A (brief) History of Graphic Design

Design is subject to fashion and changing moods of the political and economic climate. There is a tend towards casual elegance and conservative design during poor economic times, and hard modern designs during economic booms.

Trends tend to move back and forth in a pendulum arc from one extreme to the other over the course of 20-40 years. This has, however, accelerated recently.

Arts & Crafts Movement: late 1800s• Tied to the post-industrial age as a backlash

against industrialization• Artists’ community was interested in skills

being lost and forgotten: handmade objects with intricate detailing

• William Morris was a leader of the A&C Movement – outspoken about decline in quality of goods due to mass production

• Qualities of the era: ornamentation, gilding, frills, elegance

Art Nouveau: 1900 - 1920• Exploded on the scene at the 1900s World’s Fair• Goal was to create an international style• Influenced by fluid & organic shapes• Like Arts & Crafts, it was a response to the Industrial

Revolution• Proponents believed all art should work together to

create a “total work of art” also known as Gesamtkunstwerk

• Motifs from Art Nouveau were predominantly based on nature

• Filigree!!!

Constructivism: 1913 – 1930s• Started in Russia by artists influenced by cubism• The movement wrote a manifesto known as the

“Realist Manifesto” outlining their goals• Primary goal was to “construct art”, hence the

name constructivism• The group declared enthusiasm for machines,

technology, industrialism, and modern materials.• Despite being artists, they wanted to emulate the

practical thinking of engineers.• Communist revolution influenced the movement

De Stijl: 1917 - 1928• Means “The Style”• Related to Constructivism and primarily located in

the Netherlands• Artist Piet Mondrian and Architect Theo van

Doesburg were leading figures• All designs (including typography) were ordered by

rules of design economy & simplicity• Designers sought to create a universal style in

painting, art, architecture, and design using rectangles and squares in geometric shapes with bold primary colors in a grid.

Bauhaus: 1919 - 1933• Similar ideals as De Stijl and Constructivism in

unifying all design disciplines• Merger of industrial techniques and artistic

design standards.• FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION• “Simplify, simplify, simplify”• Stressed clarity of message in design work• Bauhaus group had a school in Dessau,

Germany

Pictorial Modernism: 1917 - 1950• Grew in parallel to Bauhaus, Constructivism,

and De Stijl• Ideal illustrations of contemporary society• A huge trend in advertising

International Typographic Style: 1950 – 1970s• Emerged from Switzerland and Germany post WWII• Also known as “Swiss design”• While other design movements were somewhat

limited in scope, ITS dominated the design world for over 20 years.

• Goal was to present visual and verbal information in a clearly articulated and easily understood manner

• This goal achieved through rigorously constructed mathematical grids.

• Use of sans-serif typefaces, specifically helvetica

New York School: 1950s• Borrowed from ITS in a post war America• Dawn of corporatism• Start of the era of corporate branding and

corporate logos• Largest designers from this era: Paul Rand and

Saul Bass

Psychedelic Era: 1960 – 1970s• Design moves away from the sterile and rigid

1950s to revisit fluid and organic concepts• Clarity pushed aside in favor of style• “If the communication is cool enough, the

reader will come to understand it”• Started with hippies in San Francisco and

spread globally

The Digital Era: 1980s - Today• Previous design work had been done manually. • The rise of computers allowed the freedom for

more interesting, and faster designs• Type could be set in seconds, rather than hours

or days. Font creation and manipulation was easy

• Anyone can be a designer without needing to master overly complex tools, machinery, and techniques