Before Class: Chapter Fifteen 3/13/09

1. Sum up the reading in your own words in 1 paragraph.
This chapter starts of with how the Russian suprematism and communism influenced graphic design through the use of a “cubo-futurism” style. Experimentation in typography and design characterized their futurist publications, which presented work by the visual and literary art communities. Kasimir Malevich founded this painting style (suprematism) of basic forms and pure color, which provided a new, nonobjective geometric abstraction to graphic design. Malevich, along with Kandinsky, opposed the old order and conservative visual art. They argued that art must remain an essentially spritual activity apart from the utilitarian needs of society. El Lissitzky was a large influence on constructivism; he created the PROUNS painting style of 3D illusions, which showed the “interchange between painting and architecture.” In 1917 the De Stijl movement was launched in the Netherlands by Theo Van Doesburg; the style was an abstract geometric style. Its forerunners wanted to become a prototype for a new social order.

2. Name the one thing (or person) you found most interesting from the reading.
One thing that I found interesting was that these two movements used primary colors and bold, flat shapes that seemed to show the artistic influences before and after the movement. They also pushed cubism towards a geometric abstraction. Both have unique styles, and each individually influenced graphic design.

3. State at least one question you have after the reading. (if you state none here, you’d better have more detail done above to offset the work.)
One thing that I noticed from this chapter is that the focus was mainly on poster designs, even though children's books were mentioned, but didn't go into detail. Why is that? Aren't book designs a form of graphic design as well as poster designs?

After Class: Day Sixteen 3/11/09

1. Name of graphic style (or topic) studied this session: Yesterday's class started off with another presentation, Victoria presented on Pictorial Modernism, modern posters. We discussed that for the first half of class, and she had us do a pictionary game with only using the ideas of what we learned in class. It was really interesting and kind of fun. We then went over questions from Chapter 13. Most of the questions revolved around Dadaism and the whole concept of it. It's still kind of confusing but I think I have a better understanding of it.

2. Describe specific qualities of this style (or if it’s a topic-highlights of that topic) that will help you identify it in the future.
We went over the differences between the Allies posters and the Central Powers posters, and how they were conveying the same type of message but were doing it in completely different styles.

3. What is the most useful or meaningful thing you learned today?

The most useful thing that happened in class yesterday was the pictionary game and the overview of the questions from the last chapter. The pictionary game was useful because it showed us how difficult it is to showcase a product without words and with following the style of the era. And going over the questions was really helpful because I didn't completely understand Dadaism.

4. State at least one question you have after the class. (if you state none here, you’d better have more detail done above to offset the work.)
Why is it that we still use the style of posters that were used by the Allies in WWI?