Modernism originated in the first half of the 20th century and is still extremely relevant in todays society. It discards traditional techniques, focusing direct experience through individualism, experimenting and absurdity. Using geometric shapes, san-serif fonts, structure, modernism has a simplistic approach where less represents more. It goes by the rule ‘Form Follows Function’ for example using a stop button on a bus to indicate your stop. It was one of the most prominent styles of designs of architecture for its time.
Futura is a very functional type designed by Paul Renner in Germany during 1927. Formed by geometric shapes such as circles, squares and triangles, it is a very aesthetically pleasing font. Being a san-serif type, it is very modernistic as it is very angular and sharp angles. An example of Futura being used is on the plaque used in the first moon landing in 1969 and Nike who use a variety of the font.
Creater of ‘The New Typography’ and ‘Elementary Typography, Tshichold who was born in early 20th century Germany was a calligrapher and typographer. Best known for his symmetric and asymetric type designs that used san serif letterform and bold text in work such as ‘Die Neue Typographie’, Tschicholds designs were implemented to everyday life in things such as film and books. This work created a new approach to type for everyone.
German graphic designer Otto Aicher established and taught at the Ulm School of Design, one of the most successful art schools of its time. Some people who attended it included former Bauhaus students, who introduced The Bauhaus approach to the teaching there and inspired their students.
Aicher had a difficult upbringing after he was arrested for refusing to join the Hitler Youth and couldn’t complete his college entrance exams and therefore couldn’t go to college. He was then enlisted to fight in the second world war despite not wanting to and later deserted it and went into hiding until the war had finished.
Aicher became one of the leading designers of the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, focusing on the design of the set of pictograms used to help the audience understand what each event was and create a universal language to break the language barriers.
As someone who is a big fan of the Olympics and the design system used, I really like Aichers’ work on the pictograms and the use of the simplistic sport silhouettes created on 45 and 90 degree angles. They are really easy to interpret and doesn’t need an explanation about what sport they represent.
Beall was an American Graphic designer known for his modernism art. His work was very visual and direct work used in packaging and advertisements and was a real pioneer when it comes to graphic design in America. His work was inspired by Surrealism, Constructivism and Dadaism and during the 1930/40s his typography inspired by these eras became very popular worldwide. His recognisable graphic design was boldness, using primary colours and illustrative features such as arrows, lines and shapes in his work because during that period it was easy for people to understand as little people could read.
