More than just grids, visual unity through asymmetrical organization, use of objective photography, sans sarif type flush left rag right, and mathematical grids
Most important is attitude over appearance and design is both socially useful and important
Traced back to the Bauhaus and constructivism
Max Bill and Theo Balmer- took on swiss design early and both were Bauhaus students
After WWI the swiss adapt to modernist ideals
Balmer is student at Dessau in the 1920s and uses implied grid in design
Max Bill involved in planning the Ulm (the Institute of Design) which is important due to its inclusion of semiotics as a field of study
Semiotics- the philosophical theory of signs and symbols, what things mean in relationship to other things
Syntactics- order
Semantics- meaning referred to
Pragmatics- hot its used
Ferdinand de Saussure- the dyadic model, a signifier and the signified
In reference to THE BRAIN-
it always finds the quickest and easier meaning, they will try and put things together that don't compute
Adrian Frutiger- b. 1928- creates the Univers (one of my favorites) family in 3 years, trashes the traditional roman system and uses numbered system in place of it (Univers 55), tremendous variation while using the same family
Armon Hoffman- HES ALIVEEE!!!
creates the archaic swiss style and a system of contrasting relationships, negative space plays a highly important role in any composition
"if you design the negative space, the rest will work"
Modernism- theory with a lot of thought, it acts as a real belief system
European- how can it help society vs. American (morph modernism and make it more pragmatic)- whats the concept
Paul Rand, Saul Bass and Ivan Chermayeff
1940s post WWII economy is growing, more european immigration, introducing more advertising along with European ideas
Paul Rand- cover for Direction magazine, uses dots to convey different meanings, often uses hand made media found images cut paper and collage, rough and less refined, designed the original UPS logo
Art-
an idea that has found the perfect form
aesthetics- when form and content become one
Saul Bass- designed film titles, many for Alfred Hitchcock, and the Man with the Golden Arm
Ivan Chermayeff- harvard and yale graduate (designed many logos for huge companies like Chase and NBC)
Personally, swiss design seems to take rigidity to a new level and the work of many of the people we've learned about is interesting but i'm not really sure how I completely feel about it. Its all about grids and designing to a system, and i think it relies a bit too much on the fusion of form AND function. I enjoy seeing that wabi sabi feel that type and design used to have, that hand crafted and imperfect feel. I love the clean cut and crisp style as well, don't get me wrong, but swiss design takes it further than i feel anything really did before it. Yes, it definitely feels like everything is EXACTLY where it needs to be to communicate most effectively, but its that intense stray from the hand crafted I feel pushes me away, the minimalistic and clean design seems to remove emotion and feeling from the art and move far into the world of organization and perfection. Its sometimes intimidating to look at this sort of work, because there it stands in front of you, bold and strong. The style is very flexible, though, and i really enjoy the idea that within such a well designed and perfect system, there is the flexibility and a designer is able to really personalize and create fresh imagery all the time with such contrast to other work. I can definitely see the influence of this movement on current design, and its truly amazing how the ideals and imagery stood without true contention that long, and most likely much longer based on how the future looks.
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