Archive for the ‘History’ Category
{Heads up: This is a long, non-illustrated essay-of-a-post and may be boring to non-designers.}
The moment I knew I wanted to become a designer was the moment I first acknowledged the poster designs of the Swiss De Stijl movement. Yes, I had seen some of those iconic posters as a young lad, however, I had not truly acknowledged them as pieces of design. Once I learned the basic principles of typography and layout, the beauty of Swiss modernist design really shone and spoke out to me; I am sure that this happens to many, if not all, aspiring and current graphic designers. The use of simplified form, simplified type, and logical layout in De Stijl, as well as Bauhaus posters was—and still is—utterly captivating. I knew then not only that I too wanted to make graphic works of art, but that my mentors would be the modernists of the 1900’s.
There is a very cool post over at a blog called Design*Sponge on Art Nouveau monograms designed in 1908 by Paul Starke. The images on the post come from a book called Modern Monogramme by Starke. The images below have just been copied from the Design*Sponge post.
I visited the Museum of Modern Art on January 7th, with my girlfriend, Anna, because she really wanted to see the new Tim Burton show. Yes, it was interesting, and yes, it was incredibly crowded; the entirety of the exhibit plus the people viewing it was a huge fire hazard. After we left the Burton show, I saw a few signs flitting about pointing upstairs to a Bauhaus show—this greatly piqued my interests, so I proceeded to convince Anna that the upstairs show was going to be incredibly awesome, and she followed.
Unsurprisingly, I found that the Bauhaus 1919-1933: Workshops for Modernity show was indeed awesome. Continue Reading »
Me:
Grids & Systems 