Seymour Chwast

He is thought of as one of the greatest graphic designers of his time, well known for his commercial works and typefaces. Seymour Chwast’s unique design got him the nickname “the left-handed designer” and numerous awards. His life, involvement in the Push Pin Studio, and the commercial art that made him famous are each elements of Seymour that continue to influence designers around the world.

Psychedelic Posters

Psychedelic posters were identified as such because the media and most people related them to the rebel cause and psychedelic drugs. They were characterized by curves like in art nouveau, warped lettering and complementary colors that ranged very close in values. Most often these posters were social statements versus advertisments, which were influenced by events such as the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War and the women's liberation movement. A majority of the artists that contributed to the psychedelic poster movement did not professionally taught and designed mostly for band concerts and dance clubs. Robert Wesley Wilson was at the head of the movement as the innovator and among one of the strongest self-taught designers. Other designers were Peter Max, who experimented often with printing techniques and different mediums, and David Lance Goines. He was kicked out of the University of California at Berkeley and worked for a press and later owned it and called it the Saint Hieronymous Press. He combined lithography and graphic design to create effective communications for both himself and the public. His work is characterized by the simple lines and contours, flat color, and symmetrical design. By the 80's, the poster was printed for decoration and photos and painting became posters for the masses with the artist's names and the work title printed as part of the piece.
I just like this style in general. It is so unique and different from previous movements and it wasn't used for advertisements outside of band concerts. I just like the self-expressionism of the style and the incorporation of art nouveau with the combination of bright colors. I also like Goines' individual style. I feel like you could pick his work out very easily since it is so distinct.
Why was the psychedelic poster movement so short?

Chapter 21

Conceptual images were the product of the desire for something new after the second world war and, instead of just telling a story, these images displayed and idea or concept, hence "conceptual images". Poland and America were two big players in the development of conceptual images, but it was an international movement. After the war, Poland basically had a whole lot of nothing left, but a Polish poster art school opened and brought color, hope and happiness back. Henryk Tomaszewski was one of the leading graphic designers at the time and used light-hearted paper cut-out collages to win over Poland and other countries. Franciszek Starowiejski experimented in the opposite spectrum of the poster world, working with surrealism and the metaphysical to show a darker side of Poland. This was mostly a reaction to what was going on with their government and in society at the time. A reccuring trend among poster designers in Poland was the collage and an influence from Art Nouveau. Some designers also used a variety of mediums in their posters, such as crayons and paints, and several colors. Many designs of this time are borderline trippy with the patterns and colors used. In America, narrative illustration was on a decline as photography became more prominant, but it soon found a new function in conceptual imaging. Milton Glaser, one of the Push Pin Studio artists, created his images using thin black lines and flat shapes of color that looks heavily influenced by Art Nouveau. He used bright colors and silhouettes, which echos the style. Glaser and his partner, Seymour Chwast, designed a few typefaces together that were influenced by the Victorian period, art deco and art nouveau. Many other designers who attended Push Pin Studio also became prominant designers of the time with their revivals and new ideas. Push Pin really was the place that illustration was given a new place in graphic design. The conceptual image idea on posters in third world countries soon became important after the war as well as a way to challenge authority and express feelings. Their posters were messangers for addressing social and political problems, motivation and international issues. This type of poster design became popular in Cuba in 1959.
I find it empowering and inspiring to know that after World War 2 left Poland with nothing to work with in agriculture or industry, a school for poster art sort of sprung from the ashes. I think that it was a very good thing for Polish society that it did because the people needed to see that there was some hope at the end of all the destruction that they went through. If the war could bring the end to everything, including the art and graphic design field, and then have poster designs appear when it's all over and flourish, then other things will be able to come back too.
Why were styles like art nouveau being revived at this time?

Chapter 20

Corporate Identity was important for companies during the 1950's, as well as their visual systems. Visual systems were important for the image of the company and help it reach the goals they wanted to achieve. Giovanni Pintori was among the first desginers to help develop visual identification. He worked for Olivetti, which wanted to promote their image of industry and engineering. Pintori achieved this well with the way he made his complex designs feel so simplistic by using small elements as a harmonious whole. At this time, the most well known and developed corporate identity became CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System) because of its president, Frank Stanton, and art director, William Golden. Golden was the one responsible for the CBS eye that is so well known still today. He believed that the designers job was to make sure that the message meant to be expressed was done so accurately and well. Another designer for CBS was Georg Olden, who was important to the development of tv broadcast images. He learned how to design on-air graphics to suit the way television would display them and became the first prominant African American graphic designer. Paul Rand started doing trademark design and used simple, universal shapes in order to make them last. He redesigned the IBM logo into what is used today. He also designed the Westinghouse Corporation trademark, ABC and the NeXT computer logo. Many other companies underwent corporate identity changes with Lester Beall and Chermayeff & Geismer Associates. The general principle behind every designer and their design was to make the logo memorable to the viewer to keep them coming back to it and to recognize it anywhere, while keeping it simple. Transportation signs were also getting a facelift around this time. The principles were similar too. A lot of important information needed to be communicated fast and easily. To accomplish this, each transportation system developed symbols to unify communications internationally. This was also applied to international events like the Olympics, designed by Lance Wyman.
I think the coolest part of the chapter was reading about the MTV logo. It was the first of its kind to be as versitile as it was since it was so simple. The network could give it different personalities for any and every occasion and need. I think it is the ultimate design because it can be anything you want it to be or need it to be, while still meaning the same thing. The identity doesn't change, just the way it looks.
Why were there so many different designs for the Olympics?

Chapter 19

In the 1940s, America started to make steps toward their own modern style, which was influenced by European design, but became distinct in the need for personal expression and open ideas. Paul Rand was at the head of this movement in America with his designs on the covers of magezines. He used simple and contrasting design elements that made the whole symbolic and interesting. He also used a combination of wordplay and visual elements such as a photo or logo in later designs. His understanding of symbols and communication in general allowed him to create a design that exhibited both form and function while still getting his message across. Another influential postwar designer was Bradbury Thompson. His experimentation with letterpressing and combination of geometric and organic shapes in his designs gave them strong expression and meaning. Film typography underwent changes with Saul Bass. He unified the designs of the logos, posters and title in the film, which he pioneered many techiniues in. This chapter also discusses the graphic design program at Yale University and the impact that it had. Alvin Eisenman and Josef Albers were both teachers there and the exercises and studies they taught lead an advancement in the graphic design education internationally. During the 1950s, there was a revolution in the way editorial magezines were designed. Type and photography were used together, or type became the picture/illustration itself. There was an experimentation with scale and on location photos were used instead of studio shots. In the 1960s, the editorial magezine changed again, this time targeting specific audiences and emphasizing content and text in a grid format. The 50s advertisment was a change of the times too. White space and a concern for the clarity of the message to the consumer were new plans. There was now a focus in each ad that utilized headlines and images effectively. Figurative typography also became popular at the time as well as a rrevival of nineteenth century typefaces that were previously rejected.
I like Paul Rand's work a lot and feel like he was a very important designer to the modern movement in America, since he was one of the first. I just like the way he used contrasting shapes, colors and ideas in his designs to express his thoughts. My favorite from the book is the "Direction" cover with the barbed wire on the Christmas package.
What was the New York School?

Chapter 18

International Typographic Style, also known as Swiss design, came about during the 1950's and was characterized by a grid design which was sometimes clearly included in the overall design and sometimes ommitted. Information was presented clearly and a very organized manner, often left-aligned and sans serif. This style of design also left behind propaganda and exaggerated design to ensure the clearity of the portrayal of the message. Ernst Keller, a teacher at the School of Applied Art, was an important designer in the development of Swiss design. He felt that the content of an image should decide the design and not fit a specific style. Theo Ballmer was also a designer that had an impact on Swiss design. He studied at the Bauhaus and was influenced by De Stijl. His poster designs utilized the mathematical grid of Swiss design and geometric letterforms. Another student of Bauhaus, Max Bill, was influential in not just graphics, but in many other fields including architecture and painting. Art Concret was his idea for a universal design of clarity built on mathematics and was visually abstract. Bill designed based on an organized and ordered whole, utilizing the ideas of mathematics such as permutations and sequences and grids. Another unique contribution to design was given by a designer from Zurich by the name of Anton Stankowski. He was known for taking photos of everyday objects and abstracting them in his designs from the patterns and textures he found. From this, a visual form of invisible forces and processes such as radio waves and the conduction of heat was produced in his posters. Like I said before, one of the characteristics of this style was the use of sans-serif type styles. Adrian Frutiger designed twenty-one styles of the Univers family that exhibited a unity together that wasn't repeated in Helvetica by Edouard Hoffman and Max Miedinger. Herman Zapf designed a roman inspired Palatino, a modern Melior, and a thick sans-serif called Optima. All were influenced by past typefaces, but also displayed Zapf's understanding of the modern time and technology. Several other designers that furthered the Swiss design style came from either Zurich or Basel at this time, where the major design schools were at. Josef Muller-Brockmann came from Zurich and became important to this style. He wanted to design and convey a message without his own feelings and ideas getting in the way of what the viewer thought. He used the overall design as a symbol and scaled photos and different angles to achieve clarity and impact. Josef also utilized geometric forms and symbols as well as grids in his designs. Siegfried Odermatt was also influential in the clarity and impact of his works, but applied in the business and corporate end of design. He used typography to achieve the same impact graphics could simply by the strength and organizational placement of the type. The Swiss design style was influential in America after the war. The grid structure and asymmetries were adapted into designs for book covers and album covers and was embraced at the Massachusettes Institute of Technology.
I particularly enjoy the works of Stankowski and Muller-Brockmann. I like the idea of creating patterns to represent things that we physically cannot see and often can't feel, with the exception of heat. I also like the way Muller-Brockmann used scale in the photo elements of his designs. I think that they have a bigger impact and are more dynamic that way.
What was the big deal with the application of mathematical methods and grids in design?

Week 7 Images

Both of these images are my own sketches of the Band-Aid Brand packaging. The bottom image is Frank Lloyd Wright inspired. I looked particularly at the designs he submitted to "Liberty" the magezine as inspiration, as well as the stained glass windows that were in many of the houses he designed. I used simple lines and geometric shapes and I used a typeface that was based on a lettering style he used. I think it's simple enough and the type interacts well with the lines. I would like to have been able to use color so I could show an interaction with white space as well.
The top image is a package design influenced by futurism. I did my best to make the words "Band-Aid" legible while using the images of band-aids. I think I would fix the "i" in "Aid" to look more like an "i" because looking at it now, I think it reads like an "L" instead. Futurism is a style where they made images with typography and I think I did that with the picture of the band-aid by writing "flexible fabric" in the shape. I think I like the simplicity of the design since there is quite a bit of white space, but I wonder if it would need something more. I'm also afraid of making it too complicated and sending a different message. I tried to not do anything real special for the type in the shape of the band-aid, just for readability and simplicity since the brand name was the focus.