Dada Research

Hannah Höch
And When You Think the Moon is Setting, 1921


Hannah Höch
The Bride, 1933


Hannah Höch
Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada through the Last Weimar Beer Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany, 1919-20.

Dadaists often used techniques such as collage and photomontage in their work. This is especially true for Hannah Höch. Höch uses parts of other images and sometimes other materials to create a composite picture of her own design.

Art Nouveau Influences in 1960s Psychadelic Poster Design

Aubrey Beardsley
"The Peacock Skirt", illustration for Oscar Wilde's play Salome
1892


Victor Moscoso
Quicksilver Avalon Ballroom, San Francisco
March 1967


Alphonse Mucha
Job, 1897


Alton Kelley, 1966
(In the video game industry, they'd call this a "palette swap" ;-))


Alphonse Mucha
Ad for Moet & Chandon


Alton Kelley and Stanley Mouse, 1967

Massimo Vignelli's NYC Subway Diagram

Massimo Vignelli
NYC Subway Diagram, 2008
Massimo Vignelli is an internationally-renowned graphic designer. This diagram is updated from his 1972 design. The simplicity of the design makes for an aesthetically pleasing composition while also seeming to make the transit system appear at least a little less overwhelming! Vignelli likes to use Helvetica in his works and I'd like to use that statement as an opportunity to make an observation about Helvetica. Something about the clean harmony of the letterforms makes me divided about its use in certain settings. In a corporate or mass transit context, it comes across as friendly and affable, but when used in more intimate settings such as the signage for a cozy cafe or a cute little boutique, dare I say it comes across as a little aloof? I'm not sure.
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Lucian Bernhard's Priester Matches Poster

Lucian Bernhard
Priester Matches, 1906
Sachplakat
Lucian Bernhard helped to influence the poster genre known as Sachplakat, or "object poster". Although Sachplakat itself did not achieve widespread use until much later, this design is the epitome of that genre, displaying only the brand name and the product being advertised. I think the economy of the design in both form and color is relevant to designers today because sometimes it is necessary for the purposes of print, logo design or t-shirt design to create something aesthetically pleasing and visually recognizable with that sort of economy, and this poster is a great example of how to do that effectively.
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Taki 183

Taki 183 was one of the first graffiti artists to gain widespread recognition, partly due to the ubiquity of his writing and partly due to the New York Times article written about him in 1971. He inspired a generation of writers to leave their mark on the city, as well as created a template for many future pseudonyms ("Taki" is short for the Greek version of his name and 183 is the street he lived on; some writers mimicked this format).
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Futura typeface by Paul Renner

Paul Renner
Futura Typepace, 1928
Dessau Bauhaus/Deutscher Werkbund
Paul Renner, in addition to being a typographer, also wrote about typography; his work influenced functional modernist design. Futura is an example of this; the unadorned, geometric letterforms echo the shapes of the furniture and architecture of the Bauhaus style and even the De Stijl style. It is such an influential and popular typeface that it is used to this day--even in the hallways of the art department, you're bound to see it from time to time!
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Lisbon Billboard by Stefan Sagmeister

Stefan Sagmeister, Date unknown
Text reads, "Complaining is silly. Either act or forget."
Sagmeister is one of the most sought-after designers in the business. This billboard, utilizing the bleaching power of the sun, is an example of his innovative approach to design media. The way the sun is utilized as a medium interests me personally because I have recently been experimenting with photography and this billboard could be interpreted as an example as the literal meaning of the word "photography" (drawing/writing with light).
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Leonetto Capiello's Chocolat Klaus

Leonetto Capielllo
Chocolat Klaus, 1903
Art Nouveau
This is an example of Capiello's influential style that changed the way posters looked at the time. The bold colors on a black background were a dramatic change from the norm, and the horse specifically is a non-naturalistic color. I find the green-on-red contrast very striking, as well as the pale white skin against the black background, and the bold sans-serif lettering used for the name of the product is makes it easier to read, which may explain why it replaced more painterly lettering as the standard.
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Paul Rand's IBM logo, 1972 (International/"Swiss" Style)

IBM logo
1972
Paul Rand
International Style / "Swiss" Style

A revision of Rand's original logo design from 1956, the three solid letters are sliced into eight horizontal bars, giving them a fast, dynamic look. Paul Rand was one of the most influential designers of the 20th century.
Personally, they remind me of scan lines on a monitor, or an old printer from the 80s. The nostalgia factor for me increases quite a bit when considering that I remember booting up our classroom IBM computers in school from a light blue 3.5" floppy disk. Even though it's one of the most easily recognizable logos out there, I'm surprised I hadn't given more thought to the way it looks, such as counting the number of lines in the logo. Maybe it was something I'd counted as a little kid, but I must have forgotten it at some point. In any case, it's an important logo from a design history standpoint.

Movie Poster Research

1. A poster designed this millenium:
Lord of War (Art Machine, A Trailer Park Company, 2005)

The wall of text that is customarily placed at the bottom of most posters migrates to the border of this poster to help shift emphasis from the credits to the image of the title character. The unique texture of the image draws the viewer in to reveal the jarring secret to its unity--it's actually made entirely of bullets and shell casings!

2. A Post-Modern Movie poster (designed after 1960):
A Clockwork Orange (Philip Castle, 1971)

The repeated triangular shape of the central images (themselves making an "A") and the "A" in orange brings a geometric unity to the design, intentionally disrupted by the shape of the knife jabbing out of the image's tidy triangular bounder, drawing attention to the chilling images inside. Couple that with the film's understated but straightforward tag line, and the design as a whole captures the mood of a pristine surface masking sinister undercurrents, setting the tone for an otherwise complex and hard-to-describe film.

3. A poster designed by Saul Bass:
One, Two, Three (1961)

Bass's monochromatic design emphasizes the juxtaposition of two images that need no introduction: the iconic shape of the Coca-Cola bottle and the American flag. The image maintains its unity by using the same handwritten lettering for the title (placed on the label of the bottle), the director and the cast, while the lettering conforms to the shape of the bottle--a playful design befitting a comedy.

4. A movie poster designed before 1950:
Gone with the Wind (Artwork by Howard Terpning, Design by Tom Jung, 1939)

Emphasis is placed on a scintillating picture of the two principal characters, with extra tension created with the use of bright oranges and yellows. The tiny vignette of Civil War imagery below and the modest placement of "Winner of 10 Academy Awards" rounds out the design as if to say, "Seeing Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh getting hot-blooded should be enough for you, but just in case here's some historical context and cinematic credentials. Hello? Most magnificent picture EVER!"