Before Class: Chapter Eighteen & Nineteen 4/6/09

1. Sum up the reading in your own words in 1 paragraph: During the 1950s a design movement emerged from Switzerland and Germany, which has been called Swiss design or International Typographic Style. The objective of this style was clarity of design. It was popular for over two decades and its influences continued until the 21st century. Sans-serif typography with a flush-left and ragged-right margin were used primarily. A couple "pioneers of the movement" were Ernst Keller, Theo Ballmer, Max Bill, Max Huber, Anton Stankowski, and Rudolph DeHarak just to name a few. In 1918 Keller joined the Zurich Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Applied Art) to teach advertising layout courses and to develop courses in design and typography. Balmer studied briefly at Bauhaus in the late 1920s, and used an arithmetic grid of horizontal and vertical alignments in his designs. Bill's worked with painting, architecture, engineering, sculpture, and product and graphic design. In 1931 he embraced the concepts of art concret, which was very mathematical and used bright colors, after he moved to Zurich in 1929. Huber created/worked on phenomenal projects with trasparencies of printing inks and layering shapes. His designs puched the envelope and were said to be "on the edge of chaos." Stankowski lived in Zurich from 1929 to 1937, during this time he was very influential in photography. In 1968 the senate of Berlin commissioned Stankowski for a design program with the city. And DeHarak was an American that was a self-taught graphic designer who embraced the new European design.

2. Name the one thing (or person) you found most interesting from the reading.
One person that I really liked reading about was Rudolph DeHarak, mainly because he was an American. I mean because America was so late in the game and it was nice reading about someone in the U.S. that was helping it move along with the rest of the world. I also thought that it was interesting to see that he had made over 350 book jackets McGraw-Hill Publishers. He had really creative and abstract designs that are really fun to look at.

3. State at least one question you have after the reading or from last class.
Did people understand Anton Stankowski's posters right away? I think that the three (18-9, 18-10, 18-11) that are in the book are very well done and beautiful but aren't the easiest to understand right away?


1. Sum up the reading in your own words in 1 paragraph: This chapter was about the new design concept in America. Paul Rand, Bill Bernbach, Alvin Lustig, Alex Steinweiss, Saul Bass, George Tscherny, and Robert Brownjohn we the pioneers of the New York School. This chapter was mainly about magazine and newspaper design and layout (from what I understood from it) and it talked about the pioneers contributions to the design. Rand was at the head of the movement and he used simple and contrasting design elements. Lustig incorporated his subjective vision and privat symbols into graphic design. Steinweiss was twenty-four years old and became the art director at Columbia Records; his modern designs were comprised of visual forms, shapes, and colors. Bass created the first title sequence for The Man With The Golden Arm, he also created numerous corporate-identity programs. Tscherny was the head of the graphic design department for the New York design firm George Nelson & Associates before opening his own office in 1956. Technology was being used more and more during this time for photography and printing.

2. Name the one thing (or person) you found most interesting from the reading.
I really liked the magazine covers. The new layouts, the new designs, and the concepts behind all of them. A couple of my favorites were the McCall's patterns (black and red with two woman) and the Bazaar cover with the woman's face and a water glass.

3. State at least one question you have after the reading or from last class.
Why was The Man With The Golden Arm title sequence was such a big deal? Why were rectangles used for the sequence? And I still don't completely get New York School. Is it mainly about magazine design and layout?