Modernist Design
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| Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Theo van Doesburg - Grundbegriffe der Neuen Gestaltenden Kunst, Cover of a Bauhaus Book - 1925 (Graphic Style - Victorian to Postmodernism) |
The reasons for choosing this piece as an example of modernist graphic design are the ways in which it contains many traits which relate specifically to the modernist movement. Firstly, it is a piece of design for the cover of a Bauhaus book, which situates it in the modernist period and was also connected with the Dutch artistic movement, De Stijl, and its founder, Theo van Doesburg. De Stijl was a group of artists who were concerned with developing a utopian style of design which lacked emotion and was based purely on the use of simple geometric shapes and the primary colours. These aspects of design reflect the modernist era, in which designers created as minimalistic design as possible; essentially stripping the work back to the pure basics. The objective of modernist design was to communicate, and designers of this period avoided any unnecessary decoration as to emphasise the modernist ideals of form following function.
Postmodernist Design
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| Rosemarie Tissi - Englersatz, Poster for a Typesetting Company - 1983 - (Graphic Style - Victorian to Postmodernism) |
This piece of design fits the criteria for design created during under the postmodernist principles. Although it possesses many modernist qualities such as the simplified shapes and colours, this image which was used as a poster for a typesetting company was created by Rosemarie Tissi in a style which she and her design partner, Siegfried Odermatt, developed. They created a method of typographic collage which disperses shapes and forms with strips of lettering, and is a style which was intended to created a sense of spontaneity which ultimately gives the viewer the feeling that they are involved in the design process. This added emotion and the way in which there are elements of the image which are concerned more with form over function is what makes this poster postmodernist design and brings it away from the strict principles of modernist design.
