In Pursuit of Excellence - Great Designers Forge Ahead

The  following ten field journals were completed while taking the on-line class, GID 01: History of Graphic Design in the Fall of 2012.  This class was taught online by Professor Kent Manske at Foothill College in Los Altos, California.  The field journals were compiled as a result of reading Meggs’ History of Graphic Design as well as from lectures and the viewing of images from Prehistoric to Post Modern times.  The many other art history classes I have previously taken were taught purely from a fine art perspective. This class has been a delightful, riveting and a completely eye opening experience. 

One is likely to think the entrepreneurial spirit of mankind is a recent convention, yet the reading this quarter shows innovation is deeply rooted in the human experience. The need to communicate has been a driving force behind the development of written language and graphic design.  It is amazing to see that in 15,000 years, humankind went from having no written language to currently having infinite typefaces in hundreds of alphabets. In just 5000 years letterforms moved from one substrate to the next: from stone to clay, to papyrus, to parchment and vellum, to paper and now to light reflected from an RGB screen.

Through this need to visually communicate, I have noticed a reoccurring theme - the continued pursuit of excellence among designers.  One can see it in: 

Johannes Gensfleisch zum Gutenberg’s unrelenting pursuit to create a moveable type printing press (c.1398 -1468)

Gutenberg Press

 

Nicolas Jensen’s commitment to creating legible fonts (1420-1480) 

Nicolas Jensen

 

Giambattista Bodoni’s clean, repeatable standardization of letterforms (1740-1830)

Bodoni serif font

 

Vincent Figgins foray into designing modern style romans and sans serif (1766-1884)

Vincent Figgins sample font

 

William Morris’s call for pristine workmanship and his influence on fine book design  (1834-1896)

From William Morris' the Ideal Book

 

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec revoutionary use of flat color shapes (1864-1901) 

Poster by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, La Goulue au Moulin Rouge, 1891

 

 

Jan Tschichold’s application and evangelization of the New Typography (1902-1974)

Sample drawings

Käthe Schmidt Kollwitz prints and drawing that reflect human suffering (1867-1945)

Kathe Kollwitz, Die Mutter, 1921, Woodcut

 

Hermann Zapf’s pioneering of new typeface forms for the 20^th century (1918 -living)

Palatino, by Hermann Zapf

 

April Greiman’s determination to explore and maximize use of digital age tools.  (1948-living)

Wilshire Vermont

 

Their passion and persistence forged new roads of design excellence and innovation. 

The U.S. is in an economic crisis. We have moved from a manufacturing based economy to a service based society. Our country desperately needs to build back its manufacturing base. Good manufacturing starts with great thinkers and designers. Students in the Bauhaus were prompted to tinker, to be exposed to new materials and to invent elegant design solutions. This same spirit can be fostered in K-12 school by good teachers and at home by good parents. Education is the great equalizer. As the divide between rich and poor continues to grow, particularly in California, we can make a difference. School and community classes can make up for parents who don’t nurture the creative spirit. To think of all the William Morrises, Johann Gutenbergs, and other great designers to come…we can’t miss those opportunities. I encourage everybody in this class to help foster the creative spirit in one child, especially those with huge opportunity gaps. 

Two areas I am intrigued to study further:

The evolution of roman letterforms

Graphic design used as positive propaganda such as Guerrilla Girls work
I also want to attend the Maker Faire   Bay Area, Date: May 18^th & 19^th, 2013, San Mateo Event Center

Food Truck Art.. Supergraphics on the Go

A herd of Food Trucks.

The other day I was driving down the road when a large, brightly painted food truck turned into the intersection right in front of me.  I am used to seeing these monoliths herded together at festivals and local ‘food truck nights’.  Seeing one on a solo journey, up close and personal from my car window  momentarily took my breath away. After taking this class my vision is hardwired for seeing graphics in a new way. 

Artist: Laura Luo

Mardi Gras style

Throughout our reading we have seen graphic design evolve as new industries make their debut.  Food trucks have been around for a very long time, mostly as sterile aluminum coated vans, but recently they have flourished on a new level. Regionally infused, ethnically diverse, these cafeterias on wheels have to compete for eye share. 

Food truck fonts are seen in large scale, colors are bolder, and the business names need to be more intriguing.  Psychedelic, punk, Japanese modern, vernacular styles make food truck art truly postmodern. 

Artist: Landers Miller Design

As stated in Meggs' History of Graphic Design, the term supergraphics was coined to describe "bold geometric shapes of bright color, giant Helvetica lettering, and huge pictographs warping walls, bending corners, and flowing from the floor to the wall and across the ceiling.." "Psychological as well as decorative values were addressed, as designers created forms to enliven dismal institutional architecture.." The pedestrian, institutional look of the aluminum sided food truck has been elevated by these large scale applied graphics.

Street Sweets artists, Landers Miller Design, incorporated typography into the food truck art in the spirit of the facades of French patisseries.  Incorporating the concept of street maps, the design takes on a vernacular, Parisian flair.

In a reversal, one of my favorites, Curry Up Now, started out as a food truck and then opened a brick-and-mortar restaurant in San Mateo. Perhaps the food truck business is simply a trendy micro industry, or an extension of an existing corporate identity system. Either way it is an example of the ever-evolving call of commerce that design answers.
I wonder how Robert Venturi would design his own food truck. Oh, and there is even a food truck for dogs.

Resources:

http://www.chow.com/food-news/53005/8-best-food-truck-art-designs/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Urban-Market/128414687202114  food truck row

https://www.facebook.com/foodfordogs/app_261761530599355 food truck for dogs

http://www.californiacartbuilder.com/  vernacular design Mardi Gras

The Place artist: Laura D. Luo

https://si0.twimg.com/profile_background_images/363159999/9.png

Günther Kieser, Visual Poet

Miles Davis Poster, 1971 by Günther Kieser

I recall seeing the peculiar art of Günther Kieser at a young age. This week seeing the photorealistic ‘trumpet tree’ again piqued my interest in his body of work. A genius in his own time, Kieser created a whole new visual language. His early work exemplifies an ability to synthesize communications pieces that are visually unique yet clear in message.

His early work, Alabama Blues brilliantly uses the shape of a dove to contain the typography.  The Alabama Blues music was all about peace and justice as represented by the dove form.

Jimi Hendrix poster, 1969,  by Günther Kieser

Trained at the Offenbach College of Design in Germany, Keiser began his career with partner, Hans Michel, in 1952, designing postages stamps for the German postal service. They also created posters for one of the first German Jazz concert services, Lippmann & Rau. It was from Horst Lippmann  Kieser received his first commission for the music industry.  Kieser and Michel designed posters for concerts of Jazz greats including John Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald and Count Basie. Well versed in many mediums, he combined  collage, linocut, photography with his strong drawing skill.

After ending his partnership with Michel, Keiser continued to produce posters for the music scene.  His posters became a fixture in concert venues, bars and billboards. His treatment of political topics and current issues gave his work an iconic look and feel.   Keiser’s Jimi Hendrix Experience poster, 1969, is one of his most popular designs stamped in the memory of a post modern generation.  

Jazz Band Ball, 1963

 Meggs’ History of Graphic Design categorizes Keiser in the European Visual Poet camp. He had an uncanny ability to visualize text as form as seen in many of his works, including the Jazz Band Ball poster.   It is hard to believe Kieser’s work predates the digital age.   Günther Kieser still lives and works in Germany.

Sources:
http://www.nrw-museum.de/en/#/en/more/biographies/details/details/artists///guenther-kieser.html

http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=8049  Jazz Band Ball

Traffic Poster, 1971, Günther Kieser

http://www.posterscene.com/html_index.cfm?page=item_page&itemoid=62677  Traffic Poster

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/g%C3%BCnther-kieser  Miles Davis Poster, 1971

Paul Rand and the NeXT Logo

NeXT logo by Paul Rand, 1986.

I was pleasantly surprised to see the NeXT logo designed by Paul Rand in this week’s reading. I started working for NeXT in 1988 as employee #244. I  didn’t know much about Paul Rand, but quickly learned about his famous logo designs that included IBM, Westinghouse, Adobe, and NeXT.  It was rumored at the company Steve Jobs paid Rand 100,000 dollars to design the logo.  Having seen the way money flew out the door, I didn’t doubt this amount.

The logo was an icon almost equal in stature to
Steve Jobs.   Placement of the logo at a 28 degree angle was no joke.  We employees could instantaneously lose our jobs by not following the logo use guidelines and corporate identity manual to the exact specifications.  Everything down to namebadges had perfect placement of the logo. The first system created by NeXT was a square black cube. Rand brilliantly created a logo that embodied the essence of a 3D cube with the company name.  
As Norman Ives would say, the logo embodied a "true gestalt".  
There are some wonderful videos on YouTube of Paul Rand
introducing his design to NeXT senior staff and of Steve Jobs
discussing Paul Rand.  Paul Rand lives up to his promise to 
'solve the design problem at hand'. 

^{Paul Rand as posted on YouTube}

VIDEO LINK as posted on YouTube:
Paul Rand introducing his design for NeXT to Steve Jobs and team:   Famous Graphic Desingers - Paul Rand Introducing the NeXT identity

VIDEO LINK as posted on YouTube: Steve Jobs Discussing Paul Rand

1993 interview re: Paul Rand and Steve Jobs

Google doodle as posted on Google homepage, 10/29/12

On the flip side, Google has found a way to retain a tight corporate identity while still making room for creative fun. The Google homepage ‘doodles’ that periodically alter the Google logo are clever and engaging. The homepage is a magnet, and I am usually pleasantly surprised.  I recently saw this doodle of the legendary Bob Ross.  It made me chuckle. Many of us have seen his lessons on public access television. I also love this doodle celebrating Kieth Haring's 54th birthday. In the end we all know what the official Google logo looks like. Google has created over 1000 doodles that play on the corporate logo. It now has a team of engineers and illustrators devoted to making doodles celebrating artists, holidays, science and random notions.

Google doodle as posted on Google web site.

The NeXT system was light years ahead of its time. Sadly, even with a world-class logo and engineering team, the company just couldn’t break into a hazy market. Was the system a pc or a workstation?   Lack of software for this trailblazing computer also played a big role.  NeXT being purchased by Apple was the ultimate silver lining. OS10, the current operating system of Apple products, was invented at NeXT. 

Resources:
http://www.logodesignlove.com/next-logo-paul-rand
http://www.paul-rand.com/foundation/portraits/#.UKvCJmfrR8E

Bauhaus: Itten, Albers and Kandinsky on Color

“Color is life; for a world without color appears to us as dead. 
Colors are primordial ideas, the children of light.”  Johannes Itten

Three prominent figures on the faculty at the Bauhaus formulated groundbreaking theories concerning color: Johannes Itten, Joseph Albers and Wassily Kandinsky. 

Artist: Johannes Itten's Colour Sphere
1921. Courtesy Kaufmann Mercantile

Johannes Itten was a Bauhaus faculty member from 1919 to 1922. He is considered to be the grandfather of color theory and established fundamental teachings based on his version of a 12 point color ‘star’.  He approached color from an objective standpoint but also gave consideration to subjective, psychological principles.  Greatly influenced by Adolf Hölzel's eight tier color wheel, Itten developed fundamental art courses for students at the Bauhaus that included color theory. He was one of the first people to devise strategies for successful color combinations. He developed seven ways to combine colors based on contrast of saturation; value; extension; complements; simultaneous contrast; hue; and warmth and coolness of color.  His book, The Art of Color, was an influential textbook documenting
his color theories and techniques.

Study based on Albers, Courtesy: StudyArtHistory.com

Joseph Albers taught at the Bauhaus from 1925 to 1933. He was a student of Johannes Itten and took Itten’s objective approach to color one step further. In his work he organized flat, large planes of adjacent color blocks to show how color combinations affect each other. He conducted color experiments that are well known today. Staring at the black dot on the left casts a yellow shadow in the image with the solo dot on the right. He also explored the effects of space and depth by arranging squares of color.  Squares will appear closer or recede depending on the warmth of the colors, the contrast and the intensity of the color within the square. 

Joseph Albers Homage to the 
Square,  1964. 
Courtesy: StudyArtHistory

This exploration can be seen in his series, Homage to a Square. He produced over 1000 such squares over the course of 25 years. After the closing of the Bauhaus in 1933, he emigrated to the U.S. where he held faculty positions at Black Mountain College in North Carolina and at Yale in Connecticut.  He also published Interaction of Color (1963), a treatise on color theory that was used extensively in art education.

Wassily Kandinsky’s Composition VIII
1923 courtesy: WebMuseum Paris

Kandinsky’s tenure at the Bauhaus lasted from 1922 to its closing in 1933. His approach to color was from a spiritual and psychological place. According to Kandinsky, colors produce a “spiritual vibration, and it is only as a step towards this spiritual vibration that the elementary physical impression is of importance.”   He used metaphors relating to music to describe the artist’s relationship to color. One example is from his book, Concerning the Spiritual in Art. “Generally speaking, colour is a power which directly influences the soul. Colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings.”  He also felt that colors have a psychological effect.  He believed humans have reactions to color based on previous experiences and perceptions. One shade of red will remind a person of warmth from a fire and another shade of red will remind them of blood.  Strangely, my copy of Concerning the Spiritual in Art is in black and white.

References:

1. Johannes Itten. Kaufmann Mercantile, http://kaufmann-mercantile.com/johannes-itten/
2. Itten’s Color Contrasts.  WORQX.com, http://www.worqx.com/color/itten.htm
3. Color Contrast, Brown University http://www.cs.brown.edu/courses/cs092/VA10/HTML/AlbersExplanation.html
4. Study Art History –an online guide for art history students and lovers. Josef Albers - Color Theory, May 9, 2011 http://www.studyarthistory.com/josef-albers---color-theory-255.php
5. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Joseph Albers, 2011.  http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/59.160
6. Kandinsky, Wassily. Concerning the Spiritual in Art, Dover Publications, Inc., 1977. Translated from the Art of Spiritual  Harmony by Wassily Kandinsky, 1914. 

Käthe Kollwitz, Expressionist

War, Never Again, Poster, Käthe Kollwitz, 1924

Käthe Kollwitz is an artist who has always intrigued me. I was glad to see her introduced in the realm of Expressionism. Her work deeply embodies the sentiment felt by artists in the Expressionist movement that, according to Meggs’ depicted “subjective emotions and personal responses to subjects and events.” Known primarily as a print maker and sculptor, Kollwitz created paintings, woodcuts, etchings, lithographs, sculpture and drawings. Her emotional works were featured in antiwar posters as a reaction to World War I and World War II. Working figuratively, she can be categorized as part of the Die Brucke (the Bridge) Expressionist.

March of the Weavers, etching, Käthe Kollwitz 1895

 Born in Russia in 1867, she was encouraged early on by her father to pursue her artistic capabilities. Her parents recognized her keen drawing skill, and in 1881 she began studies with a local copper engraver. She later attended the Berlin School for Woman Artists where she ultimately held a part-time teaching position. In 1919 she was appointed to a full professorship at the prestigious Prussian Academy of Arts.

Widows and Orphans, Lithograph, 1919, MOMA site

The Sacrifice, woodcut, Käthe Kollwitz, 1922

The humanistic views of her parents and grandfather helped develop her deep sense of compassion for the human condition. A pacifist and socialist, she developed a feminist perspective from the readings of August Bebel, Woman and Socialism (1879). She was inspired by the teachings in this book that professed “one day in the new society women will be entirely independent socially and economically.” Married to a physician practicing in a Berlin working class neighborhood, Kollwitz expressed her impressions in her artwork. Interestingly, Kollwitz created seventy self portraits during her lifetime.

Death, Woman and Child, etching, Käthe Kollwitz, 1919

Kollwitz’ personal experience with loss and war also influenced her foray into expressionism. Her son was killed in World War I and her grandson was killed in World War II. She openly criticized Adolf  Hitler and his Nazi party, causing her to be arrested by the Gestapo. In 1938, her work, Tower of Mothers, was deemed “degenerate art” by the Nazi Government and seized from the Academy show.  In 1945 her family home in Berlin was destroyed during the bombing and she died shortly before the end of WWII.

As an expressionist Kathe Kollwitz explored topics such as poverty, war, death, plight of the working class, grief and despair. Her work was not only a reaction to her own pain and suffering but equally to 

those suffering around her.

The Lovers, plaster sculpture, Käthe Kollwitz, 1913

Sources:

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/ARTkollwitz.htm

http://www.rogallery.com/Kollwitz/Kollwitz-bio.htm

http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/kollwitz_kathe.html

http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=3201
http://www.masterworksfineart.com/inventory/3207

Campari Advertising and Italian Poster Design

Artist, G. Mora, 1894 Published on Compari.com site.

I have always had a fascination with Italian poster art that specifically promoted food and drink. This week studying the works of Adolfo Hohenstein, the “father of poster design” in Italy, was a visual feast. Hohenstein and his contemporaries, Leopoldo Meticovitz and Leonetto Capiello designed posters for the Campari Company in Italy.  These artists brought the energy and form of Art Nouveau to Campari. Compari had already been in business for years. Prior to this era, other artists started the poster tradition. G. Mora created the first poster for advertising in 1894.

Artist, Leonetto Cappiello, 1921,
Published on leonettocappielloposters.com

Leonetto Cappiello started out as a caricature artist and in 1904 he abandoned caricature to devote himself to poster art. Campari has retained that visual edge first introduced in Adolfo Hohenstein’s work. Moving through the times, they employed artists to carry on the poster tradition in the current artistic style of the time. 

Artist, Fortunato Depero, 1925, posted on Campari.com

CorreColTempo Artist, Fortunato Depero,

Other Campari artists include Milton Glaser and Fortunato Depero.  Depero was part of the futurism movement and he applied his style to advertising and graphic design as seen in his poster for Campari Squisito al Seltz,1926.

Artist: Ugo Nespolo, 1990

While incorporating photography into its advertising, Campari has retained its deep graphic art roots. Campari Art Label Project was started as a way to keep the connection to art. This year the company has issued a ‘limited edition’ bottle featuring artwork by contemporary Italian pop artist and set designer, Ugo Nespolo. Nespolo pays homage to Leonetto Cappiello’s poster, Spiritello by incorporating the same energy, focal point and gesture as in the original art. The Spiritello character is still wrapped up in an orange peal, yet he floats in a busy sea of color. This limited edition label is intended to celebrate the Campari love of art.

Since posters were physically more accessible for viewing than fine art, they became the defacto ‘art for the masses’. The visual vernacular persists today.  Cheap reprints are available on the internet and are used primarily as decoration in cafes, restaurants and homes.  The Campari web site gallery is worth a look  With any luck, I hope to someday visit the real gallery at the Compari headquarters in Milan, Italy.

Sources:

http://www.csun.edu/~pjd77408/DrD/Art461/LecturesAll/Lectures/lecture05/Futurism.html

http://www.cappiello.fr/anglais/biography.htm

http://www.artfact.com/artist/hohenstein-adolf-u34nea7s6b

http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Ugo_Nespolo.html

http://www.camparigroup.com/en/press-media/brands-history/campari.shtml
http://www.camparigroup.com/en/press-media/multimedia-kit/spirits/downloads-campari.shtml
http://www.leonettocappielloposters.com/showproduct.aspx?pid=457571