Investigation of Graphic Designers

Ladislav Sutnar

Ladislav Sutnar was a progenitor of the current practice of information graphics. For a wide range of American businesses, he developed graphic systems that clarified vast amounts of complex information, transforming business data into digestible units. He was also the man responsible for putting the parentheses around American telephone area-code numbers when they were first introduced.

Lester Beall

Lester Beall studied the dynamic visual form of the European avant-garde, synthesized parts into his own aesthetic and formed graphic design applications for business and industry that were appropriate, bold, comprehensive, and imaginative. He proved to American business that the graphic designer was a professional that could creatively solve problems and at the same time deal with pragmatic issues such as marketing and budgets. Beall produced solutions to design problems that were fresh and innovative. He studied the dynamic visual form of the European avant-garde, synthesized parts into his own aesthetic and formed graphic design applications for business and industry that were appropriate, bold, and imaginative. In his mature years he led the way with creative and comprehensive packaging and corporate identity programs that met the needs of his clients. The qualities and values that led to Beall's effectiveness are timeless and provide contemporary practitioners with an historical reference base upon which to evaluate present standards.

Leo Lionni

Leo Lionni has wedded fine art to applied art, elevated the level of graphic design criticism, launched the careers of many formidable practitioners, and engaged the minds and hearts of several generations in a variety of roles throughout his career: committed teacher, author, critic, editor, painter, sculptor, printmaker, designer, cartoonist and illustrator. Leo Lionni was born in Holland in 1910, into a world on the cusp of radical change—with cultural and political revolutions in the air and on the streets. His father was an artisan, a diamond cutter from a well-to-do Sephardic Jewish family, and his mother was a singer. Her brother, Piet, an architect, allowed his adoring, five-year-old nephew to play with his drafting supplies. And two other uncles, both collectors of modern art, fed his artistic inclinations by osmosis.

James Miho

James Miho, recipient of a 2004 AIGA Medal, is an art director of seminal campaigns for Champion Papers and the Container Corporation of America, a design educator, and a photographer. James Miho has spent a large part of his 50-year career in focused traveling, collecting the images and impressions that would inform a remarkable body of work for some of the most design-conscious clients of the 20th century. Miho was born into a wealthy Japanese family in northern California. With the onset of WWII, he and his family were interned for four years at Tule Lake on the California-Oregon border. Upon his return from fighting in the Korean War, Miho enrolled at Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA. The art and architecture he had seen during a two-week sojourn in Japan had inspired him to pursue a career in design.

Design Movements

Arts and Crafts:

The Arts and Crafts Movement developed in 19th-century Britain as a rebellion against the fashion for inventive sham and over-elaborate design and as an attempt to reverse the growing dehumanisation of work in society. It was based on simple forms, truth to materials and the use of nature as the source of pattern. Young London-based architects were inspired by the ideas of John Ruskin and William Morris. They founded the Art Workers' Guild in 1884 to break down barriers between architects, artists, designers and makers. The Arts and Crafts movement is all about pattern, design and even poetry. Artists such as William Morris defined the art movement. William Morris was a leading member of the Arts and Crafts Movement. He is best known for his pattern designs, particularly on fabrics and wallpapers. His vision in linking art to industry by applying the values of fine art to the production of commercial design was a key stage in the evolution of design as we know it today.

William Morris was an artist, designer, printer, typographer, bookbinder, craftsman, poet, writer and champion of socialist ideals. He believed that a designer should have a working knowledge of any media that he used and as a result he spent a lot of time teaching himself a wide variety of techniques. Like many designers of his time, Morris was skilled in a wide range of arts and crafts.

Art Nouveau:

Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that was most popular during 1890–1910. A reaction to academic art of the 19th century, it was inspired by natural forms and structures, not only in flowers and plants, but also in curved lines. Architects tried to harmonize with the natural environment. Art Nouveau is considered a "total" art style, embracing architecture, graphic art, interior design, and most of the decorative arts including jewellery, furniture, textiles, household silver and other utensils and lighting, as well as the fine arts. According to the philosophy of the style, art should be a way of life. Alphonse Mucha, was a Czech Art Nouveau painter and decorative artist, known best for his distinct style. He produced many paintings, illustrations, advertisements, postcards, and designs.

History of Graphic Design

Who created movable type?
Around 1450, Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press and independently developed a movable type system in Europe. However, The world's first known movable type system for printing was created in China around 1040 A.D. by Bi Sheng (990–1051) during the Song Dynasty; When this technology spread to Korea during the Goryeo Dynasty in 1234, they made the metal movable-type system for printing. This led to the printing of the Jikji in 1377, the oldest extant movable metal print book. 

What was the first mass produced book? Who produced it?
The first mass produced book was the bible by Johannes Gutenberg around 1450.

How do you classify type?
Humalist
Slab Serif (Egyptian)
Slab San Serif
Impact
Rockwell
Script
Geometric

Arts and Crafts movement

My museum trip

We went to the Paul Smith exhibition in London. His works included illustration, fashion and photography, all aspects of graphic design that would help us in our course and t shirt business. Some of the work was things that had inspired him and it was interesting to see where his inspiration came from as he is a very successful graphic designer. There was also an exhibition on propaganda that could help us in our project as it had many famous russian communist propaganda posters that we could use for inspiration and ideas, and also to get a firm grip of what propaganda is.

20th Century Art Movements

Fauvism

Fauvism is the style of les Fauves, a group of early twentieth-century Modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong color over the representational or realistic values retained by Impressionism. While Fauvism as a style began around 1900 and continued beyond 1910, the movement as such lasted only a few years, 1904–1908. The leaders of the movement were Henri Matisse and André Derain. Fauvism can use a realistic style mixed with bright colours to create an out of the ordinary image, or an impressionist style mixed with bright colours.

Futurism

Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century. It emphasized and glorified themes associated with contemporary concepts of the future, including speed, technology, youth and violence, and objects such as the car, the aeroplane and the industrial city. The Futurists practiced in every medium of art, including painting, sculpture, ceramics,graphic design, industrial design, interior design, urban design, theatre, film, fashion,textiles, literature, music, architecture and even gastronomy. Key artists of futurism are Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, Gino Severini, Bruno Munari and Luigi Russolo, Velimir Khlebnikov, Igor Severyanin, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Almada Negreiros, and many more. Its members aimed to liberate Italy from the weight of its past, to glorify modernity. Futurism influenced art movements such as Art Deco, Constructivism, Surrealism, Dada, and to a greater degree, Precisionism, Rayonism, and Vorticism.

 

Bauhaus

The Bauhaus was founded in Weimar, Germany in 1919 by an architect called Walter Gropius who aimed to  bridge the gap between art, design and industry and unifying all three.  It was a school where students received theoretical and practical training in all of the fine arts; ceramics, murals, stained glass, typography, metalwork, book binding, stone sculpture and furniture making, and learned to combine these fine art skills with new technologies to design and manufacture products that were both beautiful and practical. Its aim had been to bring artists and craftspeople together to ensure the survival of beautiful craftsmanship in the face of mechanized labour. Key figures in the Bauhaus movement include Anni Albers, Josef Albers, Herbert Bayer, Max Bill, Marianne Brandt, Marcel Breuer and Walter Gropius.

 

19th Century Art Movements

Symbolising

Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement from France, Russia and Belgium. In literature, the style had its beginnings with the publication Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil, 1857) by Charles Baudelaire. The aesthetic was developed by Stéphane Mallarmé and Paul Verlaine during the 1860s and '70s. In the 1880s, the aesthetic was articulated by a series of manifestos and attracted a generation of writers. The name "symbolist" itself was first applied by the critic Jean Moréas, who invented the term to distinguish the symbolists from the related decadents of literature and of art. Distinct from, but related to, the style of literature, symbolism of art is related to the gothic component of Romanticism.
Symbolism was largely a reaction against naturalism and realism, anti-idealistic styles which were attempts to represent reality in its gritty particularity, and to elevate the humble and the ordinary over the ideal. Symbolism was a reaction in favour of spirituality, the imagination, and dreams. Some writers, such as Joris-Karl Huysmans, began as naturalists before becoming symbolists. This change represented his increasing interest in religion and spirituality.
Symbolists believed that art should represent absolute truths that could only be described indirectly. This is why they painted in a very metaphorical and suggestive manner, endowing particular images or objects with symbolic meaning.

This is a painting by Gustave Moreau in the symbolism style. It depicts a woman being watched by a sleeping man with an eye on his forehead. This symbolises that although nature appears to be dormant and lifeless it is always watching us though we do not notice.

Romanticism

Romanticism was based on emotion rather than rationale, and placed an emphasis on the individual rather than on society. These works are characterized by a brighter use of color and expressive brushstroke, and were meant to evoke emotion. Within the context of Romanticism, the Barbizon School of artists gained momentum in the middle of the 19th century and propelled painting towards realism and an increased emphasis on images of nature. Rather than serving as a backdrop, scenes of nature became the subject of more and more paintings. The tranquility that is depicted in these paintings is supposed to be an expression of how the artist was feeling when looking at the scene.

This is a painting by Eugene Delacroix called Collision of Moorish Horsemen. It is a good example of several characteristics of Romanticism  art. The subject is a reflection of the excitement of Eastern culture. Furthermore, the action in the painting is delineated by rapid brushstrokes, and there is an emphasis on colour.

After receiving the financial backing to start up our t-shirt business project we split into groups to research different types of t-shirt printing and design ideas. We were given £500 to create an internet presence and create our apparel. We have began thinking about what products we will make as it is winter and people may not want to but as many t-shirts as hoodies and beanies etc.