lower-case, hand-printed a mesmerizing assemblage of letter-
document incorporating collages; and forms, images and words that defy the
the 1978 Crude Art manifesto, roughly very idea of ‘visual communication’. =
Offset (1926), forBuch und Werbekunst
(Book and Advertisements), was a
technological and aesthetic journal edited
by Bauhaus student and teacher Joost
Schmidt. This cover by Schmidt suggests
the theme of printing

SSAU

&TSCHMIDT.BAUH
DE

YOST
68H
DU
-DESS
CVON
CKERE
JO
F:

AUHA
1926 ENTWUR
DOT DOT DOT 7
«- uptight, optipessimistic art
& design magazine pushing
for a resolution . in bleak

Propagating styles and methods

midwinter ... with local and
general aesthetics ...wound
on an ever tightening coll

of design

IDEA N° 26

GRAPHIC DESIGN MAGAZINES

es TS RA DIAS TI TEE SI GEIS.
Graphic design evolved during the late nineteenth century
from a sideline of the printing industry into a distinct
field with its own practitioners. The crucial link in this
evolutionary process was trade magazines. Initially they
established professional standards for printing and
typesetting, but as businesses demanded more aesthetically
complex layouts and typography, trade magazine editors were
forced to analyse and critique new advances in design.
BeLow: Campo Grafico (1933), ABoveE: Dot Dot Dot 7 (2004) is an
The Berlin-based Das Plakat (The Poster), began to apply these methods to their cover designed by Enrico Kaneclin unconventional design magazine
with its focus on conventional and avant- commercial work. for Italy's Fascist-era graphic that explores the culture and history
design magazine, combined ofgraphics through a theoretical
garde sensibilities, emerged as a more In 1925 Typographische Mitteilungen,
commercial art with the visual lens. Printed mostly in black and
historically influential review than the monthly organ of the German philosophy ofItalian Futurism. white, it eschews eye candy.
any other. Founded in 1910 by Hans Josef Printers’ Association in Leipzig, shocked
Sachs, it aimed to champion art the professional nervous system by sanc-
poster collecting and increase scholar- tioning the most radical approaches.
ship among amateurs and professionals. Under the guest editorship of Jan Tsch-
By Das Plakat’s demise in 1921 commer- ichold, Typographische Mitteilungen advo- tional magazine, founded in 1946 by
cial artists and typographers were cated graphic design and typography poster designer Walter Herdeg, was an
influenced by Futurism, De Stijl, from the Bauhaus, De Stijl and Construc- outlet for iconoclastic designers and
Constructivism and Dada, and some of tivism as appropriate for use among the illustrators from around the world, espe-
the keepers of tradition gradually wider-spread profession. It was the first cially Soviet Eastern European countries.
time that the German printing and But the most groundbreaking of all was
graphics industry had been offered a full Portfolio (1949-51). Edited for three issues
dose of the type and layout later known by Frank Zachary and designed by Alexey
as the New Typography. Brodovitch, Portfolio defined a late
The role of these magazines was to Modern sensibility that viewed the
record, observe and report on the field, concept of good design as weaving
but some also excited the passions of throughout culture as a whole. Portfolio
designers and altered the popular levelled the field between high and low
perception and styles of design. This was art and in so doing changed the funda-
certainly true of Gebrauchsgraphik, mental definition of a trade journal.
founded and edited by Dr H.K. Frenzel, The banner of these internationally
starting in 1923. A bilingual (English and focused magazines is still waved by such
German) chronicle of ‘new’ international journals as Etapes in France and Eye in
graphic art styles and techniques, it was Britain, both with long tenures and a crit-
distinguished by the guiding editorial ical edge. Younger design magazines are
notion that advertising art was a force harder to publish in the present-day print
for good in the world. environment, but those that survive, such
After World War II the most signifi- as Dot Dot Dot, are not tradeoriented but
cant graphic design clarion was Graphis. rather culture-concerned, focusing on the
This Zurich-based, multilingual, interna- design and visual culture. =
Floral patterns are rediscovered

IDEA N& 27

BOTANICAL GEOMETRY

The idea that one can turn natural, organic forms into
highly stylized patterns had always intrigued artists.
However, at the turn of the twentieth century, floral
BeLow: ‘Scylla’ wallpaper design ABOVE: The identity system
patterns began to be thought too quaint. Around 1900, (1902) is a geometrical floral for dance corapany Centre
pattern by Koloman Moser, a co- Chorégraphique National de
all over Europe, avant-garde graphic artists began to
founder of the Wiener Werkstatte. Tours (2002) is a playful and
combine curvilinear floral motifs with rectilinear elements Though curvilinear and graceful, overgrown design by French duo
the forms prefigure the more Antoine+Manuel. Loosely based
as a reaction against the pervasive sentimentality and rigorous ornamentation that on Helvetica, the central motif
would become synonymous acts as a logo that changes
fastidious elegance of Art Nouveau. with Modernism. according to the seasons.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh in Scotland, ments. To assess the difference between

Koloman Moser in Austria and Peter the two decorative approaches — before
Behrens in Germany were at the fore- and after the turn of the century - one
front of this aesthetic rebellion. In their has only to compare the floral wallpaper
work, serpentine lines were intersected patterns designed by Eugene Grasset in
by chequerboards, leafy designs were 1897 to those designed by Koloman Floral ornaments remained on the
forced into grids, and rigid type treat- Moser in 1902. In five short years, natural endangered species list for a century.
ments took precedence over fluid orna- forms had almost been eradicated. They were briefly rediscovered by the
‘flower children’ of the late 1960s, when
psychedelic plants were the rage. Blos-
soms, vines and leaves were part of the
visual vocabulary of poster artists such
as Victor Moscoso, Peter Max and Milton
Glaser. It was a short-lived revival,
though, and it would be another 40
years before graphic designers turned to
nature again for inspiration.
Today, thanks to computer tech-
nology, designers can ‘grow’ organic-
looking decorative borders or letter
forms. In Canada, graphic artist Marian
Bantjes designs patterns as exotic as
hothouse plants. In France, where Art
Nouveau originated, a number of
graphic designers are inventing ways to
bring organic forms back into their work:

S\\ANNKOR aS
Antoine+Manuel have a predilection for
letterforms that branch out like over-
grown bushes, while Jocelyn Cottencin
Ps =
likes to cross-breed typefaces and has
recently introduced on the market BF15,
an interactive alphabet that shoots roots
in every direction. m
an intri > ta pestry of ct UYrlicu
li 2 ature aef;J ormin ga thic k la tt
of or: 2 anic sha pes that are yrecisely
I
clippec 1 to fit into geometric box
The Big Drink (1960), book jacket
designed by Paul Bacon for a history of
Coca-Cola, is an example of ‘constructiv
typography, where the lettering conforn
to a shape or object. This is influenced
by The Mouse’s Tale’, opposite.
“Fury said to
pects That
he met in the
house, ‘Let
Text as representational imagery us both go
to law: I
will prose-
cute you.—
Come, I'll
take no de-
nial: We
must have
the trial;
For really
this morn-
ing I’ve
IDEA N° 28 nothing
to do!

CALLIGRAMS
Said the
mouse to

The technical constraints of metal typographic make-up prior

to the age of photocomposition, from the 1950s to the 1980s,
did not allow for much tomfoolery. Most typesetting was
composed in a straightforward, symmetrical, linear manner. In
the nineteenth century, however, various book designers — and
even some authors — experimented with texts as images, using
words, sentences and paragraphs to metamorphically, and thus
metaphorically, represent the ideas put forth in the text. Type
was contorted into many different pictorial forms. This kind of
BELOW: In The Woods (2007), above: The Mouse's Tale’ (1865)
linguistically meaningful image is called a calligram. designed by Jennifer Wang, is ends a poetic paragraph by
not a classic calligram, but the Lewis Carroll in Alice’s
lettering takes on the shape of Adventures in Wonderland.
Every student of type and typography vessel of meaning - a very transparent
the idea it is representing. In Shaped like the mouse’s tail, it is
has heard the term ‘crystal goblet’, as vessel at that. And ostensibly this is this case, words grow into both a ‘constructive’ typographic
described in a 1955 essay titled ‘The correct. Transforming words and a leafless, branchy tree. treatment and a visual pun.
Crystal Goblet, or Printing Should be sentences into illustration where the
Invisible’ by type expert Beatrice Warde. text is still readable often adds to the
The idea behind this analogy is that expressiveness of the message.
type, rather than content alone, is the Few nineteenth-century examples
were as wry or witty as Lewis Carroll’s
1865 ‘The Mouse’s Tale’, a poem from
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Carroll’s
tale is clearly readable even as the type
swirls like a skier on the slopes down
—TWC WASHINGTON POST
the page, the size of the letters becoming cally down the page, in 1958 American
ook WoRLO
ever smaller until the end. The mouse’s designer Bradbury Thompson created
tale is revealed in the shape of amouse’s ‘Rain Rain Rain’ for the trade magazine
tail. But make no mistake: setting ofthis Westvaco Inspirations, showing multiple
kind was not easy using traditional tech- images of the same woman (each printed
niques. Patience and skill were the prin- in a process colour) walking through a
cipal virtues. storm of falling sentences. But this
With the advent of photocomposi- poetic approach using body text is not
tion, the ability to cut and paste and the only kind of metaphoric type.
morph letters to fit specific shapes and Headline type, either hand-lettered
contours made metamorphic typog- or photographically (and now digitally)
raphy easier - and much more common distorted to fit the shape of the respec-
(indeed clichéd) - in advertisements, tive form, provides a metamorphic
editorial features and book covers. visual double entendre - a graphic pun.
Influenced by Guillaume Apol- Because some are deliberately harder to
linaire’s 1916 ‘It Rains’, a poem (one of read than others, it is imperative that
the ‘calligrammes’ for which he was the shape taken by the type underscores
famous) in which words drizzle verti- the message. =

63
a

Books (1925), designed by

Aleksander'Rodchenko for the ._
Leningrad branch of the state
publishing house Gosizdat. One.
of the first times-lettering was
used, like a comic-book speech
bubble, to simulate the voice,
High decibel words REVOIALEMAN

IDEA N° 29

LOUD TYPOGRAPHY
ST IT EE TEE Se TTI STE
‘Making type speak’ is a phrase used by contemporary
designers who seek to release words from the conventional Alethal
strictures of neutrality and transparency. Loud typography is addiction?
Why we'll never kick the habit
perhaps as old as the earliest commercial poster — since the James Buchan, page 30
goal ofa poster has always been to draw attention to itself by
figuratively screaming a message as demonstratively as the Oil: A Lethal Addiction?
(2006), designed by Stephen
size of the typefaces (and the paper on which they are Coates for the New Statesman.
Often the larger the type,
printed) will allow.
the louder the message;
here the word ‘oil’ speaks
Aleksander Rodchenko’s 1925 adver- Screamers come from the need to more profoundly than
tisement for the Lengiz publishing make noise, but also produce eye- the other headlines.
house titled ‘Books in all Branches of catching results. When President
Knowledge’, where the word ‘Books’ Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, many
boldly projects from the mouth ofthe magazines used ‘soft’ headlines that
shouting woman, is the most literal were solemn and refined. But even the
manifestation of loud typography. The more sophisticated newspapers around
triangular composition of the word in the world — not tabloid or sensational -
the shape of a megaphone, and the used 72 point or larger type to sound
sound lines emanating from it, rein- the alarm that a tragedy had occurred.
force the symbolic aural experience. Of course, loud type needn’t always
Frequently parodied during the late signal disaster. When World War II was
twentieth century (after Russian won by the Allies, happy messages
Constructivism was revived), the such as ‘VJ Day’ or ‘WAR OVER’ were
poster was a model for how voice had screamed across pages in any language
been typographically approximated. and any typeface.
Accents may change from culture to With so many reasons for loud type
culture, volume may be modulated and dialects from which to choose, it is
from project to project, yet type no wonder the contemporary din of
continues to speak at all levels. Cultur- typographic babble is getting louder.
ally, the level of loudness is not dictated Paul Rand referred to the talking type of
by any one movement. Italian Futurist the early 1990s as ‘rap typography’, liter-
Filippo Marinetti’s onomatopoeic ally suggesting the syncopation, rhythm
poems, known as parole in liberta (“words and rhyme found in rap music (not a far
in freedom’ - sound effects created by cry from parole in liberta). After Rodchen-
words), were loud as a means of cutting ko’s poster, loud type evolved into being
through the noise of the entrenched more improvisational like jazz, more
traditions in art and politics. But it was varied like rock, or more structured like
not necessary to be in the avant garde to a motet. Loud can be anything as long as
raise the typographic timbre. The main it shouts off the page. =
headlines in sensationalist tabloid
newspapers are called ‘screamers’ for
obvious reasons.

65
The Modern alternative

IDEA N° 30

ASYMMETRIC TYPOGRAPHY

Die Neue Gestaltung (The New Design) was born in 1925,

when the German typographer Jan Tschichold guest-edited a
special issue of a Leipzig printing trade journal and gave it
the title ‘Elementary Typography’. This unenticing term
signified a curiously quiet revolution — a spare, economical
and functional approach, typified by asymmetrical
composition and sans serif, often lower-case letters devoid of
excess ornamentation — which would come to underscore the
ABove: Drukkerij Trio (1931), one of orposirE: Die Frau Ohne
Modern aesthetic in graphic design. Piet Zwart’s asymmetric typographic Namen (1927), a film poster
This radical issue of an otherwise rhythmic expression of functional exercises for the Trio printing designed by Jan Tschichold for
company in The Hague. The random the Phoebus-Palast, embodies
conventional printer’s magazine became design.’ In 1928 he published Die Neue
overprinting of modern and vintage the geometrical characteristics
a manifesto of the burgeoning Neue Typografie - the book - a handbook for the letterforms prefigures the deconstruc- of the New Typography of
Typografie (New Typography) through new approach, which showed by example tive approaches of later decades. the 1920s.
which Tschichold set forth a radical how unadorned, rational, elementary
concept: “The purpose of the New Typog- composition was a pristine and readable Below: Architectural Typography II
raphy is functionality.’ alternative to books composed with black (1984), designed by Willi Kunz for an
In calling on designers to reject letter on a central axis. exhibit at Columbia University in
New York, is rooted in twentieth-
unnecessary ornament and abandon the Through posters done for the
century European Modernism.
symmetrical structures that had for so Phoebus-Palast cinema in Munich and This design shows what Kunz calls
long dominated printing and design, the Graphisches Kabinett art gallery, ‘theory based on practice/practice
Tschichold wrote: ‘Asymmetry is the Tschichold truly practised what he based on theory.’
preached. As a member of the Group of
Radical German Advertising Designers earth-shattering feat. Yet in the history of
and founder (in 1928) of the Ring of New design it was none other. Symmetry,
Advertising Artists, which included such balance and order are classic virtues,
Moderns as Kurt Schwitters, Piet Zwart which had become tired and turgid stan-
Hall
Avery
lery,
and Paul Schuitema, he helped intro- dards in typography, printing and
duce asymmetric design - and graphic design. Although these varieties
Modernism in general — to business continued to have resonance during the
Architectural throughout Europe. early twentieth century, the alternative
Typography ll Tschichold was eventually called (by of asymmetry both symbolized and prop-
Swiss designer Max Bill) a betrayer of the agated modern life. Piet Zwart’s Trio was
movement he codified for renouncing the not simply an anarchic display ofletters,
New Typography after Hitler’s rise to but a statement about the chaos of the
power. Once away from Germany (having mechanical world. Asymmetric typog-
moved to Basel, Switzerland, in 1933) he raphy was more than a means of trans-
returned to classical tenets of design, parent communication, it was a state
believing that the rigid rules of the New ment, which ultimately became a
Typography had a fascistic element. method practised by evangelical Modern-
It may seem in restrospect that asym- ists, such as Willi Kunz, and eventually
metric composition was not such an turned into a style. =

66
GEORG JACOBYS WELTREISEFILM

PHOEBUS-PALAST
ANFANGSZEITEN: 4,6'5 8°° SONNTAGS: 1* 4, 67 8°

ian ritaL
A powerful partnership

IDEA N° 31

RED WITH BLACK

With his 1919 poster Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge, the
Russian avant-garde artist El Lissitzky capitalized on the
stimulating power of red with black, unleashing in the
process forces he could not control. Red with black, which
he had carefully monitored in a perfectly balanced layout,
turned out to be an aggressive duo. As a colour combination,
it has dominated the graphic design world ever since,
prevailing against all odds as the most ubiquitous,
all-purpose, universal colour code. asove: A Season in Hell (1944), opposite: Théatre de Cornouaille
a black-and-red assemblage of (2003), a poster by French designer
(Kleine Dada-Soirée, 1922), then Aleksander stark and wobbly forms Alain Le Quernec, captures the
Lissitzky’s mentor, Suprematist painter
characteristic of Alvin Lustig’s complex interaction between
Kasimir Malevich, had already experi- Rodchenko trapped them into claustro-
highly abstract visual vocabulary, performers — actors, musicians,
mented with pure red with black in phobic compositions (Young Guard, is a graphic equivalent of the dancers — in this theatre.
numerous abstract compositions, but 1924). The Bauhaus artists were also tormented prose of poet Arthur
Lissitzky’s version innovated by confer- fond of them, while Gustav Klutsis Rimbaud.
ring on each colour a symbolic meaning: deployed them in his celebrated photo-
red stood for the Revolutionary forces, collages (Great Works, 1930). BeLow: Beat the Whites with
while black was supposed to represent At the service of Soviet propaganda, the Red Wedge (1919), a
the darkness surrounding the White red and black had demonstrated their lithograph by El Lissitzky,
accurately predicts that the
monarchists. He was also able to exem- pugnacious nature and versatility. But
conservative White Russians
plify the tension between the two sadly, during the 1930s and 1940s, they will be beaten by the progressive
colours by giving them antagonistic were used to brand totalitarian regimes, communist forces, whose red
geometric shapes. including official portraits of Lenin, wedge is a symbol of innovation
After him, countless graphic artists Nazi flags and fascist posters. Other and transformation.
emphasized the friction between red colour schemes would never have
and black, pitting them against each survived such a dark episode, but red
other as if they were prize champions. and black managed to bounce back.
Kurt Schwitters and Theo van Doesburg They were rescued by a handful of
used them in a frantic Dada collage American designers who were able to
expunge their shameful past and recast ground. In 1944, Lustig, for the cover of
them as the yin-yang of anew modern- A Season in Hell, created a playful red and
istic aesthetic. black Miro pastiche. By mid-century,
At first, it took all the creativity and the codes of the once-vilified colour
humour of Lester Beall, Paul Rand and scheme had undergone a total transfor-
Alvin Lustig to soften the Constructivist mation. Gone were the gimmicky angles
image of red and black. In 1937 and the heroic motifs. Designers such as
Beall, for PM magazine, deliberately Karl Gerstner, Armin Hofmann, Rudy
mismatched a small ornate red ‘P’ with VanderLans and Wim Crouwel put a
a tall and skinny black ‘M’. In 1940 finishing touch on this makeover with
Rand, for Direction magazine, cut free- graphically arresting designs that
form holes out of a solid red back steered clear of colour symbolism. =

68
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IDEA N2 32

SUPERGRAPHICS

The term ‘supergraphics’ was coined in the late 1960s to

describe a fad inspired by Op art. Huge arrows, numbers,
] ~<

words or rainbows were painted on walls to transform bland

interiors into exciting visual environments. Though the
movement was short-lived, supergraphics never went away
altogether. Today they turn up on building facades, on
palisades in front of construction sites, on walls and ceilings — sove: Dazzleships in seLow: Hiding the warships
Drydock at Liverpool (1919), on the open sea was impossible,
in pop-up shops, in hallways and stairways in schools and by Edward Wadsworth, shows but transforming their hulls into
the patterns used during World a quilt of abstract forms proved
dorms, and as part of interactive installations in theatres, War I to camouflage the size, an effective defensive strategy.
malls and museums. shape, speed and exact location
of these large moving targets.

During World War I, British and U.S. navy Victorian red-brick school building in
warships were painted with gigantic New Jersey into an upbeat performing
stripes and abstract patterns. Called arts centre. She painted the exterior
Razzle Dazzle paintings, these motifs walls white while emphasizing the
were carefully engineered to trick the heavy cornices with black. To emphasize attract bold graphic gestures. Yet in the
rangefinders of the enemy naval artil- further the horizontal lines, she covered last few years, some architects have real-
lery. Unlike traditional camouflage the upper portion of the building with ized that building surfaces do not have
designs that blend in with the back- an intriguing typographical latticework to be blank billboards. Herzog & de
ground, these supergraphics tried to of large black gothic letterforms, a Meuron’s iconographic programme for
stand out to confuse the viewer’s percep- dramatic scheme somewhat reminis- the Eberswalde Library in Germany is a
tion of depth and sense of direction. cent of the décor created by Aleksander rich tapestry of vintage newspaper clip-
Large geometric forms tend to oblit- Rodchenko in 1925 in Moscow for the pings etched directly on the glass facade.
erate their background by creating a Mossel’ prom department store. Other architects apply supergraphics on
graphic diversion. It is a technique Paula French designer Pierre Bernard’s the outsides of buildings with LED
Scher has used to transform a depressing exterior signage for the Pompidou installations, as Jean Nouvel did for the
Centre, Paris, during the 1996 renova- Torre Agbar in Barcelona (see p.111). At
tion of the museum was a typographic night, computer-controlled illumina-
landmark. A_ gigantic five-storey tions by Yann Kersalé turn the tower
billboard served as a background for a into a huge candy-coloured lighthouse.
long list of upcoming events. When a Razzle Dazzle was the inspiration
show closed, its reference would be for the décor staged by New York creative
crossed out, each individual letter oblit- agency Formavision for a Reebok Flash
erated with a line of a different colour. pop-up store in 2008. The design of the
As time went by the billboard became space tricked the eye with huge distorted
an increasingly colourful arrangement graphic patterns in hot pink and bright
of vibrating strokes. turquoise. Disconcerted visitors hesi-
Temporary installations often tated before entering: they felt as if they
become opportunities for super-sized were about to step into a printed image
graphic expression. Architecture, a rather than a real, three-dimensional
permanent art form, is less likely to environment. m

70
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In the early days of Modernism, black,
not white, was the colour of perfection

IDEA N° 33

SUPREME GEOMETRY
ABOVE: Piet Zwart's monogram oppositz: Graphis Poster
(c. 1930) is a minimalist Annual (2010), by Martin

For the Russian painter Kasimir Malevich, the black square interpretation ofthe word zwart Pedersen, is one of a series that
(‘black’ in Dutch). The artist manages, year after year, to be
was the perfect icon. It did not represent anything, yet it was focused on the quintessential both playful and strict. The stark
expression ofhis name: the black covers ofthese annuals
the expression of an absolute reality in its purest form. The letter ‘P’ and a black square. are now an integral part of
the Graphis brand.
founder ofa short-lived art movement called Suprematism,
BeLow: The M6 logo (1987) is
Malevich was an admirer of Cubist artists and sculptors like the work of Etienne Robial for
a French television station.
Sonia Delaunay and Alexander Archipenko. The logo, with its imperative
black ‘M’, is as powerful as
A pioneer of abstract art, Malevich his work never ceased to be a reference a Malevich abstraction.

believed that it was possible to convey for countless designers eager to under-
specific impressions through the inter- stand the principles of Modernism.
action of squares, rectangles, circles and As recently as 1987, French graphic
triangles. In his 1915 Black Rectangle with designer Etienne Robial created a Male-
Blue Triangle, the tension between the vich-inspired logo for the television
black and blue shapes is so intense that station M6 that is edgy yet at the same
one can almost feel it, taste it and hear time as dynamic as a Suprematist
it. Malevich contributed to graphic painting. A red number 6 is placed dead-
design by celebrating the supremacy of centre on top of a massive black ‘M’,
black over all other colours. As far as he their combined geometries expressing
was concerned, a black square was the self-confidence and authority.
most powerful form there was. Dutch Proponents of pure forms have so
architect and typographer Piet Zwart, far avoided nostalgia. The black square
whose surname means ‘black’, agreed was never the subject of a _ revival
with Malevich: he used a stark letter ‘P’ because it never went out of style. For
alongside an oversized black square as example, it is still a living ideal for B.
the logo for his letterhead. To this day, Martin Pedersen, the present owner and
black is perceived as the colour with the publisher of Graphis magazine, who has
greatest graphic impact. Not only did been a stalwart supporter of the most
Malevich influence the Constructivists, stringent Modernism for decades. The
the De Stijl neoplasticists such as Zwart, cover of his 2010 Graphis Poster Annual is
and the Bauhaus minimalists, but also an ode to abstract space and perfect
figures: on a black background, a neatly
folded strip of coloured paper forms the
letter ‘P’ — the initial of ‘poster’ as well
as an icon to symbolize ‘pure’. =
Graphis PosterAnnual2010
Wit and ornament

IDEA N° 34

UR
FUNNY FACES

Goudy Stout is not a thick malt beverage but a quirky

typeface designed in 1930 by one of America’s most prolific
type designers, Frederic W. Goudy. One step above comic-
book lettering, it has one stand-out attribute: its upper-case
‘A’ appears to be based on the comical gait of Charlie
Chaplin’s famed character the Little Tramp. ‘In a moment of
typographic weakness,’ Goudy wrote, ‘I attempted to produce
ABOVE: Bifur, et al (c. 1946), opposiTE ABOVE: Bestial Bold (1982),
a “black” letter that would interest those advertisers who like specimen sheet for a selection a typeface designed by Seymour
the bizarre in their print.’ of novelty typefaces produced Chwast for The Mental
by Deberny & Peignot, Paris. Menagerie: A Five Year
Thefunniest of the faces is Bifur, Retrospective’. The bulbous face
Although he might protest otherwise, century — were not flamboyant enough designed by A.M. Cassandre is made comic by the addition
in 1929. of mouths and eyes.
the requisites of the advertising busi- for the new requirements of advertising
ness were clear when he made this display.’ Furious competition sprang up
OPPOSITE BELOW: Foonky Starred
minor folly; attention in the growing among type founders to outdo each
(2008-09), designed by Rian
marketplace was not going to be wrested other in the production of ornamented Hughes, is a star-struck open
by elegant or classic typefaces, but by and fancy faces. face from the Foonky family.
eye-catching combinations ofletterform The fashion for funny faces comes
and image. The stranger the letter, the and goes. In every era comic faces are
more resilient it would be. Funny letters revived to give an explicitly humorous
and typefaces were called to action in edge to contemporary visual communi-
the competitive war to win consumer cations. Milton Glaser’s comically titled
attention. In fact, many respected type Baby Teeth (1968), derived from a
designers added their own weird types popular Italian Art Deco alphabet, may
to a fertile field of faces used for every- not really look like any recognizable
thing from leaflets to billboards. Many teeth, but is a spirited and lighthearted
funny faces are inelegant but some, design. Seymour Chwast’s Weedy Beasties
including A.M. Cassandre’s Bifur of (2007), a more goofy font in which each
1929, are handsome beyond their character is endowed with eyes and a
novelty quality. mouth, could add wit to any design.
In Printing Types: An Introduction The outpouring of funny faces has
(1971), Alexander Lawson wrote that the not diminished, even during more
typographic fashion for funny faces orthodox modern times. Their useful-
began in the early 1800s, when English ness is dependent on the messages
type founders produced ‘a variety of they are trying to convey. But when
embellished types designed to empha- paired with the appropriate (or at
size their unique characteristics for the times inappropriate) content they can
single purpose of attracting attention. communicate more effectively than
Fat faces, Grotesques, and Egyptians - neutral letters. =
decorative types when compared to the
Romans, which had undergone minor
changes since the Italian fifteenth

74
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Flying off the page

IDEA N° 35

EXPRESSION OF SPEED
‘Sa
Ry Cae TTT
With the invention of trains, planes and automobiles came
a reverence — if not a fetish — for speed among artists and
designers. Industrialization during the mid-nineteenth century
had introduced mass production, but subsequent engineering
marvels enabled high velocities that were once only the subject
of fiction, and which captured artists’ imaginations.

Of the artists who were obsessed with London’s Daily Herald newspaper.
speed, the Italian Futurists most avidly Soaring birds represented hope, while opposite: Monza (1948), a poster by asove: Soaring to Success!
propagated the concept. However, an the Cubist aesthetic suggested progress. Swiss graphic designer Max Huber (1919), a poster for the London
American expatriate in London, Edward The Italian Futurist Fortunato for the Italian motor-racing event, Daily Herald, by American
shows the Futurists’ preoccupation designer E. McKnight Kauffer,
McKnight Kauffer, made perhaps the Depero, a contemporary of Kauffer, took
with velocity and their fascination in the Vorticist manner. The birds
most enduring graphic homage to the speed fixation into even more acces- with speeding arrows. take flight with the precision
speed. One of Europe’s most prolific sible decorative realms. For him the ofamilitary squadron.
advertising and graphic designers of the graphic symbolism ofspeed was a means BELOW: Rainboeing the Skies
1920s-30s, Kauffer was influenced not to raise the banner of Futurism and at (1971), an ad introducing the new
the same time to appeal to the commer- Boeing 747 to El Al Israeli Airlines
only by the Futurists but also by the
by graphic designer Dan Reisinger.
lesser-known Vorticists. His 1916 Flight cial masses with graphics that suggested
This iconic image is at the centre
combined abstraction and naturalism new, improved and up-to-date ideals. of an internet controversy, with
when used in a startling poster for After them, graphic artists used some claiming that it was in
every trick at their disposal to visualize fact an Air Canada poster.
ELAL ISRAEL AIRLINES
7 7N zi on paper — a static medium ~ the rush of
a fast car or aeroplane. The arrow
became the preferred symbol for speed,
with two or more arrows able to
suggest competition, acceleration and subway trains in New York City. Owing
revved-up momentum. to circumstances rather than deliberate
Max Huber’s 1948 Monza poster, intent, a wide range of styles evolved, all
created for the legendary Italian motor- expressing genuine speed of execution.
racing event, showed two arrows negoti- Reminiscent of the work of Italian
ating a parabolic turn in the pursuit of Futurists and Vorticists, contemporary
another speeding ahead of them. Huber graffiti writers such as PHASE 2, Shame
understood that speed can best be expe- 125, Daze and JonOne often use dashing
rienced in the context of other inter lines, intricate triangular motifs or fat
acting patterns. In the Monza poster, curving arrows when spelling their
the headlines are leaning backwards, names. Written a century earlier, the
as if sucked in by the force of the words of Umberto Boccioni best describe
veering arrows. the fascination these street graphic
In the 1970s, a new generation of artists exert today: ‘The gesture which
graphic artists rediscovered speed, no we would reproduce on canvas shall no
longer as a way to celebrate progress but longer be a fixed moment in universal
to mock its values. Graffiti artists had to dynamism. It shall simply be the
EL AL RAIN EIENN > TPG AME
work fast as they illegally spray-painted dynamic sensation itself.’ =

77
D198? VOLESWAGIN OF AMEMICA, INC.

Think small.
Our little car isn't so much of a novelty flivver don't even think 32 miles to the gal- some of our economies, you don't even
any more. lon is going any great guns. think about them any more.
A couple of dozen college kids don't Or using five pints of oil instead of five Except when you squeeze into a small
try to squeeze inside it. quarts. parking spot. Or renew your small insur-
The guy at the gas station doesn't ask Or never needing anti-freeze. ance. Or pay a small repair bill.
where the gas goes. Or racking up 40,000 miles on a set of Or trade in your old VW for a
Nobody even stares at our shape. tires, new one.
In fact, some people who drive our little That's because once you get used to Think it over.
The grand visual overview

IDEA N° 36

CORPORATE IDENTITY
TT
TT EAD
At the beginning of the twentieth century businesses and
industries branded or identified themselves in more or less
ad hoc ways. The idea of developing a unified design scheme
with standards and templates was unheard of until 1907,
when the German architect and graphic designer Peter
Behrens changed the face of business identity forever by
creating the first corporate identity system.

When Behrens was retained as the design Paul Rand to overhaul the identities of
consultant for AEG (Allegemeine Elek both corporations, formed a direct link
tricitats-Gesellschaft), Germany’s largest to Behrens’s model. Today it is unthink- opposite: Think Small (1962), a top: AEG Allegemeine
electrical company, naive mascots and able that a corporation would not start Volkswagen® campaign created Elektricitats-Gesellschaft (c. 1920).
trademarks were commonly registered, out with an integrated (if not evolving) by Doyle Dane Bernbach and art In 1907 the architect Peter
directed by Robert Gage. The Behrens became AEG’s artistic
but the concept of an overall corporate graphic design system that helps define
white page emphasized the adviser, responsible
for the
identity did not exist. Behrens then itself and create allure. undersized Beetle®, while the design ofall products,
developed a logo - reducing the unwieldy While Noyes focused on architecture copy pointed to the virtues advertising and architecture
name to the initials AEG placed in a and product design, Rand brought his of owning a small car. — especially the logo.
honeycomb configuration. Applied to all graphic ‘play principle’ to the fore. After
printed materials and signs, the logo defining the typographic and colour Above: Apple iPad package (2010).
became an aide-memoire that was recog- palettes, and making certain the layout The original rainbow Apple logo
nizable as much outside as within the formats were tight, he went to work (no longer used) was designed
in 1977 by Rob Janoff. The Apple
company. As a member of the German injecting graphic personality into adver-
has changed from coloured
Werkbund, Behrens had dabbled with tisements, posters, packages and other to black, aqua (2001-03)
Jugendstil (German Art Nouveau) in printed materials. This meant that one and glass (2003-present).
posters and book illustrations, yet with graphic concept did not fit all occasions.
the AEG identity he removed much of Each ad for Westinghouse or annual
the stylish ornamentation. report for IBM was a different notion and
Corporate identity developed its look, like a new piece of art every time.
own rules, enforced by corporate iden- As long as the anchor elements applied
tity standards manuals. These codified to them, anything else was possible.
strict design requirements so that no The best designers understand that
room was left for deviation in terms of stagnation kills a corporate personality.
typefaces, colours and marks. However, Without variation an organization
those identities that allowed for varia- appears inflexible and, therefore, unable
tion (not deviation) fared better in the to adapt to new developments. Too much
long term. The best corporate identity anarchy, however, and shareholders
designers maintained that within the become wary of the corporation’s
parameters design could sprout wings. stability. Corporate identity is a fine
One of the most savvy was the balancing act for a graphic designer. =
industrial designer Eliot Noyes. His
involvement first with IBM and later
with Westinghouse, and the hiring of

79
‘The jacket made as much
of a splash as the book.’ —
e ~

Three Tales (1945), designed

byAlvin Lustig, differentiates
this edition ofFlaubert’s work
_ ina witty modern manner.

Animal Farm (2008), designed -

by Shepard Fairey ds part of a
series of George Orwell reprints, it
exudes a contemporary poster me
~ aesthetic. = ~
al
Telling a book by its cover

IDEA N& 37

DUST JACKETS

In 1833, when the very first book jacket was used (by a
British publisher, Longman & Co.), its purpose was to protect
books from the damaging effects of dust and light. The heavy
paper wrapped around and folded into the binding was
meant to be discarded after purchase. Such were the humble
beginnings of a form that would become a showcase for james I:
graphic design. :joyce
| |:

For 50 years following that milestone the United States for 12 years before its
Ulysses (1934), hand-lettered
event, the covering known as the dust eventual publication in 1934, broke
and designed by Ernst Reichl,
jacket was primarily utilitarian - a plain many of the rules of jackets at that time. was said to be influenced by
paper wrapper usually with a window It was all type - and fairly large and curi- the paintings ofPiet Mondrian.
cut out to reveal the title and the author’s ously abstract type at that - with a
name. For decoration, the binding (the limited colour palette. The jacket made
spine and front and back covers) of the as much ofa splash as the book.
average trade book (a book marketed to Nonetheless, dust jackets were
the masses, as opposed to expensive fine unquestionably the low end of graphic
editions) was stamped or embossed with design practice during the 1920s and
a modest vignette. This was standard *30s, because they were tainted by the
until the late 1880s and ’90s, when the crass practice of advertising. In fact,
trade binding began to be decorated most dust jackets were mini-posters or
more often. The designs of Aubrey Beard- billboards, illustrated in accordance
sley in England and Will Bradley in the with the principles of mass marketing.
United States were reproduced on book The sole purpose of the jacket was to
bindings as a kind of miniature poster. hook a reader, so the artists took many
Soon publishers allowed these designs to liberties with a book’s content. The
be printed on the paper jacket as well, for disparity between the author’s intent
additional advertising appeal. By the and the artist’s interpretation was rarely
turn of the century the dust jacket was questioned. The jacket’s allure was most
the standard advertising tool, but was important — and in some cases the jacket
stil] considered a disposable wrapper. By was the best part of the book. =
the 1930s the jacket had become a new
form of design art.
For purists from the old school of
bookmaking, the dust jacket was ephem-
eral while the book itself was designed
to endure. Yet for the German-born
American designer Ernst Reichl the
jacket and the interior were equal parts
of awhole. His jacket for the first Amer-
ican edition of James Joyce’s controver-
sial Ulysses, which had been banned in

81
Seeing alphabets everywhere BOD
JDCLM
FOUND TYPOGRAPHY C)
le ? Os

Ersatz letterforms and numerals can be discovered in

almost anything in both the natural and the man-made
environment. Truly ‘found’ typography comprises those asove: Alphabet with Tools opposite: Hooks Alphabet
objects that were never intended to be letterforms yet (1977), byMervyn Kurlansky, (2008), byJeffrey Tribe, was
5 eee i x on takes everyday objects found created while Tribe was playing
through individual interpretation, skewed vision and in homes and workshops and with picture hooks. Such visual
teal f A ty lanl h transforms them into the letters discoveries are often overlooked,
magica transformation, appear to be so, particu arly when of the Western alphabet. until the designer’s eye becomes
focused on the possibilities
in the context of other ersatz letters forming an alphabet. of the commonplace.

The serendipity of shape and form Out For Me (2007) is made from sausages.
found in everyday things that some- Although the sausages were cut to form
times results in thematic groupings of the letters, the raw material was indeed
letter-like objects can provide an ‘aha found. It took a perverse wit (and witty
moment’ of discovery for designers with carnivore) to make hot dogs into an
keen eyes (and extraordinary patience). alphabet. And as vision and tenacity
While some letters are joyously obvious, goes, Jeffrey Tribe’s 2008 Hooks Alphabet,
such as the A frame of a sharply pitched made of common _picture-hanging
roof, the H of arugby goalpost, or the O hooks, required some clever manoeu-
of a bagel, others are a little more vring to make all 26 letters.
contorted - the Y of a twin parking The purpose ofthese alphabets is less
meter or theJof adrainpipe and gutter. one of functionality than of curiosity.
One of the earliest examples of this Designers see letters everywhere. The
phenomenon was Abraham de Balmes’s notion that letters can be constructed
alphabet from his Grammatica Hebraea from such a broad range of objects
(1529), in which common _ objects, continues to fascinate. These witty
including a horseshoe, a knife, a sickle natural and industrial objects work their
and other tools and utensils took on the way into designs, to tickle the funny-
properties of individual letters. These bone or toy with perception. =
were drawings; more recent found typog-
raphies are routinely photographed.
Mervyn Kurlansky’s 1977 Alphabet with
Tools is a case of how keen observation
resulted in a satisfying typographical
family made up of small office tools and
machines. Starting with the A of a
compass, moving through the K of a
butterfly paperclip and the S of a French
curve, to the Z of acombination knife and
corkscrew, the sum of its parts is a total
alphabet that is a conceptual objet d’art.
On a slightly more absurdist note,
the lettering for the word ‘for’ in Stefan
Sagmeister’s Having Guts Always Works

82
The expressive cut

IDEA NP 39

RANSOM NOTES

The jumbled-type or ransom-note school of graphic design

gained its name from the clichéd style - cutout letters
intended to hide the identity of the sender. It has its roots
in the late nineteenth century, when common job printers
carelessly mixed disparate wood and metal type styles
together on the same page, resulting in a cacophony of
typographic noise.
Apove: God Save the Queen (1977), opposite: Runaway Opposites
Born as much of necessity (the printers purpose was to capture and hold a the cover art for the 7” Sex Pistols (1995), illustrations by Henrik
did not always have complete fonts on viewer’s attention. single, was designed by Jamie Drescher, is a book of poems for
hand) as of intent (to achieve visual What started as naive practice Reid in a manner that became children. The ransom letters and
exuberance), the approach became turned more calculated during the early emblematic ofpunk design. handwriting suggest immediacy.
emblematic of the Victorian era. There twentieth century. The ransom method
BELow: Mecano (1923), designed
was a commercial strategy too: since in the hands of Italian Futurists and and edited by Theo van Doesburg,
urban thoroughfares were increasingly German Dadaists was the total rejection is rooted in the 1920s Dada
cluttered with posters and advertise- of canonical legibility. Typographic aesthetic of ad hoc composition.
ments, printers went through typo- poets, such as Berlin Dadaist Raoul
graphic contortions to attain eye- Hausmann, aggressively dismantled
catching prominence. Raucousness was accepted tenets through hysterical
its own reward, particularly when the type that was not simply a metaphor for
the new order but the archetype of
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a distinctly new visual language.
Hausmann’s ‘optophonetical poem’
fl] = GERANT UTERAIRE: LK BONSET
KP’ERIOUM (1918-19) was meant to be
Ei read out loud, the tonal directions
established through the typographic torn-and-tattered style, especially the
size and weight. While there was logic ransom-note typography and anarchic
to the anarchic composition, it nonethe- collages on publications, record covers
less signalled rebellion. and posters, suggested a useable, indeed
Throughout the twentieth century, a co-optable, style. What began as a
4 HOLLAND'S}! jumbled ransom-note lettering was means to address an exclusive audience
BANKROET || designed to throw the eye off balance, became shorthand for youth culture.
© DOOR DADA:: © and so too the equilibrium. In the early Anyone with a pair of scissors and a
N
i) 1970s, punk emerged as the next gener- glue pot could emulate this punk
EsJetrouve quion 9 entortdedirequele
Dedatome, ke Cubisme, te Puturieme. repo- ational aesthetic to exploit jumble. styling. And the most flagrant samplers
seient sur uafond commun Le deux der-
nitres Jendances dialent surtout bastes ear
180principed¢pertectionnement lechniqueou
Jamie Reid’s 1977 cover for the Sex were Condé Nast’s fashion magazines in
Intelleciuel tandis queleDedatamen'aJamals
Fepont sur aucune théorle ef n'a O quiune Pistols’ single ‘God Save the Queen’ was the early 1980s under creative director
Protestation deliberately untidy and amateurish. Alexander Liberman, who believed that
(Trietan Tzara)
Dede extIaforcedésiniéresste. cen'est pss
Taking Dada a step further, punk was so elegant design was irrelevant. He spent
tune melodie. pas une énergle pasunevérite.
Evole
contemptuous of conventional beauty millions making the magazines under
Waar bet hart leeg van isloopt de neue
van over
that it proffered a kind of ‘haute-ugly’. his control, including Vogue, Self and
Bonset
To the astute observer, the primitive Mademoiselle, look jumbled. m
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Distilling theory from practice

IDEA N° 40

DESIGN HANDBOOKS
oR TS ETE EY
JAN TSCHICHOLD

During the 1920s and ’30s certain eminent designers in DIE NEUE TYPOGRAPHIE
osmameeces romroveruine somerromee

Europe and the United States took delight in telling other

designers how to design. During these nascent years of
Modernism they were so convinced they had discovered the
rightness of form that, to spread the word (and image), they
issued detailed manuals setting out their ideas.

The two most influential books of their and became the design bible ofits time.
time, W.A. Dwiggins’s Layout in Adver- The French publisher Alfred Tolmer’s
tising and Jan Tschichold’s Die Neue Mise en Page: The Theory and Practice of
Typographie (The New Typography), both Lay-Out, published in 1932 in separate opposite: Mise en Page (1932), ‘Bove: Die Neue Typographie
published in 1928, provided different English and French editions, codified written and designed by Alfred (first published 1928), written
formulas for transcending antiquated Tolmer, was a bible for Art and designed byJan Tschichold,
the most widely practised of the early
Moderne (Art Deco) typography was the foremost manual for
commercial art conventions. Dwiggins twentieth-century design styles. Tolmer’s
and image styling. minimalist, asymmetric design.
celebrated a new kind of naturalistic goal was to provide formal guidelines
ornamentation, while Tschichold while encouraging creative invention, BeLow: Thinking with Type
promoted Bauhaus- and Constructivist- and this lavishly printed primer, with its (2010), written and designed by
inspired principles that reduced all slip-sheets, tip-ins, embossed and Ellen Lupton, picks up where the
modern and Modernist manuals
design to basic geometric and asym- debossed pages, and fold-outs, was an
left off -detailed instruction
metric formats. Both attracted their alluring guide. in contemporary typography.
share of followers, yet it is Tschichold’s Tolmer attempted to present solid
book that is today considered the key intellectual arguments for why Modern
document of Modernist typography. design, both avant-garde and in its more
A few years later, another tome mass-market incarnations, was the
defined the new mainstream aesthetic perfect form for the age. ‘The art of
layout,’ he wrote, ‘is born at the moment
when man feels the urge to arrange in an
orderly fashion the expression of his
thoughts.’ Tolmer asserted that ‘real age of austerity prompted by World War
freedom in typography seems to be II hit the European continent. But
confined at the present time to adver manuals continued to be published,
tising lay-outs’; showed how Egyptian, perhaps with slightly less panache.
Greek and other classical forms evolved Designers and those who thought about
into Modernistic mannerisms in typog- design continued to push their different
raphy and illustration; and hailed the use truths, which evolved into rules and
of photomontage as the foremost progres- standards or styles and mannerisms.
sive design conceit. With his handbook Eventually, the manual became a
Tolmer fervently and single-handedly template for certain kinds of practice.
smoothed the edges off orthodox Each year one or more is published with
Modernism, making once-radical design the aim of becoming adopted by schools
concepts palatable for business. whose job it is to make design produc-
Predictably, Tolmer’s fashionable tion easier, and if lucky a little more
manual became unfashionable as the creative into the bargain. =

87
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MAX BURCHARTZ.

Seliftan- Nummer. Merzreilef von : Kurt Schwitters si¢he Salie 91

Magazines as laboratory for
artistic experiment

IDEA N° 41

AVANT-GARDE ZINES
a and designed by Kurt Schwitters,
\BoVE: Esopus 14 (2010), edited
and designed by Tod Lippy, is
was his personal design zine an ad-free journal devoted to
The early twentieth century was littered with journals and This issue was devoted to his art and culture and unusual
distinct advertising stylings combinations thereof
gazettes created by artists to serve as soapboxes for their quirky
BELOW: OZ 41 (1972), the Crime
ideas. Futurist, Dadaist and Surrealist art provocateurs wrote & Conspiracy issue of this 1960s
dissonant poetry, composed asymmetric typography, pasted alternative magazine, led to
the editor's trial for obscenity
expressive collages, and printed it all in crudely produced and blasphemy.

publications. Each movement, in its own way, proffered the

Modernist notion that art was a total experience. These art
and culture periodicals, or ‘zines’, were weapons of cultural
warfare, attacking convention.

Alternative culture periodicals informed Radical ideas had to appear avant- graphic design, where he exhibited
and entertained, but they also provoked garde to be avant-garde. Graphic design ways of applying Tschichold’s princi-
action and reaction. Type and image on was the code of revolt. Words were the ples to commercial advertisements.
paper triggered visceral responses. building blocks of meaning but typog- The lifespan of an avant-garde zine
Avant-gardists flagrantly refused to raphy, layout and image did more depended on how long it continued to
appeal to mass taste. In Italy, Germany, than simply frame ideas: they tele offend or surprise or both. Once entre-
Switzerland and France avant-garde graphed intent. The sensory impact on preneurs SaWw the profitability in
periodicals such as Futurismo, Noi, Dada, the reader effected through raw type controlled offensiveness, radical ideas
Merz and La Révolution Surréaliste were composition marked the end of beauty were invariably consumed by the very
designed to rally the faithful while as the accepted standard. The design culture they once affronted. After the
offending the conventional. of most Dada publications during the initial shock of Surrealism wore off it
early 1920s, for example, both inten- quickly became a favoured advertising
tionally and intuitively disrupted and marketing style, tapping into the
professional design standards. Dada- public’s fascination for dreamlike
ists, such as Kurt Schwitters, appropri- allure. Strands of Futurist DNA were
ated graphic elements from main- present in many 1970s zines, which
stream printing sources and wedded borrowed the punk aesthetic.
them to Futurist and Cubist pictorial As digital media rise in prominence,
theories of disruption and fragmenta- today’s print magazines must jump
tion. Standard typefaces were not just through hoops to be truly avant-garde.
mere letterforms composed in neatly The twice-yearly arts magazine Esopus
regimented columns; they were used does not take advertising, which in itself
as textures applied to a tabula rasa. is radical. But it also publishes art and
Radical design ideas, however, even- artists who are on the fringes. If avant-
tually filtered into the mainstream. Jan garde pushes the boundaries, then print
Tschichold’s Die Neue Typographie (see design - which could be considered
p.87) codified Modern design. Kurt retrograde - is now arguably avant-
Schwitters’s personal zine, Merz, was at garde. That Esopus continues the tradi-
various times transformed from an tion so boldly makes it a viable model
experimental outlet for avant-gardisms for the new avant-garde zine. =
into a sample book of progressive
Cutting-edge appeal

‘S
i a \
IDEA N° 42 LONELY HEARTS

COLLAGES

The idea that you can use scissors and glue instead of paint
and brushes appealed to Dada artists, who relished the
notion of destruction as a radical form of creation. Raoul
ABovE: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely opposire: ABCD Self-portrait
Hausmann, considered the inventor of photo-collages, Hearts Club Band (1967), album (1923), by Austrian artist Raoul
cover by British Pop artist Peter Hausmann, is a deliberately
believed that you can pick and choose images and words Blake for the Beatles, shows John, random assemblage of
Ringo, Paul and George dressed newspaper clips and cutout
from the supply of existing material and recycle them in military attire, standing next letters that shouts insults at
to wax versions of their younger the viewers, as did performers
to express an original thought. But collages were also selves, surrounded by cardboard at the celebrated Dada soirées
conceived as a critique of a materialist culture that figures offamous people. ofthe Cabaret Voltaire, Ziirich.

assaulted individuals with a profusion of images,

messages and slogans.

The graphic vocabulary of early collages satire on the frenetic acquisitiveness

(sometimes called montages) consisted encouraged by rampant consumerism,
of cutout photographs, either contoured it represented the interior of a living
or torn, combined with partial head- room, with everything in perspective
lines from newspaper clippings. The yet somehow uncomfortably flat and
central motif of Hausmann’s most often stiff. The main figure, a bodybuilder,
reproduced collage, ABCD, is a close-up serves as a metaphor for the build-up of
of his own face, with his mouth open in goods and products that characterizes
what looks like a shriek. What provoked our culture, as well as the build-up of
Hausmann’s reaction was probably the images typical ofcollages.
riot of facts and figures closing in on The collage that became the biggest
him to the point of almost smothering commercial and critical success world-
him. A virtuosic balancing act of letter- wide is probably the cover of the 1967
forms, graphs, maps, textures and Beatles album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts
sketches — including a banknote and a Club Band, designed by Peter Blake and
medical illustration - the lopsided Jann Haworth. Constructed as a full-size
composition is strangely gratifying. set, it was a psychedelic assemblage of
Countless graphic artists have cutout cardboard figures of famous
studied Hausmann’s hectic medley of people in the middle of which the Fab
scraps and tried to learn from it, Russian Four stood, dressed in Day-Glo military-
Constructivists in particular. In the style uniforms. Wax figures of their
West, collage artists relied mostly on younger selves, borrowed from Madame
commercially produced visuals to Tussauds, were also part of the set-up.
construct provocative narratives. In the In the 1980s, Dada-inspired collages
1950s, British Pop art precursor Richard mixing typography and photograms promote Emigré magazine. Though not
Hamilton pasted together figures and became popular with a generation of slavishly copying the structure of ABCD,
silhouettes plucked from various maga- graphic designers partial to the work of these collages were juggling exercises in
zine advertisements, for a montage Man Ray and Laszl6 Moholy-Nagy. Rudy which typographic elements drifted
titled Just what is it that makes today's homes VanderLans was the author of visually together to form a playful aggregation
so different, so appealing? Meant to be a exciting montages printed as posters to of visual flotsam. =

90
Visual pranks can incorporate
concealed messages

IDEA N° 43

RIDDLES AND REBUSES

LL ROAR DELISTING IES
®
Symbol, sign, cipher, rebus, icon, graphic pun, emblem... the
difference between such terms can be more confusing than
opposite; Eye-Bee-M (1981). The \BovE: I Love NY (1977), by
the messages they are trying to convey. Figures of graphic celebrated poster by Paul Rand Milton Glaser for the New York
speech, each in their own way strives to bridge the gap for IBM breaks down the State Department of Commerce,
conventional logo into a rebus is one of the most familiar and
between words and images. As such, they are invaluable with the identifiable striped copied rebuses today. Had Glas er

‘M’. It was originally rejected signed a royalty agreement, he

assets in developing a sophisticated visual language. René as being too playful would probably be the richest
graphic designer on earth.
Magritte’s famous painting of a pipe is first and foremost an
BeLow: Couleur (1975), created
image ofa pipe, but its caption, Ceci n’est pas une pipe (This is by Swiss graphic designer Jean
Widmer for an exhibition on
not a pipe), says this is not so. colours at the Pompidou Centre
in Paris. The words are spelled
in the wrong colour, a Magritte-
Why did Magritte feel compelled to it was also meant to confuse viewers inspired technique.
remind viewers that a picture of a thing regarding the intention ofits author.
is not the thing itself? Or did he mean to In 1975, Jean Widmer paid homage
use the outdated sense of the word to Magritte’s semiotic exercises with his
‘pipe’, synonymous with ‘fib’, as some poster Couleur, announcing a design
linguists have argued? ‘This is not a fib’? exhibition. It spelled out the names of
Experts point out that the official title six colours of the rainbow, but none of
of the 1929 painting, The Treachery of the words was written in its corre-
Images, is further evidence that Magritte sponding colour. It made reference to
was a trickster. Carefully rendered, his another of Magritte’s visual pranks, La
pipe was not only an illustration of the clef des songes (The interpretation of
deceptive nature of all representations, dreams), in which everyday objects are Such is the case with Paul Rand’s
incorrectly labelled - a bowler hat being beloved Eye-Bee-M poster, which he

couleur
identified as ‘snow’, for example. designed in 1981, in the later part of his
Unlike semiotic riddles, rebuses are long-lasting relationship with IBM. A
centre beaubourg
centre de création
andré lemonnier
8 janvier-24 mars 75
pavillon de marsan
palais du louvre fairly easy to translate into words. The beautifully designed rebus, it is, like
industrielle . gratuite 107 rue de rivoli paris1
word ‘rebus’ comes from the Latin ‘by Magritte’s pipe, a clever play on words.
things’ or ‘made by things’. Sequentially Yet, when you look closely at this witty
combining pictures with letters and/or interpretation of the famous striped
word fragments to form a word or logo (which Rand had designed in 1962,
phrase, rebuses have evolved to become see p.164), you begin to wonder what
a staple of modern conceptual graphic was going on. Was Rand trying to say
and typographic design. something? Was he insinuating that the
The nature of most rebuses is to be business-machine giant was becoming
accessible. Milton Glaser’s I Love NY too stodgy and that its image was due
trademark vividly proves the old for an overhaul? As far as executives at
chestnut ‘a picture is worth a thousand IBM were concerned, the poster did
words’. Yet rebuses can be used to chal- contain a message — the wrong message
lenge perception. In many instances, — and, even though it was only meant to
clues that appear to be self-evident are advertise an in-house event, they refused
in fact ambiguous. to approve its too-playful design. =
A new tool for propagandists

IDEA N° 44

PHOTOMONTAGE

In 1917, the German satirist and designer John Heartfield

developed a dynamic new visual technique that he used for
political satire. The photomontage was the manipulation of
two or more different photographs, combining negatives and
positives, to form a convincing new image. It was a mechanical
art for the mechanical age and changed forever how both
political satire and nationalist propaganda were produced.

Heartfield’s anti-Nazi graphic commen- The advent of photomontage inter-

taries in the pro-CCommunist weekly sected with the spread of photojour-
periodical AIZ (Workers’ Illustrated News) nalism around the world and among
were considered the most inflammatory right and left ideologies. The French
political dissent. Photographically situ- illustrated weekly Vu, founded in 1928
ating real people, such as Hitler and his and edited by the photographer Lucien
henchmen, in imagined yet plausible Vogel, was one of the most innovative in
pictorial contexts opened them up to terms of the picture essay. Vogel used
greater ridicule than drawings and the power of photography to document
paintings could. After World War I, and critique current events. Graphic
Heartfield joined the newly formed design was essential to the success of his
German Communist Party (KPD) and magazine, so Vu’s logo was designed by
produced many of its posters and peri- French poster artist A.M. Cassandre, and
odicals, which is how photomontage Deberny & Peignot set the type. Irene
came to be viewed as a left-wing medium. Lidova, a Russian émigrée, was the first
art director, and in 1933 her layout assis-

pie nerelinie tant was the Russian-born Alexander

Liberman, who introduced plenty of
Aevolubienes
photomontage to the magazine. Sn
AlZ also influenced the six-language tre WEG
edition USSR in Construction, which was
published monthly between 1930 and
1940. Founded by the writer Maxim Although it is still used in some political
Gorky, its declared editorial mission was or satirical contexts, contemporary
to ‘reflect in photography the whole photomontage (achieved with ease with
scope and variety of the construction Photoshop) is the tool of choice for a
work now going on in the USSR’. Photo-. wealth of other tasks, from advertise
montage was used to juxtapose multiple ments to CD covers.
realities into one ideal fantasy, and could Viktor Koen’s precisionist photo-
serve the needs of whoever harnessed it. montage is the quintessence of twenty-
Photomontage was not solely a polit- first-century surrealism. Borrowing
ical medium: it was perfectly adapted to from sci-fi and symbolist art traditions,
commercial use, to add elements to a his images are at once apocalyptic
picture that were not actually there. and utopian. =
hey steg tI
Ke Kevk Pare

opposite: Die Neue Linie (1938), ABOVE: Illustrated History

designed by Xanti Schawinsky, of the Russian Revolution
combines the icons of Fascist (1927), designed with
Italy — classic column, Duce photomontage by John
and the boot. Heartfield, juxtaposes news
photographs with symbols
of revolution.

95
Worth a thousand words

IDEA N° 45

PICTOGRAMS

The International System of Typographic Picture Education

(Isotype) was introduced in the 1930s by the Viennese
political economist and museum director Otto Neurath and
his wife, Marie Reidemeister. Isotype was originally designed
as an alternative to text, a starkly graphic means of
communicating information about locales, events and
objects on the one hand, and complex relationships in
space and time on the other.

This set of pictographic characters was labourers, office workers, soldiers and
intended ‘to create narrative visual police officers. The neutral silhouette BeLow: Mean Happiness (2008), above: Munich Olympics
material, avoiding details which do not was preferred because _ it avoided designed by Scott Stowell and pictograms (1972), designed
personal interpretation. It could also Ryan Thacker for Good by Otl Aicher, introduced the
improve the narrative character’, as
magazine, to track the world Isotype sensibility to the Olympic
Neurath wrote in one of his books prop- be viewed as a signpost rather than
database of happiness playground. These proved a huge
agating his unique idea to improve a critique. influence on Games to follow.
visual literacy. He believed that Isotype, Neurath was keen on objectivity and
formed of pictograms, icons or symbols, ordered the artists to make silhouettes
could, as the world’s first universal from cut paper or simple pen-and-ink
pictorial language, transcend national drawings. Yet Arntz injected warmth
borders. Neurath’s Vienna School was and humour through gestures in the
rooted in a simple graphic vocabulary of way a figure held a newspaper or carried
silhouetted symbolic representations of a lunchbox.
every possible image, from men and Neurath’s work influenced the
women to dogs and cats to trucks and cartographic and information graphics
planes. This storehouse of icons was a of his day and well into the late twen-
kit of parts that could be used to present tieth century. He also used pictograms
any informational or statistical data. to stand for quantities - what he called
Neurath’s illustrators, the German Gerd ‘statistical accountability’ - so they
Arntz and the Viennese Augustin could convey numerical information at
Tschinkel and Erwin Bernath, created a the same time as their primary meaning.
wealth of simplified characteristics that In addition to conveying quantifi-
distinguished between, for example, able data, Isotype foreshadowed today’s
common pictorial sign symbols. Neur-
Mean Happiness ath’s colleague Rudolf Modley’s Hand-
book ofPictorial Symbols (1976) and indus-
trial designer Henry Dreyfuss’s Symbol Arts’ system of 50 symbol signs, designed
Sourcebook (1972) are key references for by Roger Cook and Don Shanosky, a
their inclusive compilation of symbols. collaboration between the AIGA and the
Otl Aicher’s event symbols for the 1972 U.S. Department of Transportation, has
Munich Olympic Games take the basic become the standard for pictograms in
icons in a more streamlined direction. airports and other transportation hubs
And the American Institute of Graphic and at large international events. =
n
Copyright, 1942, by Pietograph Corporation. None of these symbols, or any port of them, may be resold for profit Copyright, 1942, byPictogroph Corporation, None ofthese symbols, ofthem, mayberetold forprofit
or reproduced in ony form orbyony means, withou' written permissionof Pi ICTOGRAPH CORPORATION otreproduced inony form orbyony meons, withou! wrinten
. permission
dion ofot PICTOGRAPH
wor CORPORATION
nA
142 Lexington Avenue, New York, N.Y. 142 Lexington Aveoue, New York N.Y.
Pictographs Today and
Tomorrow (1938) by Rudolf
Modley is, along with Otto
see Ree
Neurath’s Isotypes, the prototype MEETINGS, CONFERENCES 2
of contemporary graphic ee |
sign-symbols.

$e Oo O 4

03
000
fe
eo) (ey CS

Copyright,
15
forprof
Hf 1942, byPictogroph Corporation. None ofthese symbols, orany partof them, mayberetald
eT TT Nh
Copyright, 1942, by Pictogroph Corporation. None of these xymbols, of any part of them, may be resold for profit
‘or reproduced in ony form or by any meons, without written permission of PICTOGRAPH CORPORATION
cor reproduced in any form or by ony meant, withou! written permission of PICTOGRAPH CORPORATION 142 (enington Avenve, New York, N. Y.
142 Lexington Avenue, New York, N.Y.

oH
A portrait becomes a trademark

IDEA N° 46

FLOATING HEADS

The first artist to depict a human head chopped off its body as
a means of sending a graphically vivid message is anyone’s
guess. But beheading became a common trope in graphic arts
early on. During the nineteenth century Aubrey Beardsley’s
image of Salome admiring the severed head of John the
Baptist in The Dancer’s Reward (1893) is stylishly striking and
decidedly gory — but the head does not ‘float’, it sits on a
pedestal looking somewhat forlorn.

A less gruesome, and more frequently a black background with the sans serif
used, approach to disembodiment is capitals spelling out HITLER was an \pove: The Diva is Dismissed oprosirE: Fur das Alter (1949),
found on an infamous black-and-white unusually modern design approach for (1994), wall poster designed by poster designed by Carlo Vivarelli,
political posters at the time, when most Paula Scher for the New York was an early example ofthe
election poster from Adolf Hitler’s failed
Public Theater. The floating head ‘International’ or ‘Swiss Style’.
1932 attempt to be elected as chancellor were starkly coloured and boldly typo-
was influenced by nineteenth- The head against black focuses
of Germany (he gained power in 1933). graphical. The floating head alluded to century collage. the eye on the elderly woman
Its designer is unknown (probably from the idea of an omniscient presence, but
the Nazi Party’s Propaganda Atelier) but might also be construed as a saviour BeLow: Hitler (1932), election
the photograph was by Heinrich Hoff- coming from the darkness (the Weimar poster with photo by Heinrich
mann, Hitler’s personal photographer. Republic) into the light ofa ‘new order’. Hoffmann, was a prototype for
the ‘Big Brother’ image. The
Hitler’s silhouetted face emerging from In retrospect the image was an ominous
floating head was omniscient.
portent of the horrors to come.
The cover for the 1963 With the Beatles
album (their second, issued in the
United States the following year as Meet
the Beatles!), seemed to follow a similar
visual scheme. Photographed in natural
light and wearing black turtleneck
sweaters, the Beatles’ heads look as
though they are floating in space. While
many photographic album covers for
jazz recordings at the time were dramat-
ically posed, this approach, focusing
on the lads’ mop-top hairstyles,
suggested an iconic yet ghostly other-
worldliness. Although highlighting four reductive design element that by its
individuals, the album cover reinforced very nature is potentially a trademark.
the unity of the Beatles as a group - As a graphic idea this arguably holds
more than the sum of its parts. It true for any object that is removed or
became a veritable logo until their next severed from its context, but the come-
iconic photo session. hither features of the head (especially
The floating head — both large and the eyes, nose and mouth) are prime
small and whatever the subject - is a elements of a logo. =
” a.® es me]®
S®
2lL.thes®
y ong n 31 AA 10304 OFA NAUEAIA "D,
Lettera 22 (1953) is typical of Giovanni
Pintori’s ad campaigns for Olivetti
typewriters. The rhythm of fingers
striking the keys was the inspiration
for Abstract Expressionist patterns,
which are both dynamic and colourful.

a min
|

did 5.
Translating emotions into Willisau
Jazz
in

graphic form Vv

IDEA N° 47

ABSTRACTION

Can abstraction communicate persuasively? Few graphic

designers use abstract motifs to express an idea, promote an
event or tell a story, but when they do, the results are proof N
Vv

Kropinski
Uwe MN
98,
April
3.
Freitag
20.
that you do not have to be visually explicit in order make
yourself understood.

Joost Schmidt’s famous poster for the looking amalgam of shapes is ambig-
Solo
Recital
Guitar Rathaus
1923 Bauhaus exhibition in Weimar, uous: are machines under our control,
done when he was still a student, is an or do they control us?
BELOW: Bauhaus Exhibition, ABOVE: Jazz in Willisau (1998),
abstract composition whose only figura- It does not take much for an abstract
Weimar (1923) byJoost Schmidt, by Swiss graphic designer
tive element was a hardly noticeable pattern to become overtly illustrative. influenced by Constructivism Niklaus Troxler, is one of more
human profile. This profile, set in a disc, The mere suggestion of an eye, a star, a and De Stijl. Combining serif than a hundred such festival
formed the Bauhaus official seal, as wheel or a flower, for example, can be letterforms with industrial- posters that make extensive use
designed by Oskar Schlemmer the enough to turn blobs of colours or looking motifs, the composition of abstraction to evoke the
is striking but oddly off-balance. rhythms and tempo ofjazz.
previous year. The poster, created to geometric forms into representational
herald the new direction of the school art. Most so-called ‘conceptual’ imagery
- now dedicated to the celebration of falls in this category. Designers such as
machine art rather than crafts - could Giovanni Pintori remain an exception.
be interpreted as an allegory of man’s In the 1950s, for Olivetti, he created
new relationship with technology. Had advertisements whose abstract patterns
the human profile not been part of it, were meant to transcribe visually the
though, the image might have been less ‘feel’ of a particular typewriter rather
anecdotal and more powerful. As it is, than describe its features. The 1953
the message conveyed by this robotic- poster for the Lettera 22 typewriter is a
good example, one ofthe few non-literal
designs applied to commerce. In the tions. The contemporary Swiss graphic
background, colourful clusters of designer Niklaus Troxler is a master of
graceful arcs evoke the rapid move- this genre. He translates his fascination
ments of deft fingers on the keys. for jazz into geometric silhouettes,
During the heyday of Abstract scribbles, splashes and chromatic exer-
Expressionism, American painter Frank cises that make subtle reference to
Stella was commissioned by the Lincoln avant-garde movements of the twen-
Center cultural complex in New York tieth century, from Dada to Abstract
City to design a poster for its 1967 Expressionism and Op art. Director of
summer festival. The abstract pattern of the Willisau Jazz Festival in central
intertwined circles he created was a Switzerland, which he founded in 1975,
dynamic and playful composition. he is one ofthe rare individuals who has
Rather than trying to say explicitly managed to combine two unrelated
‘dance’ or ‘music’ or ‘theatre’ or ‘film’, it passions into a single expression.
translated pictorially the pleasure and Looking at his posters, we realize that
excitement that performances elicit. jazz and graphic design are both
Music is often an inspiration for abstract languages that celebrate the
designers in creating abstract composi- dynamic qualities of space and time. =

101
Building on Constructivist foundations

IDEA N° 48

TRIANGULATION

The idea of buttressing the visual components of a layout

against each other to form a network of right angles and
diagonals was initiated in Bolshevik Russia in the 1920s by
designers whose creativity was sparked by the post-
Revolutionary construction boom.

E] Lissitzky was one of the most inspired capital letters, sans serif type and indus-
proponents of this ideologically driven trial-looking colours reinforced the oprosire: Architecture at ABove: The Best of Jazz (1979),
Russian movement, which came to be impression of stability that this compo- Vkhutemas (1927), one of a typographical masterpiece by
known as Constructivism. His famous sition strove to achieve. El Lissitzky’s most eloquent Paula Scher. She recalls her work
compositions. The book suggests being acclaimed as ‘new wave’
red, black and sepia poster, featuring Perfected in Russia by Lissitzky and
that Constructivist rigidity and ‘postmodern’ when in fact
the hand of an architect holding a also Aleksander Rodchenko in the 1920s, should be tempered with it was a private homage to
compass, epitomized the basic princi- triangulated layouts went on to capture a humanist sensibility. the pioneers ofthe Russian
ples of this early Modernist aesthetic. the imagination of designers worldwide. avant garde
On this simple and bold layout, Lissitzky Countless artists adopted and further seLow: Bauhaus Journal,
superimposed typographical and picto- developed the Constructivist style: first Number 2 (1928), designed by
rial elements at 90- and 45-degree in the Netherlands, where Theo van Herbert Bayer, who edited the
journal. It is a good example
angles. He triangulated the heavy lines Doesburg and Piet Zwart borrowed some
of the way Bauhaus teachers,
of type, the fingers of the hand and the of its tropes to spearhead the De Stijl among them Wassily Kandinsky,
arms of the compass the same way an movement; and later, in the 1930s, in Josef Albers and Moholy-Nagy,
architect would have triangulated Eastern Europe, where the likes of Laszl6 influenced each other.
girders, timbers and beams _ to Moholy-Nagy and Jan _ Tschichold
strengthen a tall structure. The use of combined diagonals and angles with
Bauhaus typography to create their own
distinctive signature look.
Forgotten for nearly 50 years, trian-
gulated layouts had to wait until the late
1970s to make a comeback. Lissitzky-
inspired designs became all the rage in
the post-Modernist era as a new genera-
tion of graphic designers suddenly
discovered this hitherto untapped
source ofinspiration. Roman Cieslewicz
for the Pompidou Centre in Paris, Rudy
VanderLans for Emigré magazine, or
Paula Scher for the Public Theater in
New York (see p.98), are examples of
talented designers who have used
triangulation to evoke the avant-garde
spirit of pioneering Modernists, and to
emulate their upbeat, cutting-edge,
dynamic outlook. =
ES

SK
Bigger is better

IDEA N° 49

EXTREME CLOSE-UPS
EE I OS ED CR Deyee aT ED en

Graphic designers tend to objectify photographs, cropping,

distorting, retouching, slicing or enlarging them in order to
transform them into graphic artefacts. They are particularly
fond of closeups that decontextualize a picture and allow them
to emphasize the difference between the foreground and the
background of an image. Needless to say, photographers and
graphic designers often fail to see eye to eye.

The Russian Aleksander Rodchenko was scale face of a man dwarfs the image of opposirE: Pontresina (1935), Bove: Molly Bloom (2002),
an exceptional artist. A prolific photog- a skier with snowy mountain peaks in designed by Herbert Matter, theatre poster by R2, a
rapher as well as a graphic designer, he the background. In Matter’s Engelberg the indisputable master of Swiss Portuguese studio directed by
travel posters. This image was Liza Ramalho and Artur Rebelo,
manipulated his own photographs, poster, an embroidered ski glove gets
directly inspired by Aleksander combines extreme close-up with
often magnifying and cropping parts of top billing, while everything behind it Rodchenko’s close-ups of athletes extreme cropping. This creates
them for his collages. In his well-known recedes in the background. Like succes- and factory workers. a dramatic background
for
poster for Dziga Vertov’s 1924 documen- sive flats in theatrical scenery, the larger innovative typography.
tary film Kinoglaz (Cine-Eye), the motifof the image in front, the deeper the stage BeELow: Schutzt das Kind!
a large eye took centre stage. Rodchen- seems to be. (Protect the child!) (1953) was
ko’s influence is evident in the travel one ofthe road safety posters
Another Swiss graphic designer,
Josef Miiller-Brockmann designed
poster for the Swiss ski resort Pontresina Josef Muller-Brockmann, used photog-
for the Automobile Club of
by Swiss-born American photographer raphy sparingly, but when he did, Switzerland.
and designer Herbert Matter: the over- everyone noticed. His road-safety poster
featuring an extreme close-up of the
wheels of a racing motorcycle is highly
memorable - as it should be in order to
act as an effective deterrent to speeding.
schitzt das Kind! A : The small figure of a child running to
cross the street completes the impres-
sion of impending tragedy. Indeed,
blown-up photographs are almost work under the name M/M (Paris), were
always alarming, one of the reasons among the first to exploit this technique
they are fascinating. They show details successfully. Their 2001 posters for the
we often do not see, and suggest an fashion house Balenciaga showcase
uncomfortable closeness. We cannot severely cropped portraits of top models,
help staring at them while at the same defaced with strangely beautiful hand-
time wanting to look away. drawn doodles. In this collaboration
Contemporary designers are with the fashion-photographer duo Inez
banking on this aspect of extreme close- van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin,
ups, and even emphasizing it, by the photographers did not mind their
drawing on top of enlarged photographs work being treated as a canvas. Today,
to accentuate the in-your-face impres- augmenting the experience of looking
sion. The Parisian team Mathias is more important than preserving the
Augustyniak and Michaél Amzalag, who integrity of aphotograph. =

105
Body language can motivate,
excite or outrage

THE PROVOCATIVE GESTURE

Through the turbulent decades of the early twentieth
century, graphic designers created iconic heroes in
meaningful poses in the service of democracies and
dictatorships alike. Extreme posturing has since developed
HERKULES- BIER
aus dem Hasenbrau-Augsburg:
into a sophisticated mode of expression. From clenched fists
to thumbs up, for savvy visual communicators, the language DRUCK. KLINSTIMDRUCE G ALB 1, MONCHEN

of gestures is as expressive as that ofletterforms. ee a opposite: Liberty and Justice

beer advert by Ludwig Hohlwein, (2004), by Mirko Ilic, was
evokes the robust qualities of the conceived as a cover for the
Every period has its own imagery of Senate called for a national monument
brawny beverage in a proud Village Voice. It was inspired
gesture. The German poster artist modelled on the picture, and the
male figure flexing his muscles. by an article about a ban on
Ludwig Hohlwein’s so-called Munich sculptor Felix de Weldon was commis- same-sex marriage being
style dominated German advertising sioned for the work. The monumental seLtow; We Can Do It! (1943), discussed in the U.S. Congress.
from the 1920s to the 1940s. His depic- bronze captures the drama, effort and a propaganda poster
valour of the moment, its posed, frozen commissioned by Westinghouse
tions of lockjawed, broad-shouldered
from commercial artist J. Howard
human mannequins in heroic attitudes figures reflecting an authentic heroism.
Miller to encourage women to
mythologized patriotic masculinity. During World War II the language of work infactories. In the 1970s the
America’s famous monument to gesture was used extensively in propa- Women's Liberation Movement
heroism, the Marine Corps War Memo- ganda posters. An interesting example is took the image as a symbol
rial at Arlington, Virginia, was based on J. Howard Miller’s poster featuring offemale power.
Joe Rosenthal’s iconic photograph ofa Geraldine Hoff, a seventeen-year-old
flag-raising during the Battle of Iwo metal presser in a Michigan factory
Jima in February 1945. The United States (sometimes confused with Norman
Rockwell’s iconic Rosie the Riveter).
Under the headline ‘We Can Do It!’ Hoff The stark black-and-white photograph

We Can Do It!
was portrayed rolling up her sleeve to became as much a graphic symbol of
play her part in the war effort by taking women’s liberation as the painted
the kind of manual job traditionally image of Geraldine Hoff’s raised elbow.
performed by men. Rediscovered in the However, Ritts’s cover seems quaint
1970s the poster, with its gesture of compared with Yugoslavian illustrator
female strength, was given a new lease and graphic artist Mirko _ llic’s
of life by advocates of women’s equality airbrushed rendition of Alfred Eisen-
in the workplace. staedt’s famous 1945 photograph, taken
Women in advertisements were on VJ Day, ofan American sailor kissing
often pictured striking provocative a nurse. In Ilic’s version, two women
poses, but they seemed coy, even when embrace: Justice and the Statue of
they were shown in a sexually explicit Liberty. What shocked the editors of the
attitude. In 1990, the ever-provocative Village Voice newspaper, who gave Ilic the
singer Madonna was featured on the assignment for their cover, was the fact
cover ofInterview magazine grabbing her that he had tinkered with a patriotic
crotch, in a photograph by Herb Ritts. image and defiled, so to speak, two
With this gesture she earned a place in beloved American symbols. The illustra-
the history of visual communication. tion ended up inside. =

106
BeLow: The Child (1999), an opposire: Praludium (1919), by
animated music video by design Hans Richter, is a Dada-inspired

Hear the pictures, see the music collective HS for Alex Gopher, a
French DJ. Set in a typographical
hand-painted film that attempts
to visualize the abstract shapes
version of Manhattan, it features of rhythmic expression, and lets
a car chase in which everything viewers experience the dynamic
— people, cars and buildings — relationship between lines
is represented as words. and curves,

IDEA N2 51

MOTION GRAPHICS

A new discipline has emerged at the crossroads of film, inger’s pulsating geometry, diluting his
video, animation and film title sequences, and borrowing graphic verve with sentimental imagery,
the film’s slogan ‘Hear the picture! See
from all these genres. ‘Motion graphics’ is neither art nor
the music!’ was a perfect description of
commerce, but a novel form of communication, one that his art. His rich colour palette and inex-
haustible inventiveness influenced
combines moving effects and sounds. These singing and
generations of graphic designers.
dancing visuals are to graphic design what the talkies Motion graphics came into their
own as a popular genre in the 1960s
were to silent films. Indeed, it is the addition of an audio
with Saul Bass. Heir to Richter, Eggeling
component, more than that of movement, that propels and Fischinger, he created for Hitchcock
a series of semi-abstract film titles
graphic design into a temporal dimension.
that appealed to a wide audience (see
p.156). His Bauhaus-inspired graphic
The earliest experiments with what was breakthrough for graphic artists came
style was in perfect sync with the repeti-
then called ‘musography’, or ‘eye with Eggeling’s Symphonie Diagonale
tive motifs of composer Bernard
music’, coincided with the commercial- (1924) and Richter’s Filmstudie (1926),
Herrmann’s suspenseful scores. After
ization of sound cinema in the mid- both released with an_ original
him, a growing number of graphic
1920s. Artists began to turn their soundtrack. Viewed today, these primi-
designers ventured into filmmaking,
paintings, illustrations and visual ideas tive, black-and-white art films feel
exploring new techniques or perfecting
into animated motifs that danced on surprisingly contemporary.
old ones, including clay animation,
the screen, often to the sound ofjazz. German Expressionist Oskar Fisch-
frame-by-frame action, cinematography,
German avant-garde artist Hans Richter inger is best known for his brief contri-
cartooning and digital animation.
and Swedish painter Viking Eggeling bution to the Fantasia (1940) sequence
Among the most original recent
are considered the first abstract film- set to the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor
creations is Combo (2009), a giant
makers to translate musical principles by J.S. Bach. Even though Disney’s
animated graffiti photographed in stop-
into sequences of images. The real cartoon animators tampered with Fisch-
motion, the work ofItalian mural artist
Blu in collaboration with David Ellis,
with music by Roberto Carlos Lange.
Notable in the special-effects depart-
ment is 2008’s giant ice-skating robot
advertising the Citroén R4, developed at
Euro RSCG London, its soundtrack a
fast-paced song, ‘Walking Away’ by The
Egg. And the 1999 music video for
French DJ and musician Alex Gopher,
The Child, is an urban tale told in typo-
graphical language, made by the small
Parisian agency H5 and now a classic.
More and more hybrid animated
graphic styles are emerging. Their over-
bearing audio presence is their most
critical feature, though: press mute and
the mesmerizing visual effects seem to
die away with the sound. =

108
The light fantastic

IDEA N° 52

NIGHT SPECTACULARS
—
TE ee WE eS
The City of Light, as Paris is sometimes called, was not only
the first metropolis to install street lamps on its main
boulevards, it was also the birthplace of commercial neon
signs. In the 1920s, Dada poets, jazz musicians and avant-
garde writers were inspired by lighted advertising billboards
and saw in them a vivid manifestation of modernity.

In 1932, when Francois Kollar was the incoming traffic, stacked so as to be opposire: Les lumiéres dans ABOVE: Agbar Tower (2005), by
commissioned to photograph the Paris easily legible at a glance. Bright silhou- la ville (1932), by Hungarian Yann Kersalé, a self-described
street signs for a book celebrating the photographer Francois Kollar, ‘night architect’, transforms the
ettes against the pitch-black desert sky,
captures Paris by night and the celebrated Barcelona skyscraper
wonders of electricity, neon illumina- they were easy to identify from afar.
wonders of electricity as perceived by Jean Nouvel into a liquid
tions were still a novelty. Kollar had to Today the Las Vegas hotels and by the popular imagination surface of abstract coloured forms
layer five different images to capture the casinos, with their extravagant shapes,
excitement produced by the accumula- are replacing the lighted signs as visual BELow: Arcade (2003), an
tion of bright signs against the night landmarks. They have become giant illu- installation by German Chaos
Computer Club (CCC) for a ‘Nuit
sky. The skewed angles of the glittering minated billboards, their architecture
Blanche’ art festival, turned one
signboards and marquees emphasized more radiant by night than by day.
of the facades ofthe Paris
the complexity of the urban landscape. Around the clock, the strip is now a Bibliotheque Mitterand into a
Comparing the Kollar image with blinding eyesore. But in Barcelona, Yann giant, interactive, low-resolution
night photographs of the Las Vegas strip Kersalé has proved that night spectacu- monochrome computer screen.
taken 20 years later demonstrates how lars can be flashy without being tacky:
the design oflighted billboards evolved he designed the illumination of French
to accommodate their audience. architect Jean Nouvel’s pinecone-shaped
Whereas the Parisian night spectaculars Torre Agbar so that after sunset it is
were conceived to be admired by pedes- transformed into a pixellated beacon.
trians walking in dark streets, American In 2002, Paris was once again at the
signs, for the most part, were conceived forefront of night-time innovations. It
to be seen by travellers sitting behind staged an overnight event to showcase
the wheel of a car. Accordingly, the the work of conceptual artists for whom
names of the casinos in Las Vegas were darkness is a preferred medium. Called
displayed on horizontal panels facing ‘Nuit Blanche’ (‘All-nighter’), it drew
crowds who ventured after sunset to
unlikely venues where they admired
installations by the likes of Sophie Calle,
Claude Lévéque or the Chaos Computer
Club. It proved so successful it has
become a popular yearly happening in
Brussels, Madrid, Bucharest, Amsterdam,
Rome and Riga, among other European
cities. Today graphic designers the world
over join video artists, avant-garde archi-
tects, street performers and lighting
mavericks to illuminate the night. =
Entering the third dimension

IDEA N2 $3

SHADOW PLAY

One of graphic designers’ most enduring obsessions is to

try to escape from flat land. They would like to free images
and text from the confines of the two-dimensional plane.
Hungarian-born Laszl6 Moholy-Nagy worked all his life
to solve this vexing problem. Using photography and
controlling light and shadows by means oflenses, mirrors
and filters, he imparted a sense of depth but also movement
to otherwise static graphic elements.

In 1929, for the cover of a brochure scape, its billboards, motel signs and tor: 14 Bauhausbiicher (1929) Above: Mighty Topic (1990),
titled 14 Bauhausbiicher (14 Bauhaus oversized gas station marquees. is a photographic trompe l'oeil by American artist Ed Ruscha,

Books), Moholy-Nagy photographed In 2004, for a poster for the Chatelet by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, who can be interpreted as a wry
liked to ‘manipulate light’ using commentary on the ‘mighty’
metal type on a composing stick at Theatre in Paris announcing a produc-
photograms, collages, montages, distortion between what we
various angles and collaged the prints tion of Richard Wagner’s Tannhduser, mirrors, multiple exposures and think we see and what's
together in such a way as to create a Rudi Meyer created a ghostly illusion patterns with projected shadows. really there.
strange visual amalgam. Not only did involving type and shadows. A large
the words pop up, they also defied the cutout ‘T’, seen in perspective, projects opposrre: Tannhauser (2004),
laws of perspective. Pairing letterforms across the page a long forbidding by Swiss graphic designer Rudi
with their distorted shadows, he real- shadow in the form ofa cross. The angle Meyer for the Chatelet Theatre
in Paris, uses odd vantage points
ized, could transform the surface of of the ‘T’ and that of the cross do not
and an ethereal glare to give
paper into a window opening on an match, a detail one might not the impression that the poster
otherworldly realm. consciously notice yet which contrib- is illuminated by moonlight.
Moholy-Nagy would have loved the utes to the eerie impression of the
work of American artist Ed Ruscha, composition. Shadow play is often used
whose monochromatic ‘word composi- in scenography, so it is not surprising
tions’ are often associated with an odd that during his seven-year tenure
play of light and shadows. Inspired by designing posters for the Chatelet Meyer
the typographical environment of Los created many such graphic illusions.
Angeles, his paintings are a cross between His poster for Le Fou, in which bold
film title sequences and roadside adver- letters cast crazy shadows on the page,
tisements. Mighty Topic, painted in 1990, makes a passing reference to 14 Bauhaus-
is set in blocky capital letters, while its biicher, with some ofthe words arranged
slightly fuzzy shadow appears on the on what looks like a composing stick —
wall behind in upper- and lower-case as they are in the Moholy-Nagy topsy-
italic. In addition, it is projected at a turvy photograph. The overall impres-
steep angle, an optical absurdity. Yet, sion is both bizarre and wonderful. =
strangely enough, the image does not
give the impression of being erroneous.
On the contrary, it comes across as a
faithful rendition of the kind of visual
incongruities that give so much char-
acter to the southern California land-

112
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Measuring excellence in design

IDEA N° 54

GOOD DESIGN

Like artists, graphic designers struggle to define ‘Good Design’.

Who’s the judge of the quality of the work they produce?
The clients? The public? The critics? Or a jury selected by
365:
professional institutions? Art academies, in France in AIGA Annual Design
Exhibition 29
particular, have traditionally promoted and enforced official December 11, 2008-February 20, 2009

AIGA National Design Canter

standards of excellence, as defined by a body of eminent artists. 164 Fifth Avenue, New York
212 807 1990
Needless to say, their decisions were often controversial, with ywww.aigo.org

anti-academism becoming a genre in its own right.

The concept of ‘Good Design’ was promoted pure form and equated over- ABOVE: AIGA 365 poster (2008), opposite: Union des Artistes
pioneered by the Union des Artistes indulgent styling with morally inferior designed by K,J. Chun, Modernes (1931), a poster
Modernes (UAM), a Paris organization taste. Though critically acclaimed, the announced the yearly show that designed by Paul Colin, shows
‘extends a legacy that began a painter’s palette as well as an
founded by Robert Mallet-Stevens in shows are seen today as an attempt to
more than 90 years ago and architect’s T square to symbolize
1929 in the aftermath of the watershed institute an ‘official’ aesthetic that cele- is widely recognized as the the alliance of artists and
1925 Arts Décoratifs exhibition. The brated a strict less-is-more sensibility most selective statements on architects who shared early
UAM counted among its members Paul but ignored other important European design excellence today.’ Modernist principles.
Colin, Jean Carlu, A.M. Cassandre and and American trends, from Stream-
Charles Peignot. Influenced by Cubism, lining to Surrealism.
and advocating a minimalist approach The American Institute of Graphic
to decoration, these graphic designers Arts (AIGA), founded in 1914, was one of
were translating, in graphic language, the first design academies to award
the values and tastes of Modernist archi- medals for excellence in design, but no
tects such as Pierre Chareau, Le longer pretends to have the last word
Corbusier and Charlotte Perriand - also on aesthetics. One of the objectives of
UAM members. The anti-ornamentation this professional association is to
stance of the UAM artists paved the way demonstrate the value of design to the
for what would soon be called ‘graphic business community.
design’ as opposed to ‘graphic arts’. Poles apart from the AIGA is the
Among poster designers, illustrators Alliance Graphique Internationale
and typographers, clear communica- (AGI). A club rather than a guild, it is
tion became a benchmark of excellence. perceived as the arbiter of Good Design
The expression ‘Good Design’ was worldwide. Founded in Paris in 1951, its
coined in 1940 by architect Eliot Noyes, members include 400 of the world’s
who defined it for the ‘Useful Objects of leading graphic designers. Yet, like the
American Design Under $10’ exhibition AIGA, it tries to avoid the moralistic
at the Museum of Modern Art in New high ground, and distances itself from
York. For him, functionalism and academism. Its mission statement
respect for materials were key issues. declares that it ‘provides for friendship,
Between 1950 and 1955, under the cura- mutual respect and the enjoyment
torial direction of Edgar Kaufmann Jr., of the company of the like-minded -
MoMA developed the concept of ‘Good even reassurance in the face of a scep-
Design’ with a series of exhibitions that tical world.’ =

114
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1O7, RUE DE RIVOLI
Keeping up to date

IDEA N° 55

FORCED OBSOLESCENCE

The goal of what in the 1920s was called ‘style engineering’

- better known to us now as ‘forced obsolescence’ - was to
increase consumer interest and make products more stylish
through modern design. Marketers, promoters and
commercial artists believed that profits could be increased
with packaging and promoting merchandise given a
modernistic veneer. The advertising artist and industrial
design pioneer Raymond Loewy referred to the notion as
MAYA (Most Advanced Yet Acceptable) - that is, avant-
gardisms that did not too shockingly defy popular tastes.

The MAYA principle rejected orthodox suddenly attempting to make over a

modern austerity while promoting thousand products in new shapes and
colours and shapes that telegraphed a shades ... that did not harmonize with
sense of the new and improved. It our ideas of luxury’.
sought out forms that would not repel The New York World’s Fair of
the predictably sceptical mass audience 1939-40 was the epicentre of style engi-
yet took the next step. It was a safety neering, with its Trylon and Perisphere
valve, of sorts, to prevent, as advertising centrepiece, at once futuristic yet acces-
pioneer Earnest Elmo Calkins stated, sible, modern yet styled to incorporate
the potentially ‘distressing results in elements of the past. Modern art
elevated advertising art to a higher
aesthetic level. For most American
designers Modernism was a bag oftricks
the artist could use to set an ordinary new, mouth-watering styles. Forced
product apart. Spearheaded by Calkins, obsolescence was essentially a trick that
artists posed commonplace objects encouraged redundancy and artificially
(toasters, refrigerators, coffee tins) stimulated growth.
against new patterns and at skewed The concept continues. Old is made
angles; contemporary industrial wares new. New is made newer. Sometimes
were shown in surrealistic and futur- new is made old, to give a sense of
istic settings accented by contemporary history or heritage. Coca-Cola, one of
typefaces with fashionable names such the oldest international brands, has
as Cubist Bold, Vulcan, Broadway and retained its original colour and logo,
Novel Gothic. but routinely alters its style - sometimes
Modernism offered the aura of returning agressively to the past, at
cosmopolitan culture and avant-garde others switching gears to the future,
style. Combining aspects of psychology but, following the MAYA creed, never
with market research, the idea was to too avant-garde.
control consumers’ behaviour by Forced obsolescence is not without
feeding them perpetually changing, inherent flaws, then or now. ‘We see
e &|

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opposite: La Revue Ford (1928), ABOVE: Evolution charts (1934)

advertisements so “arty” and artificial, the cover of a periodical issued created by Raymond Loewy to
that they neglect to sell the goods,’ by the Ford Motor Company show the changes of style in
wrote Harry A. Batten, vice president of in Paris, was designed to evoke everyday objects and fashion -
the first advertising agency in the the fashion of the day. from elaborate to streamlined.
United States, N.W. Ayer & Son, in 1931.
It is risky designing for the future. Tech-
nology may make a product obsolete
without a second’s notice. To engineer
style, designers have to toe a fine line
between the allure of the unknown and
the fear of the unwanted. =
Throbbing colours demand attention

IDEA N° 56

VIBRATING COLOUR
Interaction of Color Josef Albers
Unabridged text and selected plates
Vibrating colour is a derivative of 1960s psychedelic style, Revised edition

which was an ecstatic blend of sex, drugs, rock and roll - and
the Bauhaus artist Josef Albers. Albers was leader of courses
at Black Mountain College in North Carolina and head of the
design programme at Yale University in the 1950s. Through
his ‘Interaction of Colour’ classes he unwittingly helped to
launch the vibrating colour trend that would typify the
psychedelic poster and tie-dye graphic concepts.

Victor Moscoso, who studied under colour, Albers wrote, ‘one cannot be
Albers at Yale and was one of vibrating expected to be very careful to look at
colour’s founding fathers, claimed that things inquiringly.’ Colour is responsible
he ‘likened Albers’ famous Color Aid for producing deceptive and unpredict-
paper exercises to the futility of learning able effects, with multiple readings of the
algebra in high school’. Yet although same hue possible depending on what
colour theory drove him crazy, it proved colours surround it. Vibrating colour was
to be an invaluable resource. ‘Albers’ an affront to the senses, but was certainly
impact really didn’t show until the unpredictable and deceptive.
psychedelic poster, when I found myself Albers never mixed his colours; they
in a situation where all I had to do was went directly from tube to canvas. He
reach back to my dusty shelf, so to forced his audience into a changing and
speak, and pull out what I had learned.’ dynamic relationship with his painting, Above: Interaction of Color opposite: The Doors (1967),
The dicta Moscoso attributed to rather than accepting one visual truth. (1963), by former Bauhausler designed by Victor Moscoso,
Albers were not, however, set in stone. Moscoso’s vibrations forced the viewer Josef Albers, is a seminal book was produced for the Avalon
in design practice and a clear Ballroom in San Francisco,
Rather, they were meant to be broken. into a throbbing and kinetic relation-
influence on Op art. ‘Never and busted the taboos against
‘Don’t use vibrating colours, for ship with the two-dimensional picture vibrate colour’ is one of using vibrating colour.
example, became ‘use them whenever surface that fostered a more dynamic Albers’ mantras.
you can and irritate the eyes as much as relationship than flatness could achieve.
you can.’ The tenet that lettering should Vibrating colour is now one of many
always be legible was changed to tools in the colourist’s kit. Evolving
‘disguise the lettering as much as from psychedelia, jarring colour combi-
possible and make it difficult to read.’ nations that simulate optical dimen-
If Albers was aware of what he had sionality are still common in imagery
wrought, he might have been nonplussed. suggesting a youth culture aesthetic. =
Yet Moscoso’s use of vibrating colour was
not too far from Albers’ original work.
One significant element ofAlbers’ theory
was his concept ofthe relativity of colour
~ that colour changes in direct relation to
its surroundings and the condition ofthe
viewer. ‘Until one has the experience of
knowing that he is being fooled by

IDEA N° 57

STRIPS AND PANELS

ee eed
The best storytellers are those who do not tell all, but allow
their audience to fill the gaps in the narrative. It is the same
with pictures. Comic books are a powerful media because the
panels, strung together with a space in between, encourage
readers to be mentally alert as they follow the action from
frame to frame. The narrow strip of white space separating
each scene is the invisible track that keeps the plot going.

In the late 1930s, American strips or find out what happens next, loved the
‘funnies’, regularly published in news- immediacy of it all. opposite: Tarzan (1973), from DC aBovE: Chip Kidd's 2002 cover
papers, were occasionally bundled into Unlike storyboards that describe the Comics Vol. 26 No. 224, written of Great Neck byJay Cantor
books that sold at the newsstands for continuous motion of acamera, comics and illustrated byJoe Kubert. juxtaposes two images in a
The drastic change of scale manner reminiscent of comic
pennies. Though success was not imme- fly around a scene, showing it from
between panels is one ofthe strips. A collector of Batman
diate, laying out the individual strips to every possible angle. Take away the most important characteristics artefacts and books, Kidd has
fill entire pages turned out to be a contrast between the panels, and you no ofthis graphic language. researched and analysed why
quantum leap. It took a couple of years longer have the same medium. It is panel-to-panel narratives
for publishers to understand the poten- exactly what Roy Lichtenstein did in the BeLow: Wild Palms (1990), a are so effective.
tial of this new form of pulp fiction. early 1960s when he copied individual comic strip by British illustrator
Soon, action heroes fighting home- panels from comics and turned them Julian Allen, was a sci-fi murder
mystery combining comic-book
grown villains and jungle queens wres- into large paintings. He altered the
action with cinematographic
tling with Nazi spies came to life, images by depriving them of their orig- imagery. First published in
jumping in and out of trouble the same inal context — a technique used by most Details magazine, it became
way the intrigue was jumping in and Pop artists. Had he kept two panels next a cult mini-series.
out of frames. There was always an to each other with a gutter in between,
exciting variety in the way the action he could have been accused of plagia-
was portrayed, with an extreme close-up rism. What he did was brilliant because
juxtaposed next to a down shot, or a he changed everything about the
deep perspective followed by a play of pictures by changing practically
contrasting silhouettes against a solid nothing. ‘The gutter plays host to much
background. Kids, always impatient to of the magic and mystery that are at the
very heart of comics,’ wrote Scott
McCloud, author of the 1993 cult
manual Understanding Comics.
There are many enlightened comic
book fans among graphic designers,
Chip Kidd among them. His infatuation
with Batman - more of an obsession, tion is always present. Kidd likes to pit
really — is one of the reasons his book two visuals against each other, or, more
covers are so compelling. He knows how shrewdly, two concepts. The invisible
to contrast the elements of his layouts line he draws across the cover of a book
in such a way as to create a space is the beginning of the long yarn that
between them. Obvious or not, a separa- runs between the pages. =
BELow LEFT: Mostly Mozart setow: Dubo Dubon Dubonnet
Festival (1982), designed by (1932), a billboard created byA.M.

A sequential narrative in pictures

Milton Glaser, features the Cassandre, became the main brand
sequential illustration ‘Mozart for the liquor. Like an animated
Sneezes’. The viewer is drawn sequence, the Dubo man and
into the comedic action. brand fill up with colour.

IDEA N° 58

FRAME BY FRAME

The sequential visual narrative is an established tool for

storytelling. One of the earliest sequences can be seen
on Trajan’s Column (113 cz) in Rome, which is also the
wellspring of Roman typography, telling a tale of the
emperor Trajan through inscribed pictographs and words.
Imagery of this kind is, however, ubiquitous throughout
antiquity and later history, from Egyptian hieroglyphs to
the Bayeux Tapestry in the eleventh century.

A much later evolution of sequential for children published by the De Stil

narration can be found in the work of press of Theo van Doesburg. The narra-
the father of the modern comic strip, tive centres on the struggle of(literally)
the nineteenth-century Swiss author a red square to rebuild a new social city
and cartoonist Rodolphe Topffer, whose in defiance of a threatening black
short stories were conveyed through square. The red square symbolizes the
word and picture. new revolutionary order with unlimited
Yet the true forerunner of the possibilities and is in conflict with the
modern sequence is found in E] Lissitz- black square, which signifies the old
ky’s About Two Squares: A Suprematist Tale order. Their turmoil represents the
in Six Constructions (1922), a picture book Russian Revolution of 1917 and the
triumph of Bolshevism.

Mosply Mot Fopfioe With a more commercial goal in

mind, A.M. Cassandre’s 1932 sequential

dikesnp ? |
advertisement for Dubonnet, Dubo Dubon
Dubonnet is an image that, while osten-
sibly static, urges the mind’s eye to
animate it. Credited with being the first
poster designed to be read from a
moving vehicle, it was consistent with
Cassandre’s broader embrace of the
serial poster: a group of posters to be
viewed in rapid succession to convey a light of the typically serious portrait of
complete idea. In this way the viewer Mozart. The sequence of motionless
engages more actively with the message deadpan profiles begins to move gradu-
than with a single, static image. ally in the fifth panel and erupts as a
Most sequential images are sneeze in the sixth, only to return to the
supported by words, but designers have static state in the final three. The absur-
frequently used the wordless (or panto- dity of the concept demanded the form,
mime) sequence to express a concept — for a single sneezing Mozart might have
or make a graphic joke. Milton Glaser’s been amusing but would have lacked
Mozart Sneezes poster for a music festival the drama of a crescendo that then
Wert Suceper
at the Lincoln Center in New York makes returns to stasis. =

122
‘Designers have frequently used the wordless
sequence to express a concept.’
Kunstgewerbemuseum Ziirich
Ausstellung

40. Januar bis 30. April 1960

_ Offen: Montag 14-18, 20-22
Dienstag-Freitag 10-12, 14-18, 20-22
samstag-Sonntag 10-12, 14-17 |
The geometry of ideal proportions
y |

SHAKESPEARE

IDEA N° 59

PERFECT RECTANGLES
_ RA PRE TE SETI EI SS LOG A
Graphic artists have long sought a formula that would help
them design perfect rectangles, as elegant as the facade ofa
beautiful building. Frustrated by standardized page sizes
that limit their design solutions, designers have tried in vain
to find the graphic equivalent of the ‘golden ratio’, which is CHIPPODROME MERCREDI 7 NOVEMBRE 2001 A 20H30
JEUDI 8 NOVEMBRE A 19H
allegedly the reason the Parthenon looks so sublime. MISE EN SCENE SYLVAIN MAURICE
CREATION AVIGNON 2001
Unfortunately, the proportions of a mark book Typographische Gestaltung TEL. 03 27 99 66 66
regular poster or book cover are very (Typographic Design). But its cover, a
much squatter than the idealized masterpiece of understatement, did not
Renaissance rectangle. The 1:4 ratio (the follow this rule. By contrast, the cover of opposire: Der Film (1960), by aBove: Macbeth (2001), a poster
length divided by the width) of most the 1974 English translation, issued as Josef Miiller-Brockmann, is an for the Hippodrome Theatre in

paper sizes worldwide is a far cry from Asymmetric Typography, was designed by imposing use ofHelvetica. Some Douai, France, was designed by
experts attribute its pleasing Catherine Zask, who is known for
the taller 1:6 golden ratio. To make a Tschichold almost 40 years after the
design and elegance to the her ability to suggest drama with
rectangular layout appear slender, German edition and showed a greater mathematical proportions ofits simple letterforms. Here the space
German typographer Jan Tschichold understanding of how to enhance the grid, based on the golden ratio between the ‘M’ and the A’ is
suggested that the height of the main beauty ofa rectangle. sharp as a dagger.
copy block be the same as the width of Tschichold had figured out at last petow: Asymmetric
the page. He applied this formula to the that a perfect rectangle contains an Typography (1974), cover of
design of the inside of his 1935 land- invisible square. The cover of Asymmetric the English translation ofJan
Tschichold’s Typographische
Typography came close to perfection
Gestaltung, published in 1935.
because it had not just one but two
Jan Tschichold The diminutive ‘i’ in ‘asymmetric’
Recess hidden squares. The distance from the gives this otherwise severe cover
baseline ofthe first word of the headline its flair.
to the top of the cover was the same as
the width of the book. This square area
was practically blank - it was the
keystone of the composition. A second
square, a couple of inches below, rested
on the baseline of the second word of
the headline, its upper limit a red bar

asymmetre
on the upper right-hand corner. These
two interlocking squares subdivided the
rectangle into overlapping areas of
exquisite proportions. some minimalist layout. In a more

typography
Square keystones give rectangles recent example, a 2001 poster by Cathe-
monumental proportions. Josef Muller- rine Zask for a production of Macbeth,
Brockmann’s 1960 Der Film poster was a the headline is placed above an ominous
bolder - and earlier — version of Tsch- black area, like the crenellation on top
ichold’s cover. Resting on the baseline of ofa fortress. At the bottom, lines of type
the headline, a black square soared form steps leading the eye towards this
upward. The lower portion of the poster mysterious black facade as unwel-
served as a solid pedestal for this hand- coming as Macbeth’s castle. =

N un
Creating a landscape inside our head
RICKMANSWORTH CROXLEY GREEN

MOOR PARK
& SANDY LODGE

NORTHWOOD

PINNER

IDEA N° 60 NORTH
HARROW

ABSTRACT GRAPHS UXBRIDGE ICKENHAM

RUISLIP
MANOR
RAYNERS
LANE

HILLINGDON =RUISLIP EASTCOTE

Graphs are by definition abstract: they do not pretend to

depict a realistic picture. Their purpose is to project in the
mind an image that supports our imagination. Unlike
geographical maps, which are based on physical evidence,
EALING
graphs are simply mental diagrams. However, the boundaries BROADWAY

between graphs and maps are progressively blurring.

Computer algorithms that allow us to visualize data are
turning information into concrete forms that challenge SOUTH EALING

the very notion of abstraction. NORTHFIELDS

BOSTON MANOR
OSTERLEY
HOUNSLOW EAST Chiswick
It is unclear whether Harry Beck, the While Polish philosopher and engi- PARK
HOUNSLOW CENTRAL
creator of the 1933 London Underground neer Korzybski charted the way we HOUNSLOW WEST
map, had heard Alfred Korzybski’s think, Beck, an Underground employee, GUNNERSBURY

famous axiom “The map is not the terri- charted the way we commute. In his
tory’. The two men, both trained engi- spare time, he devised a topological
neers, were working thousands of miles diagram of the London Underground
apart, the former in London and the system that ignored geographical
latter in America, yet their work was on distances and instead proposed an
parallel tracks: independently, yet elegant geometrical construct — a lattice-
concurrently, they were interested in work of straight lines studded with
charting abstract information. diamonds representing interchanges. REFER
Train travellers loved it and adopted it DISTRICT RAILWAY == }
BAKERLOO LINE commI
instantly. In fact, they identified so PICCADILLY LINE mmm4
1290
much with the abstract representation EDGWARE, HIGHGATE}
& MORDEN LINE ~ !
1995
of what had been until then a tangled CENTRAL LONDON RLY. |
web that the map became the territory.
1900 Some graphs are so seductive that
they can create their own reality. In
1905
1936 Alfred H. Barr Jr, the young
(aesTRACT) §——gUTURISMA 7T 1910 director of the Museum of Modern Art
SION 10 ne |
in New York, did just that when he sat
mame 1915
down to draw a diagram tracking the tion, towards the kind of Modernism
1920 1920 various avant-garde movements that championed by the museum. Yet it was
had influenced Cubism and Abstract art. not a futile exercise: the series of causes
| 92s 1925 A blackand-red vertical timeline that and effects that Barr had invented for
1930
started at the top with the death of Van his graphic demonstration has only
Gogh in 1890, his chart made the been challenged recently.
} 1935 NON.GEOMETRICAL ABSTRACT ART GEOMETRICAL ABSTRACT ART 1935 previous 50 years look like a clash of Thanks to design software, one can
‘isms’. Downward arrows, connecting now accurately ‘map out’ abstract
the various groups, suggested that art information. In 2006, to illustrate an
history was moving only in one direc- article on the complex webs of spy

126
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networks for the New York Times, Lisa opposrre: Cubism and Abstract Art —_asove: The London Underground map
Strausfeld and James Nick Sears, both (1936) represents a gallant attempt (1933), byHenry C. Beck, was thefirst
from Pentagram UK and USA, were able by Alfred ee the first director modern map totreat a complex
; Say: ; of New York’s Museum of Modern network of trains and stations as
to visualize in 3D the ever-changing rela- Art, to explain how intricate an abstract graph, which is easy
tionship between terrorists, events, loca- avant-garde art movements to navigate mentally.
tions and attacks. Creating accurate influenced each other.
graphs that make it possible to analyse
and interpret information is fast
decoming a critical skill for graphic
designers today. =

127
Pitching right or left gives
layouts that swing’

IDEA N° 61

DYNAMIC DIAGONALS

Nineteen-thirty was a tipping point in the history of graphic

design. Russian avant-garde graphic artists, who had
embraced the Revolution wholeheartedly, began to face
persecution by Stalin’s regime. Their champion and friend,
the Constructivist poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, had committed
suicide as a result. Their ideals were crushed and their
creativity curbed. Yet 1930 was also the year the
Constructivist movement produced one ofits last
Above: Pulchri Studio (2006), opposite: Let’s Fulfil the Plans
and most celebrated masterpieces. a poster by Studio Dumbar for for the Great Projects (1930)
a celebrated art institution in began as a collage oforiginal
The Hague, Netherlands, uses photographs and newspaper
Gustav Klutsis’s election poster Workers, The dissolution of the Constructivist
drops of paint as a metaphor clippings, a technique favoured
featuring a photo-collage of raised hands movement heralded a new era for to promote one of the studio's by Constructivist designer Gustav
against a red background, summed up Modernism. Diagonal layouts were still renowned art shows. Klutsis. His Workers poster
the period in the most spectacular way, favoured, but they no longer required a is similar.
while also anticipating the next thing. graphic infrastructure. In 1935, to illus- BELOW: Stijl (2005), logo for
Dangerously tilted, the pyramid of trate the cover of a type manual for the a Japanese company by Tota
stacked hands looked as if itwould have famous Deberny & Peignot foundry, Hasegawa and Simon Taylor,
members of the London-based
fallen down were it not for the headlines Maximilien Vox drew the silhouette ofa
Tomato design collective, makes
set at a 45-degree angle. Braced diago- man charging ahead, the movement of reference to the Dutch art
nals were a Constructivist trademark, his body emphasized by dynamic bands movement of the same name.
and Klutsis was well acquainted with of colour slanting across the page. One
this type of composition. His design feels that there was no turning back. In
solution for the Workers poster was none- fact, from then on, most designers
theless innovative, because it did not would choose right-leaning composi-
treat the various graphic elements as tions. Unlike Klutsis’s poster showcasing
building blocks. This was not a highly workers raising their hands towards the
engineered layout, with all the pieces left, Modernist graphic designers, bent with a pattern of fat paint drops
propping each other up, as was the case on celebrating the future, seemed to splashing diagonally across the page.
in the work of Rodchenko or Lissitzky. In be reluctant to pitch lines backward, Tipped forward, the tear-shaped drops
Klutsis’s 1930 poster, the thrust of anew though some managed to do both. drip towards the lower back of the
vision — one that no longer needed to be Recently Studio Dumbar, in the poster. Combining up-down with right-
tethered to an ideology — paved the way Netherlands, designed a striking poster left is a technique that gives layouts an
for a freer form of expression. announcing an annual painting show irresistible swing. =

Tish
128
DER WEINER
b

From Stenso to street

STENTZEL
ES G, DB

ABCDEFGHIVILMNOPAR
STUVWXYZAAAAAAACS
IDEA N° 62
EEEEITIINGOOOOUUOU
STENCIL TYPE
1234567890'"'",,SCf“VE
YHtin~*()$/<=>9:;
[VI OF
The stencil lettering style has long influenced sophisticated
typography and graphic design. In the 1940s Ruth Libauer
FLABCDEFGHIVILMNOP
Hormats and her brother Rober t Libauer developed an ARSTUVWXYZI§ COWE
easy-to-use stencil system, making lettering for signs and B%o™/—seen
displays much easier. Hormats did not invent the stencil (it ABovE: Der Weiner Stentzel (2000s) opposite: West Side Story (1961),
goes back centuries), but her Stenso guide sheets on heavy is a contemporary face available movie poster designed by Saul
through Fontalicious/Font Bros. Bass using stencil lettering to
cardboard were state-of-the-art long before the computer. It consists of upper-case, suggest the veneer of a brick
frankfurter-shaped characters tenement building and the kind
sliced with vertical lines. oftype used on the city streets.
Stensos came in various sizes and fami- suggestive of the machine age. Paul
lies, including Gothic, Old English, Renner’s 1929 Futura Black, a variant of BELOW: Stenso (1956) was created
Frontier, Modern Script, Art Deco and his original Futura, was a_ stylized by the Stenso Lettering Company.
These ‘Roman’ and ‘Gothic’
even Hebrew. It was a significant depar- stencil face. Bauhaus member Josef
lettering guides were common
ture from the brass stencils used for Albers constructed an avant-garde
in primary schools in the 1950s
marking bales and crates in the eigh- geometric, lower-case stencil face, while and 1960s.
teenth century. Complex paper stencils in the 1950s American logo-meister
were also used during the Victorian Paul Rand introduced a stencil logo for
period, applied to wooden boxes and El] Producto cigars based on the stencils
other surfaces. Stencil lettering, charac- printed on burlap tobacco sacks.
terized by breaks of negative space The stencil style often signifies some-
between portions of each letter, has thing raw or urban. Saul Bass’s 1961 West
never gone out of fashion, and today is Side Story logo, with its silhouetted fire
one ofthe tools of the graffiti artist. escapes, evokes the look of a tenement.
During the 1920s Modernist type This logo is the inspiration for the trade-
designers adopted stencil lettering as mark of another urban musical, Rent,
designed by Drew Hodges in 1994. The

STENSO
LETTERING GUIDE
logo for the 2009 sci-fi film District 9

1% inch GOTHIC LETTERS AND NUMBERS io helps to suggest the oppression ofan off-
limits refugee camp for extraterrestrials.
A highly visible example is the logo for
rappers Public Enemy, designed to
suggest a violent urban aesthetic.
Stencil fonts can be high and low
typographic art. Milton Glaser’s Glaser
Stencil, a clean, contemporary, geometric Caslon and Garamond, have been
sans serif, has been used on everything adapted as stencils. Some stencils are
from jazz posters to art books. Matt gags, like Der Weiner Stentzel, which
Desmond’s Bandoleer is not as pristine employs frankfurter-shaped characters
as Glaser’s, but evokes an alluring cool- cut into pieces (a play on ‘Wiener
ness. Eben Sorkin’s No Step is inspired by sausages’ or frankfurters). An authentic
lettering he saw on an aeroplane wing. stencil is usually a little rough around
The majority of stencil faces are sans the edges, but new computer-generated
serif, but classic serif faces, such as stencils are flawless, except by design. =
THE SCREEN ACHIEVES ONE OF THE GREAT ENTERTAINMENTS

IN THE HISTORY OF MOTION PICTURES

“WEST SIDE A al
STORY"
IDE
Hf PICTURES PRES!

RT WISE

sumeNATALIE WOOD
RICHARD BEYMER RUSS TAMBLYN
RITA MORENO GEORGE CHAKIRIS
oirecteo ay ROBERT WISE ano JEROME ROBBINS scrrenray ay ERNEST LEHMAN
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER SAUL CHAPLIN -cHoreocrapny ay JEROME ROBBINS
music. sy LEONARD BERNSTEIN cynics ay STEPHEN SONDHEIM
BASED UPON THE STAGE PLAY PRODUCED BY ROBERT E.GRIFFITH ano HAROLDS.
: sook ay ARTHUR LAURENT!
PLAY CONCEIVED. Ad AND CHOREOGRAPHED BY JEROME ROBBINS.
PRODUCTION BORIS LEVEN “FILMED IN PANAVISION™71 Uneseterae
PRESENTED BY MIRISCH PICTURES |
NG IN ASSOCIATION WITH SEVEN ARTS PRODU
LEASED THRU pathDAAtitS
The cartoon aesthetic comes of age

IDEA N° 63

COMIC LETTERING

A splash panel is an introductory frame to a comic strip,

designed to announce the visual narrative. Invested with more
graphic bravado than a normal title page, it derives from the
contoured letters of nineteenth-century sign painting, with
their bold, colourful drop shadows. Circus poster alphabets
made from ornamented bold slab-serif typefaces, such as
Tuscans and Egyptians, are also an influence.
aBove: Man from Utopia (1972), opposite: Cheap Thrills (1968),
written, drawn and designed by the cover for the Janis Joplin and
In 1936 Howard Trafton designed a fat and curlicues. Certain lettering styles Rick Griffin, employs all the Big Brother album illustrated
conventions of classic comic by Robert Crumb, is actually the
brush-lettered typeface he called are emblems for their themes, but since
lettering, but also features a back cover. The front was scrapped
Cartoon, which is accepted as the the advent of ‘underground comics’ made-up language handwritten and the splash panel title was
seminal comics font - it effectively intro- (with their counter-culture themes) in in a comic style. added to the back.
duced comic lettering to advertising and the late 1960s, comic lettering has
graphic design. There is a theatrical drawn from all sources in a mixmaster
quality to this style oflettering. It jumps of styles.
off the page - or stage - with all the Comic lettering almost always pays
melodrama of an acrobat on the high homage to the past. The San Francisco
wire. It has the exaggerated quality of an underground artists were passionate
operatic scene. Comic lettering is meant about slab-serif wood type and curvi-
to ‘splash’ on the consciousness with linear Art Nouveau motifs. These appli-
quirky allure: that is its goal. cations were not simply copied verbatim,
Comic lettering usually parallels the but massaged into a comic form. Rick
drawing style and underscores the look Griffin was among the most innovative
ofa specific comic strip. Robert Crumb’s of all these letterers. In addition to
unmistakably bawdy lettering draws designing the original psychedelic
inspiration from the 1920s and 1930s curlicue swash logo for Rolling Stone (no
comic strips that inform his absurdist longer used), he developed hand-drawn
tableaux. Rick Griffin’s has the mystical typography that reflected a calligraphic
aura of an illuminated manuscript. And eccentricity, page after page of drawn
Chris Ware builds on the foundation of letters with symbolic references and
hand-lettered advertising typefaces meanings. British comic artist and type
usually found in the back of vintage designer Rian Hughes incorporates the
comics (see p.176). Each method is comic aesthetic into his raucous display
different, yet ultimately derives from faces. In his hands type is both retro and
similar roots. forward-looking (see p.75).
Comic lettering is also genre-specific. With hand lettering making a steady
For example, superhero comics use comeback as a reaction to digital preci-
alphabets suited to the subject-matter sion, comic-derived faces are ever more
that are loud, demonstrative and mascu- available to designers looking for a
line. The same is true for war, horror quirky character. Quirkiness will never
and sci-fi, while romance comics use come bundled or straight from the box:
more ‘feminine’ letters with swashes it must come from the hand. =

132
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s
BELOW LEFT: Der Spiegel (2002), opposite: Red Monarch (1983),
illustrated by Jean-Pierre Kunkel, a film poster designed by John

Nothing is sacred
titled The Bush Warriors — Gorham with Howard Brown
America’s Crusade Against Evil’, and photographed by Tony
was designed as a critique of the Evans, barbs a classic official
decision to go to war in Iraq. portrait ofJosef Stalin.

BELOW RIGHT: Der Spiegel (2008),

titled The Bush Warriors -
End of the Performance’, was
a parody of a parody, and
commentary on the disastrous
IDEA N° 64 outcome of the heroics.

PARODY

Parody is arguably the most common form ofvisual satire.

Although it dates back centuries, the act of altering a well-
known image into a visual pun or other type of graphic
witticism has largely been practised during the second half
of the twentieth century. The rise of consumerism sparked
advertising campaigns that were at once embraced by the
public yet became the butt ofjokes.

One of the seminal purveyors of a virtually exact replica of Van Gogh’s the subject of such intensive, often
‘modern’ parody was American comic famous severed-ear self-portrait on its comic, homage that the image has been
magazine Ballyhoo, published during the cover, the viewer at first saw the original catapulted into the vernacular. When
late 1920s and ’30s, which was entirely with the bandage over the ear. On Rick Meyerowitz created ‘Mona Gorilla’
devoted to send-ups of national adver- second glance it was clear that Van as a cover of National Lampoon he
tising and brand campaigns. In addition Gogh was holding the ear, which is not, launched a mini-fashion for famous
to popular culture, the most common of course, in the original. figures in art as animals.
parodies are of famous images ~ art, Parodies are not always designed to Great works of avant-garde design
photography, sculpture - that have insult the target but often, rather, to are also in the parodist’s cross-hairs.
universal recognition. trigger recognition among the audience Dozens of works from El Lissitzky’s
It is necessary that the audience be ~ the satisfaction that they are in on the Constructivist Beat the Whites with the Red
acutely aware of the original to appre- joke. Few things are riper for parody Wedge of 1919 (see p.68) to Milton Glaser’s
ciate the ironic transformation. Parodic than illustrious works of art, and few 1966 Dylan poster are probably as
wit is a fragile balance of recognition works of art are more well known than frequently satirized as Picasso and Dali.
and surprise. When National Lampoon ran Leonardo’s Mona Lisa. Her iconic smile is The German magazine Der Spiegel’s
2002 parody of the then U.S. President

DER SPIEGEL DER SPIEGEL George W. Bush and his war advisers
placed Bush in the role of Rambo, and
transformed his cabinet into other mythic
warriors. But parody here was a double-
edged sword. What the German editors
intended as a satirical insult on the eve of
the Iraq War, which they opposed, was
perceived as a high compliment by the
maker of that war. Parody, therefore, is
often in the eye of the beholder.
Parody seems easy — just copy some-
thing famous and give it a twist — but is
one of the most difficult methods to
ae achieve successfully. If the parodist
takes too many liberties, then the
parody will suffer; conversely, if the
material is not tweaked enough, the
result could read as plagiarism. =
AN ENIGMA PRODUCTION
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
FOR GOLDCREST

DAVID PUTTNAM
COLIN BLAKELY SCREENPLAY

HARLES WOOD
BY

DAVID SUCHET GRAHAM BENSON

SPECIAL APPEARANCE BY DIRECTED BY

CARROLL BAKER JACK GOLD

Create more, waste less

IDEA N° 65

SUSTAINABLE PACKAGING
Unsold newspapers contribute 0 substontial
portofthe 4,000,000 tons of row material
Paper production and printing are among the largest and fjor America’s poperboord packoges.

most polluting industries in the world, affecting not only

trees and land use but also air quality and water resources.
For printers, pollution prevention is good business and can
t
save a lot of money by reducing waste; their guidelines often
recommend that graphic designers come up with more
efficient layouts, pick non-toxic inks and specify recycled
stock. Yet these are only palliative measures. Sustainable
thinking is a different story.

The real challenge is much more creative approach. Corrugated card-

complicated than making sense out of board and moulded paper pulp,
environmental paper labels or de-inking unbleached, are some of the materials
recycled newsprint. One of the main that most inspire graphic designers;
causes of pollution is _ packaging. today’s art students come up with eco-
Reducing packaging will reduce envi- friendly packaging that turns mailing
ronmental damage, but it requires packages into clever products.
rethinking the way we consume. A number of established designers
Packaging as we know it — conve- are already coming up with alternative
nient yet wasteful - was foisted on the products that not only minimize
U.S. housewife in the aftermath of World waste but also turn trash into treasure:
Tor: The News That’s Never aBove: Puma’s Clever Little Bag
War II by corrugated-carton manufac- biodegradable cotton-based paper with
Read (1939), an advertisement (2010), by San Francisco designer
turers looking to convert what had been seeds in it that you plant instead of by Bayer for Container Corporation Yves Béhar from Fuseproject,
a lucrative war industry into a peace- throw away; light fixtures packaged in of America, one of the first reduces the waste in traditional
time business. Container Corporation of cardboard boxes that become lamps; US. companies to sponsor a shoeboxes by wrapping a single-
America (CCA) played a crucial role in tiles made of recycled paper mixed with newspaper recycling scheme. folded sheet of cardboard in
this restructuring of our consumer a reusable PET bag.
post-industrial crushed glass or fly ash
habits by convincing businessmen that from coal.
single items presented in graphically Another approach is to design pack-
arresting boxes would be more profit- ages so that style or fashion-conscious
able than unpackaged goods sold in people cannot bear to throw them away,
bulk. Unfortunately, a side-effect of the a tactic used by design-aware companies
manufacturers’ profits is the vast quan- such as Puma or Apple: opening the
tity of trash that packaging produces. various containers for the products is a
The best chance we have of reducing gratifying process ofdiscovery that is an
pollution from packaging might be to integral part of the brand experience.
bring to bear the very same technique For its Kindle e-book reader, Amazon
that was used by CCA: introduce a new combined two concepts: a product
aesthetic. CCA’s art director, Herbert whose purpose is to do away with paper
Bayer, had championed modern design. altogether packaged in a_ slender,
We need to propose as revolutionary a minimal, polished cardboard box. =
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‘Alternative products that not only minimize waste
turn trash into treasure.’ ’— ;

Cardboard Lamp (2010), by Mexican

designer Luis Morales, is assembled
from cutout shapes from the box itself.
It holds an eco-friendly light bulb.
Making a difference

IDEA N° 66

PUBLIC SERVICE CAMPAIGNS

La SA AEST TLD SS,
Non-commercial causes can prompt brilliant advertising
campaigns, evidence that most creative individuals are
eager put their talents at the service of the public good.

In the United States, the Advertising pursuit, such as Breast Cancer Aware-
Council (Ad Council), founded in 1941 ness or Voter Registration, and results in
to support war propaganda, has become ad campaigns that look as if they are
a powerful organization that coordi- performing a public service though
nates and distributes public service they are in fact promoting a label or a
announcements of national relevance. trademark. Most of the for-profit busi-
With the same flair with which it spon- nesses that choose this advertising
sored the wartime ‘Rosie the Riveter’ tactic are linking their effort to a not-
crusade, the Ad Council has since for-profit organization, giving part of
masterminded such high-profile their proceeds for a particular promo-
campaigns as ‘Keep America Beautiful’ tion to a legitimate charitable concern,
against pollution and litter, and like the Statue of Liberty Restoration
“Smokey the Bear’ to fight forest fires. project (American Express) or the Amer-
Whether or not these now historic ican Heart Association (Cheerios).
campaigns made a real difference is A third kind of public service
hard to tell, but many of the phrases campaign is sponsored directly by chari-
and characters they used have enriched table organizations, which commission
the American vernacular. Such slogans graphic designers or advertising agen-
opposrre: Secours Populaire ABovE: Give a Hand to Wild
as ‘The toughest job you'll ever love’ cies of their choice. Among the most (2010), the poster for an ongoing Life (2008), by Saatchi & Saatchi
(Peace Corps) or ‘You can learn a lot arresting is the French Secours Popu- campaign to promote a French Simko agency in Geneva, is a
from a dummy’ (crash-test dummies for laire campaign, whose visual identity is anti-poverty charitable institution, series of clever and beautiful
Buckle Up For Safety) came from ad the work of Pierre Bernard, and the is the work of Pierre Bernard, photographs of human hands
men and women who were able to stunning ads for the World Wide Fund one of the founding members camouflaged as wild animals
of the Grapus collective. by bodypainter Guido Daniele.
unleash their inventiveness to elevate for Nature (WWE). @
the public debate.
In 2009, to support the United
Nations conference for Climate Control
in Copenhagen, international adver-
tising agencies such as Ogilvy, Ketchum
and Havas collaborated to create the
campaign ‘Hopenhagen’. Combining
colour photography with smart, manic
graffiti, the posters suggested that the
initiative was a grass-roots movement,
even though it was paid for by adver-
tising agencies.
Indeed, not all ‘non-commercial’
advertising falls into the public service
category. ‘Cause marketing’ is a strategy
that links a brand to an altruistic

139
Ralph Waldo Emerson on a civilized nation

“ft there be a country

which cannot stand
any one of these tests—

a country where knowledge cannot be diffused

without perils of mob law and statute law;

speech is not free;

the post office is violated, mail bags

opened, and letters tampered with;

public debts and private debts outside

of the state are repudiated;

liberty is attacked in the primary

institution of social life...

the laborer is not secured in the earnings

of his own hand;

suffrage is not free or equal—

that country is, in all these respects, not civil,

but barbarous; and no advantage of soil,
climate, or coast can resist
these suicidal mischiefs.
(Civilization, 1862)
2 4
me Gi ehdlo Erne for

aad 3 CONTAINER CORPORATION OF AMERICA

A company’s image goes beyond
its products

IDEA N2 67

BRANDING CAMPAIGNS
RA
TRS A TT Vehicles ae a Mag
Graphic design does not always serve lofty ideals. Often cited
as being one of the most inspired and high-minded branding
exercises, the ‘Great Ideas of Western Man’ campaign was in
ll gags,
fact an indoctrination programme to convince American ete’
manufacturers that packaging was their most persuasive
sales tool. A breakthrough in terms of marketing strategy,
age gue
it demonstrated that promoting the image of acompany opposie: Great Ideas of ABOVE: TRW (c. 1990), designed
Western Man (1942-72) was by Don Ervin. Simplicity yet
rather than its products or services is sometimes the a campaign designed to establish recognizability is the key to
CCA as an innovative packaging an efficient corporate logo and
smartest business decision.
company. In this example, Herbert identity system. Using two
Bayer illustrated a quote by colours, this is the mark of
Ralph Waldo Emerson. These an aerospace company that
Launched by packaging giant Container Bradbury Thompson was commissioned
were called ‘institutional’ ads was defunct in 2002.
Corporation of America (CCA), the to design the company’s in-house maga- because they did not sell a
campaign, which ran for more than 30 zine, Westvaco Inspirations. Instead of specific product.
years, was the brainchild of its president relentlessly flaunting the accomplish-
Walter Paepcke and design director ments and technical expertise of the
Herbert Bayer. From 1942 to 1972, its company’s clients, Thompson was
full-page advertisements were a regular allowed to turn the publication into
feature of upscale magazines such as Life something of a personal project, one
and Fortune. Readers, many of them busi- that reflected his Modernist taste and
nessmen, were treated to dazzling exam- unorthodox graphic sensibility. His
ples of graphic designers’ and illustra- quirky inventiveness, which he demon-
tors’ work. The ads were created by the strated with brio in more than 50 issues
likes of Cassandre, Alvin Lustig, Lester of Inspirations, served to illustrate West-
Beall, Herbert Matter, Alexey Brodovitch, vaco’s unique brand positioning and
Paul Rand and Leo Jionni, as well as innovative vision.
famous artists such as Ben Shahn, James A comparable marketing strategy
Rosenquist, Joseph Cornell and Leonard today is the ‘Different Values’ campaign
Baskin. Bayer had invited them to illus- of HSBC, a banking institution with a
trate quotes by writers, politicians and global footprint. In 2007, it launched a
philosophers (a prestigious list that series of concise ads that smartly alluded
included Saint Paul, Thomas Jefferson, to the complexity of doing business inter-
Benjamin Disraeli and John Ruskin). nationally. The same photographs were
Committed to the idea that great pack captioned with different, and sometimes
aging design could boost sales and opposing, oneword interpretations.
increase profit, the company used this Deployed in major airports worldwide,
oblique yet effective campaign as part of the campaign highlighted the fact that
a wider marketing offensive. nothing should ever be taken for granted,
At around the same time, another an unconventional message for a bank.
major packaging and printing company, But the key to establishing a brand — any
Westvaco, used a similar strategy to brand - is to be explicitly different. m
grow its market share. Art director

141
Transparent colours add depth

IDEA N° 68

LAYERING AND OVERPRINTING @ Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor deKunsten

ABovE: The Amsterdam opposite: La Féte de la Musique

Hogeschool’s art school identity (2009), a poster by French graphic
The smell of ink can act as a creative trigger. Stepping into system (2007), developed by designer Fanette Mellier, advertises
Thonik, uses overlapping a yearly worldwide musical event
a printer’s shop or doing a press check is not only a heady coloured dots to differentiate with a playful jumble of notes
sensory experience, it also spurs the imagination. Gooey, its various departments, a — an allusion to the fact that
concept that allows for endless many of the performers at this
creamy, sticky — inks seem finger-licking good. Recently a kaleidoscopic combinations. popular festival are amateurs
rather than professionals.
number of designers have been taking ink-stained printer’s
BELow: The Second Man (1956),
proofs and reusing them as background to print unrelated a book jacket by Paul Rand for
Alfred A. Knopf, portrays a man
artwork. The result is known as a palimpsest. and his shadow as overlapping
silhouettes, creating an impression
that both are ghosts.
Layering images to create a complex the fourcolour process by layering images
picture is not a new fad, though. Prehis- in yellow, magenta, cyan and black.
toric painters, using their hands as sten- Sometimes he would show progressive
cils, often created colourful palimpsests proofs to exemplify how each additional
on the walls of caves. layer worked when superposed over the
Making a graphic arts publication preceding one. Other times he would
for a paper company is the closest thing repeat the same silhouette in each of
to being invited to play with inks. When, the four basic colours, either tilted or
after World War II, Bradbury Thompson overlapping, to form strange and
was given the assignment to design intriguing patterns. His most memo-
Westvaco Inspirations for the West Virginia rable compositions are visual palimp-
pulp and paper company Westvaco, he sests, such as his ‘Liberty Bell’ layout,
set out to demonstrate the versatility of where he printed colour cutouts of the
bell swinging over an old engraving of
the cross-section of acampanile.
Thompson was capitalizing on the
brilliance of transparent inks. Other
designers create the illusion of layering
with opaque colour blocks that change
colour where they overlap. Such is the
case of an illustration by Paul Rand for
Edward Grierson’s 1956 novel The Second Malte Martin launched Agraf, a limited-
Man, a minimalist design representing edition magazine printed on discarded
the white outline of a man encoun- printer’s proofs whose original design
tering his black shadow. The area where was only partially obliterated by a
the two figures coincide is an ominous murky brown ink. Clearly visible under
red. The more you stare at the image, a thin colour-wash, other parts of the
the more complicated it looks: you can older background were allowed to stand
never figure out which ofthe two figures out and interact with the newly printed
is in front, or which one casts a shadow matter. Some pages were varnished,
on the other. others were not. The result is a publica-
Mixing transparent and opaque ink tion so saturated with layered imagery
is yet another way to create a sense of that it looks, years later, as if the ink is
depth. In 1998, Paris-based designer still drying. =

142
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Define the problem, design the solution THE POWER

IDEA N° 69

DESIGN THINKING

How to tackle creative problem-solving is a problem in itself.

In the mid-1950s, leading ad man Alex Faickney Osborn
wrote a book about brainstorming, Applied Imagination, that
described how to generate more productive design ideas by
harnessing the imagination ofa group of professionals.
Today, designing in teams - but not by committee ~ is still
a challenge, even though new names such as ‘design
thinking’, ‘concept design’ or ‘integrated design strategy’ BeLow: The Integrated Studio ABovE: The Power of Your Mind
(2010) is one of the ways Richard (1952), cover ofabooklet by Alex
show a new approach. Eisermann, strategic director for F. Osborn, an advertising executive
Prospect, a London-based design who is considered the inventor
consultancy, explains to his of the brainstorming technique.
For brainstorming to be effective, a very solve a given problem, but what problem clients how to create ‘great
specific problem must be identified in should be solved. customer experiences’. opposite: Design Thinking Digest
advance, before being presented to the Around the world, a new breed of (2010) is the cover of the programm
group. Rational as it seems, this turns design studios began to offer strategic for a symposium of the National
Library Board in Singapore, in
out to be a thorny issue. Who has the services, including large agencies in the
which designers, journalists and
expertise to isolate the ‘problem’ to be UK such as Live/Work, Arup and Prospect business executives discussed the
solved, the client or the agency? Even Design. In the Netherlands, Fabrique, various benefits of Design Thinking
though brainstorming techniques, Total Identity and EdenSpiekermann
which involve a number of stringent initiated ‘dialogues’ with companies
rules to keep the group focused, can about their brands, communication and
produce interesting ideas, the ideas are product development opportunities. All nies (among them Gap, Pepsi and Tropi-
little use if the problem they address is over Europe and in North America, cana) have attempted to upgrade their
the wrong one. In the 1990s, a new disci- studios large and small working at the logos — with disastrous results. Although
pline, called ‘design strategy’, proposed intersection of design, business and backed by often compelling arguments
that creative teams sit down with a social science became the norm. and market research, the changes were
number of experts to discuss not how to Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman ridiculed by customers who felt that
School of Management, Toronto, is a they were arbitrary, and evidence of
pioneer of ‘integrative thinking’. He corporate banality. They had a point:
advocates new cross-disciplinary tactics excellence in design cannot be achieved
requiring that experts from various by a formula. The logo debacles threat-
fields be hired as research consultants ened to undo the work of years during
on specific design ‘missions’, ‘audits’ or which graphic designers and creative
‘evidence-gathering’ tasks. Talent is agencies persuaded clients to think of
outsourced in order to study every aspect design as a collaborative process.
of a project. One of the advantages of Design Thinking is a great tool as
this Design Thinking approach is to long as one remembers that it defines
demystify, for clients, the creative what should be done, not how to do it.
process, and help them feel comfortable Group creativity techniques, though
with the resulting proposals. critical in the preliminary design phase,
Recently, using the Design Thinking cannot replace a moment of inspiration
approach, a number of American compa- in the making of an original work. =

144
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DESIGN
Artistic alignment

IDEA N° 70

THE GRID

Grid structures arguably date back millennia to narrative

inscriptions in Egypt, where hieroglyphs told a visual story.
But that is ancient history. In the annals of twentieth-century
Modern design, the grid has been afforded a sanctified status
— the design invention of the age. Its foremost platform,
the Swiss International Style of grid-locked design and
typography, defines the postwar 1940s and 1950s.

Above: Grid Systems in opposrre: Vormgevers (1968),

During the early twentieth century, even The truth lies somewhere in Graphic Design (1961), written poster for the Stedelijk Museum
before the Bauhaus (the birthplace of between. Swiss designer Josef Muller- and designed byJosef Miiller- in Amsterdam designed by
the Modern grid), grids were found on Brockmann, author of Grid Systems in Brockmann, is one ofthe Wim Crouwel, builds its entire
everyday printed matter, including Graphic Design (1961), warned: ‘the grid manuals for the Swiss Style typographic structure on
invoices, ledgers and other materials system is an aid, not a guarantee. It method of grid systems. a tight grid.

used for tabulation. Yet once introduced permits a number of possible uses and
BELow: 10 Zurcher Maler (1956),
as the panacea for graphic design clarity, each designer can look for a solution
art catalogue cover designed by
rather than a simple organizational and appropriate to his personal style. But Emil Ruder, is typographically
compositional tool, the grid became a one must learn how to use the grid; it is constructed on a grid that is
target of both love and hate. It was loved an art that requires practice.’ The notion at once readable and abstract.
for bringing order to disorder and hated of ‘art’ is key. To avoid using the grid as a
for purportedly locking designers into template for conformity, aesthetic and
rigid confines. conceptual choices must be made. To
trigger excitement using the grid it is
not enough to line things up: active
design decisions are required. ‘The grid,
like any other instrument in the design
process, is not an absolute. It should be
used with flexibility, and when neces-
sary it should be modified or abandoned
completely for a more workable solu-
tion,’ wrote Allen Hurlburt, in The Grid: A Functionality was the hallmark of
Modular System for the Design and Production grid system design, and few designers
of Newpapers, Magazines, and Books (1982). used it more effectively than Czech-born
Among MullerBrockmann’s many Ladislav Sutnar, who as design consul-
grid-based posters is his 1960 Der Film tant for the Sweets Catalog Service was

Zu maler
poster for the Kunstgewerbemuseum tasked to bring clarity to usually unruly
Zurich (see p.124), a very minimal typo- hardware catalogues. His distinct grid
carigiet graphic design that shows how locking structures allowed the user easily to
the basic informational type to the grid locate items and corresponding details
anchors the more demonstrative display such as prices and sizes. In this way the
typography. The grid invisibly holds all grid is as versatile as the designer who
moser kunsthalle basel the elements together in a precise way, uses it, and as graphically vibrant as the
varlin I55.bis 246. not in a stranglehold but as adhesive. message that is presented. m=

146
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Come 16where theflavour is.
Come to Marlbore Country,
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Capturing the consumer’s loyalty

IDEA N2 71

BRAND NARRATIVES
ROA ELSE REID RAE TIED DLT TEI
Creating a brand is not the same as designing a corporate
identity programme, though the confusion still persists. A
brand is a great deal more than a logo, more than a graphic
universe, more even than the sum total of all its visuals,
slogans and ancillary products. A brand is an invisible entity,
a story in the mind of consumers, a sense of excitement at
the prospect of seeing, touching or acquiring a particular
thing. In other words, a brand is a compelling story.

In the mid-1950s, the tobacco company that Big Brother represented IBM, or
Philip Morris decided to change the that the hammer-swinging female who
‘gender’ of its Marlboro cigarettes in had come to liberate the drones was
order to appeal to a male audience. Apple’s new personal computer. Brand
After a couple of episodes of trial and stories like this one, which tap into our
error, it selected the cowboy as the shared cultural references, can save the
quintessential Marlboro smoker. Adver- trouble of constructing complex and opposite: Marlboro Man ABOVE: Google Doodles (1998),
tising agency Leo Burnett commissioned costly advertising fantasies. (1954-90), the iconic figure variations of the official Google
a series of photographs of a handsome The mandate of a brand is also to get for Marlboro cigarettes, was logo, celebrate special events. The
conceived by Leo Burnett as a first doodle was in honour of the
cowboy on location in the western people to the cash register. The experi-
symbol ofrugged masculinity Burning Man Festival in 1998.
United States, subliminally linking the ence of spending money is one that to counter the impression that Since, numerous competitions
cigarette to the powerful myth of the must complete the story - that must be filtered cigarettes were ‘feminine’. have provided endless variations.
American frontier. The Marlboro Man perceived as its happy ending, whether From top: Albert Einstein’s 124th
was cast as a rancher with movie-star it is in a store, where you can interact Birthday (2003), Dizzy Gillespie’s
93rd Birthday (2010), 50th
appeal, and the ads looked like stills directly with the brand, or online,
Anniversary of Understanding
from a major motion picture. Eventu- where the denouement of a brand
DNA (2003) and First Day
ally advertisements were aired on televi- scenario is expressed in a couple of of Summer (2010).
sion, with the theme from The Magnifi- clicks. The Google logo, which is
cent Seven as the soundtrack. Sold morphed regularly to reflect local holi-
worldwide until 1999, the red-and-white days or world events, can be construed
cigarette pack was synonymous with as a live chronicle of what is happening
rugged masculinity. around the globe. Its brand functions as
For brands to be successful, they a vast social network, as the gossipy
must entertain as much as motivate. In centre of the online community. =
1984, Apple introduced its first personal
computer with an advertisment inspired
by 1984, George Orwell’s novel that
described a world dominated by Big
Brother, and by Metropolis, the 1927
futuristic film by Fritz Lang. For its
college-educated target audience, the
short clip was a parable that needed no
explanation. It did not have to spell out

149
When nothing is something

IDEA N° 72

WHITE SPACE

In art as in life, white space is the ultimate luxury. The most

recent architectural addition to the Museum of Modern Art
in Manhattan is a superb example of the way acres of empty
white walls can be used to make a superlative statement. On
the page, white space works the same way. It signifies that
you have plenty of room to spare. It frames images with an
aura of inaccessibility. The less crowded a magazine layout,
BELow: Sheila Hicks: Weaving aBove; An embroidered
the more elitist its attitude. as Metaphor (2006), a white-on-white invitation to
masterpiece by book designer attend a 2007 couture show
One of the first magazine art directors Because of its upscale connotation, Irma Boom, is an award- of Martin Margiela, a fashion
to realize that a blank surface could white space was vilified in the 1970s as winning all-white volume, designer from Belgium whose
have as much impact as a printed one too elitist. Editorial design strived to look its cover embossed with a woven personality is as secretive and
texture reminiscent of the work elusive as his sense ofstyle.
was Alexey Brodovitch. His Harper’s trashy to emulate the British Fleet Street
of the American fibre artist.
Bazaar layouts in the 1950s treated white tabloids that were thriving on mass-
paper as if it was an electromagnetic market celebrity gossip, packing every
field, with blocks of type and photo- square inch of space on their pages with
graphs charged with positive and nega- garish headlines and lurid paparazzi
tive energy. But never was white space as shots. The Postmodernists had _ yet
saturated with gravitational pull as in another reason to spurn white space:
his layouts for Observations, a book of they associated it with the radicalism of
Richard Avedon’s photographs. The purist architect Le Corbusier, the less-is-
arrangement of black and white elec- more diktat of International Style advo-
trons across each spread was so powerful cates, and the ideological minimalism of
that it prompted Truman Capote to graphic designers such asJan Tschichold
describe the book’s design as ‘boldness or Sandberg. Only in the late 1980s did a
bordering on revolution’. handful of art directors, Neville Brody
and Fabien Baron among them, dare to
reintroduce white space in magazines,
chiefly on opening spreads, to show off book as an object as sensual as the fibre
their typographical wit. sculptures shown inside. Here, white
White space has yet to make a come- space is an overt invitation to replace
back in the popular press. It is now prin- visual stimulation with tactile pleasure.
cipally restricted to art books, where it is Even though it is often described as
supposed to provide a respite for the eye. ‘blank’, ‘colourless’ or ‘empty’, white
Yet some prominent European graphic space is anything but neutral. It is about
designers use it not to soothe but on the to be challenged yet again as being too
contrary to subvert the ‘spectacle’ - to costly for the environment. The high
undermine the sustained assault of energy consumption of a white page,
commercial messages. Irma Boom’s all- as opposed to the grey page on a
white cover for Sheila Hicks: Weaving as computer screen, might force us to
Metaphor is embossed with a deep texture revise our relationship with this
that prepares readers to experience the precious achromatic commodity. =

150
‘His Harper’s Bazaar layouts treated white paper
as if it was an electromagnetic field.’

ABOVE: Observations (1959), here

featuring John Huston and Alfred
Hitchcock, a book featuring the work
of photographer Richard Avedon and
designed by Alexey Brodovitch,
formerly of Harper’s Bazaar.

.err: Harper’s Bazaar, September

1992, art-directed by Fabien Baron
and photographed by Patrick
Demarchelier. An admirer of ©
Brodovitch, Baron has appropriated
his dramatic use of white space
as his own signature style.
: falls refined appeal
A pared-down postwar aesthetic

musica viva
hans rosbaud
IDEA N& 73 anton _fietz
LESS IS MORE marcel
igor
mihalovici
strawinsky
roberto gerhard
In Europe after World War II, ‘Ulm’ was a magic word for
anyone interested in graphic design. Referring to the Ulm
School of Design (Hochschule fiir Gestaltung), a prestigious
German design school founded in 1953 by Max Bill, it
symbolized a new aesthetic so radical, so unencumbered,
so flawless, that it felt like the dawn of a new age.

What came to be known as the ‘Interna- ability, he advocated using a grid;

tional Typographic Style’ turned out to avoiding symmetrical layouts; using
opposite: Armin Hofmann’s 1962 ABove: This poster for Musica
be the linchpin that would hold together only Sans serif letterforms; setting
poster for Herman Miller shows Viva (1962) by Josef Miiller-
the history of graphic design in the narrow columns oftext flush left, ragged how information complexity can Brockmann is an example of
twentieth century. Though some of the right; and systematically choosing be reduced to graphic simplicity the Swiss style of economy and
tenets that the Ulm School promoted photography over illustration. His through colour and shape. simplicity — the type composition
had been developed in the Netherlands method was reductive, yet the posters, is the illustrative element.
BELOW: The cover of
before the war, its practical applications book covers and brochures he designed Typographische
had never been clearly formulated. A were so inspired that they instantly Monatsblatter (1961), designed
Swiss architect, sculptor and designer changed the graphic design landscape. by Emil Ruder, is a Swiss
who had studied at the Bauhaus in The International Typographic Style magazine about printing and
Dessau, Max Bill spelled it out in no was a misnomer ofsorts. It was not a wide- typography. This minimalist
design relies on the repetition
uncertain terms. He established strict ranging international movement, but one
of the title in various sizes.
norms regarding typography and design rooted in the bookish Protestant tradition
with the exactness of a watchmaker. To of Northern Europe; it was not very
minimize waste and enhance read- popular in the Mediterranean countries,
such as Spain, France and Italy. More to
the point, it was never meant to be a
‘style’; quite the contrary. Max Bill and his
followers despised the streamlined styling
of postwar American design. ‘Good form’
and ‘moral purpose through design’ were ability. In America, Swiss typography was
expressions they used to describe their much admired by such designers as Rudi
typographischemonatsblatter philosophy. Emil Ruder, Armin Hofmann de Harak, Ivan Chermayeff and Tom
typographische monatsblatter
typographische monatsblatter and Josef MullerBrockmann were Swiss Geismar, and Massimo and Lella Vignelli,
typographische
typographische
monatsblatter
monatsblatter
designers who, like Max Bill, did not and by its pragmatic rationality influ-
typographische monatsblatter
Iypvaraohsche
feces
confuse design with style and felt comfort- enced many. Unfortunately, the kind of
able occupying the high moral ground. typographic excellence that was, for Max
rpepraphiecie
typographesche Yet, as with Max Bill, ideology never got in Bill, the essence of ‘good form’ soon
typographische monatsblatter
typographische monatsblatter the way of creativity. MullerBrockmann’s became synonymous with ‘good taste’,
typographische monatsblatter
posters for Musica Viva are playful eye and was rejected by the next generations
typographische monatsblatter
charts, Hofmann’s 1962 poster for of designers as too conventional. The
typographischemonatsblatter
typographische monatsblatter Herman Miller shows a stack of abstracted International Typographic Style is experi-
typographische monatsblatter sofa shapes spilling across the page, and encing a revival of interest today — the
typographische monatsblatter
typographische
Typograptusche
monatsbiatter
monotsbistior
the cover of Ruder’s 1967 Typographie 2007 documentary Helvetica by Gary
bisa — (Typography) flaunts every rule of read- Hustwit is now a cult film. =

L533
Clarifying the cases

IDEA N° 74

MONO-ALPHABETS

In Germany in the 1920s, type reformers railed against the

illegibility of the spiky black-letter alphabets that had been

ST\
traditional since the age of Gutenberg. Seeking to replace the
unwieldy alphabet, the designers turned to simpler, sans
serif letters known as gothic or grotesque. But the heavy
black-letter faces were not the only problem.

‘Why should we write and print in two while his ‘bayer-type’, produced by the
alphabets?’ wrote Bauhaus member Berthold Type Foundry, was commer
Herbert Bayer. ‘We do not speak in a cially available. HERBERT BAY!
capital “a” and a small “a”. A single Bayer based his alphabet on simple
alphabet gives us practically the same lower-case letterforms, merged in a way
result as the mixture of upper and that would aid linguistic clarity, but at
lower-case letters, and at the same time the same time stay true to existing tradi-
is less of aburden on all who write.’ tions. The universal alphabet ‘represents
With this in mind, Bayer produced a practical attempt to give a modern
the first designs in 1925 for a sans serif expression to classical Roman type by
typeface void ofcapital letters. His contri- means of geometrical construction of
bution to what he called ‘a one letter form, he wrote. Moreover, it must not
type’ — an all lower-case type family - the suggest handwriting; it must have
‘universal alphabet’, was _ originally uniform thickness of all parts of the
designed for exclusive Bauhaus use, letter; it must be a ‘renunciation’ of all
up and down strokes. Simplification was
660

aBcDe
a foregone assumption.
Alphabet 26 was a subsequent simpli-
fied English system created in 1950 by the

FGHIJK
American designer Bradbury Thompson.
After observing his son experience diffi-
culty in recognizing the similarity

LMnopP
between the words ‘Run’ and ‘run’ in ‘Run son’s scheme was to keep a lower-case
pal. See him run’, he decided that the two- and discard the upper-case version of the
letter system hampered the experience of seven characters of the alphabet that are

QRSTU
learning to read. Confusion occurred the same across both cases (Cc-Oo-Ss-Vv-
because of the change from a capital R to Ww-Xx-Zz). Of the remaining 19 dissim-
a lower-case r — two different letters with ilar characters, he kept the upper-case

VWXYZ
the same phonetic sound. Thompson version of 15 of them — Bb-Dd-FfGg-Hh-li-
counted 19 other instances of dissimilar Jj-KicL-Pp-Qq-Rr-Tt-Uu-Yy - and the lower-
upper- and lower-case letters. case version of four — Aa-EeMm-Nn. The
While Bayer believed capitals were intention of a mono-alphabet was to
extraneous, Alphabet 26 was not as make the written language function on
@ Urrcr-case Design 18 USeD POR THeSe CllaRacrers
©] ree caenemo ween ron Toes rou coascrens doctrinaire. It was, however, a system of the same plane, more or less, as the
Onty one pesion exesrs POR THese Seven CHaRacTeRs
only 26 characters, some upper and some spoken tongue. It has not yet been
lower case, typeset in Baskerville. Thomp- adopted as the designer hoped. =
defghi
nopor
(WXYZ
. Alfabet Beispiel eines Zeichens
9 und ,,k"* sind noch als in gré8erem Mafstab
unfertig zu betrachten Prazise optische Wirkung

sturm blond
Iwendung

ABovE: Universal Alphabet (1925)

was Herbert Bayer’s alphabet that
combined upper- and lower-case letters
into a more phonetic system.

THEIQUICKIBROWN
LeFr: Monoalphabet (2006) by Manfred
Klein is among the most recent in this
tradition, making reading easier by
combining upper- and lower-case

XUUMPSIOVER
letters — particularly where the two
cases are at odds with each other.

oppose: Alphabet 26 /monoalphabet

(1950), by Bradbury Thompson, was
created to simplify the English
language for early readers, who have
to memorize 26 capitals and lower-case
letters, which are often not the same.

155
Cutting-edge credits

IDEA N° 75

FILM TITLE SEQUENCES

Unlike film trailers, which are edited with marketing

objectives in mind, film title sequences are not under
commercial constraints: they are designed to appeal to
people who have already bought their ticket. As a result,
graphic designers who work in this genre can enjoy a
freedom that few other commercial artists possess.
Saul Bass was the first filmmaker to take full advantage
of this creative loophole. He transformed what used to
be a duli typographical exercise into a graphic art form.

Saul Bass’s credits for The Man with the were Maurice Binder and Robert Brown-
Golden Arm (1955), a controversial film john, who worked on the James Bond
about drug addiction by Otto Preminger, film credits. Edgy and sexy, Binder’s and
were a landmark event in film title Brownjohn’s animations made the most
history. The short abstract animation, a of black backgrounds, female forms,
tight orchestration of white bars against extreme cropping and abstracted geom-
a black background, was a sophisticated a) try — visual codes all established by Bass.
BELOW: Se7en (1995) is the first ABOVE: The Man with the
display of graphic virtuosity. The final During the 1970s, a number of film title sequence of Kyle Cooper, Golden Arm (1955) is known for
image, a paper cutout representing the opening sequences eschewed narrative who has made a career in this its opening sequence by Saul Bass
distorted arm ofa heroin addict, was a elements altogether and used type exclu- genre, bringing the level of as much as for Frank Sinatra,
powerful icon. It stayed on the screen sively. Three examples stand out: Monty creativity, technical prowess who plays a heroin addict whose
for less than five seconds, yet that single Python and the Holy Grail, a hilarious spoof and imagination to new heights. ‘golden arm’ is the subject of
Bass's striking animation.
moment defined the way filmmakers of Swedish films; Woody Allen’s Annie Hall,
would conceive the opening credit a nononsense directory set in elegant
sequence from then on. Rather than Windsor letterforms; and the opening
just a directory of names, it became an sequence of Alien, a minimalist typograph-
arresting visual experience. ical puzzle of chilling exactness. Mean- material. Cooper is the author of more
Saul Bass created countless while, live-action openers were gaining than 100 film titles including Se7en (1995),
sequences, including for Vertigo (1958), popularity. Referencing Orson Welles’s The Island of Dr Moreau (1996) and The Incred-
Psycho (1960) and West Side Story (1961), 1958 single-take sequence for Touch ofEvil, ible Hulk (2008).
and dominated the scene for nearly five Robert Altman’s tracking shot for The Some remarkable filmic moments
decades. Among his many emulators Player (1992) was a brilliant, almost eight- happen while the credits are rolling. In
minute overture. the past decade, deserving an Academy
However, a second revolution in film Award for best picture under three
titles was in the making. Starting in 1995, minutes are Catch Me ifYou Can by Kuntzel

SE ZEN
Kyle Cooper reinvented suspense with a Deygas (2002), Kiss Kiss Bang Bang by
series of cinematographic masterpieces Danny Yount (2005), Casino Royale by
that used the opening credits as a ploy to Daniel Kleinman (2006), The Fall by Stefan
display disturbing collages of ominous Bucher (2007), Juno by Shadowplay Studio
images, manipulating, digitizing, (2008) and A History of Scotland by Iso
colourizing and re-engineering original Design (2009). =
PRODUCTION DESIGNER

“PRODUCED and
DIRECTED by

The Fall (2007) is logo designer and

typographer Stefan Bucher’s-first
Motion-picture opening sequence, for
Which he designed a minimalist series of :
Giles that blend perfectly with the images. : Se oe aso
SACME Se
Designed for browsing
COMPULSION
IDEA N2 76

BIG BOOK LOOK

In the mid-1950s the American designer Paul Bacon defined

a literary design genre known as the ‘big book look’, in
which a book cover was characterized by a large title, a large
author’s name and a small symbolic image. The look was
conceived as a matter of commercial pragmatism in 1956
when Bacon designed the dust jacket for Compulsion by Meyer
Levin, a book based on the real-life story of two young men
who murdered a boy to see if they could get away with it.

The publisher wanted the jacket to While he was no_ traditionalist, oprosire: Catch-22 (1961), jacket Asove: Compulsion (1956),
evoke the case without sensationalizing neither did he follow the Modernist designed by Paul Bacon, epitomizes jacket design by Paul Bacon,
it. Bacon sketched out a number of ideas notions of Paul Rand, Alvin Lustig and the big book look with a large title was arguably thefirst to lead
and almost as large author's name. towards the big book look.
until he came up with the notion of Leo Lionni, who imbued their covers
In some cases, the author is even The title was large, but the
positioning the rough, hand-scrawled with more subtlety. While Bacon larger than the title. cover itself was spare.
word ‘Compulsion’ at the top of the admired these designers, their book
jacket, taking up a fifth of the space. covers were generally designed for
Under that, two tiny, nervously rendered works of criticism, analysis and
figures running on the vacant expanse literature with small print runs,
towards the title were printed in red. enabling them to do virtually anything
The art is reminiscent of Saul Bass’s they wanted with little interference.
1955 Expressionistic film poster and Bacon’s more commercial orientation
titles for The Man with the Golden Arm (see required that he navigate sales and
p.156), but was influenced by the jazz advertising requirements.
albums Bacon had designed starting in Though most of Bacon’s covers were
the late 1940s. The book became a huge built on some conceptual idea or image,
bestseller and the jacket caught the U.S. the cover for Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s
publishing industry’s attention. Other Complaint (1969) was uncharacteristic. It
publishers wasted little time in was solely type against a yellow back-
contacting Bacon to design jackets for ground, with no fancy touches, except
their potential bestsellers. for the swashes on capitals (with
Bacon’s jacket oeuvre embodies the flowing or curlicue serifs) in the title
history of late twentieth-century commer- and the author’s name. Asked why he
cial book cover design ~ a legacy of eclectic avoided his signature conceptual image,
lettering, illustration and typography Bacon said it was because of the diffi-
before the digital revolution. Perhaps culty in portraying the book’s most
more importantly, he made books sell. prominent element ~ masturbation.
Marketers liked using an icon or a logo Ambiguity - fragmented and vague
on a jacket rather than conventional pictorial jackets with skewed type - is
treatments of type or literal illustration. much more frequent in present-day
“acon was good at, as he put it, ‘finding book covers, which may explain why the
something that would be a synthesis big book look, though not precisely
sraphically of what the story was about’. obsolete, is no longer a design code. =

159
Retro classics remade

IDEA N° 77

NOSTALGIA

Fashion and graphic design have one thing in common: they

are ephemeral art forms. Both disciplines create artefacts
that are transient, even though some exceptional garments
— and some special books — become treasured classics. Like
fashion trends, graphic design trends are periodically
rediscovered, their revival often as much ofa cultural event
as their original introduction.

Nostalgic fads are good indicators of The digital revolution created a

what excites new generations. In the longing for handmade things. Letter-
1970s, under the influence of Push Pin press printing made a comeback with
Studios, graphic designers in the United David Pearson. His ‘Great Ideas’ covers
States (and also abroad) began to adopt for Penguin Books, launched in 2004,
ornamental typefaces from the past, reproduce the tactile quality and slight
redrawing them occasionally to update irregularities of old-fashioned metal
their contours. Seymour Chwast and typesetting, in perfect sync with the ABOVE: Pixels (2011), a short opposire: Water Torture Escape
Paula Scher were, and still are, concept of the series, which publishes animated film directed by (1974), by Seymour Chwast,
passionate lovers of vintage type, but new editions of classics. His designs, Patrick Jean and photographed advertised a Mobil Showcase
by Matias Boucard, describes television special by
their use of it is anything but stale. however, are contemporary interpreta-
the destruction of New York approximating a Victorian
Chwast’s delightful 1974 Water Torture tions of the historical period in which City by 8-bit creatures, space magic-show poster common
Escape poster for a television show is the texts were originally written. invaders and Lego bricks. in Harry Houdini’s time.
evidence of how much fun nostalgia Nostalgia these days is turning up
can be. ? an interesting crop of graphic artefacts.
In the next decades, retro styles When Polaroid discontinued its instant
turned into engines for innovation. In camera in 2008, geeks had to find a
San Francisco, psychedelic poster replacement: today, iPhone applications
designers were revisiting Art Nouveau. allow shutterbugs to make their digital
In France, Roman Cieslewicz spear- pictures look as if they just popped out
headed a Constructivist revival. In of a vintage SX-70. Also nostalgic are
England, Neville Brody explored the Lego bricks; in 2009, Christoph
graphic sensibility of Dada artists. At Niemann celebrated their comeback as
Cranbrook in Bloomfield, Illinois, Kath- cult emblems in his I Lego NY graphic
erine McCoy encouraged her students to feature published in the New York Times.
reference the typographical approach Garish 3D logos from the early days of
pioneered by early Modernist move- computer graphics are now hot back-
ments. By the early 1990s, when Scott ground animations to music videos. sentimental icons. The classic video
and Laurie Makela began to take their More quaint, but just as hot, pop-up game inspired Patrick Jean from
cues from the 1950s avant-garde move- books, cardboard figures and paper OneMoreProduction in Paris to create
ment Fluxus, their richly layered ‘Living cutouts are revisited by motion Pixels, a striking animation in which
Surfaces’ aesthetic was hailed as a graphics animators. But for anyone who New York City is attacked and eventually
precursor of a new media communica- hung around video arcades in the 1980s, destroyed by voracious 8-bit creatures
tion genre. Space Invaders are today’s supreme intent on rasterizing the universe. =

160
Surprisingly effective communication

IDEA N° 78

ILLEGIBILITY

The human brain can decipher words without actually

reading them. It scans letters to see if they add up to
spell a word that is already known. This time-saving
neurotransmitter method, which allows us to recognize
iz
words at a glance even if, perhaps, all the letters are not g

i
present, is a godsend for designers.

Designers have taken advantage of this capitalized on the ability of scrambled ABOVE: St. Raphaél (1955), an opposite: Upside Down (2008),
phenomenon to twist, compress, text to stimulate brain activity are David abstract composition, was in fact a silkscreened poster by Dutch
section, tangle, cube, distort, maim and Carson, Ed Fella, Rick Valicenti, Pierre di a modular system that could be graphic designers Niessen &
adapted to fit surfaces of various de Vries, for a lecture in Ulm
mangle written text, happily defying Sciullo, David Niessen, M/M (Paris) and
sizes. The more ‘readable’, for the 23rd Forum Typografie,
the ordinary precepts of ‘readability’. Irma Boom, to name a few. So fasci- horizontal version of this logo spells AESTHETES’ one way,
An early example of this technique is a nating is this phenomenon that more was traced by Charles Loupot and ‘MORALISTS’ when you
mid-twentieth-century poster for a and more contemporary artists are in 1947. hang it the other way up.
French cordial called St. Raphaél. A red, venturing into illegibility to create
black and white calligraphic exercise, installations that stop spectators in
designed by Charles Loupot, it made their tracks and compel them to take a
mincemeat of the product name by deep breath before deciphering texts
chopping it up into three parts, St.Ra/ that are barely legible. Jenny Holzer is
pha/él, and jumbling them up every probably one of the most prolific
which way. Yet, when reassembled into conceptual wordsmiths of this genera-
a crazy-quilt patchwork, the new typo- tion. She makes her aphorisms spin,
graphical configuration was invariably swarm, stream, fade and disappear, reaf-
easy to unscramble, even though it was firming, in the process, the restorative
technically illegible. So popular was this power of the written word. =
Cubistic and dynamic logo that it became
an icon for postwar economic recovery
in France. The St. Raphaél patchworks
were painted on walls, pasted on pali-
sades, posted on billboards, turned into
ashtrays, coasters and clocks, always trig-
gering in the mind of onlookers the full
name of the product.
Illegibility per se was not a new idea.
The Futurists, the Dadaists and princi-
pally the Lettrists had experimented
with it, often turning calligraphic
gibberish into an art form that teased
the brain into its deciphering mode.
However, recently, with the flow-
ering of the digital age, illegibility has
gained popularity as an effective means
of communication. Designers who have

162
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JUN SL:01 ‘8002 !unr -¢} ‘BejuUOS
WIPPJOISWIY “Sald/\ SP Q USSSAIN\ US}USJEJOy,
Wwepsej}swWy pun Wf UsYydsimz oesbodhL
oyeiBodAL winsoy “ez

23. Forum Typografie

~ Typografie zwischen
Ulm und Amsterdam
Referenten Niessen & de Vries, Amsterdam
Sonntag, 15. Juni 2008, 10:15 Uhr
Hochschule fiir Ktinste Bremen

Ieee”
Graphic pulse

IDEA

SCAN
N2 79

LINES
z
Why are there lines running through the IBM logo? If the
logo’s designer, Paul Rand, were alive he might answer with
one ofa litany of rationales depending on his mood. He had
a few reasons. One centres on what has become the common
theory that they are ‘scan lines’, the magnetic kind used to
safeguard official documents, such as cheques and stock

||
un]
certificates, from forgery or theft.
This motive makes sense, since back in were to the machine age. The latter
1956, when Rand was commissioned by signify speed, the former computer
Eliot Noyes to redesign the IBM logo, technology (a different dimension of ABOVE; IBM logo (1972) designed opposite: This Book is a Seesaw
this type of technology was common. It speed). However, there is something old- by Paul Rand, was the second (1994) by Hans Knuchel and Jiurg
was not until 1960 that Rand added the fashioned about speed lines as opposed iteration ofthe City Bold logotype. Nanni (Lars Miiller Publishers),
The first, solid, version was created a book of optical illusions using
stripes to the logo, and his primary to scan lines. Rand’s striped IBM logo is
in 1956. Rand added the lines shapes and forms to subvert
reasons were at the same time to lighten more than 50 years old, but it is still in to give the logo a mnemonic conventional sight patterns.
up the City Bold typeface (designed by use, and not in the seminostalgic way and push back the black.
Georg Trump) and to create a mnemonic associated with some vintage products.
element, which has not only perma- IBM is not timeless, but up-to-date. BELOW: ATST Bell System logo
nently lodged in people’s minds but is The scan lines make it so. They trans- (1983), called the ‘globe’ logo,
also often perceived as scan lines. formed a typeface designed in 1930 at designed by Saul Bass after
the break-up of the Bell System.
There are various ways to represent the height of the machine and Stream-
Scan lines, giving the impression
a technological future symbolically. line ages into a logo that suggests of high technology, were used
Scan lines are to the digital age what computer technology that is current frequently as a graphic conceit
motion lines, often made with airbrush, today. Rand understood that without at the time.
the lines the heavy weight of City Bold
could weigh heavy on public perception
- — - in other words, get old over a short
En, period of time. But the lines provided
ES, both distinction and a symbolic charge.
[men They made the logo now, not then.
ee SY Yet not all scan lines are created
|
me equal. In 1983 Saul Bass designed the
Loam SSS SC] AT&T logo, a globe cut by scan lines of
Wii varying thickness to evoke a sense of
Ei
Ii
weight and volume. Earlier, in 1978, he
WEE”
had used four such lines cutting across a
Ww”
circle for the Minolta logo. Eventually,
a

Afel
scores of other industries followed suit,
and scan lines became the corporate
identity trope of the 1980s. =

164
Dieses Buch ist eine Schaukel This Bookisa Seesaw

= Hans Knuchel /Jiirg Nanni

\\ \

Lars Miller Publishers

Identifying a new market
BIGGEST. COLOR

IDEA N2 80

TEEN MAGAZINES

Before World War II ‘teenagers’ did not exist. The group aged Sapte
between 13 and 19 were youngsters, young people or young BARRY TAKES YOU. |
70oil's WEDDING
adults. Trapped between childhood and adulthood, teenagers MISS 16
WINNER
were ignored as a viable market, except perhaps as
consumers of music. But even their album and sheet music
graphics were not designed with them in mind the way they
were in the 1960s. After the war, when advertisers sought to
ABOVE: 16 Magazine (1968). opposire: Honey (1969) reveals
mine new markets, the teenager came into existence. The teeny-bop magazine emerged one of the graphic ways in which
just as the British invasion hit teens were being taken seriously
American shores. This clarion as a fashion and lifestyle market.
The American magazine Seventeen, first guish teenage girls from working
of teen boys and girls developed
published in 1944, was the first maga- women and then see them as an a distinctive look with silhouette
zine to define and target teenage girls, economically powerful market. heads ofstars on drawn or
and started the marketing ball rolling. Once teenagers were installed as a painted comic bodies.
It was art-directed by Cipe Pinelas, who true demographic, there was no stop-
imbued it with an elegant typograph- ping the graphic codes and messages BELOW: Teenagers Ingenue (1962)
ical style that complemented the sophis- aimed at them. During the mid-1960s capitalized on the developing
ticated conceptual illustration and the celebrity-focused 16 Magazine, which female teenage commercial
market for fashion, cosmetics
fashion photography. Yet the real thrust targeted star-struck adolescent girls,
and other beauty aids, Teens
behind teenage ascendancy was a was the teenage version of Photoplay, were now treated as young adults.
marketing consultant named Estelle Silver Screen, Movie Star and other pulp
Ellis. She persuaded advertisers to fan magazines of the 1920s. It was
address this group by employing the designed as a typographic and pictorial
first market-research studies to distin- midway, not elegant like Seventeen but
full of varied and discordant colourful
typefaces and eye-catching headlines.
Edited by former fashion model and pop
idolmaker Gloria Stavers, 16 was the orous and desirable - recommending
first bona fide American teenage fan the best deodorant (Arrid), hair colour
magazine and hype engine for the (Toni) and acne cream (Clearasil), and
popular music and television jugger- offering tips on how to meet the right
naut thrusting its way into the hearts guys and get modelling jobs.
r GALA and minds of America’s baby-boom, Yet an alternative, Rolling Stone maga-
| BNYERTAINICEN?
A ISSUE
teeny-bop generation. 16 was a voyeur’s zine, was the diametrical opposite of 16.
ys ~ Pow
Ap WITH THE STARS
cornucopia replete with ‘oodles’ of It helped remove the artifice from the
J NEW PACES ‘62 ‘wowee’ publicity pictures of ‘adorable’ teen demographic, replacing it with
blemish-free stars and candid canned rebellious ‘youth culture’. It treated the
| HOW To
ENTERTAIN AT HOME
gossip about pop’s leading heart-throbs baby boomer as a distinct entity and
{GETAJOBINTY ~ presented without an iota ofirony. reported on its eccentricities. It gave rise
With the floodgates thus opened, to more risqué, though still resolutely
Junior Bazaar, Teenagers Ingenue and Teen, slick, teen-oriented magazines, such as
among other mainstream magazines, Zoo in the UK, that pushed the bound-
advised adolescents how to be ‘in’, glam- aries further. =

166
peLow: Do women have to be
naked to get into U.S. Museums?

Subversive spoofing
(1995). The infamous campaign by
the Guerrilla Girls, based on Ingres’s
Grande Odalisque, was refused by
most media as too ‘suggestive’ on the
pretext that ‘the figure appeared to
have more than a fan in her hand.’

IDEA N2 81

CULTURE JAMMING

Today, disrupting the dominant culture takes wit. Causes

whose radical agendas are perceived as humorous rather
than simply inflammatory are more likely to inspire. But
while delivering a subversive message requires humour and
ingenuity, it also entails a solid understanding of the way
visual codes function in our media-controlled society.

In the late 1950s, members of Situa- In the mid-1980s, a group of anony-

tionist International, a short-lived but mous feminist artists who called them-
influential political movement, tried selves Guerrilla Girls began to speak out
to expose what they called ‘the spec- against sex discrimination in the art
tacle’ — the relentless display of media world. They pasted yellow billboards
images. Although they never produced around New York on which the head of
truly ‘breakthrough’ visual interven- a gorilla was collaged onto the body of
tions, the idea that modern life is Ingres’s Grande Odalisque. A luridly styled
nothing but a spectacle staged by heading asked, ‘Do women have to be
powerful interest groups has since naked to get into U.S. museums?’, lamp-
inspired a number of avant-garde artists ooning the sensationalist headlines of
to find ways to counter the stifling effect supermarket tabloids. The posters not
of corporate capitalism. Whether spon- only decried sexism, they did so in the
taneous or elaborate, the hijacking or visual language of lowbrow culture.
appropriation of media images is now In the 1990s, commenting on the
common practice. Billboards are often increasingly strident consumer culture
commandeered for these © graphic by mocking its tropes became a popular
counter-offensives. activity among artists and graphic
designers alike. The Canada-based maga-
zine Adbusters made an editorial policy
out of ‘culture jamming’, a satirical tech- The convergence of activism and
nique that consisted of spoofing logos, artful irony found a spokesperson in
advertisements and media images to Shepard Fairey, an American skate-
sabotage their messages. In 1992, the boarder and _ street artist whose
magazine promoted a day of protest, Buy perversely mischievous brand, OBEY,
Nothing Day, that tried, with a series of was a covert invitation to rebel against
imaginative posters, to convince people the powerful capitalist political and
to refrain from purchasing anything on monetary system. Using a strategy that
the Friday after Thanksgiving (one of the is now a hallmark of many contempo-
biggest shopping days in the United rary artists, he appropriated marketing
States). The campaign, repeated annu- techniques to disseminate his message,
ally and in various countries, never distributing a wide range of stencils,
worked as such, but it was fun to ridicule stickers and posters in order to allow his
acquisitiveness with clever visual puns fans to plaster his fractious OBEY
while restating a serious message about message on walls from Baltimore to
over-consumption. Berlin and beyond. =

168
Stay Away from Corporations That Want
You to Lie for Them (1999), a billboard
designed by Jonathan Barnbrook to illustrate
a quote by Tibor Kalman. It was produced to
coincide with the launch ofthe re-edition of
the First Things First manifesto (see p.57)
— a call for more meaningful design.

‘The hacking of media images is now

common practice.’

169
=a wy

Trading nuances for impact pjeubsobascwithmyhentnee

HIGH CONTRAST
Eastman Kodak’s Kodalith photographic paper was invented
in 1931 to facilitate the reproduction of ultra-high-contrast
images, or line art. It removed all the middle tones in petow: The Medium is the apove: Dubnobass with My
conventional photographs, leaving only the darkest masses Massage (1967) by Marshall Headman (1993), album cover
McLuhan and Quentin Fiore, for electronic band Underworld.
and brightest highlights. These areas could be manipulated who also designed the book, is Multiple layers ofhigh-contrast
a collection offactoids, bromides black-and-white imagery give
using either darkroom methods or by hand, eliminating the and theories of postwar media it the aura of DIY artwork.
and its ‘inventory ofeffects’.
need for time-consuming airbrush retouching. Kodalithing, end eh eeem
as it was called, made art and design more dramatic. (1963). This poster for a municipal
theatre focuses on high-contrast
hand play to give the sense of
Kodalithing was initially used to hold as the Expressionists built a new art on
drama in motion.
down production expenses, yet during the foundation of naive arts, Kodalith
the 1960s it also spawned a counter- allowed a new Expressionism to be built
culture aesthetic. At first it was simply out of naive technology.
cosmetic — a means to goose-up a layout During the politically charged 1960s
with bold graphics. Much like the Kodalith became synonymous with
German Expressionist woodcut, however, polemical communications. Kodalith
Kodalith enabled artists to capture on aided graphic subversion. High-contrast
paper what was deemed primitive. Just images effectively masked the obscene
or lurid parts of halftone photographs
Portraits of such left-wing leaders as the
| Marshall McLuhan _ Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver or Latin founder Jerry Rubin’s Do-It! (1970)
American revolutionary Che Guevara
Quentin Fiore |
|
combined high-contrast and halftone
were Kodalithed for stickers, posters and photography in a veritable orgy of
T-shirts. High-contrast reproduction counter-culture images. But the most
- The Medium made blatant sexuality more ambiguous dramatic use was Fiore’s cover of The
is the and libellous depictions less tangible. Medium is the Massage, a high-contrast
Massage Removing all tonal information trans- depiction of the face of a burned Viet-
An Inventory of Effects formed realism into abstraction. Truth namese child. At first glance it appears
could be fiction and fiction could be abstract, with just a few identifiable
taken as fact. Kodalith further made characteristics signalling a human
mundane imagery more ‘artistic’. Other form, but as the viewer’s eyes begin to
screen techniques, including mezzotint, absorb the visual information the
scratch and continuous line, might tortured visage becomes more vivid. A
render a halftone into line art, but only conventional halftone might be more
Kodalith had transformative powers. easily recognizable, but not as dramatic
Designer Quentin Fiore used Koda- once it is perceived. This high-contrast
lith to heighten graphic intensity in the form forces the viewer to pause before
books he collaborated on with media opening the book, and as the image is
philosopher Marshall McLuhan, The revealed the viewer comprehends the
Medium is the Massage (1967) and War and critical message about how images are
Peace in the Global Village (1968). Similarly processed in a media-glutted informa-
his design of Youth International Party tion age. =

170
Mind-altering designing

IDEA N° 83

PYSCHEDELIA

Hippies reigned, hallucinogenic drugs flowed and rock

filled the air during the late 1960s in San Francisco. Victor
Moscoso, Rick Griffin, Stanley Mouse, Alton Kelly and Wes
Wilson were the vanguard of the distinctly American
youth culture design mannerism known as psychedelia.
Characterized by decorative typefaces, vibrating colour and
vintage illustrations, psychedelic art was a rebellious graphic BELow: ‘The Peacock Skirt’ (1894) asove: Gebrauchsgraphik
from Salomé, illustrated by (1968). The youth style influenced
language that communicated with a select community and Aubrey Beardsley, who was by drugs and rock and roll
one of the influencesfor the quickly became a commercial
for a brief time excluded all others (until co-opted by the drug-inspired psychedelic visual vocabulary. Founded
mainstream and exported throughout the world). work that arose in the 1960s. in San Francisco, this German
version smoothed out some
ofthe rough edges.
Each of the principal artists had a derived from one of Alfred Roller’s
distinct personal style, yet the overall emblematic Vienna Secessionist alpha-
ricHT: Grateful Dead (1966),
psychedelic visual language comprised bets and an ethereal face called Smoke. created by Stanley Mouse for the
an assortment of images in the public The artists drew the letters by whiting Avalon Ballroom, draws upon
domain, including engravings, old out all the areas between the bodies of lettering of the Jugendstil period
photos, labels, postcards and other the letterforms rather than drawing and artwork of the Symbolists.
commercial ephemera. Custom psyche- them directly. Colour was made to
delic typefaces were hand-drawn based vibrate. Slightly offregister trapping
on Victorian, Art Nouveau and Vienna gave images and letters a three-dimen-
Secessionist models, including faces sional look.
A major influence was the nine- dipity was in the eye of the beholder,
teenth-century English _ illustrator not the maker. While being stoned may
Aubrey Beardsley. The so-called ‘dandy have contributed to the enjoyment of
of the grotesque’ was posthumously these posters, it was not altogether
recalled from his exile in the artistic necessary for achieving poster nirvana.
wilderness. His excessive curvilinear Certain art and design tenets were
style and chiaroscuro sexual fantasies rejected to attain maximum visual
were a potent antidote to austere sensation. It took some getting used to,
Modernist design. His style was also a but once the new ostensibly illegible
particularly apt influence on the drug- conceits were absorbed the work was
inspired hippie aesthetics of the day. quite accessible.
French Symbolists, such as Odilon Predictably, psychedelia became a
Redon and Félicien Rops, played influen- cliché, viewed by some design critics as
tial roles in the illustrative approaches, a brief commercial aberration. Much of
as did the Czech Alphonse Mucha. the art was lumped under the umbrella
Despite the layers of graphic effluvia of 1960s kitsch. But like that of the great
common to all psychedelic art, the turn-ofthe-century poster masters
compositions were always strategically Lautrec, Cheret and Bernhard, the orig-
arranged and obsessively sketched - inal psychedelic work transcends its
nothing was left to chance - and seren- stylistic era. m

172
TICKET OUTLETS: $4 FRANCISCO THE PSYCHEDELIC SHOP; CITY LIGHTS BOO LLY LO:
ALLEY CC EE HOUSE NASIDI COUNT RECORDS
AL MAKER (
peLow: San Francisco Oracle
(1967), back cover illustrated by

Mixing a rainbow
Hetty McGee. Placing two colours
at opposite ends of the offset
printing rollers blends them,
resulting in a third.

IDEA N° 84

SPLIT FOUNTAIN

Split (or rainbow) fountain printing was a mundane technique

commonly used by job printers during the late nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries to give the illusion of four or
more colours on a printed piece. The process, which is still
used, involves adding two or three coloured inks in the ink
well (or fountain) of a press or smeared on a silkscreen. As the
press rollers turn, or the silkscreen squeegee is pulled, the
colours mix to make additional hues, like a rainbow.

The most common print genre for split printed on a web offset press on porous His 1954 cover for LOr by Blaise Cendrars
fountain was cheaply produced carnival newsprint. Four-colour process printing predates the hippy movement by more
and circus posters — the kind that were almost quadrupled the basic expenses, than a decade, but his application of the
nailed to telephone poles — since the so the split fountain allowed for split fountain as a background for the
rainbow luminosity suggested fun and numerous chromatic variations that bold nineteenth-century typography is
games and grabbed the eye. Split foun- would otherwise have been prohibi- used both to suggest the past and at the
tain was employed much later during the tively expensive. Yet, more importantly, same time to remove the book meta-
1960s in underground newspapers, such this process highlighted the editorial phorically from the musty stacks. Its
as the San Francisco Oracle, and on rock content of the publication, which was brightness was totally contemporary.
posters, to save expensive four-colour devoted to hippy culture - in other Bill Cahan’s 1994 poster advertising
printing costs. words, sex, drugs and rock and roll. The a lecture he gave at the AIGA and Eric
Like most underground publica- Oracle helped to define the psychedelic Heiman’s 2002 cover for Rock My World
tions, the Oracle was economically look of the age, but was also more prim- both pay homage to — and are pastiches
itivelooking than the psychedelic of - the carnival posters that launched
posters produced around the same time. the trope rather than the hippy culture
Although split fountain was an that adopted it. Despite the nod to the
unsophisticated method reserved for past, the prismatic colour scheme
run-ofthe-mill printing jobs, it earned projects an even more contemporary
its place among the emblematic tech- association — the distinctive shine of a
niques of the era. The rainbow was iden- compact disc or DVD, symbols of the
tified with the alternative culture and computer era. =
hippy movement. Eventually it was
co-opted by those who marketed the
alternative youth culture as a
commodity. In fact, on some mass-
produced hippyesque products the split
fountain was accomplished by cheating,
using four-colour process printing.
For the French book designer
Massin, however, the technique was not
a youth code at all, but rather one of
many venerable printing techniques
that he used to add verve to his designs.

174
4 Ra : SeP m LOr (1954), book jacket
designed by Massin using
i three colours that blend
mii to form a rainbow effect.

a SS Se Pees
a Sg

‘The rainbow luminosity suggested fun and ee

games and grabbed the eye.’ 3

unter milarbeit des sohweizetischen pholagraphen-verbandes

gewerbemuseum basel ausstellung

seine arbeiten

Der Berufsphotograph (1938),

poster designed by Jan Tschichold.
The split fountain is used in the
‘ype - three colours from yellow
t0 blue to red.
Taboo tales move to the mainstream

IDEA N° 85

UNDERGROUND COMICS
iern

Het
bs
+33R
=
Ey

In 1968 underground ‘comix’ began to attack the

conservative values of amoribund postwar society. A decade apove: Acme Novelty Library opposite: Zap (1967), created by
and a half earlier, in 1954, the comics industry had agreed #12 (1999), created by Chris Ware Robert Crumb for Apex Comics,
as one in a series of comic books, was thefirst actual underground
to police itself through the Comics Code Authority, which all drawn and handwritten by comic book. Zap #0 was the
the artist. third in the series, even though
applied strict standards regarding ‘appropriate material’ it was drawn before #1,
seLow: Gothic Blimp Works #4 published in 1968.
in comics prior to bestowing its seal of approval — without (1970), cover illustrated by Spain
Rodriguez. This early underground
which a comic would not be stocked by distributors. Yet
comic newspaper was published
neutering comics fomented rebellion. by the East Village Other,
prefiguring comic books.

Early underground comics appeared in The spearhead of the comic book

underground newspapers, such as New revolution was Zap #1. Under the advi-
York’s East Village Other and its sister sory ‘Fair Warning: For Adult Intellec-
publication, Gothic Blimp Works, where tuals Only’, Robert Crumb introduced a
Robert Crumb, Kim Dietch, Gilbert selection of tales, including the now-
Shelton, S. Clay Wilson and Spain Rodri- classic ‘Keep on Truckin’, that had their
guez launched assaults on convention. spiritual roots in MAD magazine’s irrev-
While they looked like comics and read erent satire. In retrospect, these tales
like comics, in fact they were ‘com-mix’, were tame compared to later under-
a combination of a conventional visual ground raunchiness. But at the time
language and taboo storylines. even comical jibes at frontal nudity,
recreational drug use and racial
stereotyping tested the tolerance of
accepted standards.
Victor Moscoso and Rick Griffin
were among the most prominent
graphic artists of the San Francisco
scene. Crumb invited Moscoso, Griffin
and S. Clay Wilson, who was already
well known in underground paper
circles, to join in Zap #2. ‘Adults Only’ advisory. The Moscoso-
Problems with the Comics Code designed centre spread featured draw-
Authority were avoided by bypassing ings of Daisy and Donald Duck engaged
the traditional sales outlets and selling in comic-book hanky-panky. By the
directly via the poster and head shops 1970s, raucous raunch was a staple of
that had sprung up in hippy strong- underground comix and arguably had
holds ofbig cities and college towns. By opened the door in other media as well.
the time Zap #3 and #4 were published Zap is today a textbook study of the
sales were as high as 50,000 copies each way in which fringe ideas when
for the first printing. The first two issues unleashed are no longer mysterious or
of Zap were fairly innocuous compared threatening. Undergrounds have settled
to Zap #3, which rocked the boat with into the mainstream, having evolved
its risqué content that lived up to its into graphic novels and movies. =

176
E Comic
THAT PLUGS
YOu Init
The sound of type and image CONCERTO INF
LEVANT
KOSTELANETZ :
IDEA N° 86
\EHARMONIG-SYMPHONY QRCHESTRA OF NEU Y
RECORD ALBUM COVERS COLUMBIA. MASTERWORKS
PLAST
SE
Sheet music covers from the late nineteenth and early to
mid-twentieth centuries were often beautifully illustrated,
but early recording cylinders and records were bereft of art.
Shellac records were protected in kraft-paper sleeves printed
with the record company’s trademark and collected in a
bound ‘album’ of sleeves, differentiated by coloured
bindings. Some albums were adorned with pre-existing
artworks, but most were not.

In 1939 Alex Steinweiss designed the or Big Brother and the Holding
first original cover art for the 78 rpm Company’s 1968 album Cheap Thrills
record album, thereby inventing a see p.133) launched an anything-goes
major design genre that added an ethos, which evolved into cover images
entirely new dimension to the musical hat both busted and _ perpetuated
experience and to the sales of recorded sexual taboos as it expanded the defini-
music. Steinweiss was art director for ion of what a cover should depict as
Columbia Records, headquartered in promotion and identity for the music.
the industrial city of Bridgeport, With the advent of CDs, the LP was
Connecticut. For the first six months ultimately shrunk from its generous
he was the entire art department and size to a smaller scale. Some original
designed ads, posters, booklets and special-effects work was done for CD
catalogues. ‘I put some style into it,’ he covers, especially in the boxed-set
said about his European modern design genre, but the verve of the 12 x 12 inch
influences, including Lucian Bernhard cover was gone.
and A.M. Cassandre. Then he had an Today, with MP3 players the
epiphany: he experimented, designing primary conveyance for music, covers
a few covers with original art. Although have been miniaturized even further.
manufacturing costs increased, They have become little more than
Columbia took the risk. The very first icons, fitting for the computer or
album was for a Rodgers and Hart iPhone screen. Vinyl records are
collection, for which he rendered a making a comeback, but this is akin to
theatre marquee with the album title quaint letterpress printing as a vintage
appearing in lights. Sales rose dramati- alternative to digital reproduction. The
cally on albums with the new covers. album cover is effectively dead. =
Steinweiss also helped to invent the
physical LP record sleeve as well, but it
was the younger generation of art
directors and designers that emerged
as design innovators throughout the
1950s and 1960s. Creatively, progres-
sive rock LPs exploded with unconven-
tional cover art. Robert Crumb’s cover
E ABOVE: Concerto in F (1948) BELOW: Sticky Fingers (1971)
by George Gershwin was des by the Rolling Stones was conceived
and illustrated by Alex Steinv by Andy Warhol, photographed by
the first person to create unique Billy Name and designed by Cre
artwork for 78 rpm recordings. Braun. The photo is of Factory
member Joe Dallesandro’ ch in
OPPOSIT : Elvis Pre (1956) ight blue jeans, not Mick Ja:
was Elvis’s debut album. The cover
looks like it might have been apove: Dark Side of the Mo
designed today, but it was the first
by Pink Floyd, designed by
rock and roll album to reach Hipgnos sign group that
number 1 on the Billboard charts.
alized in surreal and abstract
J imag
Signs of the times

STREET SLOGANS
What we read in a distracted state - while crossing the street,
for example - is not necessarily less memorable. In fact, what
we see with our peripheral vision might be more striking,
because it is perceived by receptor cells in the eye that are
more sensitive to black-and-white figures and to unexpected
motion. Furtive slogans scrawled on walls, plastered on top
of scaffolding or stencilled on the pavement are just as likely
to be seen as colourful advertisements prominently located
at the centre of our field ofvision.
above: I] est interdit d’interdire OPPOSITE ABOVE: Private Property
(1968), a Situationist slogan that Created Crime (1985) is one of
In France in 1968, during the student In Spain, Marti Guixé used the street was painted on the walls of Paris American conceptual artist Jenny
during the May 1968 students’ Holzer’s better known site-specific
uprising, disruptive slogans were slogan approach with striking results as
revolt. Meaning ‘It’s forbidden art installations. This statement
written all over the city, on walls but well, often applying scratchy messages to forbid’, it became a rallying was displayed in New York’s Times
also on stairs, on pavements, on cars, on top of his own designs, their disrup- cry for the insurgents. Square when the area was still
on parapets, on barricades, on fences. tive presence a form of social criticism. considered a sleazy neighbourhood.
‘It’s forbidden to forbid’ and ‘Be real- In 2002, for the shoe manufacturer
istic - demand the impossible’ were Camper, he created a campaign titled ‘If
some of the most poetic and ubiqui- you don’t need it don’t buy it’. Its delib-
tous pronouncements. They were hard erately awkward calligraphic style became
to ignore because they popped into an integral part of the Camper image.
view at the oddest angles, when least In France, German-born graphic
expected. Handwritten, spray-painted, designer Malte Martin perfected the
they were untidy, the hurried quality technique for a season’s posters for the
of their letterforms suggesting haste, Théatre de l’Athénée, Paris: a direct
momentum, speed ~ characteristics that quotation from the play advertised is set
are meant to raise a red flag in our brain in black and white inside a stylized
and make us extra vigilant. ‘bubble’. Busy commuters automatically
Jenny Holzer is one contemporary glance at the words, their catchy design
artist who understands how slogans as compelling as a visual jingle.
function in the urban environment and Under the impression that a larger
is using public art not to create yet billboard in a prime location is the best
another spectacle but to activate in way to get noticed, some clients still ask
viewers a less guarded vision. Her 1985 designers to ‘make it bigger and make it
light installation in New York’s Times red’. But in our age of mobility, distrac-
Square, Private Property Created Crime, tion is the new attention. =
placed at the intersection of Broadway
and Seventh Avenue, did not look very
different from the other signs. It was
meant to trigger a double-take, a ‘wait a
minute!’ moment in those who saw it. It
was sneaky, not openly confrontational.

180
CREATED

“tee

caso
8 d
~
4 ifs

‘They popped into view at the oddest

-angles, when least expected.’

En Attendant Godot (2009),

poster by German-born Malte
Martin for the Theatie de
lAthénée in Paris. His distinctive,
acetendrol
bold, black-and-white
compositions = quotes from the
theatrical productions being * mencemoment#
advertised — always attract the
attention ofbusy subway
commuters.
umanite cest nous i»
jue ca nous plaise

* athénée
theatre LouisJouvet Nav
015305 riders to the sea Syn
athenee-theatre.com
Richardson
Purity and prurience

IDEA N° 88

SEXUAL TABOO BUSTING

ATT RT LETS LLL: DE ETT IESE
Every era has its share of visual taboos, cultural, political or
sexual. Graphic representations of sexual acts are taboo in
some cultures and not in others (although sex itself is always
taboo to some extent). In the graphic design arena sexual
taboos came to the fore in a 1966 landmark opinion in the
matter of Ginzburg v. United States, which jailed the publisher
of the exquisitely designed Eros magazine, Ralph Ginzburg.
Above: Richardson Magazine opposite; Eros (1962), founded
A4 (2003) is the brainchild of by Ralph Ginzburg and designed
It was the first time in American history Yet Eros was neither a pornography British fashion stylist Andrew by Herb Lubalin, was an elegant
that a magazine publisher was magazine nor a semi-artsy nudist Richardson. This issue focuses ‘erotic’ journal that challenged
sentenced to a prison term for producing journal. The subscription-only quarterly on ‘the female gaze’ and charts the mores of American postwar
and distributing a magazine that was was one of the most beautifully designed the sexual encounters of some culture.
contributors.
judged to have abrogated the moral periodicals of the time. Graphic designer
values and standards of society. Eros was and typographer Herb Lubalin infused
BeLow: Playboy (1961), designed
much less salacious than today’s Maxim Eros’s pages with exquisite typography, by Art Paul. The ingenuity of
or FHM. But in 1963, television mums and his elegant layouts were enticing Paul’s cover designs — using a
and dads slept in separate beds and the rather than prurient. dictionary as the background
word ‘pregnant’ was forbidden on the Playboy, which began in 1955, used here — is what elevated the
airwaves. America, on the surface, was partial nudity, particularly women with magazine from tawdry to smart.
still unrepentantly puritanical and Eros ample airbrushed breasts, to lure male
dared to challenge those mores. readers into its cosmopolitan lifestyle
coverage. Conversely, Eros did not
apprise 2 HO TEORNACL LUE AN UDe™ 1ag directly objectify women. There were no

PLAYBOY. ©
Peal or aeisions Suse ment; sport; frolic. |sin
ma pinups or gatefolds, as in Esquire maga-
n }ani zine (founded 1933). In its four issues,
. A. A sporty fellow bent upon pla
re seeking; a man-about-town the eroticism was addressed as an integral
a lover of life: a bon vivant. 2. The * live fact of life. The magazine did not take
magazine edited for the edification’ and enter: |gd,
tainment of urban men; te., in the Junc issue: che the name Eros, the god of love, in vain. edly raunchier ways, It was the first
You Can } ike a Million 'Yoday” by d. Paul |,
Getty; ical portrait of Reno by agi The marriage of love and sex, routinely national magazine to show intimacy
pages of color photogy: iphy an ignored in publications that pandered
on the Grand Prix in Monaco with description }Ga between a black man and white woman,
by Charles Beaumont; cartoonist Shel Silver: to voyeuristic appetites, were not and the first to publish a nude layout
stein visits Hawaii.—played out (plaid out). |jay
pp. Performed to the end; also, exhausted; used ple divorced in Eros. Ginzburg explained, of America’s greatest sex goddess,
up.—player pla‘er), n. One who plays; an ac: |del ‘The erotic in my life has always been
tor; a musician. playful | pli'took Ph. adj. |ave Marilyn Monroe.
Full of play; sportive; also, humorous. —play- | chy richest, most fulfilling, when inter- In the early 1960s sexual imagery
ams ‘pli’mat . 2. A companion pla
apieay.—Play mate limit) ola twined with love, with the romantic. was still taboo, but magazines like Hugh
popular rebar feature in
PissBOY magazine depicting ass The investigation and portrayal of this Hefner’s Playboy and its clones fought to
peautiful girli
in pin-up pose: shor- | ple combination is what Eros was all about.’ open the floodgates. Attempts to
tening of “Playmate of the lor
Month”; ie, Austrian beauty lem Sexual taboo busting began with suppress them in court had failed. This
Heidi Backer in June issue; me
hence, without cap., any very opt Eros, which opened the doors to the led the way not only to the busting of
attractive female companion to a tat boudoir for many others - including
nlayboy.—playock ya'wk), wh sexual taboos, but the integration of a
[Probdim. of play, 1 laything magazines, posters, record and book once taboo image-language into the
ol —playoff es o _ na. Sports, A
fect ar ‘ries af cantata in dat covers — to follow, sometimes in decid- quotidian visual vocabulary. =

182
From booklet to blog: showcasing
new work

IDEA N° 89

SELF-PROMOTIONAL
PUBLISHING

‘Festschrift’, borrowed from the German, describes a booklet

that celebrates a person or thing. Perhaps the first designer
‘selfpromotional’ festschrift was a monthly arts periodical
by Will Bradley, the nineteenth-century American
typographer and book designer who introduced Art Nouveau
to the United States and founded in 1895 the Wayside Press
in Springfield, Massachusetts. Bradley: His Book comprised petow: The Next Call (1923-26), ABove: Bradley: His Book (1896),
conceived and designed by H.N. conceived and designed by Will
mainly his own writing and examples of his latest work. Werkman, was a personal H. Bradley, an American type
journal in which he created and book designer, was a
He triggered a trend that continues to this day. experimental wood type compilation of stories and
compositions called drucksels. images he created as illustrations
and advertisements.
Other designers have published Dutch printer and typographer and a
personal journals and broadsides, some member of the artists’ group De Ploeg
lasting for only a few issues, others, (The Plough), produced an experimental
such as The Pentagram Papers, appearing journal titled The Next Call. This slim and
regularly for more than 20 years. infrequent organ, composed in wood
Although these festschrifts gener- type, was a showcase for his typographic
ally promote existing work by designers constructions, and used stencilling and arts’, indicating that the Almanack was
for the purpose of attracting clients, stamping to achieve unique effects. not intentionally designed to disrupt
some were hothouses for experimenta- Werkman distributed the eight- mainstream commercial art with
tion. In the 1920s H.N. Werkman, a page magazine through the mail. convention-busting avant-gardisms.
Although it did not directly showcase The Graphic was for Push Pin Studios
his printing, it did provide a window on what in 1967 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts

2445
to Werkman’s aesthetics. Club Band was for the Beatles (see p.90).
The most ambitious of these publica- Although Sgt. Pepper, the first ‘high-
tions, The Push Pin Almanack (from 1957 concept’ album of the 1960s, was a one-

A397
The Push Pin Monthly Graphic and lasting for shot encapsulation of the Beatles’ inno-
86 issues), published by the New York- vation to that date, while the Graphic
based Push Pin Studios, was a miscellany was ongoing and cumulative, both were

6179
filled with arcane facts and curious creative investigations that found accep-
quotes that were elegantly typeset and tance outside the laboratory in the
illustrated with comical line drawings public arena.
and chiaroscuro woodcuts by Seymour A decade after Seymour Chwast

4682
Chwast, Milton Glaser, Ed Sorel and ceased the Graphic he launched The Nose
Reynold Ruffins. They had seized upon in 1997, which showcases his work in
the almanac as a novel way to attract myriad forms, each issue based on a

6870
attention. The genteel subtitle on the specific theme, including ‘Fear’, ‘Crime’

WV
OLXaN
otherwise quiet cover announced ‘The and ‘Dirty Tricks’. Lately, blogs and
choicest morsels of essential information other online ‘experiences’ have become
gathered for those persons in the graphic the popular venues for the festschrift. =
ie a

\ \ :

Ey
am Papers (1975-2011) \ \

arly pu d, on themes a

lly rootec :
a
ture — to the P NE
t
The spray can goes global

IDEA N° 90

To graffiti artists, the streets are nothing but big picture

frames. In them, any surface that is baked by the sun and
washed by the rain can serve as their canvas. Their tags,
those large signatures that are works of art in their own
right, are now sold in art galleries all over the world. They
have come a long way since their humble beginnings in the
1970s in the streets of New York City.

Growing up in underprivileged neigh- these tags were produced by the arm

bourhoods in Brooklyn, Queens or the movements required to cover a large
Bronx, most teens could not afford the surface as quickly as possible. In subway
cost of asubway ride to Manhattan. But train yards at night, the artists were able
they figured out a way to get around: to develop individual styles and tech-
sign their names on the sides of subway niques that made their tags easily recog-
cars that would be seen all over town. nizable from far away. Described in the
They spray-painted their names or nick press as vandalizing offenders, the ‘style
names in big freestyle bubble letter- writers’, as they sometimes called them-
forms, boldly outlined and filled with selves, wanted to flaunt their skills in
bright colours. The bulging shapes of front of their friends. They were after
‘fame’ — status in their community.
Eventually, what many of them got was
a different kind of fame - worldwide
recognition in the rarefied art world.
In the 1970s, rare was the designer increasingly sophisticated, incorpo-
who did not dismiss these graffiti rating stencils, special effects and
as simply visual pollution. Graphic cultural references to rap, comic books,
designers too were trying to leave their skateboarding and the club scene,
mark in the urban environment, but graphic designers slowly joined in.
they were creating geometric murals Today, tag-like calligraphy is one
called supergraphics. Keith Haring was more trope borrowed from street art.
an exception. He had studied graphic The twisted, puffed up typefaces, with
design but understood the importance their whimsical swashes, work well as
of the subway artists. He can be credited eye-catching devices. On a layout, they
for bridging the gap between these two function as a cool ‘tag’ ~ as they did for
cultures. Meanwhile, taggers were crop- Swiss-based designer Adam Machacek’s
ping up in cities around the globe, many candy wrapper for Lifebar, or for James
of them becoming fully fledged perfor- Victore’s poster for the New York School
mance artists. The physical exertion of Visual Arts. Once the signature of a
necessary to create large-scale graphics handful of frustrated hip-hop artists,
has always been a differentiating factor the aerosol strokes, paint drips and 3D
between designers and taggers. As graf- shadows of the hand-drawn letterforms
fiti techniques evolved and became have become universal graphic codes. =

186
‘The twisted, puffed up typefaces work well as
eye-catching devices.’

oprosiTe: Continuing THIS PAGE: New York subway

Education Bulletin (2003), graffiti (c. 1972) spelled out the
by James Victore for the School names ofthe street artists who
of Visual Arts in New York, could not afford the price of a
makes reference to the popular ride into Manhattan, but who
culture of tags and graffiti that would apply their signature
is so much part ofthe visual on the side of trains for all
vitality of the city. to see.

187
A fingerprint for the digital age

IDEA N° 91

UNIVERSAL PRICING CODE

The Universal Pricing Code (UPC), or barcode, is arguably

the most significant design idea of the twentieth century.
Originally developed in 1952 by Joseph Woodland, a
mechanical engineer, the linear scheme was determined
entirely on functional grounds, including how best to ‘read’
it on a scanner and how efficiently it could be imprinted on
products. In 1970 the U.S. Supermarket Ad Hoc Committee
Above: Corporate Fascist (2007), opposiTE: Print magazine (1984),
on a Uniform Grocery Product Code set guidelines for by Jonathan Barnbrook, uses cover designed by James Cross,
barcode development and standardized the approach. the UPC to approximate Adolf was issued around the time
Hitler’s moustache in a satirical the UPC was getting mass
commentary on U.S. President recognition.
With the consulting firm McKinsey & one. While the human fingerprint is a George W. Bush.

Co., an 11-digit code was created by random composition of contoured

Below: Spaghetti, designed
which all products could be identified. lines, which gives it a somewhat chaotic
by Beach Packaging for a
By 1980 the barcode was launched in look, the UPC’s repetitive vertical lines jar of pasta sauce, comically
markets in the United States and are decidedly more mechanized, which transforms the necessary
Canada, and both savings and sales gives it a sinister air as well. scan lines of the UPC.
increased owing to this technically effi- During the late twentieth century
cient graphic tool. this iconic milestone nudged out the
Today the barcode is ubiquitous. It fingerprint as a primary symbol ofiden-
is printed on virtually every product - tity and individuality (or the lack
from groceries to books, from automo- thereof); it has been used as a metaphor
biles to aeroplanes - and used as a for such concepts as imprisonment,
calculating, trafficking and measuring governance and economy, and _ is
instrument for almost everything symbolic of building a database of the
industrial and not, including personal citizenry’s individual characteristics.
information. The UPC is a digital finger- Evoking the tattooing of concentration
print, and every product has a unique camp prisoners, depictions of it tattooed
on the human body eerily evoke a
spectre of official surveillance. The UPC
has been shown in illustrations as a
brand ~ a high-tech slave bracelet. What
is more, this grotesque notion is not
implausible. The barcode is also used to
represent a kind of cityscape symbol-
izing the overarching control of a face- necessary to camouflage it by decora-
less power over human life. tion, ornament or cartoon to better inte-
Not all depictions are so negative. grate it into a design. Barcodes are made
The UPC is essentially a neutral device into stems of flowers or barrels of guns,
and a common fact oflife. Since it must even occasionally squiggling the straight
be prominently situated on almost every line. In this way the UPC is actually
mass-produced object, it is sometimes more versatile than it appears. =

188
$5 )
AMERICA’S GRAPHIC DESIGN MAGAZINE
MARCH/APRIL 1984
PRINT XXXVII:II

0491004101
{ y j Lesa OPE ES
Anonymous designs become precious
visual references

IDEA N° 92

VERNACULAR

The Italian Renaissance was prompted by a rediscovery of the

art of Greek and Roman antiquity. Ever since, artists have
been mining the past for sources ofinspiration. One genre is
often overlooked: ubiquitous artefacts, done by local artists,
that are so modest they do not attract attention. Impervious
to nostalgia, they remain practically invisible until someone
begins to collect them.

In the early 1970s, architect Robert fonts from labels, posters, cans, boxes
opposirE: | Have a Dream (2010), ABOVE: Relax (2010), one of
Venturi took his Yale University students and architectural renderings ofyore.
a typical American motel sign, a series of colourful posters
to Las Vegas to study the urban forms of Outside the United States, vernac- is the marquee ofthe Lorraine designed by Anette Lenz and
that typically American phenomenon, ular designs are just beginning to be Motel in Memphis where Martin Vincent Perrottet for the local
the strip mall. They discovered the exploited. Until now, innovations and Luther King was shot, now the theatre in Chaumont, France.
‘forgotten symbolism’ of the commer- new technologies, not cultural archae- National Civil Rights Museum. The visual vocabulary is
deliberately working-class to
cial structures along the main highway, ology, were engines of creativity for
celebrate the blue-collar values
and introduced in the process the idea young designers. But recently, avant-
ofthis small provincial town.
that vernacular designs can be beautiful garde practitioners in France, Belgium
— even the marquees and signposts and Germany have discovered home-
advertising cheap motels and gambling spun treasures, some hiding in plain
halls. His 1972 book, Learning from Las sight. Police badges, artless crests, naive
Vegas, turned the study of vernacular logos and industrial signs are favourite
forms into a trendy academic topic. visual references of the award-winning
From then on, in the United States, Flanders team Randoald Sabbe and Jan
vernacular designs were no longer safe W. Heespel. Their posters promoting
from the scrutiny of graduate students, cultural events make provocative use of
social anthropologists and collectors. forgotten graphic artefacts. Also trendy
Treasure hunters prowled flea markets today are two-colour posters and flyers
looking for once-commonplace objects, in basic red and blue, their typograph-
from gas-station enamel signs to card- ical signature reminiscent of cheap
board store mannequins. The distinctive playbills from the 1940s. Florian Lamm
typographical features and design in Leipzig, Germany, and Vincent
particularities of these humble commer- Perrottet in Chaumont, France, are
cial articles eventually found their way turning vernacular reproduction tech-
into the mainstream visual vocabulary. niques, such as Ben-Day dots (enlarged
In New York, Tibor Kalman was their screened patterns), blurry halftone
enlightened champion. In Minneapolis, reproductions, split fountain colour
Charles S. Anderson embraced the printing, and new artworks inked on labels, Irish road signs, cigarette packs
working-class aesthetic of naive indus- top of recycled posters, into sophisti- from the USSR, German candy wrap-
irial logotypes and made it his own. In cated aesthetic statements. pers, Greek restaurant menus and
‘he middle of Delaware, House Indus- Infatuation with arcane forms of cigar boxes from Spain have yet to
tries, a type foundry, has gathered an advertising art is no longer restricted to release the forgotten symbolism oftheir
impressive collection of calligraphic a few connoisseurs. But French cheese graphic codes. =

191
Deconstructing graphic design This Vhis This
is the night... is the night... iS the night...
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IDEA

FRENCH
N& 93

THEORY
Ax
= vay light
+ PY I

In the late 1980s in the United States, graphic design

educators adopted the notions of deconstruction, as
championed by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida, as
BeLow: Holland Festival asove: Paschal Candles
a critical tool to reinvent visual communication. Coinciding Programme (1987), designed (1987-91), letterpress and
by Robert Nakata of Studio silkscreen compositions from
with the advent of the digital age, the deconstructivist trend
Dumbar, challenges the the college thesis of British
challenged accepted standards oflegibility and turned conventional definition of typographer Phil Baines, is
legibility and proposes instead a an example of what celebrated
graphic artefacts into exciting typographical ciphers. new form of intuitive perception. design critic Rick Poynor calls
‘alternative models of textual
organization’.
In the last part of the twentieth century, ulum ‘legitimized design by giving it its
when a handful of French thinkers own metalanguage, as graphic oprosiTE: The Cranbrook
reflected on the fact that values we take designer, curator and educator Ellen Graduate Program in Design
Lupton wrote. It also gave those who (1989) by Katherine McCoy is
for granted may be nothing but narra-
an early manifesto of the digital
tive constructs, they unwittingly embraced these abstruse intellectual
age. It champions many readings
started a cultural war. While some in disciplines an aura of rebellion that as a way to encourage readers
the United States embraced the new flattered their egos. to become active participants in
ideas, conservative forces vilified the The work of avant-garde graphic the construction of the message.
‘French theory’ as dangerous rhetoric designers during this period in Britain
contrived by anarchists. For the graphic and America, and to a lesser extent in
design community, the controversy was the Netherlands and France, looks frac-
a godsend. Adding the study of critical tured, splintered, shattered - chal-
literary theories, deconstruction, lenging the reader’s ability to decipher
linguistics and semiotics to the curric- the overall message. Beginning in 1985, he coined the term ‘deconstruction’.
English type designer Phil Baines found Graphic designers had appropriated
intriguing ways to untether headlines the concept with Postmodernist zeal.
swurs00 19ST
and text and set them loose on a sheet Only recently are former decon-
rogramme of paper, as he did for the layout of his structionists waking up to the fact that
college thesis The Bauhaus mistook legi- Derrida never advocated we dismantle a
bility for communication. By 1987, Edward text and its message bit by bit. He
Fella was treating typographical merely suggested that what the message
elements as windblown bits of informa- is not is just as important as what it is.
tion, Rudy VanderLans was turning Perhaps the best example ofthis re-eval-
Emigré into a festive eye chart, and uation of deconstruction is a television
Studio Dumbar was using photographic trailer made by London-based Why Not
crazy quilts as background for its word Associates. Called ‘Unseen Gaza’, it
collages. Katherine McCoy’s 1989 poster shows — without showing anything -
advertising the Cranbrook Academy of the suppressed news about this war-
Art’s graduate programme is a textbook torn territory. Headlines are crossed out
example of how to ‘deconstruct’ a text before the viewer can read them and
into elegant smithereens. Never mind video images are systematically
that breaking down the structure of a obscured by a white rectangle. Pointing
page into its components was not to what is not there is sometimes the
exactly what Derrida had in mind when best way to explain it all. =

192
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IDEA N° 94

DO IT YOURSELF

The word ‘design’ was coined to describe the practice of

mass-production. Handmade objects were in an altogether
different category, considered to be finer, better-looking and
of greater value. In the 1970s, punks turned it all around
and began to promote a clumsy, amateurish, do-it-yourself

He bat eo
aesthetic. Their crude posters, fanzines and T-shirts, with
their ransom-note style typography, bad calligraphy and Me 5
poorly reproduced photographs, were a hit with bands and
seLow: Design It Yourself Apove: Sniffin’ Glue (1977),
their fans. It was a funky and fun look that defined the spirit (2006), graphic designer and a monthly illustrated punk zine,
of an urgent, self-reliant and pugnacious counter-culture. educator Ellen Lupton’s answer was instantly popular among
to digital fatigue: capitalizing British music fans and proponents
on the self-publishing and of the DIY ethic, who applauded
The British monthly publication Sniffin’ readers, Sniffin’ Glue was an invaluable blogging trends, she inspires its anti-consumerism aesthetics
Glue lasted only a year (1976-77), but had source of pictures oftheir idols but also readers to put their personal and subculture ideology.
a circulation of 15,000. Designed, a manifesto of their anti-consumerist imprint on everyday objects.
written and published by punk musi- stance. The instant success of fanzines opposite: New Polaroid Impulse
cian Mark Perry, it had almost no such as this one was the expression of a (1988) was an assignment from
running text, only commentaries and cultural rebellion in part inspired by London-based Pentagram to the
French collective Grapus. The
profanities scrawled by hand around the Situationist movement.
poster was rejected, evidence
black-and-white photographs of alterna- The popularity of the DIY approach that even the most innovative
tive rock and roll musicians. It was the can also be explained as a consequence corporations were reluctant
graphic equivalent of the garages, ware- of the oil crisis of 1973-74 that signalled to embrace the DIY approach.
houses and basements where bands the end of postwar prosperity and
used to rehearse and perform. To its spurred waves of rationing, strikes and
social unrest. The economic downturn
of the 1970s motivated people to make way advanced technology can create
do by being creative, fixing things, and more spontaneity.
figuring out inexpensive shortcuts. The Perhaps paradoxically, computers

DIY
French collective Grapus gave the DIY today are empowering people who want
movement a new meaning: its members to make things from scratch. Anyone can
did everything together as a group, declare himself or herself a publisher,
pasting bits and pieces of visual refer- filmmaker, typographer or recording
DESION I(T YouRsere
ence that they all agreed upon, and artist. Do It Yourself has morphed into
tying it all together with hand-drawn Design It Yourself, as technology allows
calligraphy. A 1988 advertisement for for higher standards ofdesign excellence.
Ellen Lupton Polaroid, for a campaign organized by A recent book by the American designer
Pentagram in London, effectively and curator Ellen Lupton aims to teach
combines a rough drawing of the front this new generation of eager amateurs
of an SX-70 camera, made to look like a the basic principles of good design. As an
face, spitting out a portrait of someone educator, Lupton believes that an ability
sticking his tongue out at the viewer. to learn from books is the most essential
Ml A DESIGN HANDBOOK
It was a perfect metaphor for the DIY tool.s

194
What about that _
“Fine type” Compromise?
Getting granular with a message
WS ‘The war aguinst certain dangetous
drugs that we have all grown to know
Ware and fear is an honest war for the
ss safety of every man, woman and
\. childinthe wad, We fall heir to an occasional
headache. toothache and geuralgia despite ex-
traordinary Precaution Mother Natere, since the first green
herb, has provided safe antidotes for these, three. At the same
time there are some deadly “pain killers."" such as Acctanilid
Phenacetine, Morphine, Acetphenetidine end Antipyrina

IDEA N° 95 Madol
THE FINE PRINT is free from ingredients taboocd dy liberal physicians and the
wise definitions of the Food and Drugs Act Mido relieves
the excruciating agony of neuralgia, toothache and headache
without 2 “next-day” let-down of the entire system To kill
a pain with a pain isa rchcof barbarism Be a little more
cantious in the future Watch for that insidious swall type
Text printed in very small type can be perfectly legible. which spells “ Phenacetine or Acetanilid™ somewhere on the
label of some of the packages Indirectly this is a as
warning toyou Mido! relicves without depressing jeg Fa
People read best what they recognize, and if they know Tea Little Safe and Sure Doses for 25 Ctz. ‘
tree eit rs Cott
what to expect, they can decipher it. The choice ofa typeface
Ate owt dele
te Sta Noe Oe Wh Sere Unstitherers
cacrtied ty
OeGreet
for train timetables, telephone books, footnotes, product era 30

warranties or warning labels has as much to do with reading

habits as with size, layout or print quality.

In the 1970s, when Matthew Carter was crammed into small spaces, a challenge
asked by AT&T to improve on the existing that is usually handled in a 6 point (very
typeface of the U.S. telephone book, he small), condensed, sans serif typeface.
made the type smaller and tighter — yet Though conventional wisdom still holds
infinitely more readable. The distinctive that serifs (the tiny projections finishing
1937 Bell Gothic font was not fit for the off the strokes of a letter in some type-
new high-speed offset lithography faces) make large blocks of text easier to
Above: What about that ‘fine opposire ABOVE: Millennium
presses on which the phone books were decipher, they also make them blacker, a type’ compromise? (1911), a Card (1999) by British designer
printed. The letterforms broke apart, major disadvantage when letters are headache remedy advertisement Daniel Eatock for the Walker Art
becoming either too light or too heavy. small and printed on inexpensive stock. that tried to lure consumers with Center in Minneapolis, was
Carter designed a new sans serif With information viewed on a small rather than large claims. formed by repeating the numbers
typeface, Bell Centennial, a miracle of computer screen rather than on paper, 1999 and 2000. The dividing line
between the two blocks of
clarity on a small scale: he provided the loss of legibility of small letter-
numbers is barely visible.
notches in the creases of the letterforms is staggering. Advocating the
forms to trap the extra ink that used to readability of printed matter, Edward
opposite BELOW: Minutes Diary
spread outward and make the words Tufte, an expert on analytical design,
(2003) by Struktur Design
look fuzzy. Though hardly noticeable, invented ‘sparklines’, finely chiselled, illustrates the year broken down
these indentations gave the typeface word-like graphics that convey a signif- into its consituent minutes, all
an overall sharpness that made the icant amount of data at a glance. 525,600 ofthem set at 10-minute
long lists of names and numbers singu- Minute details, it turns out, are eye- intervals. The days, weeks and
months are overprinted in
larly easy on the eye. Other adjust- catching devices. The slightest change
black and grey.
ments included getting rid of diagonal in the texture of type is surprisingly
strokes, minimizing horizontal ones, noticeable. This is a phenomenon that
and designing slightly fatter but more British artist Daniel Eatock understood
condensed letterforms. well when he designed a card for the
What is written in small type is Walker Art Center in Minneapolis,
sometimes the most arresting part of a Minnesota, to celebrate the new millen-
label. Customers these days scrutinize nium: by repeating the number 1999
the information on the back of pack one thousand nine hundred and
aging the way detectives inspect a crime ninety-nine times, and the number
scene. Their mind becomes a magnifying 2000 two thousand times, he created
glass as they evaluate lists of ingredients, two very distinct blocks of tiny
side-effects or nutritional content. With numbers, the microscopic variation
safety regulations becoming more between the two evoking the momen-
complex, additional legal jargon must be tous shift into the next century.

196
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NATIONAL
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IDEA N° 96

MAGAZINE COVERLINES

Which magazine was the first to place numerous headlines

on its cover (coverlines) is not known, but the practice is a
double-edged design sword. On the sharp side are poignant,
pithy and powerful headlines that transform a cover into
a poster, highlighting editorial content and revealing an
editor’s standpoint. On the dull side, in recent years a
plethora of coverlines billboards almost every page of
aBove: National Lampoon opposite: Esquire (1966), designed
magazine content. (1973), art-directed by Michael by George Lois. During the throes
Gross for the ‘Death’ issue, of Vietnam War protests, this
threatened to put down the poor all-type cover hit a nerve that
Covers were originally designed with niques common to tabloid newspapers.
pooch if the customer failed a photograph may not have
emphasis on strong images. In the 1930s Liberman reasoned that fashion had to put down 75 cents. found
magazines like Vanity Fair, Vogue and become too fantasy-orientated, and
Harper’s Bazaar didn’t even use cover- required an injection of grit that could BELOW: BusinessWeek (1987)
lines. When newsstand competition be accomplished through unsophisti- makes a point: with a mobile
phone (new at the time), anyone
became more intense in the 1950s and cated graphic design. Concurrently,
can be a Dick Tracy and talk
1960s, they became more common. The marketing experts believed that cover-
from anywhere.
practice of squeezing as much hyper- lines would increase visibility and
bole as possible onto a cover started in attract readers in a highly competitive
the late 1970s when Condé Nast design field. In theory this approach mirrored
czar, Alexander Liberman, ordered the changing social attitudes, but the shift
designers of the fashion and lifestyle from the old to the new style - from
magazines in the group to adopt tech- minimalist elegance to more-is-more
information — marked a shift in maga-
zine design practice, one that offers
questionable results. Once the die was
cast coverlines became a necessary evil.
There are plenty of examples of
good practice. A powerful example is Fashion and lifestyle magazines,
the all-black Esquire cover of October which should be rooted in elegance, are
1966 with its stark white headline ‘Oh now covered with forests of words. Many
my God - we hit a little girl’, designed by do not treat the coverline as a design
George Lois, referring to a seminal element meant to draw attention to each
article on the Vietnam War. National magazine’s unique message. Rather, the
Lampoon’s January 1973 cover, ‘If You headlines act like scaffolding in front of
Don’t Buy This Magazine, We’ll Kill This a construction site, obstructing the
Dog’, well, speaks for itself. Other maga- effectiveness of the central image. The
zines treat coverlines as an integrated strategic benefit gained by having plenty
element of a cover’s design. But sadly of selling copy on the front cover can
these are exceptions to a convention be argued: a startling headline will
that has turned the most valuable piece always attract attention. But a striking
of editorial real estate into a waste headline and an alluring image is the
ground ofintrusive typography. best combination. a

198
ee
The true story of M Company.
_ From Fort Dix to Vietnam.
Under the radar

IDEA N° 97

GUERRILLA ADVERTISING

‘Guerrilla’ suggests surreptitious warfare. In the late 1990s

the word was applied to a genre of edgy urban advertising
campaigns. Also known as ‘never been done before’ (NBDB)
or ‘ambient’ advertising, guerrilla ads involve the semi-
subversive planting of messages in venues and on objects
ordinarily free of advertising, such as banana skins, body
tattoos — even urinal disinfectant pucks. Other venues include
pavements, taxi roofs and graffiti on vacant shopfronts.
‘CHANGE
The irreverent New York agency Kirshen- University historian Stephen Duncombe
baum Bond Senecal + Partners, a pioneer has noted, ‘Advertising, for all its immen-
in guerrilla pique, spray-painted New sity and importance, is in trouble’. The
York sidewalks in 2007 with the line advent of digital TV recorders, which
‘From here it looks like you could use allow viewers to eliminate advertising
some new underwear’ for a lingerie altogether, coupled with the downsizing
company. A year later the ad agency Crea- of traditional advertising media (TV
ture, based in Seattle, Washington, networks, newspapers and magazines)
created the so-called ‘Good Samaritan’ because of competition from cable TV
campaign for Starbucks, affixing precar- and the internet, means that main-
ious red paper cups to the roofs of dozens stream advertisers are finding it difficult
of cabs: ifa ‘Samaritan’ warned the taxi’s to target audiences efficiently.
passenger about the cup before driving Exploiting new media is not original.
off, he or she was given a free Starbucks Back in the 1930s, advertisers conquered aBovE: Yes We Can (2008), opposirE ABOVE: Woman in
gift card. During the 2007 baseball the heavens with skywriting and blimps. produced by will.i.am, uses a Suitcase (2009), by Agency
season, Ogilvy & Mather applied thin Wherever there is new technology, adver- Barack Obama’s trademark Serviceplan in Munich, was
words from his 2008 U.S. developed for an Amnesty
plastic sheets to random car windows, to tisers are among the first to adopt it. The
presidential campaign. This International campaign against
look as though a baseball had crashed colonization of public space in many collaged video included over two human trafficking. On second
through; promoting the New York Mets, large cities is only the latest frontier. dozen performers glance, travellers realized that
they came with an apology note from the Digital display and printing technologies the woman was real
team’s management. have made it easy to print onto fabrics
Not all guerrilla campaigns are and decal stickers in all sizes and shapes, oppositE BELOW: AXE (2007) by
for commercial products. Guerrilla as well as to project laser image messages Lowe + Partners, Belgium, riffs
approaches were initially used by polit- onto almost any surface. But how much on the vernacular ofexit signs
to suggest crowds ofgirls chasing
ical groups that had little or no access to ‘never been done before’ advertising will
the man who uses AXE deodorant.
mass media. The German Amnesty Inter- the public tolerate before they feel their The subversive idea is adding
national campaign against human traf- space has been taken over? = to existing signage.
ficking - a transparent suitcase with a
woman trapped inside - is an unforget-
table way to remind people of the horror
of the forced sex trade.
Guerrilla methods came into being
for a very practical reason. As New York

200
‘
Seen ee aemeemuiianll SIRES

‘Wherever there is new technology, advertisers are among

the first to adopt it.’

201
Stylistic emblems for the digital age

IDEA N° 98

PIXELLATION

A bitmap is an image-file format in computer graphics, a

mapped array of pixels also known as a raster image. A pixel
(from ‘picture element’), is a single point in a bitmap: a tiny
single square, the smallest viewable unit on screen. Pixellation
is a visual effect caused by enlarging a bitmap to such a scale
that individual pixels are exaggeratedly visible to the eye.

Before the advent of high resolution, grid structure and the resulting image
most on-screen images for graphics and was the bitmap. “The coarser the resolu-
type were pixellated; output printing tion, the more limited is the possibility of
was equally rough-edged. The pixel is to pixel placement, and the variety of repre-
the computer what the halftone is to sentable font characteristics is limited
print photography; it is the means by accordingly, Licko noted in the Emigre
which a digital image is displayed. As the type catalogue. For a brief moment the
symbol of computer-generated design, it bitmapped face was the emblem of the
is now used to conceptually represent pixellated age.
and critically comment on media. During the late 1980s and early 1990s
When the Macintosh computer was graphical applications, notably video
first introduced as a design tool in 1984, games and other interfaces, appeared at
all on-screen imagery was black and white very low resolutions, with a limited
with a bluish tint and bitmapped. Dot- number of colours. The pixels were vivid,
matrix printers produced 72 dpi rough- with sharp edges giving curved objects
edged type and image. Rather than fight and diagonal lines an awkwardly stiff
against the limitations of technology, in appearance. However, when the number
1985, only a year after the Mac came on of available colours increased to 256, even
the market, Zuzana Licko, type designer low-resolution objects looked smoother.
and co-founder of Emigre Fonts, designed Ultimately, high resolution eliminated
digital typefaces including Emigre, the problem of unwanted pixellation.
Emperor, Oakland and Universal. Each But that remedy did not stop
pixellated font was built out of blocks ona designers using pixellation as a stylistic

conceit. Berlin-based eBoy create urban

panoramas, made from brightly coloured
pixellated computerrenderings in a
retro parody of vintage computer games.
Similarly Christoph Niemann’s sardonic
personal computer icons are a comedic
look at the abundance of clichés from
the early digital era. They also prefigure
the current growth ofapp icons.

202
UPLOADING
SET=
Jue

Today pixels are on the screen, but so opposite: Analogue vs Digital ABOVE: Pecol (2008) is a laptop
minimized that only a keen eye will see (2010), a pixellated mosaic by skin made from eBoy’s Pecol
them. However, as an ironic feature, Charis Tsevis and Indyvisuals vinyl toy series with ‘every
ivf ‘ltnadeunt low resolution Design Collective for Design member ofJackhammer
paces es ore sult Walk 2010, one ofthe most Jill’s extended family’.
for comic or aesthetic effect. = important graphic design
platforms in Greece.
Brain-teasing typographic compositions

IDEA N° 99

AMBIGRAMS

An ambigram is a typographical composition that may be

read as one or more words not only in the form as presented,
but also from a different orientation — upside down, right
side up or back to front - or as a totally different word or
words. John Langdon, an American typographer, ambigram
expert and author of Wordplay, says an ambigram is a
decipherable puzzle, but it is also the basis for certain
kinds ofintricate logos.

The earliest known ambigram was for the rock band Nine Inch Nails (NIN)
designed in 1893 by the children’s book designed by front-man Trent Reznor and
illustrator Peter Newell (The Hole Book), Gary Taplas, employing a backwards ‘N’
who published various books of invert- that can be read from right to left and
ible images, whereby the picture turns left to right, offers just the right twist to
into a different image entirely when ensure memorability - and the prover-
turned upside down. The last page in bial smile in the mind.
his book Topsys & Turvys contains the Langdon’s ambigrams tend to be
Top: Evil/Live (2009), designed ABOVE: New Man (1969) logo,
phrase THE END, which, when inverted, more complex. His use of gothic, black
by Ralph Schraivogel, is not designed by Raymond Loewy,
reads PUZZLE. letter and swash lettering adds both to strictly an ambigram, but it is described as the first logo
As a logo, the ambigram is usually the elegance and to the vexing nature of does convey two key meanings to be created as an ambigram
most effective when it is kept as simple his compositions, but once they are through reversing the letters — and read in either direction
as possible, and is thus instantly read- turned around, the viewer’s cognitive
BeLow: Pod (2007), designed
able. With only three letters in each realization triggers a unique sense of
by Darren Gordon ofVolatile
word, Raymond Loewy’s 1969 ‘New Man’ accomplishment. Graphics, is the quintessential
mark does not require a whole lot of Ralph Schraivogel’s Evil/Live is not a topsy-turvy logo, reading left
perceptual gymnastics to comprehend traditional ambigram, but it does convey to right and right to left,
it. Yet the combination of letters is still the message that ‘evil prevails when good and upside down.
surprising and forces the reader to doa men fail to act’. Like all ambigrams, this is
double-take when seeing the mirror a graphic lock that demands picking. In
image of the words for the first time. general, ambigrams are typographic tools
The more a logo can be cognitively inter- - similar to a visual pun — for engaging
active, the greater the chance it will bea the reader in a game and providing imme
successful mnemonic. So the 1989 logo diate cognitive payback. =

204
‘The combination of letters forces the
Earth Air Fire Water (2007) by John reader to do 2) double-take.’
Langdon, who began creating ambigrams
in the early 1970s. Wordplay, his book
of ambigrams and the philosophical
essays he wrote to accompany them,
was published in 1992.
Marking territory online

IDEA N° 100

DESIGNERS’ WEBSITES

Where is the grid when you need it? The computer screen is
a blank surface that is too wide for the human eye to scan
comfortably at a glance. On their websites, designers use
every trick they know to turn this graphic no man’s land
into an intimate visual experience. For a prospective client,
leafing through a designer’s portfolio used to be as laid-back
as looking at a magazine; for the owner of the portfolio, it
Tor; www.woodt.li/ (2011), the opposiTe: www.cyan.de (2010),
was a brief and terrifying moment. Today, websites make the website of unconventional Swiss the website of the Berlin-based
vexing interviews unnecessary. designer Martin Woodtli, is a studio Cyan, comes up as a
locked puzzle that cannot be seamless scroll of serendipitous
opened unless you figure out images, each project organized
Rather than try to fill all available space, another favourite design solution. its code. by topics.
most designers occupy only the upper Vertical timelines make it easy. Paul
Above: The website for poster
left area of the screen, leaving the right Sahre — a resident of New York, where
legend Michel Quarez (2010) was
side mercifully empty. Designing a space is at a premium — has managed to a solid, flat green surface, the
website is not unlike designing a menu pack about 275 projects on a tight 20cm colour of a billiard table, on
or a table of contents, with projects (8in) square on the upper left-hand side which you were invited to shoot
listed by clickable category or keyword. of his screen. Among the most unex- around bits of information
about his life and philosophy.
New York graphic designer Stephen pected visual strategies found in
Doyle has one of the most user-friendly, designers’ websites, from Vince Frost
foolproof websites: on his pristine home (Australia) to Reza Abedini (Iran), are
page, keywords are presented twice, first diagrams, collages, graffiti, blackboards,
as a list and second as a circle of small bulletin boards, flash cards, flow charts,
icons around a sundial. By contrast, blinking icons, laundry lists and random
Niessen & de Vries in the Netherlands carousels of images.
have devised an opener that is deliber- Graphic designers tend to shun
ately confusing: it looks like a mesmer- showy animations, sound effects and
izing chequerboard of spaced letters, video. Linear blog architecture, where
until you slide your cursor over the projects are logged chronologically, has
puzzle and realize that the keywords are its fans, notably among people who
listed vertically. Degrees of complexity want to avoid locking up their work in
on opening pages are inversely propor- rigid categories. In this class are websites
tional to the years in business; well- by radical French graphistes, who are first
established studios tend to eschew tricky and foremost ‘authors’. Vincent Perrottet
presentations. has a seamless presentation of more
Mosaics are a popular approach, than 100 candid photographs of work in
perhaps the most extreme example progress, strung together as an endless
being the website of Cyan, a Berlin scroll, with his cats as prominently
studio. The entire surface ofthe screen is featured as his gigantic posters. Pierre di
wallpapered with close to 500 vignettes, Sciullo regularly updates his display,
each the entry point to a specific project. each window designed as a handsome
Creating comprehensive archives is abstract typographical ‘tableau’. m=

206
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produced objects. Many States from 1850-1925,
Glossary
by the Italian poet F.T.
Marinetti in 1909 and adopted movements and schools created by Platt Rogers
by rebellious artists and contributed to Modernism, but Spencer. It found its way into
writers, many of whom graphically it is characterized many logos and trademarks,
supported Italian Fascism. by simplicity and functionality such as the Coca-Cola and
Typographically, Futurist — the absence of sentimen- Ford logos.
AIGA applied to painting and design, like Dada, was focused tality.
The American Institute of sculpture, but introduced to on kineticism, making ‘words Streamlining
Graphic Arts, the foremost commercial graphic design to in freedom’ that screamed off New Typography The machine-age design style
design advocacy and suggest modernity. the page, rather than The typographic offshoot of that paralleled Modernism
educational organization in communicated ideas Modernism, codified by Jan and Art Deco in the United
the United States. Dada neutrally. Tschichold in 1925, this is States, developed by a new
An anti-art literary and art underscored by asymmetry, breed of industrial designers.
Art Deco or Art Moderne movement that began in Halftone sans-serif lettering and an It symbolized technological
International design style Zurich and fanned out to Technique used to reproduce emphasis on geometry. progress during the years
introduced Berlin, Paris, New York and photographs or continuous- between World Wars I and II.
after World War I and elsewhere. Graphically, Dada tone artwork by breaking the Op art
following Art Nouveau, disrupted the printed page by image into rows of tiny dots, Popular in the mid-1960s, this Suprematism
developed in France as a ignoring balance, proportion which to the naked eye movement elevated optical A Russian avant-garde art
combination ofclassical and and the accepted rules of provide an infinite range of illusions to an art form. movement that focused on
Modern aesthetics. Known for typography. It influenced grey tones. Tightly wound geometric essential geometric forms, the
its rectilinear what became known as patterns, in colours or black circle and square. Founded by
forms as well as decorative grunge and punk type Impressionism and white, were graphically Kasimir Malevich in 1915, it
conceits. aesthetics in the 1970s and Late nineteenth century arresting visual conundrums. later influenced much of the
"80s. French painting school, Modern typographic aesthetic
Art Nouveau including Claude Monet, Pop art and later Swiss Modern
Known by different names in De Stijl or neoplasticism using colourful strokes to A reaction to late 1940s and mannerisms.
different nations (including Dutch for ‘the style’, this art capture the fuzzy contours 1950s Abstract Expressionism,
Stil Liberty, Modernista, movement was conceived by and ever-changing appearance this art celebrated the Surrealism.
Vienna Secession, Jugendstil), Piet Mondrian and Theo van of their visual impressions. quotidian design found in A more introspective offshoot
this international design style Doesburg. Its rigid geometries supermarkets and elsewhere, of Dada, Surrealism grew into
started in the late 1890s, and limited primary colours Jugendstil Led by Andy Warhol, Claes a movement of pseudo-science
characterized by curvilinear helped set the stage for German term for Art Nouveau, Oldenburg, Robert Rauschen- and influenced artists who
forms and naturalistic motifs. Modernist graphic design. which in Germany was berg, Roy Lichtenstein and revelled in unexpected
somewhat more rectilinear others, the everyday was figurative juxtapositions. A
Arts and Crafts Deconstruction than the French curvilinear turned into cultural icons. major influence on ‘concep-
An English late nineteenth A catch-all term for any non- variety. Both relied heavily on Many ofthe artists started as tual’ illustration from the
century design movement led or anti-Modern method or ornamented flora. advertising designers. 1970s to the present.
by William Morris, promoting practice. Built around French
handcrafts and celebration of linguistic theory, in Kodalith Punk Ukiyo-e
medieval guilds, and typography it was character- Kodak high-contrast film, Graphically, like Dada, punk A Japanese woodblock style
protesting against industrial ized by the discordant type which eliminated all middle rejected all design standards whose bold graphic motifs
standardization. styles and sizes smashed tones, leaving only the in favour of deliberate and minimalist colour
together in late 1980s and ’90s essential black and white amateurism. Ransom-note signature greatly influenced
Baroque designs. information. Used frequently lettering and handwriting Toulouse-Lautrec. The trend,
Architectural style from 1600 during the 1960s to enhance replaced ‘official’ typography. also called ‘Japonisme’,
to 1750, characterized by Expressionism poor-quality graphics. A reaction to the flower-power became the favourite source of
melodramatic effects and A Modernist art movement generation, but also an inspiration for Art Nouveau
theatrical perspectives. The based on creating images from Lettrism expression of do-it-yourself artists.
term is used today to describe a subjective A Surrealist, post-Dada, aesthetics.
mannered or over-the-top perspective, using distortion avant-garde movement from Vorticism
decorative schemes. to achieve the mid-1940s that celebrated Sachplakat or object poster A literary and artistic
an emotional response. letterforms as the expression A style developed in 1906 by movement in England,
Bauhaus Graphically, it of pure sounds. Its front- German Lucian Bernhard, 1912-15, linked to Italian
German state-run arts and was noted for wood and runner, Isidore Isou, treated proto-Modern and anti-Art Futurism. Founded by
crafts school and workshop inocut imagery and lettering. text as ifitwere a musical Nouveau, reducing advertise- Wyndham Lewis, it celebrated
that helped introduce form. ments to the essential the energy of the machine
orthodox Modernism to all Fauvism component parts — the and machine-made products
design media from graphic A French art movement, Logo or logotype product and brand name. and rejected nineteenth-
design to architecture, Closed eaking in 1905, which took A mark or typographic century sentimentality. Like
by the Nazis in 1933. the saturated palette of the abbreviation used to identify a Situationalist International Futurism, it promoted the cult
Impressionists to the next product, company or A small subversive group, of violence. Graphically,
Colour blocking evel. During this period, institution. Logos can be virulent critics of the Vorticist compositions were
Flat patches of colours are Henri Matisse, André Derain simple or complex, but are consumer society, who tried to abstract and sharp planed.
assembled side and Maurice de Vlaminck always a shorthand for a larger counter the belief system
by side to create an image that combined exotic colours with thing or idea. promoted by advertising Werkbund
is either figurative or abstract. wild brushstrokes, a technique messages by lampooning The German Werkbund was
Mezzotint them.
described as fauve, meaning ‘as an association ofartists,
Constructivism A printing effect using a
wild as beasts’. architects, designers and
Russian revolutionary visual screen of random lines to Spectaculars industrialists, leading the way
language based on avant-garde Festschrift break down a continuous-tone Broadway, New York (the Great to modernity before the
art forms and philosophies, A book or other publication, image into an Impressionistic White Way) was lit up with advent of the Bauhaus school.
which was incorporated into usually printed in limited or Expressionistic outcome. the invention of advertising Its goal was to establish a
orthodox Modernism in the numbers, celebrating an Also used to make poor-quality ‘spectaculars’, which partnership of product
1920s. Ended by Stalin with individual or thing. Such graphics look more artful. employed multiple light manufacturers with designers
the advent ofSocialist limited editions are common sources and kinetic movement
Realism. Modernism and improve the competitive-
to graphic design as a means to give drama and energy to ness of German companies in
In the broadest sense, an art the signs seen from the street,
Cubism of informing and educating global markets.
and cultural movement born
Early twentieth century other designers.
of industrialization. In the Spencerian
progressive art movement Futurism design sense, a method and Handwritten script that was
pioneered by Pablo Picasso An artistic, cultural and style applied to mass-produc- taught as ‘official’ penman-
and Georges Braque, mostly political movement founded tion and mechanically ship throughout the United

208
Further Reading
Shedroff, Nathan. Design is the Sarabande Press, 1994). NJ: Wiley, 2006).
Problem: The Future of Design
Freeman, Judi. The Dada & Mouron, Henri. A.M. Cassandre
Must be Sustainable (New York:
Surrealist Word-Image (Cambridge, (New York: Rizzoli International
Rosenfeld Media, 2009).
MA: The MIT Press, 1989). Publications, 1985).
Thorgerson, Storm and Aubrey
Friedman, Mildred, ed. Graphic New Typographics (Tokyo: Pie
Recently Published (2006-11) Heller, Steven and Mirko Ilic. The Powell. For the Love of Vinyl: The
Design in America: A Visual Books, 2008).
Anatomy of Design (Minneapolis: Album Art of Hipgnosis (New York:
Language History (Minneapolis
Baines, Phil and Catherine Rockport Publishers, 2007). Picture Box, 2008). Poyner, Rick. Typographica (New
and New York: The Walker Art
Dixon. Signs: Lettering in the York: Princeton Architectural
Heller, Steven and Mirko Ilic. Vienne, Véronique and Steven Center and Harry N. Abrams,
Environment (London: Laurence Press, 2001).
Handwritten: Expressive Lettering in Heller. Art Direction Explained, 1989).
King Publishing, 2008).
the Digital Age (London: Thames
At Last! (London: Laurence King Purvis, Alston W. H.N, Werkman
Glaser, Milton. Milton Glaser:
Bataille, Marion. ABC3D (New & Hudson, 2006). Publishing, 2009). (New Haven: Yale University
Graphic Design (revised edition)
York: Roaring Brook Press, Visocky O’Grady, Jennifer and
Press, 2004).
Heller, Steven and Lita Talarico. (Woodstock: The Overlook Press,
2008). Ken Visocky O'Grady. A Designer's 1983).
The Design Entrepreneur (2nd Purvis, Alston W. and Martijn
Bergstrom, Bo. Essentials of edition) (Minneapolis: Rockport Research Manual: Succeed in Design F. Le Coultre. Graphic Design 20th
Gottschall, Edward M.
Visual Communication (London: Publishers, 2011). by Knowing Your Clients and What Century (New York: Princeton
Typographic Communications Today
Laurence King Publishing, They Really Need (Minneapolis: Architectural Press, 2003).
Himpe, Tom. Advertising Next (Cambridge, MA:
2008). Rockport Publishers, 2009).
The MIT Press, 1989). Remington, R. Roger. American
(San Francisco: Chronicle Books,
Brody, David and Hazel Clark, 2008). Vit, Armin and Bryony Gomez Modernism: Graphic Design 1920 to
Greiman, April. Design Quarterly
eds. Design Studies: A Reader Palacio. Graphic Design, Referenced: 1960 (New Haven: Yale University
Jedlicka, Wendy. Packaging #133 (Cambridge, MA: The MIT
(London: Berg Publishers, 2009). A Visual Guide to the Language, Press, 2003).
Sustainability: Tools, Systems, and Press for Walker Art Center,
Applications, and History of Graphic
Burke, Christopher. Active Strategies for Innovative Package Design (Minneapolis: Rockport
1986). Rothenstein, Julian and Mel
Literature: Jan Tschichold and New Design (Hoboken, New Jersey: Publishers, 2009). Gooding, eds. ABZ: More Alphabets
Heller, Steven and Louise Fili.
Typography (London: Hyphen Wiley, 2009). and Other Signs (San Francisco:
Design Connoisseur: An Eclectic
Press, 2008). Chronicle Books, 2003).
de Jong, Cees, Alston W. Purvis Collection of Imagery and Type
Chwast, Seymour. Seymour: The and Jan Tholenaar, eds. Type: (New York: Allworth Press, Rothschild, Deborah, Ellen
Obsessive Images of Seymour Chwast 2000). Lupton and Darra Goldstein.
A Visual History of Typefaces and
(San Francisco: Chronicle Books, General Bibliography Graphic Design in the Mechanical
Graphic Styles, Vol. 1 (Cologne: Heyman, Therese Thau. Posters:
2009). Taschen, 2009). Age (New Haven: Yale University
Ades, Dawn. Photomontage American Style (exhibition
Press, 1998).
Donaldson, Timothy. Shapes for (London: Thames & Hudson, catalogue) (New York: Harry N.
Jubert, Roxane. Typography
Sounds (New York: Mark Batty 1986). Abrams, 1998). Sherraden, Jim, Elek Horvath
and Graphic Design (Paris:
Publisher, 2008). Flammarion, 2006). and Paul Kingsbury. Hatch
American Type Founders Jaspert, W. Pincus, W. Turner
Show Print: The History of a
Dougherty, Brian. Green Graphic Klanten, R. and Hendrick Company. Specimen Book and Berry and A.F. Johnson.
Great American Poster Shop (San
Design (New York: Allworth Hellige. Playful Type: Ephemeral Catalogue 1923 (Jersey City: Encyclopedia ofTypefaces (55th
Francisco: Chronicle Books,
Press, 2008). American Type Founders anniversary edition) (London:
Lettering and Illustrative Fonts 2001).
Company, 1923). Cassell Illustrated, 2008).
Erlhoff, Michael and Tim (Berlin: Die Gestalten Verlag,
2008). Spencer, Herbert, ed. The
Marshall, eds. Design Dictionary: Baines, Phil. Penguin by Design: Kelly, Rob Roy. American Wood
Liberated Page (San Francisco:
Perspectives on Design Terminology A Cover Story 1935-2005 (London: Type 1828-1900: Notes on the
Lois, George. George Lois: On His Chronicle Books, 1991)
(Basel: Birkhauser Verlag, 2007). Penguin Books, 2005). Evolution of Decorated and Large
Creation of the Big Idea (New York:
Types (New York: Da Capo Press, Spencer, Herbert. Pioneers of
Freyer, Conny, Sebastien Noel Assouline, 2008). Barron, Stephanie and Maurice 1977). Modern Typography (revised
and Eva Rucki. Digital by Design Lupton, Ellen and Julia Lupton. Tuchman, eds. The Avant-Garde in edition) (Cambridge, MA: The
(London: Thames & Hudson, Design Your Life: The Pleasures and Russia 1910-1930 (Cambridge, MA: Lasky, Julie. Some People Can't
MIT Press, 2004).
2008). Perils of Everyday Things (New The MIT Press, 1980). Surf: The Graphic Design of
Art Chantry (San Francisco: Thompson, Bradbury. Bradbury
Glaser, Milton. Drawing is York: St. Martin’s Press, 2009). Blackwell, Lewis. The End ofPrint: Chronicle Books, 2001). Thompson: The Art of Graphic Design
Thinking (New York: Overlook Miller, Lars and Victor Malsy. The Grafik Design of David Carson (New Haven: Yale University
Hardcover, 2008). (2nd edition) (London: Laurence Lawson, Alexander. Anatomy
Helvetica Forever (Baden: Lars Press, 1988).
Muller Publishers, 2007). King Publishing, 2000). ofaTypeface (London: Hamish
Gordon, Bob, ed. 1000 Fonts: An Hamilton, 1990). Updike, Daniel Berkeley. Printing
Illustrated Guide to Finding the Munari, Bruno, Design As Art Blackwell, Lewis. 20th Century Types, Their History, Forms, and Use:
Right Typeface (San Francisco: Type (revised edition) (New Lewis, John. Printed Ephemera:
(London: Penguin Books, 2008). A Study in Survivals (3rd edition)
Chronicle Books, 2009). Haven: Yale University Press, The Changing Uses of Type and
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard
Pentagram. Pentagram Marks: 400 2004). Letterforms in English and American
Hayes, Clay. Gig Posters: Rock University Press, 1962).
Symbols and Logotypes (London: Printing (Woodbridge, Suffolk:
Show Art of the 21st Century Laurence King Publishing, 2010). Bruce’s New York Type-Foundry. The Antique Collectors’ Club, VanderLans, Rudy and Zuzana
(Philadelphia: Quirk Books, Specimens of
Printing Types (New 1990). Licko with Mary E. Gray. Emigre:
2009). Perry, Michael. Over & Over: York: George Bruce and Son and Graphic Design into the Digital
A Catalog of Hand-Drawn Co., 1882). Lewis, John. Typography Design
Heller, Steven, ed. Design Realm (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley,
Patterns (New York: Princeton and Practice (London: JM Classic
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Failure, and Lessons Learned (New Turner. Cult Rock Posters: Ten Years Vienne, Véronique. Chip
York: Allworth Press, 2008). Poynor, Rick. Designing ofClassic Posters from the Glam, McKnightTrontz, Jennifer
Kidd (London: Laurence King
Pornotopia: Travels in Visual Punk and New Wave Era (New and Alex Steinweiss. For the
Heller, Steven and Gail Publishing, 2003).
Culture (New York: Princeton York: Billboard Books, 2006). Record: The Life and Work of Alex
Anderson. New Vintage Type: Architectural Press, 2006). Steinweiss (New York: Princeton Vienne, Véronique. Something
Classic Fonts for the Digital Age DeNoon, Christopher. Posters Architectural Press, 2000). to be Desired: Design Essays by
(New York: Watson-Guptill, Roberts, Lucienne. Good: of the WPA 1935-1943 (Seattle: Véronqiue Vienne (London:
2007). An Introduction to Ethics in University of Washington Press, McLean, Ruari. Jan Tschichold:
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Graphic Design (Lausanne: AVA 1987). Typographer (London: Lund
Heller, Steven and Seymour Publishing, 2006). Humphries, 1975). Wozencroft, Jon. The Graphic
Chwast. Illustration: A Visual Dickerman, Leah, ed. Building Language of Neville Brody (London:
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Abrams, 2008). Learned in My Life So Far (New 1917-1937 (2nd edition) (New Typographic Specimens: The Great
York: Harry N. Abrams, 2008). York: Princeton Architectural Typefaces (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley,
Heller, Steven and Louise Fili. Press, 1996). 1993).
Stylepedia: A Guide to Graphic Shaughnessy, Adrian. How to be
Design Mannerisms, Quirks, a Graphic Designer Without Losing Eason, Ron. Rookledge’s Meggs, Philip B. and Alston W.
and Conceits (San Francisco: Your Soul (2nd edition) (London: International Directory of Type Purvis. Meggs’ History of Graphic
Chronicle Books, 2006). Laurence King Publishing, 2010). Designers (New York: The Design (4th edition) (Hoboken,

209
Bartholdi, Frédéric 24 Holding Company 132 Centennial 196
Index Base Design: BEople Bill, Max 66, 153 Cassandre, A.M. 24, 114,
magazine cover 26 Binder, Maurice i56 141, 178; Bifur 74, 74;
Baskin, Leonard 141 Blake, Peter (with Dubonnet Man 35, 122,
Numbers in bold refer to captions
Bass, Saul 54, 108, 156; Haworth): Sgt. Pepper’s 122; Watch the Fords Go
Anatomy of aMurder 48, Lonely Hearts Club Band By 24, 25; Vu logo 94
48; AT&T logo 164, 164; 90, 90, 184 CCA (Container
A Apple 136, 149; iPod
The Man with the Golden Blu (with Ellis): Combo 108 Corporation of
Abedini, Reza 206 28; iPad package 79;
Arm 48, 156, 156, 159; Boccioni, Umberto 77 America) 136, 136, 141,
Absolut Pears 52 iPhone apps 160
West Side Story 130, 130, body type 10 141
Abstract Expressionism Archipenko, Alexander 72
156 books 8, 81, 159 Cendrars, Blaise: L’Or 174,
101 Arntz, Gerd 96
Batten, Harry A. 117 Boom, Irma 162; Sheila 175
abstract graphs 126 arrows 77
Bauhaus 16, 36, 58, 59, 68, Hicks: Weaving as Chaos Computer Club:
abstraction 101 Art Concret manifesto 57
72, 87, 101, 101, 103, Metaphor 150, 150 Arcade 111, 111
Adbusters magazine 57, 168 Art Deco 15, 16, 30,52,
108, 118, 146, 153, 154 botanical geometry 60 Chareau, Pierre 114
Adler, Deborah: Target 74, 87
Bayer, Herbert 136; Bauhaus Boucard, Matias 160 Chaucer, Geoffrey 16
ClearRkx 36, 36 Art Nouveau 8, 16, 28, 30,
catalogue 47; Bauhaus Bradley, Will 81; Bradley: Chéret, Jules: Chérettes 26;
advertising 50, 52, 74, 81, 32, 40, 47, 47, 60, 132,
Journal 103; Great Ideas His Book 184, 184 Folies-Bergére 26
89, 101, 116, 134, 139, 160, 172, 184; see also
of Western Man 141, 141; brand narratives 149 Chermayeff, Ivan 54, 153
141, 149, 159, 166, 168, Jugendstil
Arts and Crafts Movement The News That’s Never Read branding campaigns 141 Chevalier, Maurice 35
200
136; Universal Alphabet Braun, Craig: Sticky Fingers Chun, K.J.: AIGA poster 114
Advertising Council (US) 16, 36, 37, 40
154, 155 album cover 179 Chwast, Seymour 15, 160,
139 Arup 144
AEG:79, 79 asymmetric typography Beach Packaging: Spaghetti Brodovitch, Alexey 7, 141; 184; Artone 32, 32;

Agency Serviceplan: 66, 89

188 Harper’s Bazaar 150; Bestial Bold 74; Weedy
Woman in a Suitcase 200, AT&T 164, 164, 196
Beall, Lester 141; PM Observations 150, 151; Beasties 74; Water

200 Augustyniak, Mathias see magazine 68; Rural (with Zachary) Portfolio Torture Escape 160, 160;

AGI (Alliance Graphique M|M Electrification 59 see also Push Pin Studios
Internationale) 114 authorship 36 Administration posters Brody, Neville 150, 160 Cieciorka, Frank 22
Aicher, Otl: Olympic Avdeon, Richard: 28, 28 Brown, Howard (with Cieslewicz, Roman 103,
pictograms 96, 96 Observations 150, 151 Beardsley, Aubrey 81, 172; Gorham): Red Monarch 160
AIGA (American Institute The Dancer’s Reward 98; 134 Cleaver, Eldridge 170
of Graphic Arts) 10, 10, B ‘The Peacock Skirt’ Brownjohn, Robert: James clenched fists 22, 106
96, 114; poster 114 Bacon, Paul 159; The Big (Salome) 172 Bond film credits 156; close-ups, extreme 105

Air Canada 77 Drink cover 62; Catch-22 Beatles, the: Sgt. Pepper’s Obsession and Fantasy Coates, Stephen: Oil: A
AIZ magazine 94 159; Compulsion cover Lonely Hearts Club Band 10, 10 Lethal Addiction 65
Albers, Josef 103, 118, 130; 159, 159; Portnoy’s 90, 90, 184; With the Bucher, Stefan: The Fall Coca-Cola 18, 26, 32, 62,
Interaction of Color 118 Complaint cover 159 Beatles 98 156, 157 116

album covers 178; see also Baines, Phil 192; Beck, Harry: London Bundi, Stephan: Boccaccio Colin, Paul 114; Union des
individual names Meditations book cover Underground map 126, 28, 28 Artistes Modernes 114
Alien 156 40, 40; Paschal Candles 127 Burne-Jones, Edward 16 collages 54, 54, 68, 84, 89,
Allen, Julian: Wild Palms 192 Béhar, Yves (Fuseproject): Bush, George W. 134, 134, 90, 105, 128, 128, 192

121 Ballyhoo 134 Puma bag 136 188 colour 68, 72, 93, 142, 174;
Allen, Woody: Annie Hall 156 Balmes, Abraham de: Behrens, Peter 60; AEG BusinessWeek 198 vibrating 118, 172
Altman, Robert: The Player Grammatica Hebraea 82 identity 79, 79 Columbia Records 178, 179
156 Bankov, Peter: KaK 10 Beringer, Vasilii: Clown 22 iG comics 121, 132, 176
ambigrams 204 Bantjes, Marian 30, 60; I Bernard, Francis 35 Cahan, Bill 174 Condé Nast 54, 84, 198
Amnesty International Wonder 40, 61; National Bernard, Pierre: Pompidou Calkins, Earnest Elmo 116 Constructivism]
200, 200 Poetry Month 30 Centre 70; Secours Calle, Sophie 111 Constructivists 7, 16,
Amzalag, Michaél see M/M Bar, Norma: Gun Crime 45 Populaire 139, 139 calligrams 63 35, 99; 65,68, 72787;
Anderson, Charles Spencer Barnbrook, Jonathan: Bernath, Erwin 96 capital letters 40, 154 90, 103, 128, 128, 160
16, 191; CSA Archive Corporate Fascist 188; Bernays, Edward: Capote, Truman 150 Contempora 36
36, 36; Old Advertising Damien Hirst 8; Stay Away Propaganda 50 Carlu, Jean 35, 114 Cook, Roger 96
Cuts From A-Z 16 from Corporations That Bernbach, Doyle Dane: Carroll, Lewis: ‘The Cooper, Kyle 156: Se7en 156
Anno, Hedeaki: Rei Ayanami Want You to Lie for Them Think Small 79 Mouse’s Tale’ Cornell, Joseph 141
character 26, 26 169 Bernhard, Lucian 36, 52, (Alice’s Adventures in corporate identity 79, 141,
Antoine+Manuel 12; Baron, Fabien 150, 151 178; Priester Matches Wonderland) 63, 63 149, 164;
identity system 60 Barr Jr, Alfred H. 126; 52, 52 Carson, David 162; Raygun see also logos
Apollinaire, Guillaume: ‘It Cubism and Abstract Art big book look 159 47 Cottencin, Jocelyn: BF15
Rains’ 63 126, 127 Big Brother and the Carter, Matthew: Bell 60

210
Cross, James: Print dust jackets 81, 159; see Flagg, James Montgomery 134; Glaser Stencil 130; Harper’s Bazaar 150, 151,
magazine 188 also books 18 Graphic Design 47; I Love 198
Crouwel, Wim 68; Dwiggins, W.A.: Layout in flags 15 NY 93, 93; Mostly Mozart Hasegawa, Tota see Tomato
Vormgevers 146 Advertising 87 Flaubert, Gustave: Three Festival 122, 122 Hausmann, Raoul 90;
Crude Art manifesto 57 Dylan, Bob: ‘Subterranean Tales 80 Glaucker, Genevieve 12 ABCD Self-portrait 90. 90;
Crumb, Robert 132, 176; Homesick Blues’ 42, 42 Fletcher, Alan: The American Goines, David Lance: Chez KP’ERIOUM 84
Cheap Thrills 132, 178; Art Book 54 Panisse poster 16, 16 Havas 139
Zap 176, 176 E floating heads 98 golden ratio 125 Haworth, Jann (with
CSA Archive 36, 36 Eatock, Daniel: Millenium floral ornament 60 good design 114 Blake): Sgt. Pepper’s
Cubism/Cubists 72, 77, 89, Card 196, 196 Fluxus 57, 160 Google 149, 149 Lonely Hearts Club Band
114, 162 eBoy 200; Pecol 201 Fontalicious/Font Bros. 130 Gopher, Alex: The Child 90, 90, 184
culture jamming 168 Eckersley, Tom: Prevent forced obsolescence 116 108, 108 Heartfield, John 94; The
Cushing, Lincoln 22 Loose Heads 52 Ford Motor Company 24, Gorham, John (with Face ofFascism 21;
cutouts 54, 160 The Egg: ‘Walking Away’ 25, 32, 117 Brown): Red Monarch 134 Illustrated History ofthe
Cyan 206, 206 108 Formavision: Reebok Flash Gorky, Maxim: USSR in Russian Revolution 95
Eggeling, Viking: store 70 Construction 94 Heespel, Jan W. 191
D Symphonie Diagonale 108 Fortune magazine 141 Goudy, Frederic W.: The Hefner, Hugh: Playboy 182,
Dada magazine 47, 89 Einstein, Albert 149 frame by frame 122 Alphabet 8; Goudy Stout 182
Dada/Dadaists 84, 89, 90, Eisenstaedt, Alfred 106 Frankl, Paul T. 36 74 Heiman, Eric 174
160, 162 Eisermann, Richard French Paper Company 16 graffiti 21, 77, 130, 186, Heller, Joseph: Catch-22 159
Daily Herald 77 (Prospect) 144 French theory 192 187 Herdeg, Walter: Graphis
Dallesandro, Joe 179 El Al 45, 77 Frenzel, Dr H.K.: Graphis magazine 59, 72, magazine 59; Graphis
Daniele, Guido: Give a Ellis, David (with Blu): Gebrauchsgraphik 59 72 Diagrams 46, 47
Hand to Wild Life 139 Combo 108 Frost, Vince 206 graphs, abstract 126 Herrmann, Bernard 108
De Stijl 59, 72, 103, 122; Ellis, Estelle 166 funny faces 74 Grapus 194: Apartheid/ Herzog & de Meuron
manifesto 57 Emerson, Ralph Waldo 141 Fuseproject: Puma bag 136 Racisme 20, 21; New (with Ruff): Eberswalde
De Weldon, Felix 106 Emigre Fonts 202 Futurism/Futurists 42, Polaroid Impulse 194, Library 70, 71
Death to Traitors 39 Emigré magazine 57, 90, 103 59, 59, 77, 84, 89, 162; 194; see also Bernard, high contrast 170
Deberny & Peignot 74, 94, Engelhard, Julius Ussy 18 manifesto 56, 57 Pierre Hipgnosis: Dark Side of the
128 entrepreneurship 36 Futurismo magazine 89 Grasset, Eugene 60 Moon 179
decals 12, 12 Ervin, Don: TRW logo 141 grids 146 Hitchcock, Alfred 108, 151
decorative logotypes 32 Esquire 198, 198 G Grierson, Edward: The Hitler, Adolf 66, 94, 98,
Delaunay, Sonia 72 Etapes magazine 59 Gage, Robert: Think Small Second Man 142, 142 98, 188
Demarchelier, Patrick 151 Evans, Tony 134 U) Griffin, Rick 132, 172, 176; Hodges, Drew: Rent 130
Depero, Fortunato 77; Expressionism see German Garamond, Claude 40 Man from Utopia 132 Hoffmann, Heinrich: Hitler
Depero Futurista 8, 9 Expressionism Garland, Ken: First Things Gross, Michael: National 98, 98
Derrida, Jaques 192 Eye magazine 57, 59 First manifesto 57, 57, Lampoon cover 198, 198 Hoffmann, Joseph 47
design handbooks 87 169 guerrilla advertising 200 Hofmann, Armin 68;
design thinking 144 F Gebrauchsgraphik 59, 172 Guerrilla Girls: Do women Herman Miller poster
Design Walk 203 Fairey, Shepard 15; Animal Geismar, Tom 153 have to be naked to get 153, 153
Desmond, Matt: Bandoleer Farm dust cover 80; General Cable into U.S. Museums? 168, Hohlwein, Ludwig 16, 106;
130 Hope 50, 50; OBEY 168 Corporation: Are You 168 Herkules-Bier 106
Deutsche Werkbund 36, Fella, Edward 162, 192 Doing All You Can? 18 Guevara, Che 170 Holzer, Jenny 162; Lustmord
79 female archetypes 26 General Electric 32, 32 Guimard, Hector: 11; Private Property
Deygas, Kuntzel 156 Festschrift 184 geometry: botanical 60; Métropolitain 40, 40 Created Crime 180, 180
diagonals 128 Le Figaro 56, 57 supreme 47, 72 Guixé, Marti 12, 180 Honey magazine 166
Dietch, Kim 176 Figgins, Vincent: Log German Expressionism 48, Gutenberg, Johannes 8, Hopps, H.R.: Destroy This
Disney 108 Cabin 38, 38 48, 108, 170 40, 154 Mad Brute 50
District 9 130 film title sequences 156; Gershwin, George 179 House Industries 191
do it yourself 194 see also motion graphics Gerstner, Karl 68; Auch Du H HSBC: ‘Different Values’
Dot Dot Dot magazine 59, fine print 196, 196 bist liberal 18 Hacker, Harvey: Strike 22, campaign 141
59 Fiore, Quentin 170; (with Gilbert, Allan: All Is Vanity 22 Hubbard, Elbert 36; A
Doyle, Stephen 206 McLuhan) 21 Hamilton, Richard: Just Catalog of Roycroft Books
Drescher, Henrik: Runaway The Medium is the Gillespie, Dizzy 149 what is it that makes 37
Opposites 84 Massage 170, 170 Ginzburg, Ralph: Eros today’s homes so different, Huber, Max: Monza 76, 77
Dreyfus, Alfred 57 First Things First manifesto magazine 182, 183 so appealing? 90 Hughes, Rian 132: Foonky
Dreyfuss, Henry: Symbol (Garland) 57, 57, 169 Glaser, Milton 15, 60, 184; Hamlet 21 Starred 74
Sourcebook 96 Fischinger, Oskar: Fantasia Baby Teeth 74; Column Harak, Rudi de 153 Hurlburt, Allen: The Grid
Duncombe, Stephen 200 108 with Rings 45; Dylan Haring, Keith 186 146

211
Huston, John 151 Kleinman, Daniel 156 Libauer, Robert and Ruth Magritte, René 21; The Mellier, Fanette: La Fete de
Hustwit, Gary: Helvetica 153 Klimt, Gustav 47 Hormats: Stenso sheets Treachery of Images 93 la Musique 142
Klutsis, Gustav: Great Works 130 Makela, Scott and Laurie Merz magazine 89
I 68; Let’s Fulfil the Plans Liberman, Alexander 160 metaphoric iettering 38
I Have a Dream sign for the Great Projects 128; (Condé Nast) 84, 94, Malevich, Kasimir 47, 68, Metro stations, Paris 40, 40
(Lorraine Hotel) 191 Workers 128 198; A Legendary Seducer 72; Black Rectangle with Meyer, Rudi: Tannhduser
IBM 15, 15, 79, 92, 93, 149, Knuchel, Hasn (with (Self) 54, 54 Blue Triangle 72 112, 112
164, 164 Nanni): This Book Lichtenstein, Roy 121 Mallet-Stevens, Robert 114 Meyerowitz, Rick: ‘Mona
Ich&Kar 12, 12 is a Seesaw 164 Licko, Zuzana (Emigre Man Ray 90 Gorilla’ (National
Igarashi, Takenobu: Kodalithing 7, 170 Fonts) 202 Manga 26, 26 Lampoon) 134
Alphabets 47 Koen, Viktor 94 Lidova, Irene 94 manifestos 57, 194 Michelin Man 34, 35
Ilic, Mirko: Liberty and Kollar, Francois: Les Life magazine 141 Mao Zedong 14, 15 Michelin, André and
Justice 106, 106 lumieéres dans la ville 111, Lionni, Leo 141, 159 Marcus Aurelius: Edouard 35
illegibility 162 111 Lippy, Tod: Esopus Meditations 40, 40 Mickey Mouse 14, 15
Indyvisuals Design Koolhaas, Rem (with Mau): magazine 89, 89 Margiela, Martin 150 Miller, J. Howard: We Can
Collective (with Tsevis): S,M,L,XL 8, 8 Lissitzky, El 47, 103, 103, Marinetti, Filippo: Do It! 106, 106
Analogue vs Digital 203 Korzybski, Alfred 126 128; About Two Squares Irredentismo 42; Miodozeniec, Piotr 21
Ingres, Jean-Auguste- Kousmichoff, Pavel 122; Architecture at Manifeste du Futurisme (Le Miro, Joan 68
Dominique: Grand Michailovitch: Kusmi Vkhutemas 103, 103; Figaro) 56, 57; Parole in Modernism 47, 54, 59, 60,
Odalisque 168, 168 tea 30 Beat the Whites with the Liberta 42, 65; Zang Tumb 66, 66, 72, 87, 89, 116,
International Typographic Kubert, Joe: Tarzan 121 Red Wedge 68, 68, 134; Tuuum 8 128, 130, 160
Style 146, 150, 153, 153 Kunkel, Jean-Pierre: ‘The (with Mayakovsky) For Marlboro cigarettes 149, Modley, Rudolf: Handbook
Iso Design 156 Bush Warriors’ (Der the Voice 8 149 of Pictorial
Isotype 96, 96 Spiegel) 134, 134 Loewy, Raymond: Martens, Karel: Chaumont Symbols 96; Pictographs
Kunz, Willi 66; Architectural Evolution charts 117; Festival 42, 42 Today and Tomorrow 97
J Typography I 66 MAYA principle 116; Martin, Malte: Agraf Moholy-Nagy, Laszl6 90,
Janoff, Rob: Apple logo 79 Kunzi, Daniel 21 New Man 204, 204 magazine 142; En 103, 103, 112;
Japanese art 15, 28 Kurlanksy, Mervyn: Alphabet logos 32, 48,72, 72, 79, 79, Attendant Godot 181 14 Bauhausbiicher 112,
Jean, Patrick with Tools 82, 82 93, 128, 130, 141, 141, Martin, Roger (Rotman 112
(OneMoreProduction): 142, 144, 149, 149, 164, School) 144 Mondrian, Piet 47, 81
Pixels 160, 160 i 164, 204, 204; see also Massin: L’Or 174, 175 mono-alphabets 154
Joplin, Janis 132 Lamm, Florian 191 corporate identity Matadin, Vinoodh 105 Monroe, Marilyn 16, 182
Joyce, James: Ulysses 81, 81 Lang, Fritz: Metropolis 149 Lois, George: Esquire cover Matisse, Henri 54; Icarus montages 90
Jugendstil 9, 16, 47, 79 Langdon, John 204; 198, 198 (from Jazz) 54, 54 monumental images 24
Wordplay 204; Earth Air Loos, Adolf 30, 32 Matter, Herbert 141; Moor, Dimitri 18
K Fire Water 205 Loupot, Charles: St. Raphaél Engleberg 105; Pontresina Moore, Henry 54, 55
Kalman, Tibor 169, 191 Lange, Robert Carlos 108 162, 162 105, 105 Morales, Luis: Cardboard
Kandinsky, Wassily 103 Lawson, Alexander: Lowe + Partners: AXE Mau, Bruce (with Lamp 137
Kaneclin, Enrico: Campo Printing Types 74 200 Koolhaas): S,M,L,XL 8, 8 Morgan, Hervé 35
Grafico cover 59 layering 142 Lubalin, Herb: Avant-Garde Mauzan, Achille Luciano Morris, William 16, 36, 37,
Kantor, Jay: Great Neck 121 Le Corbusier 114, 150 47; Eros 182, 182; 18 40; The Works
Kauffer, Edward McKnight: Le Quernec, Alain: Theatre Families 45, 45 Max, Peter 60 of Geoffrey Chaucer 16
Flight/Soaring de Cornouaille 68 Lupton, Ellen 192; Design Mayakovsky, Vladimir 128; Moscoso, Victor 60, 118,
to Success 77, 77 Leere, Alfred 18 It Yourself 194, 194; (with Lissitzky) For the 172, 176;
Kaufmann
Jr., Edgar 114 Lenz, Anette (with Thinking with Type 87 Voice 8 The Doors 118
Kelly, Alton 172 Perrottet): Relax 191 Lustig, Alvin 141, 159; A McCloud, Scott: Moser, Kolman 47, 60;
Kent, Rockwell 36 Leo Burnett: Marlboro Season in Hell 68, 68; Understanding Comics “Scylla’ wallpaper 60;
Kersalé, Yann: Torre Agbar cigarettes 149, 149 Three Tales 80 iPAal Ver Sacrum 30
70, 111, 111 Leonardo da Vinci: Mona McCoy, Katherine 160; motion graphics 108,
Ketchum 139 Lisa 134 M The Cranbrook Graduate 160; see also film title
Kidd, Chip 121; Great Neck less is more 153 M/M 105, 162; Altermodern Program in Design 192, sequences
book cover 121 Letraset 12, 12 37 192 Mouse, Stanley 172;
Kince, Eli: Visual Puns in lettering 38; comic 132; Machacek, Adam 186 McGee, Hetty: San Francisco Grateful Dead 172
Design 45 see also stencil type; Mackintosh, Charles Oracle cover 174 Moxi 18
King, Martin Luther 191 typefaces Rennie 16, 60 McKinsey & Co. 188 Mucca: Sant Ambroeus
Kirschenbaum Bond Lettrists 162 Mademoiselle 84 McLuhan, Marshall: (with logo 32, 32
Senecal + Partners 200 Lévéque, Claude 111 magazines: avant-garde 89; Fiore) The Medium is Mucha, Alphonse 172
Klein, Manfred: Levin, Meyer: Compulsion coverlines 198; graphic the Massage 170, 170; MullerBrockmann, Josef
Monoalphabet 155 159, 159 design 59; teen 166 Understanding Media 50 153; Der Film 124, 125,

212
146; Grid Systems in Olivetti 100, 101 Plunkett, John 8 Rebelo, Artur see R2 Ruder, Emile: Typographie
Graphic Design 146, 146; Op art 70 Point the Finger (poster) 18 rebuses 93 153; Typographische
Musica Viva 153, 153; Orion, Alexandre: Ossdrio pointing fingers 18 rectangles, perfect 125 Monatsblatter 153, 153;
Schtitzt das Kind! 105, 21, 21 Polaroid 160, 194, 194 red with black 68 10 Ziircher Maler 146
105 ornamentation 30, 74 Pop art 121 Redon, Odilon 172 Ruff, Thomas (with
Museum of Modern Art Orwell, George 7, 24; Animal Portfolio 59 Reichl, Ernst: Ulysses dust Herzog & de Meuron):
(MoMA) 114, 126, 127, Farm 80; 1984 149 Poster Style 52 cover 81, 81 Eberswalde Library
150 Osborn, Alex Faickney: Poynor, Rick 192 Reid, Jamie: God Save the 70, 71
Mussolini, Benito 21, 24, 25 Applied Imagination 144; Preminger, Otto 156, 156; Queen 84, 84 Ruffins, Reynold 184
The Power of Your Mind see also Bass, Saul Reidemeister, Marie (with Ruscha, Ed 112; Mighty
N 144 Presley, Elvis 179 Neurath): Isotype 96 Topic 112, 112
N.W. Ayer & Son 117 overprinting 142 primitive figuration 48 Reisinger, Dan: Let My Ruskin, John 141
naive mascots 35, 79 OZ magazine 89 printer’s cut 18 People Go 44, 45;
Nakata, Robert see Studio P printing, split fountain Rainboeing the Skies 77 S
Dumbar packaging, sustainable 136 174, 191 Renner, Paul: Futura 130 Saatchi & Saatchi Simko:
Name, Billy 179 Paepcke, Walter (CCA) 141 Productivists 36 La Révolution Surrealiste Give a Hand to Wild Life
Nanni, Jlirg (with palimpsest 142 propaganda 50, 68 magazine 89 139
Knuchel): This Book panels, splash 132 proportion 125 Reznor, Trent 204 Sabbe, Randoald 191
is a Seesaw 164 paper cutouts 54, 160 Prospect Design 144, 144 Rich, A.L.: General Electric Sachplakat 52
National Lampoon 134, 198 Paris student uprising provocative gesture 106 logo 32, 32 Sachs, Hans Josef: Das
National Library Board, 180, 180 psychedelia 16, 40, 60, 118, Richardson, Andrew: Plakat 59
Singapore: Design parlant 38 160, 172, 174 Richardson Magazine 182 Sadamoto, Yoshiyuki: Rei
Thinking Digest 144 parody 134, 202 public service campaigns Richter, Hans 108; Die Ayanami character
Nazis 22, 50, 68 pastiche 16, 68, 174 139 Aktion 48; Filmstudie 26, 26
neon signs 111 Paterson, Michael 15 publishing, self 108; Praludium 108 Sagmeister, Stefan 10, 38;
Das Neue Frankfurt 47 Paul, Art: Playboy 182 promotional 184 riddles 93 Having Guts Always Works
Die Neue Gestaltung 66 Pearson, David 160 Puma 136, 136 Rimbaud, Arthur 68 Out For Me 82; Sagmeister
Neurath, Otto (with Pedersen, B. Martin: punk aesthetic 84, 89, 194 Ritts, Herb: Madonna 10; Trying to Look Good
Reidemeister): Graphis Poster Annual puns 45, 134, 168, 204 (Interview magazine) 106 Limits My Life 39
Isotype 96 72, 72 Push Pin Studios 15, 160; Robial, Etienne: M6 logo Sahre, Paul 206
New Statesman 65 Peignot, Charles 114 The Push Pin Almanack/ 72,72 San Francisco Oracle 174, 174
New Typography (Neue Penguin Books 40, 40, 160 Monthly Graphic 184 Robinson, Frank Mason: Savignac, Raymond 35
Typografie) 59, 66, 66; Pentagram 127, 194; The Pyramyd: Coca-Cola 32 scan lines 164
see also Tschichold, Jan Pentagram Papers 184, ‘Design&Designer’ Rockwell, Norman 26 Schawinsky, Xanti: Die
New York Times 127, 160 185 series 47 Rodchenko, Aleksander Neue Linie 95
Newell, Peter 204 Perriand, Charlotte 114 70, 103, 103, 128; Books Scher, Paula 70, 103, 160;
Niemann, Christoph 202; I Perrottet, Vincent 206; Q 64, 65; Kinoglaz poster The Best ofJazz 103; The
Lego NY 160 (with Lenz) Relax 191 Quarez, Michel 206; 105; Pacifiers 34, 35; Diva is Dismissed 98
Niessen & de Vries 206; Perry, Mark: Sniffin’ Glue Bonjour Voisin! 48 Young Guard 68 Schlemmer, Oskar 101
Upside Down 162 194, 194 Rodriguez, Spain 176; Schmidt, Joost: Bauhaus
Niessen, David 162 Phemister, Alexander: R Gothic Blimp Works 176 Exhibition, Weimar 101,
Nietzsche, Friedrich: Ecce Bookman Swash 40 R2: Molly Bloom 105 Roller, Alfred 172 101; Offset (Buch und
Homo 8, 9 Philip Morris 149 Ramalho, Liza see R2 Rolling Stone 132, 166 Werbekunst) 58
night spectaculars 111 photo-collages 90 Rand, Paul 7, 32, 54, 65, Rolling Stones: Sticky Schraivogel, Ralph: Evil/Live
Nine Inch Nails 204 photomontage 94 68, 141, 159; Design, Fingers 179 204, 204
Noi magazine 89 pictograms 96 Form and Chaos 32; Rops, Félicien 172 Schreuders, Piet: Furore 37
Nolde, Emil: Der Anbruch Pinelas, Cipe: Seventeen Direction magazine 68; Rosenquist, James 141 Schuitema, Paul 66
48 magazine 166 E] Producto logo 130; Rosenthal, Joe 106 Schwitters, Kurt 66; (with
nostalgia 16, 72, 160 Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the HL. Mencken, Prejudices: Rosie the Riveter 26, 106, Van Doesburg) Kleine
Nouvel, Jean: Torre Agbar Moon 179 A Selection 54; for IBM 139 Dada-Soirée 68; Merz 11
70, 111, 111 Pintori, Giovanni: Lettera 79, 92, 93, 164, 164; Rossillon, Marius 89, 89
Noyes, Eliot 79, 114, 164 22 106, 101 Paul Rand: A Designer’s (O’Galop): Michelin Sciullo, Pierre di 162, 206
Pirtle, Woody: Knoll Art 32; The Second Man Man 35, 35 screamers 65
Oo furniture 35 book jacket 142, 142; Roth, Philip: Portnoy’s Sears, James Nick 127
Obama, Barack 50, 50 pixellation 42, 202 Westinghouse 79 Complaint 159 Self magazine 84
object poster 32, 52 Das Plakat 59 ransom notes 84 Roycroft 36; A Catalog of Seventeen magazine 166
Ogilvy & Mather 200; Plakatstil 52 rays 15 Roycroft Books 37 Sex Pistols 84, 84
“Smarter Planet’ Playboy 182, 182 Razzle Dazzle paintings rub-on designs 12 sexual taboo busting 182
campaign 15, 15 De Ploeg 184 70, 70 Rubin, Jerry: Do-It! 170 shadow play 112

213
Shadowplay Studio 156 swashes on caps 40, 159 typography 8, 70, 74, 84, Wagner, Richard: Zola, Emile 57
Shahn, Ben 141 Swiss Style see 87, 90, 103, 112, 130, Tannhduser 112 Zwatt, Piet 66, 103;
Shanosky, Don 96 International 153, 159, 191, 204; Walker Art Center, Drukkerij Trio 66, 66;
Shelton, Gilbert 176 Typographic Style asymmetric 66, 89; Minneapolis 196, 196 monogram 72
Sinatra, Frank 48 found 82; loud 65 Wang, Jennifer: In the
Situationist International T Woods 63
168 tags 186 U Warde, Beatrice: “The
16 Magazine 166, 166 Taplas, Gary 204 UAM (Union des Artistes Crystal Goblet’ 63
slogans, street 180 Target 36, 36 Modernes) 114, 114 Ware, Chris 132; Acme
Sorel, Ed 184 Tate Britain: ‘Altermodern’ Ulm School of Design 153, Novelty Library 176
Sorkin, Eben: No Step 130 Triennial 57, 57 162 Warhol, Andy 52; Sticky
spectaculars 24 tattoos 10, 188 Underworld: Dubnobass with Fingers 179
speed, expression of 77, Taylor, Simon see Tomato My Headman 170 websites, designers’ 206
164 Teenagers Ingenue 166, 166 universal pricing code 188 Welles, Orson: Touch of Evil
Spencer, Herbert: Pioneers text as images 42, 63 156
of Modern Typography 47 Thacker, Ryan (with Vv Wendingen magazine 47
Der Spiegel 134, 134 Stowell): Mean Happiness Valicenti, Rick 162 Werkman, H.N.: The Next
split fountain printing 7, 96 Van de Velde, Henry: Ecce Call 184, 184
174, 191 Thompson, Bradbury: Homo book cover 8, 9 Westinghouse 79, 106
square format 47 Alphabet 26 154, 155; Van Doesburg, Theo 103, Westvaco 63, 141, 142
Stadt Theater Basel 170 Westvaco Inspirations 63, 122; (with Schwitters) white space 150
Stalin, Josef 134 141, 142 Kleine Dada-Soirée 68; Why Not Associates:
Starowieyski, Franciszek: Thonik: Amsterdam Mecano 84 ‘Unseen Gaza’ 192
The Hourglass Sanatorium Hogeschool identity 142 Van Lamsweerde, Inez 105 Widmer, Jean: Couleur
PNG 74| Tolmer, Alfred: Mise en Page VanderLans, Rudy 68, 90, 93, 93
Statue of Liberty 24, 139 87, 87 103, 192; see also Emigré Der Weiner Stentzel 130,
Stavers, Gloria: 16 Magazine Tomaszewski, Henryk 54; vanitas 21 130
166, 166 Moore 54, 55 Vanity Fair 198 Wiener Werkstatte 36, 60
Stedelijk Museum, Tomato: Stijl 128 Vargas, Alberto 26 Wijdeveld, Hendrik:
Amsterdam 146 Topffer, Rodolphe 122 Venturi, Robert 191 Wendingen magazine 47
Steinweiss, Alex 178; Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de Ver Sacrum magazine 47, 47 will.i.am: Yes We Can 200
Concerto in F 179 28; La Goulue 28 vernacular 191 Wilson, S. Clay 176
Stella, Frank 101 trademarks 32, 35, 48, 79, Vertov, Dziga: Kinoglaz 105 Wilson, Wes 172
stencil type 130 SaRIS) vibrating colour 118, 172 Wired magazine 8
Stenso 130, 130 Trafton, Howard: Cartoon Victore, James: Citizen Wolff Olins: 2012 London
Stern, Howard 22 132 Designer 22; Continuing Olympics logo 48
Stowell, Scott (with Trajan’s Column 122 Education Bulletin 186, Woodland, Joseph 188
Thacker): Mean triangulation 103 187 Woodtli, Martin 206
Happiness 96 Tribe, Jeffrey: Hooks Victorian style 16, 32, 84, words as images 42, 63
Strausfeld, Lisa 127 Alphabet 82, 82 130, 172 World War: I 18, 52, 70, 70;
Streamlining 16, 114, 153, Troxler, Niklaus: Jazz in Vienna Secession 47, 172 II 26, 65, 87, 106, 136,
164 Willisau 101, 101 Vignelli, Massimo and 153, 166
Streicher, Julius: Der Trump, George: City Bold Lella 153 WWE (World Wide Fund
Stiirmer 50 164, 164 Village Voice 106 for Nature) 139
strips and panels 121 Tschichold, Jan 66, Villemot, Bernard:
Struktur Design: Minutes 103, 150; Asymmetric Orangina Man 35, 35 Y
Diary 196 Typography 125, 125; Der Vivarelli, Carlo: Fiir das Yokoo, Tadanori 15;
Studio Dumbar 192; Berufsphotograph 175; Die Alter 98 “Having Reached a
Holland Festival Frau Ohne Namen 66; Die Vogel, Lucien: Vu Climax at the Age of
Programme 192; Pulchri Neue Typografie 66, 87, magazine 94 29, 1 Was Dead’ 15
Studio 128, 128 87, 89 Vogue 84, 198 Yount, Danny 156
supergraphics 70, 186 Tschinkel, Augustin 96 Volkswagen® 79 Youth International Party
Suprematism 72 Tsevis, Charis: Analogue vs Vorticists 77 170
supreme geometry 47, 72 Digital 203 Vox, Maximilien 128
Surrealists/Surrealism 12, Tufte, Edward 196 Z
89, 114 typefaces 8, 32, 38, 40, 65, WwW Zachary, Frank (with
sustainable packaging 136 74, 89, 116, 154, 160, Wadsworth, Edward: Brodovitch): Portfolio 59
Sutnar, Ladislav: Sweets 164, 172, 186, 191, 196, Dazzle-ships in Drydock at Zask, Catherine: Macbeth
Catalog Service 146 202 Liverpool 70 poster 125, 125

214
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tions, client M6 Television; 73 creative director B. dam School ofthe Arts); 143 © Fanette Mellier,
2 Digital image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York/ Martin Pedersen, designers Greg Cerrato, YonJoo Choi, Ministére de la Culture et de la Communication,
Scala, Florence. © DACS 2019; 8 courtesy of Bruce Mau B. Martin Pedersen; 75a © Seymour Chwast; 76 Private Centre National des Arts Plastiques; 144b Prospect,
Design; 9a © DACS 2019; 9b Museum fur Gestaltung Collection/The Bridgeman Art Library. © DACS 2019; 4 Bath Street, London EC1V 9DX, www.prospect.eu,
Zurich, Graphics Collection. Franz Xaver Jaggy © ZhdK; 77a © V&A Images; 77b © Dan Reisinger; 78 Think strategic director Richard Eisermann, creative director
10a art direction Stefan Sagmeister, photography Tom Small advertisement and trademarks used with per- Anja Kluver, design director Chris Clegg; 145 courtesy
Schierlitz, client AIGA Detroit; 10b Digital image, The mission of Volkswagen Group of America, Inc; 79a © of the National Library Board, Singapore and MIS
Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence; 11 Oleksiy Maksymenko Photography/Alamy; 80b Animal Union, Singapore; 146a © DACS 2019; 146b Museum
Courtesy: Jenny Holzer/Photo: Alan Richardson/Art Farm, 2008. Courtesy of Shephard Fairey/ObeyGiant fur Gestaltung Zurich, Poster Collection. Franz Xaver
Resource, NY. © Jenny Holzer. ARS, NY and DACS, Art; 83 © Jeffrey Tribe, Bedford College; 84a Jamie Jaggy © ZhdK; 148 Courtesy of The Advertising Ar-
London 2019; 12 Ich&Kar wall sticker Trees for Domes- Reid/Isis Gallery; 84b Photo: akg-images/INTERFOTO/ chives; 149 Courtesy of Google; 152 Museum fur Gestal-
tic; 13 Letraset Ltd/Ahmad Sha’ath; 14 © Disney; 15a Bildarchiv Hansmann. © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, tung Zurich, Poster Collection. Franz Xaver Jaggy
Courtesy of Ogilvy & Mather Advertising; 15b Museum London 2019; 85 author Richard Wilbur, art Henrik © ZhdK; 153a Museum fur Gestaltung Zurich, Poster
fur Gestaltung Zurich, Poster Collection. Franz Xaver Drescher, publisher Harcourt Brace; 87b book written Collection. © DACS 2019; 153b Museum fur Gestaltung
Jaggy © ZhdK; 16a The Bridgeman Art Library; 17 litho- and designed by Ellen Lupton, Princeton Architectural Zurich, Design Collection. Franz Xaver Jaggy © ZhdK;
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Press; 18a © Clare Acheson; 18b Library of Congress Tod Lippy © Esopus; 90a © Apple Corps Ltd; 91 Collec- 2019; 156a © Otto Preminger/United Artists; 156b
Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. tion Centre Pompidou, Dist. RMN. © ADAGP, Paris and © Prologue Films; 157 © Googly Films, Absolute Enter-
Copyright by General Cable Corporation; 19 Museum DACS, London 2011; 92 Museum fur Gestaltung Zurich, tainment (II); 160 One More Production, Patrick Jean,
fur Gestaltung Zurich, Poster Collection. Franz Xaver Poster Collection. Franz Xaver Jaggy © ZhdK; 93a “I Matias Boulcard; 161 © Seymour Chwast; 163 Niessen &
Jaggy © ZhdK; 20 © Pierre Bernard; © 2011 Scala; 21b LOVE NEW YORK’ is a registered trademark/service de Vries; 165 © Lars Miller Publishers; 167 Courtesy of
© Alexandre Orion, Ossario, 2006-2010 Urban inter- mark of the NYS Dept. of Economic Development, used The Advertising Archives; 168-169a design by Jonathan
vention executed by selectively scraping off black soot with permission; 93b Museum fur Gestaltung Zurich, Barnbrook in collaboration with Adbusters, photogra-
deposited by car exhausts on tunnel walls; 23 Harvey Poster Collection. Franz Xaver Jaggy © ZhdK; 95 © The phy Tomoko Yoneda; 168b Copyright © by Guerrilla
Hacker, GSD Poster Coop; 24-25 The Museum of Heartfield Community of Heirs/DACS, London 2019; Girls, Inc. Courtesy www.guerrillagirls.com; 170a De-
Modern Art, New York / Scala, Florence; 26bl art direc- 98a The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, sign by Tomato/Rick Smith, Karl Hyde & Darren
tion Pascale Renaux, photography Sofia Sanchez and Florence; 99 Museum fur Gestaltung Zurich, Poster Emerson trading as Smith Hyde Productions; 171 The
Mauro Mongiello, make-up Sol Shurnan, model Anais Collection. Franz Xaver Jaggy © ZhdK © DACS 2019; Museum of Modern Art/Scala, Florence; 172b akg-imag-
@ Vision; 27 Digital image, The Museum of Modern 100 © 2011. Digital image, The Museum of Modern Art, es; 173 Museum fur Gestaltung Zurich, Poster Collec-
Art, New York/Scala, Florence; 28a Cary Graphics New York/Scala, Florence; 101a Museum fur Gestaltung tion. Franz Xaver Jaggy © ZhdK; 175a © Robert Massin;
Collection, Rochester Institute of Technology. © Zurich, Poster Collection. Franz Xaver Jaggy © ZhdK; 175b Museum fur Gestaltung Zurich, Poster Collection,
Dumbarton Arts, LLC/DACS, London/VAGA, NY 2019; 101b © 2011. DeAgostini Picture Library/Scala, Franz Xaver Jaggy © ZhdK; 177 © Robert Crumb; 181a
28b Photography © The Art Institute of Chicago; 29 art Florence; 102 Digital image, The Museum of Modern Courtesy: Jenny Holzer/Photo: Lisa Kahane/Art
direction, design and photography Stephan Bundi; Art, New York/Scala, Florence; 103a Courtesy of Paula Resource, NY. © Jenny Holzer. ARS, NY and DACS,
30a akg-images/ullstein bild; 30b Courtesy of www. Scher/Pentagram; 103b Bauhaus Archiv. © DACS 2019; London 2019; 181b graphic designer Malte Martin,
kusmitea.com; 31 Courtesy of Marian Bantjes; 32 crea- 104 Digital image Mies van der Rohe/Gift of the Arch./ Theatre, theatre, poster for Athénée, Paris; 186-187a ©
tive director Matteo Bologna, art direction and design MoMA/Scala; 105a art direction Liza Ramalho and Henry Chalfantl; 186b Museum fur Gestaltung Zurich,
Andrea Brown, Mucca Design for Morandi; 34 akg- Artur Rebelo (R2), design by Liza Ramalho and Artur Poster Collection. Franz Xaver Jaggy © ZhdK; 187b ©
images; 35b Photo Scala, Florence. © Rodchenko & Rebelo (R2) and Nadine Ouellet, client Teatro Bruto; Henry Chalfantl; 188a © Jonathan Barnbrook; 188b
Stepanova Archive, DACS 2019; 37r design Piet 105b Museum fur Gestaltung Zurich, Poster Collection. Beach Packaging; 189 Michael Mescall, Cross Associ-
Schreuders, cover printed in 3 colours by Drukkerij Photo: Franz Xaver Jaggy © ZHdK. © DACS 2019; 106a ates; 190 photography Véronique Vienne; 191 concept
Mart. Spruyt bv, Amsterdam; 39a Roosevelt Civil War © DACS 2019; 107 illustration Mirko Tlic, art direction and creation Anette Lenz and Vincent Perrottet, pho-
Envelope Collection, Georgetown University Library, Minh Uong; 108 artist Alex Gopher, director H5 (A. tography Richard Pelletier, client Pierre Kechkéguian,
Special Collections Research Centre, Washington, DC; Bardou-Jacquet and L. Houplain), production company Le Nouveau Relax, Chaumont; 192a © Phil Baines; 192b
39b art direction Stefan Sagmeister, design Stefan Le Village; 109 Photo Scala, Florence/BPK, Bildagentur Holland Festival Programme cover, design Studio
Sagmeister and Matthias Ernstberger, photography fuer Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte, Berlin; 110 Biblio- Dumbar, photography Lex van Pieterson; 193 Museum
Matthias Ernstberger, client Art Grandeur Nature; 40a theque Forney/Roger-Viollet/TopFoto; 111a Diffraction fur Gestaltung Zurich, Poster Collection. Franz Xaver
© 2011. Photo Spectrum/Heritage Images/Scala, Flor- (Torre Agbar) by Yann Kersalé, architect Jean Nouvel; Jaggy © ZhdK; 194b cover design Mike Weikert, photog-
ence; 40b © Phil Baines; 42a Cary Graphics Collection, 112b © Ed Ruscha. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery; 114 raphy Nancy Froehlich, editor Ellen Lupton, published
Rochester Institute of Technology; 43 Karel Martens, design firm Methodologie, Seattle, strategic director by Princeton University Press; 195 Grapus, commis-
poster for the 21st International Poster and Graphic Janet DeDonato, creative director Dale Hart, designer sioned by Pentagram, London; 197b Minutes Diary
Design Festival, Chaumont © DACS 2019; 44 © Dan KJ Chun, project manager Andreas Holmer, production designed by Struktur Design; 201a agency Serviceplan
Reisinger; 45a © Noma Bar/Dutch Uncle; 47ar © Derek Sullivan and Harry Wirth, installation Lisa Hein Campaign, advertiser’s supervisor Anne-Catherine
Pyramyd; 48a ADAGP, Banque d’Images, Paris 2011. and Bob Seng, writer Bo Gilliland, editor Paula Paulisch, executive creative director Matthias Harbeck,
© ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2019; 49 The Mu- Thurman; 115 Photo: Les Arts Décoratifs, Paris/Laurent creative directors Helmut Huber and Florian Drahorad,
seum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence; 50a © Sully Jaulmes. © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2019; copywriter Nicolas Becker, art directors Christian
Shepard Fairey/ObeyGiant.com. Photo National Portrait 116-117a Raymond Loewy™ is a trademark of Loewy Sommer and Ivo Hlavac, consultants Michael Freitag
Gallery, Smithsonian/Art Resource/Scala, Florence; 52b Design LLC. www.RaymondLoewy.com; 118 © The Josef and Britta Christoph; 202-203a eboy, 2003; 202b Charis
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Museum of Art/Art Resource/Scala, Florence; 55 Repro- Daniel Hennessey, Illustration by Mark Zingarelli; 122- client Sacha Wigdorovitz; 204c Raymond Loewy™ is a
duced by permission of the Henry Moore Foundation; 123a Digital image, The Museum of Modern Art, New trademark of Lowey Design LLC. www.RaymondLoewy.
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(Paris): Altermodern World Map Poster for the Tate for Lincoln Center; 124 Museum fur Gestaltung Zurich, lettering art John Langdon. Additional photography by
Triennial at Tate Britain, used through exhibition Poster Collection. Photo: Franz Xaver Jaggy © ZHdK. Jason Ribeiro and Ida Riveros; 206b © ADAGP, Paris
space 2009, 4 colour offset, 120 x 176. Courtesy of © DACS 2019; 125a poster for LHippodrome, two-col- and DACS, London 2019.
mmparis.com; 60a 3 saisons, 2002, Antoine+Manuel for our silkscreen; 126-127a © TfL from the London Trans-
CCNT; 60b akg-images/ullstein bild; 61 © Marian port Museum collection; © 2011. Digital image, The
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Scala, Florence. © Rodchenko & Stepanova Archive, design by Studio Dumbar (Erik de Vlaam) for Pulchri
DACS 2019; 65a © New Statesman Ltd, 2011; 66a Digital Studio, The Netherlands; 128b Courtesy of Tomato;
image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, 131 Mirisch-7 Arts/United Artists/The Kobal Collection/

215
Acknowledgements
Much gratitude to Laurence King, whose beliefin this project and the
100 Ideas series has been a great boon to design history and design LAURENCE KING

scholarship. Thanks to Jo Lightfoot for her direction in the early stages of

the book. And much appreciation to Clare Double and designer Roger First published in 2012
Fawcett-Tang, who did double and triple duty making the disparate Reprinted 2012 (twice), 2013 (twice),
2014, 2015, 2017
pieces of this puzzle come together.
This edition published in 2019
We appreciate all the designers who generously agreed to share their by Laurence King Publishing Ltd
work or contacts with us in the gathering ofthe visual material. 361-373 City Road
Specifically thanks to Pierre Bernard, Etienne Hervy, Jocelyn Cottencin, London EC1V 1LR
Pascal Béjean, Ludovic Houplain, Anette Lenz, Vincent Perrottet, Evelyn
tel +44 20 7841 6900
ter Bekke, Dirk Behage, Rudi Meyer, Antoine+Manuel, Malte Martin, fax +44 20 7841 6910
David Poullard, Michel Quarez, Alain Le Quernec, Etienne Robial, Yann
e-mail: [email protected]
Kersalé, Jean-Louis Fréchin, Helena Ichbiah, Piotr Karczewski, Catherine
www.laurenceking.com
Zask, Fanette Mellier, Sheila Hicks, Marsha Emanuel, Daniel Kunzi,
Stephan Bundi, Alex Trochut, Niklaus Troxler, Karel Martens, Marty © Text 2012 Steven Heller and
Pedersen, Liza Ramalho, Artur Rebelo, Base Design Brussels, Victoria Véronique Vienne
Allen, Chip Kidd, Christoph Niemann, Laurie Rosenwald, Maira Kalman, All rights reserved. No part of this publication
Rick Meyerowitz, Woody Pirtle, Stefan Bucher, Richard Eisermann, may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or
Studio Dumbar, Luis Morales, Thonik, Niessen & de Vries, Ralph by any means, electronic or mechanical,
Schraivogel, Daniel Eatock, Indyvisuals Design, K.J. Chun, Martin including photocopy, recording, or any
Woodtli, Cyan, Pinar Demirdag, Adam Machacek, Sebastien Bohner, information storage and retrieval system,
Leonardo Sonnoli, Tomato Ltd., 2xGoldstein, Pyramyd, Why Not Associ- without prior permission in writing from the
ates, Seymour Chwast, Milton Glaser, Estate of Paul Rand, Louise Fili, publisher.

Charles Spencer Anderson, Jonathan Barnbrook, Matteo Bologna, Bruce A catalogue record for this book is available from
Mau, Stefan Sagmeister, David Lance Goines, James Victore, Marian the British Library.
Bantjes, Deborah Adler, Piet Schreuders, Noma Bar, David Tartakover,
ISBN-13: 978 1 78627 389 5
Shepard Fairey, Jennifer Wang, Willi Kunz, Elaine Lustig Cohen, Rian
Hughes, Jeffrey Tribe, Henrich Drescher, Ellen Lupton, Rudy VanderLans, Designed by Struktur Design

Tod Lippy, Scott Stowell, Paula Scher, Victor Moscoso, R. Crumb, Jean- Typefaces: Swift and Gotham
Pierre Kunkel, Paul Bacon, Massin, Chris Ware, Alex Steinweiss, Art Paul,
Picture research by Amanda Russell
Michael Gross, George Lois, eBoy, Mirko Ilic and John Langdon.
Printed in China
And to all the designers who exemplify these 100 ideas our thanks for
your myriad contributions. Frontispiece: Piet Zwart, for the Trio printer, 1931
(see p.66).

Steven Heller and Véronique Vienne.

Steven Heller is the co-chair of the MFA Design/Designer as Author +

Entrepreneur programme at the School of Visual Arts, New York. He is
the author of more than 180 books on design and popular culture,
including Design Literacy, Paul Rand, Stylepedia, The Graphic Design Idea Book
and The Typography Idea Book, and the recipient of the 2011 Smithsonian
National Design Award.

Véronique Vienne has worked at a number of US magazines as art

director, and is the author ofThe Art of Doing Nothing, The Art of Imperfection
and Something to be Desired. A frequent contributor to Graphis and
Metropolis magazines, she lives in Paris.

216
—_—

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