Foundations of Design: Part 5, Post-Modernism

Modernism was a shift in cultural movements sparked by vast changes to society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was at this time that the Western world was becoming fully industrialized, and certain groups of people felt the traditional forms of art, architecture, literature, religion, and societal structure were shackled by historicism. Modernism was a break with the past and a search for new forms of expression. The Arts and Crafts movement (1880-1910) came about as a reaction to the poor quality and design of the mass-produced goods of the Industrial Revolution. It's founder, John Ruskin, wrote that art and labor could be unified and provide a new social order, while improving the quality of life.

In architecture, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1986-1969) was a leading figure in the modern movement. This former director of the Bauhaus created the modernist steel and glass skyscrapers that influenced designers for decades. In the U.S., architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959), continued in the spirit of the Arts and Crafts movement in putting emphasis on the "interior space" of buildings, not the facade. Function took supremacy over form. Wright's approach was however, divergent from van der Rohe in pursuing organic solutions in design. The "Four" in Scotland, the Vienna Secession artists, and Peter Behrens in Germany, also pursued functional simplicity and a rectilinear approach to design.

Ultimately, Constructivism (1919-1934, Russia), De Stijl (1917-1934, The Netherlands), and the Bauhaus (1919-1934, Germany) provided the necessary background for the Swiss to develop the modern typographic grid and the ensuing International Typographic Style. Enter Josef Muller-Brockmann, Jan Tschichold, Emil Ruder, Massimo Vignelli and others, and the ITS became a worldwide phenomenon.

But as all things go through cycles, some in the design world felt that they reached a plateau. Post-Modernism was a reaction to the impersonal "glass box" structures in architecture and the rigid, objective grid systems in graphic design. Even within the International Typographic Style movement, younger designers began to explore the possibilities of more expressive, playful, and experimental design.

ITS adherents, Siegfried Odermatt and Rosemarie Tissi (both Swiss) were among the first to experiment beyond the cold, strict structure of the grid, (mid-1960s).


New Wave typography (mid-1970s), as practiced by Wolfgang Weingart, was as much an expansion of ITS as it was a breakaway.


The Memphis (Italy) and Sans Francisco "schools" (late 1970s, early 1980s) were also populated by former practitioners of the ITS.

Other designers went in even more diverse directions. Reinventing of historical models was the basis for much of what is called Retro design.

Paula Scher invoked inspiration of Constructivist typography and Charles S. Anderson's designs copied motifs from sources as diverse as bubble gum wrappers and coarsely drawn clip art.

The Structural vs the Intuitive

Modernism signaled the steady progression of design toward a rational, objective, and functional system. It had the result of helping clients understand and accept design. The International Typographic Style, while being the culmination of the modern movement in graphic design, had a split personality. It was at the same time both a symbol of technology and creativity. An examination of history reveals an underlying relationship between the orderly and the chaotic. Possibly no better example of this relationship can be found than with that of Kurt Schwitters. Timothy Samara writes in his book, Making and Breaking the Grid:

"Schwitters is one of several designers in the 20th century who helped assimilate and institutionalize non-rational approaches, particularly typography, alongside those being pursued by rational structuralists." (p. 113)

At the same time Schwitters was creating Dadaist collages for advertising and marketing messages, he collaborated on structured design with El Lissitsky (Russian Constructivist) and Theo Van Doesburg (De Stijl founder).

Conclusion

In my experience as a teacher of design, I've found that some students perceive the grid as a restrictive, old-school, structural device. It is an affront to their free-spirit creativity. They purposely resist it, or simply don't comprehend it. A large part of the responsibility for that situation falls on me. But many do embrace it. There are those students who were unaware of it. They hadn't been exposed to the typographic grid. When I demonstrate it and have them go through exercises in class, I can sometimes see a light bulb turn on over their head. That's the way it was with me 30 years ago. It is a tool, not a straightjacket.

I find the progression of design through history fascinating. Especially the major turning points such as the beginning of the 20th century when the Arts and Crafts movement and Art Nouveau demonstrated that new exciting forms could be created. Both signaled a break from artists and designers relying on historical models. And then there was the search in Russia, the Netherlands, and Germany for universal visual laws of structure, harmony, and order, in the aftermath of World War I. As the period we know as modernism in graphic design matured with the establishment of the International Typographic Style after World War II, we then see designers almost immediately, not rejecting ITS, but moving on to new and evolving forms of expression.

(Note: This concludes the 5 part series, "Foundations of Design". I strongly encourage those interested to do further research on such figures as Piet Zwart, Kurt Schwitters, El Lissitsky, and many other long-forgotten design pioneers whose work was so influential. This is what makes design a profession, and not a trade.)

Sources:
Meggs, Philip B., (2006). History of Graphic Design.
Samara, Timothy, (2002). Making and Breaking the Grid.
http://www.answers.com/topic/modernism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernism
http://gds.parkland.edu/gds/!lectures/history/1975/postmodern.html
http://www.cmgww.com/historic/flw/bio.html
http://www.deconet.com/designer/790/Ludwig_Mies_van_der_Rohe?gclid=CND-06Hx1qICFYZi2god1xO7yA#