Daniel Friedman

Working in a similar space to April Greiman, Daniel Friedman was also part of the whole new wave style that was started by Wolfgang Weingart. While April Greiman showed us how colourful and interesting New Wave design could be with interesting use of shape texture and photomontage, Friedman will show us some other characteristics of New Wave with his own style.

 

Jumping straight into looking at some of his work, here we can see a poster done by Daniel Friedman. The first comparison we can make between Greiman and Friedman’s work is the use of colour. As opposed to Greimans use of the Californian colour pallet, friedman’s work here is using a solely grayscale. I believe that he takes some inspiration from Weingarts initial typographic experiments with this piece in a very subtle way.  In this poster we can see the the use of type in a very unusual way. The type seems to be placed sporadically and with different sizes and forms. This concept seems to harken back to Weingarts typographic experiments since they both challenge the legibility of words, or even further back to the Dadaists where they would throw type onto their page without much care for structure or legibility. Dan Friedman doesn't take it as far as either of those two styles as the longer you look at the poster, we can see that the word starts to make sense as your eyes jump from letter to letter to try form a cohesive word.

Another thing about this poster is the interesting use of juxtaposition of two elements. The juxtaposition is seen throughout the haphazard placement of text placed over, or in front of in some cases, the city scene in the background. So you've got these two very different elements that don’t quite compliment each other in a physical way yet they are placed on the same plane of existence.

This is another example of Dan Friedman’s work with a heavier use of photomontage that seems to take influence from a different era entirely. Through the use of photomontage, Friedman has manage to create an almost dream like image where reality seems to be distorted. To me, this is very reminiscent of the surrealist works by Salvador Dali. While this is obviously a more modern take on the style, we can still see some similar elements like the way physical objects seems to bend and move as if they were made from a different material we perceive them to be and how aspects of the image just seem to be out of place or in a strange context.

As a personal summary, I feel that New Wave Design has been one of the more interesting design styles that we have tackled as a class, this is probably due to the use of digital media which I am personally very fond of and also possibly due to how reminiscent these designs are to some of the designs we see today very often.

References: Daniel Friedman-eyemagazine.com-2014 [http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/reputations-dan-friedman][last accessed on 29/01/2015]

Uartsgd-uartsgd.com-2014 [http://www.uartsgd.com/GD40/Friedman/DanFriedman.html][last accessed on 20/01/2014]

New Wave Design and Wolfgang Weingart.

Influenced by past movements such as punk and modernsim, specifically swiss typography, New Wave Design is arguably created by Wolfgang Weingart and his typographic experiments done with Swiss typography. What Weingart did as a catalyst to the New Wave movement was that he took the Swiss typography and cut it up and ‘exploded’ it to a point where words were no longer legible but you could still make out the individual letters of of the chaos.

In this work here we can see an example of one of his typographic experiments. Here we can clearly see chaotic nature of his experiments where type has been given a whole new use here. This is something that Weingart was particularly focused on. He wanted to challenge the need for legibility of type and try use it in a new way. This concept is very reminicent of the Dadaist movement. The Dadaists very very fond of using type in a non conventional way by having letters floating in empty space or having words that were just gibberish. Weingart took some of these elements and used them in his design but he did not go as far as the Dadaists did. This could be considered a more tame or refined version of Dada. On further inspection of this example we can see how individual letters are still very much visible and somewhat structured if not a bit disjointed.

This next example by Weingart highlights some of the other characteristics that New Wave design is known for . Instantly we can see the use of textures and gradients which is different from his first initial experiments. He moved from black text on a flat colour to gradients that created a smooth transition of shades and textures that give a more interesting aesthetic too look at as opposed to flat colour. We can also start to see juxtaposition of various elements within this poster, a characteristic that was very popular throughout New Wave Design. The Juxtaposition here is seen when you look at the structure of the text in relation to what's happening in the background. The text appears to be somewhat structured in nature and looks like it follows the use of a grid to keep everything in clean and aligned lines, while the background has the complete opposite. The background has elements interwoven with each other with the appearance of elements that are being torn out of the page, a characteristic that is reminiscent of Punk design and Jamie Reids work. When these two elements are put together, the structured type and the chaotic background, they create a juxtaposition with each other as these two elements are in stark contrast with each other.

Weingart was a very important figure to the New Wave movement as his experiments were basically what initiated the New wave movement and even though he tried not to influence his students too much, some of the characteristics in his work are seen across New Wave design.

References:

Designhistory-designhistory.org-2014 [http://www.designhistory.org/PostModern_pages/NewWave.html][last accessed on 28/01/2015]

April Greiman

Following Wolfgang Weingart with his ‘creation ‘of New Wave design,  Grieman made a lot of progress with digital design being one of the first designer to take a dive into the medium. Greiman was a leading figure in New Wave design and branched out into a style of her own, even after studying under Wolfgang Weingart. This was possible because Weingart tried not to push his own style on to his students and instead let them carve their own way. 

Greimans is very notably known for her work in early digital design and for her unique style that she brings to publications like ‘Wet’.

This first example by April Greiman highlights some of the characteristics she brought over from her time studying with Weingart. Particularly in this piece and some of her other works, she makes use of ‘rectilinear stepped blocks’, a design that Weingart had originally begun using. We can see examples of this near the title text of this poster. Another interesting thing about this piece is the optical illusion happening with the type. We can see that some of the type seems to be shadowed by a copy of itself that is laid inaccurately behind it to give this interesting sense of implied three-dimensionality.  Some other things in this poster that are typical New Wave characteristics is the use of layering. In this poster we can see that elements and assets have been placed over each other and this gives an implication of shallow depth in the piece. We can also note a similar use of juxtaposition as we saw in my previous blog post about wolfgang weingart.  We can see that the text seems to be very structured and makes use of a grid based on a shifted axis while the background seems to have many elements going in different opposing directions that is in vast comparison to the structured nature of the type, this creates juxtaposition between them.

This next poster by April Greiman highlights some of the other characteristics of her work. Greiman was also known for her unique use of colour. She was known for using warm tones that resembled the Californian climate and those colours are evident in this poster. This poster also shows her use of gradients and textures which she uses to decorate her background. Upon closer inspection of this piece we can see her interesting use of shape and how it creates and interesting sense of dynamism in the overall aesthetic. We have the repeated use of rectilinear stepped blocks that give this sense of rigidity and order juxtaposed by these repeated diagonal and pointed lines that seem to cut into and frame the other aspects of the design like the photomontage used.

While Weingart could be considered the father of New Wave, I believe that Greiman could easily have been the gateway to the digital age of design as her works were one of the first works done using the newly introduced personal computers. 

References:

Designishistory-designishistory.com-2015 [http://www.designishistory.com/1980/april-greiman/][last accessed on 28/01/2015]

 April Greiman-aprilgreiman.com-2015 [http://aprilgreiman.com/][last accessed on 28/01/2015]

Victor Moscoso and Psychedelia

Somewhat overlapping with the Punk subculture chronologically, Psychadelia and punk were pretty much polar opposites when it came to aesthetic and philosophy. Similarly enough Psychadelia was also politically charged in the sense that is was a post war reactionary culture that yearned for peace and compassion and made their voices heard in a much more calm fashion than the punks. Encompassing many aspects of culture, Psychadelia was not only popular in the graphic design medium but also other media such as music and fashion. The term ‘hippy’ was thrown around at the people who partook in the culture. Another major aspect of the culture was the rampant use of hallucinogenic drugs which lead to psychogenic hallucinations which made the recipient of the drug see colourful and vibrant flashes of colour dance around before their eyes. These hallucinations lead the the colourful imagery we very often see displayed in the designs of the culture.  Some of the visual characteristics that we will be seeing include natural and flowing lines that seem to harken back the Art Nouveau style, bright and vibrant colours and also the use of photomontage in conjunction with textures.   

 Victor Moscoso was a designer that relevant within the psychedelia culture and had designed a number of posters within the style. An example of one of his works is seen here. The first thing I would like to highlight from this poster is the way the font is handled. We can seem many natural curves featuring across the type, as it almost feels like it is taking the shape of its container just like a liquid substance would. This gives the font an Art Nouveau feel to it with a mix of the dream like nature of surrealism. This way of handling type was very typical of work done in the psychadelia style. Another thing of note with the font is the legibility. Due to the highly manipulated nature of the type, the legibility of especially some of the smaller words has been sacrificed. This to me is very interesting because it is in stark comparison to the principles of modernism which was in fashion not too long before this. We can also see the manipulation of photography to achieve certain effects such as this one here where the colours of the photo seem to have been reduced to two shades. Texture is also a thing that has suddenly become something that is experimented with as evidence to this poster, which is vastly different again from the early modernists and their predominant use of clean block colours.

As a personal reflection on both Punk and Psychadelia, the visual styles of these two movements were vastly different from each other in an almost opposing fashion, but one thing they both had in common was how we their visuals characterise the general attitude of the people within their respective cultures. With Punk and its rebellions nature and Psychadelia with its free-spirited whimsy.

References:

·         Robert Urquhart-grafik.net-2014[ https://www.grafik.net/category/archive/victor-moscoso][last accessed on 23/01/2014]

Jamie Reid and Punk

To start off with a bit of cultural context, the 1960’s to 70’s brought about some tough times. From the Vietnam war to the Market Crash. These events without a doubt had an effect on the general population and attitudes were changing as a result. The start of this could be seen with the protests and riots in 1968 in England. This civil unrest eventually moulded itself into this new young generation, filled with a rebellious voice and an outspoken nature. While punk culture was very prevalent to the design world, it did not technically start there. The term ‘punk’ started to be used to describe the new emerging type of music and fashion trends of the time. This music was the lyrical representation of the attitudes of the time. The music was loud, unruly and filled with anarchic messages which perfectly summarises what people were feeling at the time. The fashion was also a representative of general feelings of the people as these ‘punks’ wore outlandish attire that seemed to be put together for the sole reason of standing out and rebelling against a norm.

So we've got this growing music genre and a subculture under the punk umbrella, now it’s time to discuss the imagery and design that was used in support of this culture. The ‘Sex Pistols’ were pretty much the most popular punk band of the time and design wise, some of the album covers and poster they had to advertise their music were also very popular and highlight some of the characteristics of the visual language used at the time. Jamie Reid has made a number of designs for the ‘Sex Pistols’ and this image over here is one of them. This is the album cover for the album ‘Anarchy in the Uk’ and I feel that this poster really characterises the punk image and philosophy. The first thing that instantly gains the viewer’s attention is the torn and burnt Union Jack. The flag appears to be torn apart and shoddily attempted to be fixed back together. This was an aesthetic that was fairly common for the punk style, partly as a symbolic statement to the attitudes of the time and partly due to the lack of monetary resources of many of these bands. Other elements of this album cover lend itself to this very same design aesthetic of being purposefully messy with the use of clips and pasted together typography. Another thing of note with this design pretty much any other done in the punk style is how in your face the message and aesthetic is. With many of the other styles and movements we have seen this far, imagery and symbolism has been almost predominantly subtle compared to how blatant these designs are.

As a personal note, the hand crafted nature of many of the punk designs does intrigue me quite a bit as it is an aesthetic that was pretty innovative and original for the time. The visual language that the designs tend to use is also something I am quite fond of, with the use of often politically charged sarcasm and wit.

References:

·         Biography-biography.com-2015 [http://www.biography.com/people/jamie-reid-20937155#later-career][last accessed on 23/01/2015]

Paul Rand and Corporate Identity

Similarly to Saul Bass, Paul Rand’s work was also in the wake of modernist designs and as such was highly influenced by styles such as De Stijl and Constructivism. While Saul Bass was very popular for his designs for movie posters and intros, Paul Rand was very successful when it came to corporate branding, specifically in the field of logos. Paul Rand is very interesting to discuss because of his work with logos and how relevant they are today. Many of the logos he made more companies are still used by those same companies today, so many years later.

Over here we can see some examples of the logos that Paul Rand has made over his career. At first glance, we can note down his use of typeface across different projects. There is a mix of serif and sans serif fonts but in both cases the type seems to retain a very clean and formal look. These characteristics found in the font are very important design decisions that are carried over to other aspects of the logo design. Paul Rand's logos became very popular and widely sought after and I believe a reason for this was because of how simple yet effective they were. When looking at these examples we can see that most of them are either composed of very basic shapes mixed with a clean font so from a technical standpoint they are not doing very much, but the little that is done is very effective. This is a concept that harkens back to the earlier modernist principles like the posters and publications we see in the constructivist style.  His use of colour is also worth noting with these designs. The colour, like the other modernists before him, is generally composed of single shades of block colour or not colour at all in the case of the purely black and white ones. This was important for logos especially due to how easily recognisable they needed to be and any excess clutter would hinder that principle.

This next example by Paul Rand was a magazine cover for the publication ‘Direction’. With this example we can see a concept that I haven’t really gotten to talk about much in these blog posts which is the use of humour or wit in a visual form.  Through the use of photomontage, Paul Rand was able to play with the visual concept of a wrapped Christmas present, only his rendition of a present uses barbed wire as a ribbon. A subtle detail in this poster is the use of the small red dots randomly placed on the white background to mimic a pattern for the wrapping, only, in the context of the barbed wire, those red dots suddenly take a much darker tone and turn to blood in our minds. This is an interesting lesson in the importance of context in design as well as other art forms.

While certainly not the first artist or designer to attempt something like this, I personally feel that Paul Rand had achieved something quite innovate and niche to his design that would be the source of inspiration for many contemporary artists and designers alike.

References:

·         Paul-rand.com-paul-rand.com-2014[ http://www.paul-rand.com/ ][Last accessed on 23/01/2015]

·         Library.rit.edu-2014 [http://library.rit.edu/gda/designer/paul-rand][last accessed on 23/01/2015]

Saul Bass and the New York School

The New York, starting in the 1940’s while not a direct response to modernist design, did look to do away with some of the concepts of modernist design in favour of a more casual and informal design philosophy. When looking at Modernism, it is very easy to see that there is a very strong focus on structure and order. The use of strong geometric shapes give modernist design a very structured look and the use of sans serif lends to that look even more. The New York School attempts to do away with less focus on geometric shapes and wider use of photography and photomontage. The New York School also opened the doors for more culturally diverse designs

Saul Bass was a designer during the time that had a very distinct style that allowed him to stand out from the rest.  Here we see an example of his work. This is a captured frame from the opening credits of the movie ‘Anatomy of a murder’.  When looking closely at this work we can see some of the characteristics of his style and some of his influences. We can see that while the style is very simple in nature, it is still a lot more figurative than the modernist works we have previously seen. An interesting point of note is the use of typography in this work and many of Saul Bass’s other works. He tends to use a selection of sans serif typefaces but as opposed to modernist typography, the typefaces he uses tends to be a bit more organic in nature due to the irregular nature of the lines that compose them. Another thing to not of Saul Bass’s style is how he deals with figures and forms in his work. He very often employs the same irregular lines from the type into the other shapes to create this whole cut-out aesthetic that we see in this image over here. His use of colour in this image and most of his other work is generally composed of a solid bright colour mixed with black figures and shapes.

Due to his unique style, Saul Bass was very popular with the film industry and hence he was asked to design the opening credits and posters of several films just like the example we discussed above.

As a personal note I am very fond of the general aesthetic that Saul Bass employs in his work which is probably the reason I chose to write this blog post about him instead of other designers of the time. His work generally uses a very simple aesthetic yet it leaves a very memorable impression in my memory which tells me that his work has a lot of character that is very cleverly conveyed.

References:

·         http://www.csun.edu/~pjd77408/DrD/Art461/LecturesAll/Lectures/Lecture09/NewYorkSchool.html

·         http://www.saulbassposterarchive.com/gallery/film-posters/

Herbert Matter and photomontage

Born in Switzerland Herbert Matter was designer that worked on many commercial projects with his masterful use of photomontage, this included magazine publications such as ‘Vogue’ among others. Much of his work was very influential to artists that came after him especially with a further growing trend of photomontage being used in design.

When looking at an example of his work like the one we can see here, we can instantly see how innovative his use of photomontage was for the time. This poster over here was done for the Swiss tourist office and it highlights some of the key characteristics of his work. The first thing of note with this poster is Matter’s use of colour. We can see a juxtaposition of two elements here in regards to his use of colour. The figure in the foreground seems to have been reduced of colour while the background seems to have a vibrant blue.  We can also see the use of a bold and striking sans serif font which really stands out against the photos in the background.  Herbert Matter’s poster truly were innovative for the time due to how painstaking the process of making them was as opposed to how easy these kind of designs are to make today in the light of so many technological advancements.

This next poster was also done for the Swiss tourist office and I feel like this poster highlights some of the other characteristics of his work. In this poster we can see a very interesting use of perspective and depth. The poster seems to lead the viewer from the bottom sans serif type up towards the road that leads off into a one point perspective.  From then on it seems to get a more surrealist feel as the roan meanders off into a series of twists and turns that don’t seem to make sense in a physical sense. I also find this particular poster interesting due to how the photos blend together to create a somewhat believable yet fantastical landscape. 

I personally found Herbert Matter’s work to be very interesting because of how much his work seems to foreshadow the widely contemporary notion of photo manipulation and digital design that we see today.  With all the developments in computer technology , images and posters like this are all too common and are somewhat easy tom make but for Herbert Matter to get this level of photomontage before the release of the personal computers was a feat in itself.

References: designhistory-designhistory.com-2014  [http://www.designishistory.com/1940/herbert-matter/][last accessed on 23/01/2015]

Jan Tschihold

Somewhat related to The Bauhaus due to his visitation of a Bauhaus exhibition in the early 1920’s, Jan Tschihold was a modernist at heart from that time onwards. He switched to favour san serif typefaces over all else and other modernist design principles such as asymmetric layouts and the practical and functional use of hierarchy in design specifically in regards to type. In his manifest called ‘Die neue Typographie’ Tschihold advocated for a reform of sorts through design. In this publication is where he explained his applications of modernist typography and his rejection of the serif typefaces that pretty much were used exclusively at the time in Germany.

Looking at some of Tschiholds work, we can instantly see some similarities and influences to the previous movements and artists we have discussed. The first thing we notice is the use of predominantly geometric shapes in the design. The large circle takes the centre stage of this design.  Reminiscent of DeStijl and constructivism, this design has a very ‘minimal’ and abstracted feel as per the use of simple lines and shapes along with a large amount of negative space and a limited colour scheme. In this work we can also see the use of Tschiholds advocated typeface style of sans serif which was very unorthodox to the rest of the community in his early career as a modernist. Another modernist characteristic we can see in this work is the lack of any focus in the centre of the page. The designs have all been shifted to either the right or left side of the page which has also given the design an asymmetric element to it. The use of hierarchy is also evident in this work through the scaling of typefaces. The title placed on top of the only coloured element on the work instantly attracts the viewer tell them that that’s where they should start reading from. The eye then turns downwards to read the smaller type that is placed in a line to direct the eyes.  

Here we have another example of Tschiholds work. We do see similar modernist characteristics in this work that we have already touch upon when discussing the previous work. Things like the limited colour pallet, exclusive use of geometric shapes, off centre design layout and even the use of purely sans serif typography. Another thing that is worth mentioning with this work is the way the lines are created in this work. It seems like everything has been shifted and rotated on its axis to create this sense of dynamism.  This is something that became increasingly popular at the time. To me, this work seems to be more influenced by constructivist works than anything else due to the colour scheme of red, white and black used.

Tschihold has a very important place in history because of how much his work and his philosophies influenced the typography that came after him and even the typography we see today on a daily basis.

 References: 

·         Designhistory-designhistory.com-2014[ http://www.designishistory.com/1920/jan-tschichold/][Last accessed on 23/01/2015]

The Bauhaus and Johannes Itten

Translating to ‘Building House’ The Bauhaus was founded in 1919 by Walter Gropius. With somewhat specific goals, The Bauhaus tackled various aspects of design. The Bauhaus philosophy was to achieve a unity in the arts. This required a sense of partnership and equality between artist and craftsmen, hence the students at The Bauhaus learnt both craftsmanship and artistry with equal importance. Some other philosophies they promoted was the notion of form following function. They wanted their products to have an emphasis on functionality and an aesthetic that, while looks good, does not in any way hinder its functionality in any way. This lead to simplistic and ‘to the point’ designs. One could call their design principles very utilitarian in essence. Their designs were made to be the most functional they could be that would help the most people they could. Aesthetically, Bauhaus followed their principles which meant that their look was characterised by simple yet strong shapes that serve a very clear purpose. The work was clean and void of unnecessary decoration, contrary to some of its predecessor’s like Art Deco and Art Nouveau.  

Johannes Itten was a teacher at The Bauhaus school.  He is namely known for his work with colour. His work with the colour wheel is arguably some of his more popular work but for this blog post I’d like to explore another one of his works that ties in very closely to the colour wheel.  This very simple work over here is, at first glance just a bunch of different coloured squares on different backgrounds. That in theory is a correct description but there is a bit more to this that makes It all the more interesting. Looking deeper into this work we can make the observation that this is an exploration colours effect on itself. The colour of the internal square is repeated on its horizontal counterpart, but the background is different. This gives the impression that the colours are different but they are in fact the same colour. This shows how colours interact with each other and how our mind perceives these colour combinations together. 

We can see The Bauhaus principles even in this work by Johannes Itten. The use of simple shapes was very typical of the style. The piece also tries to convey a message about the relationship of colour in a very straightforward and practical way which was also very typical of Bauhaus.

I do appreciate the work that The Bauhaus was trying to accomplish and all the remnants we see of it to this day in our current designs. That said, I would personally never choose to willingly work with that ethic in mind. The whole notion of ‘Art for the sake of Society’ rubs me the wrong way and makes me think there would be lots of thrown away ideas because it was not needed or functional enough.

References:   Johannes-itten-johannes-itten.com-2014[Last accessed on 23/01/2015][ http://www.johannes-itten.com/]

El Lissitzky and Russian Constructivism

Beginning in Russia in 1919, Constructivism is something that encompassed both art and architecture.  With a heavy focus on geometric shapes and a very specific colour scheme, constructivism paved the way for other similar movements such as Bauhaus. Similarly to De Stijl, Russian Constructivism was very focused on ‘minimal’ aesthetics through the use of geometric shapes and simplistic colours, namely red, white and black. In the design context, propaganda was a common theme that appeared in many Russian constructivist works.  El Lissitzky’s work was one of these examples as his work often attempted to put forward an agenda to its viewers.

Russian born artist and designer El Lizzitzky was quite the prominent figure in the Russian Constructivist scene.  His work being highly abstracted in nature managed to convey very political themes.  In this piece here called ‘Beat the Whites with the red wedge’ we can see how Lizzitzky has managed to apply constructivist concepts to his work.  The big red triangle in this piece is the first thing that catches the viewer’s eye. The triangle is representing the Bolchiveks penetrating the White movement during the civil war. Lizzitzky has managed to capture these complex political issues using purely geometric shapes and has done so in a way that the general public of the time had no problem understanding. This ease of understanding is something that is very important to any piece that is intended to be used as a form of propaganda as a clear message will garner more support for your agenda.  From a more technical standpoint, this work and many others under the constructivist banner have a very similar aesthetic to De Stijl which was covered just previously. Both deal with highly abstracted forms which are essentially geometric shapes in a block colour. The difference between the two styles arrives in a more conceptual form. Constructivism was all about the symbolism attributed to these shapes while De Stijl was all about achieving clarity through abstraction.

When looking to contemporary world of design and looking for constructivist influences, I found this interesting piece right here. This piece is obviously either done in parody or in tribute to El Lissitzyk’s  ‘Red Wedge’ propaganda poster that we just discussed above.  With this poster we can see that the designer has taken the fundamental elements from El Lissitzky’s  work and manipulated it to suit his own fantasy agenda instead, fantasy referring to the ‘Star Wars’ film series.

As a personal observation, I find that Russian Constructivism is a bit more interesting than De Stijl due to the symbolic nature of the work. The abstracted aesthetic is something that has intrigued me before but only when there was some thought behind it to make it more interesting and constructivism seems to attempt to do that by trying to convey these complex political messages through the use of basic shapes.

References:

·         Designhistory-designhistory.com-2014 [http://www.designishistory.com/1920/el-lissitzky/][Last accessed on 23/01/2015]

·         Arthistoryarchive-arthistoryarchive.com [http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/constructivism/][Last accessed on 23/01/2015

Piet Zwart and De Stijl

Chronologically following the Art Deco movement, De Stijl was a very much a reactionary movement to the ‘excess’ of the Art Deco and relatively the Art Nouveau movements respectively. Geographically starting in the Netherlands, De Stijl was led by artists such as Theo Van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian. De Stijl being a somewhat reactionary movement, their design principles was highly influenced by what they discouraged from Art Deco. They were against the highly decorative nature of Art Deco and hence reduced their work to basic principles of aesthetics. 

Contextually, De Stijl emerged in a post-World War I setting, and as such had a focus on rebuilding society a new with a new ‘visual Language’. This idea of a visual language was a key theme that is seen throughout the movement and the various artists and designers. By using a visual language, the goal was to achieve an aesthetic that anyone from any culture would be able to appreciate. To achieve this, the artists and designers reduced the style to the key concepts of aesthetics which meant that anyone could appreciate it since the work consisted of purely geometric shapes with block primary colours that anyone would be familiar with.  These principles are highlighted perfectly in the work of Piet Mondrian. His work was composed of primary colours and geometric shapes exclusively. 

Moving along to the Graphic Design side of things, De Stijl was also relevant to this corner of the creative arts. Piet Zwart was a Dutch designer that had work relevant to this movement. Taking this work of his as an example, we can see how these principles of De Stijl that we discussed from a fine art perspective have been used in the design world. In this work here we can see a clear attempt to use a very bare minimal aesthetic. The work is composed of purely strong geometric shapes. Along with this use of geometric shapes we can see a very simplistic use of colour. The colours we see here seem to be translucent block colours placed over each other at various sections to create darker tones. Something that is also typical to the De Stijl style is the sense of balance and structure in the work. With these two works we can see that with the use of strong straight lines the works achieve a sense of linear balance that is something that is seen throughout the De Stijl movement.

When looking to contemporary work, we can very often see the influences of De Stijl. In this work over here we can see some of the major characteristics of De Stijl present in the work. The use of somewhat block colour and highly reduced geometric shapes. Something that is specific to Piet Zwart’s design is also present in this contemporary example and that is the overlapping of shapes and colours to create a middle colour in between.

As a personal note, De Stijl is not really a movement I was too fond of purely due to the aesthetic of the work.  While the ‘minimal’ approach to work does fascinate me and the aesthetic is generally pleasing, the pure use of primary colours or a variation of them seems a bit too limiting for my tastes.

References:

·         Arthistory-arthistory.org-2014[ http://www.theartstory.org/movement-de-stijl.htm][Last accessed on 23/01/2015]