Otl Aicher
The last person I focused on in my Bachelor’s Degree Senior Thesis was was the german designer Otl Aicher. The image above is actually what gave me the idea to post portions of my thesis to the web. My parents gave me this poster for Christmas this year. I’m not sure if it’s an original or not (probably too affordable to be original) but it’s the fencing poster for the 1972 Munich games. You can get yourself a poster here and read more about Otl Aicher below.
Paul Rand
This post section of my college thesis that features the 2nd designer I chose to focus on, Paul Rand. Below I also included some great interviews with and about Paul Rand. Enjoy!
Graphic Design Theory: Grid
In Helen Armstrong’s Graphic Design Theory Karl Gerstner’s Design Programmes and Josef Müller-Brockmann’s Grid and Design Philosophy essays represent an effort to codify design practice. The designers discuss using considered systems in order to solve the problems in their projects.
Graphic Design Theory: The Crystal Goblet
The next essay in Helen Armstrong’s Graphic Design Theory is The Crystal Goblet, or Why Printing Should be Invisible by Beatrice Warde. Ms Warde was an eminent mind in the printing industry from the 1930s through 50s. The Crystal Goblet is often referred to in typographic circles for its thesis that encourages the humble use of typography to serve the text instead of vanity.
Graphic Design Theory: The New Typography
The fifth essay in Helen Armstrong’s Graphic Design Theory is an excerpt from Jan Tschichold’s The New Typography.¹ Jan Tschichold was a German typographer who rose to prominence in the 1920s and would be instrumental in shaping the printed page that we say today.
Graphic Design Theory: Our Book
The third essay in Karen Armstrong’s Graphic Design Theory is El Lissitzky‘s Our Book. El Lissitzky was a Russian deeply invested in the Soviet cause. He served as an ambassador for the Russian avant-garde in Germany in the 20s, sending Constructivism’s geometric abstraction throughout Europe. In his essay he discusses book arts in depth and the dissolution of thought-communication forms.
Graphic Design Theory: Initial Manifestos
Karen Armstrong’s Graphic Design Theory starts off with an analysis of the Avant-Garde movements at the beginning of the twentieth century that set the course that graphic design would follow. The initial entries are manifestos that spoke to the changing influences in the modern world and redefined an artist’s place in it, Manifesto of Futurism by F.T. Marinetti (1909)¹ and Who We Are: Manifesto of the Constructivist Group by Aleksandr Rodchenko, Varvara Stepanova, & Aleksei Gan (1922)². They are both written in verse form, which is harder to understand than a regular prose essay in some ways while easier in others.
Graphic Design Theory: A Class of One
I love design. I also love history. Luckily there’s this thing called design history. Throughout the progression of design different theories have surfaced, sometimes reinforcing one another and sometimes in direct opposition to established ideas. It’s always good to review the different movements and ideas in a the field so I decided to through myself a refresher course. I will be reading a collection of essays in Helen Armstrong’s Graphic Design Theory. After reading each essay I will be posting my thoughts about it here on the blog. So stay tuned.
Deeply Intertwingled
Here’s another paper I wrote for my Multimedia Survey class on realizing more effect content searching on the web. Read ahead and enjoy, I’ve added links where they didn’t exist in the paper version so you can see some of the stuff I’m talking about.