POSTMODERNISM / Overview I / Xlviii

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GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / POSTMODERNISM / Overview i / xlviii

Postmodernism

1 Overview 1

2 Supergraphics 7

3 Early Swiss Postmodernism 12

4 New Wave Typography 22

5 Mannerism 44

6 Conclusion 48

1960’S – 1980’S Overview

Towards the end of the 1960’s many different artistic styles were being practiced in the field of graphic design, causing a schism of multiple sub-genres, collectively referred to as postmodernism.

“In design, postmodernism designated the work of architects and designers who were breaking with the international style so prevalent since the Bauhaus. ”

– MEGGS

“By the 1970s, many believed the modern era was drawing to a close in art, design, politics, and literature. The cultural norms of Western society were being scrutinized, and the authority of traditional institutions was being 1970’S – 1990’S questioned.” – MEGGS Postmodernism Encompasses a wide-ranging collection of design ideologies

• Reprioritization of Modernist values • Legibility is sacrificed • Complexity of form

1970’S – 1990’S Postmodernism Encompasses a wide-ranging collection of design ideologies

• Dynamic visual organization “Historical references, decoration, • Dismissal of gridded alignment and the vernacular were disdained by modernists, while postmodern designers • Variety and inclusion drew upon these resources to expand the • Gestural mark-making range of design possibilities.”

– MEGGS

1970’S – 1990’S Postmodernism Encompasses a wide-ranging collection of design ideologies

• Emphasis on personal expression • Niche demographics • Subcultural appeal

“Postmodern designers place a form in space because it “feels” right rather than to fulfill a rational communicative need.”

– MEGGS

1960’S – 1980’S Postmodernism Encompasses a wide-ranging collection of design ideologies

• Style as content • Authorship of the designer • Reassertion of artistic values

“Postmodern design ... is often subjective and even eccentric; the designer becomes an artist performing before an audience with the bravura of a street musician, and the audience either responds or passes on.”

– MEGGS

1960’S – 1980’S Postmodernism Five major currents

1. International Typographic Style “Postmodern graphic design can be loosely Early extensions, late 1960’s categorized as moving in several major 2. New-wave Typography directions...” Basel, Switzerland, 1970’s

– MEGGS 3. Mannerism The Memphis Group and San Francisco style, 1980’s 4. Retro and Vernacular Re-imaginings of earlier movements and referential design, 1980’s–1990’s 5. Digital Revolution Macintosh, late 1980s

1960’S Supergraphics

An early outgrowth of the International Style, large colorful typographic graphics were applied to architectural spaces and termed supergraphics.

LATE 1960’S Supergraphics • Bold geometric shapes of bright color • Giant sans serif letterforms • Huge pictographs • Scale changes relative to the architecture • Full integration into the built environment

The whole idea of supergraphics is to knock down walls with paint. That’s what a growing group of young architects and designers are trying to do—change the apparent shape of rooms, bring order to rambling space, break up boxlike confines—all by applying outsize designs to floors, walls and ceilings.

– LIFE MAGAZINE, MAY 3, 1968

LATE 1960’S Early Swiss Postmodernism

The first outbursts of dissent came from practitioners working within the confines of the International Style itself.

LATE 1960’S Rosmarie Tissi

“One of the earliest indications that a younger generation of graphic designers was starting to enlarge its range of possibilities in the 1960s was the 1964 advertisement for the printer E. Lutz & Company by Rosmarie Tissi.”

–MEGGS

© KEVIN WOODLAND, 2015 ROSMARIE TISSI, (LEFT) POSTER FOR MERCE CUNNINGHAM 1991; (CENTER) DIRECT MAIL FOLDER FOR ANTON SCHÖB PRINTERS, 1981 GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / POSTMODERNISM / Early Swiss Postmodernism 15 / 48

LATE 1960’S Siegfried Odermatt • Started a studio with Rosmarie Tissi in 1968. • Early example of legibility sacrifice for conceptual advancement

1968 – 1980’S Odermatt & Tissi

LATE 1960’S Steff Geissbuhler • Zofingen, Switzerland • Basel School of Art and Design, 1958 • Studied under Armin Hofmann and Emil Ruder • 1975 joined Chermayeff & Geismar Associates as an Associate Partner and from 1979 to 2005 • Founded geissbühler:design, an independent design consultancy, in 2011

New Wave Typography

1970’S

A further extention of the Swiss style, New Wave Typography (or Swiss Punk) is a complete indulgence in formal experimentation and chance discovery.

“...legibility is often in conflict with readability.”

– DAN FRIEDMAN

1945 – 1995 Dan Friedman • From Cleveland, Ohio • Studied at Carnegie Institute of Technology from 1963-1967 • Attends Ulm School of design for a year, 1967–68 • Attends Schule fur Gestaltung Basel, under Wolfgang Weingart and Armin Hofmann, 1968 • Taught at Yale University from 1970–1973 • Freelance work in New Haven • Assistant professor and chairman of the board study in Design, State University of New York, Purchase, 1972-1975 • In 1975, he was hired by Anspach Grosmann Portugal Inc. • 1979 he became a design director at Pentagram • In 1994 he became Frank Stanton Professor of Graphic Design at the Cooper Union

© KEVIN WOODLAND, 2015 (LEFT) DAN FRIEDMAN, DIE NORMANNEN KOMMEN, 1968; (CENTER) DAN FRIEDMAN, POSTER FOR THE YALE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, 1973 GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / POSTMODERNISM / New Wave Typography 25 / 48

“I tend to favor visual systems that aim toward coherency while simultaneously suggesting a degree of spontaneous disruption.”

– DAN FRIEDMAN

BORN 1941 Wolfgang Weingart • From Salemertal, Germany • Attended Merz Akademie in Stuttgart, 1958–1960 • Presented his work to Emil Ruder and Armin Hoffman, 1963 • Studied under Hoffman at Kunstgewerbeschule, Basel, 1964 • Offered typography instructor position by Hoffmann, due to Ruder illness [1968] • Taught typography in the Advanced Class for Graphics, 1968–1999 • Yale Summer Program in Graphic Design in Brissago, Switzerland (via Hoffman), 1974–1996

“By the mid-1970s Weingart had exhausted the possibilities of manual typesetting and the letterpress.”

– MEGGS

“...From this time onwards he mounted halftone films to form collages and then had these printed in offset. He later tried out the possibilities offered by the Xerox photocopier and, to some extent, the Apple Macintosh, which was introduced in 1984.”

– UNKNOWN

“I took ‘Swiss Typography’ as my starting point, but then I blew it apart, never forcing any style upon my students. I never intended to create a ‘style’. It just happened that the students picked up — and misinterpreted — a so-called ‘Weingart style’ and spread it around.”

– WOLFGANG WEINGART

BORN 1948 April Greiman • Basel School of Design, 1970–1971 • Student of Armin Hofmann, influenced by the International Style • Also a student of Wolfgang Weingart, who introduced her to the style later known as New Wave

1975 – 1984 Punk • London / NYC • Anti-corporate • DIY ethic • Independent record labels • Fan zines

BORN 1948 Jamie Reid • English artist and anarchist • Letters cut from newspaper headlines (ransom note) • Created the defining the imagery of punk rock, particularly in the UK • Sex Pistols: Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols and Anarchy in the UK

1980’S – 1990’S Mannerism

An explosion of texture, pattern, color, and loose approach to geometry typify the work of Italy’s Memphis Group and counterparts working in San Francisco.

1980’S – 1990’S “The Memphis sensibility embraces exaggerated geometric forms in bright (even garish) colors, bold Memphis Group geometric and organic patterns, • Milan, Italy often printed on plastic laminates, • Architects and designers and allusions to earlier cultures,” • Lead by Ettore Sottsass – MEGGS • Exhibition of 1981

1980’S – 1990’S Memphis Group • Milan, Italy • Architects and designers • Lead by Ettore Sottsass • Exhibition of 1981

1980’S – 1990’S Nathalie Du Pasquier • Memphis group founder • Currently reinventing patterns for American Apparel

Conclusion