In this week’s lecture, we looked at how modernism became well known in the aftermath of WWII, because European designers who founded the movement that extended across the world, since they had no other option than to leave Europe by the Nazis.
I knew about Artists who painted during the Modernism period, but I didn’t know what it meant. It is where artists and designers rejected the use of traditional shapes and ornamental factors, and instead focuses on geometric shapes, primary colours, sans serif fonts. Also, followed the rule of ‘form follows function’ in order to find solutions that are simple and direct.
He’s most famously known for his logos, especially IBM. His work consists of bold colours and shapes. I like how his work is very vibrant and stands out from a distance. I find it interesting how he keeps his personality shown in his work and doesn’t try to hide it, which is very inspirational.
Examples of Paul Rand’s work
Next, we had a look at Otl Aicher who was the co-founder of the Ulm Design School. He was the first to design the pictograms and posters for the Olympic Games in Germany. They consisted of points and lines that formed shapes that symbolises each sport in the competing games. It must have been hard to design these, and make sure that every country in the world can recognise them. It’s surprising how his work looks really modern, and is still used today.
Otl Aicher pictograms and poster for the Olympic Games.
Then, we got to see some of Saul Bass work. I never realised how many film title sequences and posters he made until we watched a montage showing clips of each one. My favourite design is “The Man with the Golden Hand.” I like how simplistic it is, the arm is just made up various rectangular shapes joined together, how the type is in all caps and positioned along side different parts of the arms. It is very effective how he just used two colours: black and gold but they’re very eye catching.
The Man with the Golden Arm by Saul Bass
Another designer we looked at, was Herbert Bayer who’s famous for his typography work he created his own font called the universal font. It was very interesting to learn that he designed banknotes but they were worthless unfortunately. Although, he created catalogues and posters for the Bauhaus which are a very cool design. I believe there’s a dynamic movement evident in his designs. I like how he includes planes beside photos, text inside planes and above text. It really he enhances the information in my opinion.
Herbert Bayer poster for Kandinsky’s 60th birthday.