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Home , Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

AND CORPORATE IDENTITY (1905-1915) 7 The impact of , plakatstil and the origins of corporate identity.

What world events influenced design in this period? travel to middle-class . Four years later, after This was a decade of friction, revolt and change—geo- hitting an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland, the politically and artistically. The blood shed began with RMS Titanic sank on her maiden voyage. About 700 of the Russo–Japanese War, 1904-05. It was the result of the 2200 passengers and crew survived. the Russian and Japanese Empires’ rival ambitions over Technology: In 1907 the Lumiere brothers ued potato Manchuria and Korea. starch to create their Autochrome colour negative pro- On Bloody Sunday in 1905, thousands of starving and cess. It heralded the birth of colour photography. That oppressed Russian workers went on strike. Over 150,000 same year, Winsor McCay’s Gertie the Dinosaur became signed a petition demanding changes that “would over- the first keyframe animated film. come the ignorance and legal oppression of the Russian What were the key design and literary influences? people”. The protest incited the first of several Russian Artist, architect and designer is consid- revolutions that would by 1917 bring down the Czarist ered to be the father of visual identity design (branding). Russian Empire. In 1908, AEG (Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft) In the same year, 21 people, including 18 African-Amer- retained him as an artistic consultant. His work for icans, died in race riots in Atlanta, Georgia. Three years the German electricity company resulted in the first later the National Association for the Advancement of comprehensive visual identity program. Like William Colored People (NAACP) was founded. Race riots, against Morris, Behrens was interested in graphic design and the Chinese and Japanese communities, also took place in typography, including typographic reform and sans- Vancouver in 1907. serif typefaces. He designed several typefaces including In 1906, a group of B.C. First Nations Chiefs, including Chief Behrens-Schrift, Behrens Mediaeval, Behrens-Antiqua Joe Capilano, travelled to London to present a petition of and Behrens Kursiv. grievances to King Edward VII. Their demands (to be alloted Behrens was involved in the , sufficient land to meet their needs and to be remunerated founded by in 1907. Unlike the for the lands taken from them) were ignored. B.C. First Na- Wiener Werkstatte in Vienna, the Deutscher Werkbund tions are still fighting for land rights. adopted the pragmatic approach of the French art nouveau Since the 17th century, the Great Qing imperial dynasty movement. It fostered links between artists and indus- ruled China. A series of rebellions by state troops in 1911 trialists. Muthesius wanted to develop a German identity led to the collapse of imperialism and a Chinese Repub- of excellence through design and . Walter lic was proclaimed. Sun Yat-sen was named the first Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe were two president of the Republic. Vancouver’s classical Chinese young designers involved in the Werkbund. They both garden is named after him because of his efforts to pro- went on to become directors of the School. The mote cultural understanding between China and the rest Werkbund also published several journals including Die of the world. Form which covered experimental design, typography In 1914 the assassination of the heir to the Austrian and photography. Behrens’ work for AEG demonstrated throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, led to Austria the viability of the Werkbund’s ideas. By 1913 declaring war on Serbia. This resulted in the outbreak of had overtaken Great Britain in it’s contribution to world . Over 15 million soldiers and civilians from production. 32 countries died in the conflict, with about another 25 Lucian Bernhard was a self-taught German artist who million wounded. The total number of casualties was unintentionally created a radical new direction in poster larger than the population of Canada. The same year the design in 1905. He was asked to design a poster for Pries- war began, an immigrant ship, the Komagata Maru, was ter Matches. Faced with a tight deadline, he reduced the refused entry to the port of Victoria, B.C. 20 South Indian poster to two basic elements: the product name, and a passengers die in the confrontation. product image. Using simple, flat, boldly coloured illustra- tion, he created a message that was both impactful and What were the key scientific/technological influences? effective. The client loved it and the style caught on. It Science: In 1910, the passing of Haley’s Comet was recorded became known as plakatstil (poster style). The li- for the fourth time in history. Thousands of people feared thography firm of Hollerbaum and Schmidt monopolised the end of the world, as they had in 1682, 1607 and 1531. production of such posters by contracting Bernhard and Transportation: In 1914 the 82 km long Panama Canal was a number of his peers, including Hans Rudi Erdt, to work completed—over 30 years after construction began. The exclusively for them. Ludwig Hohlwein was another Trans-Siberian Railway—which took almost as long—was adopter of the simplistic style. These German advertis- completed in 1916. It connected Moscow to the Russian ing posters were the earliest examples of what we now Far East and remains the longest railway line in the call brand advertising—advertising that focuses on brand world. In 1908 the Model T Ford was introduced. As the first affordable automobile, the car opened independent IDEA SCHOOL OF DESIGN CAPILANO UNIVERSITY recognition (remembering the name and style) rather his self-created role as The Tramp. His iconic character than extolling the product attributes. went on to entertain audiences for almost 20 years 7 The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) was What were the key artistic influences? founded in New York in 1914. In 1920, it became the first Japanese artists learned perspective from European graphic arts organization to include women designers. painters, while French painters moved still further AIGA now has a network of over 25,000 members. At from their realist roots with the exploration of cubism. this point graphic design is still referred to as an applied art, not design. Paul Cezanne was the primary force, adopting the lack of perspective he saw in Japanese art. He began What were the key cultural influences? dismissing logic and playing with ambiguous perspec- Architecture: tives. and Cézanne were on the same Peter Behrens was one of the leaders of architectural journey of discovery. Their use of shifting planes and reform at the turn of the century. He chose to design multiple viewpoints would define the cubist movement. sleek, modern structures reminiscent of Rennie-Mack- Picasso also took inspiration from African masks and intosh and the Vienna . He was a major de- sculptures, as he began to emulate their abstracted forms signer of factories and office buildings in , steel and e.g. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907. Others involved in glass. His 1908 AEG Turbine Factory design is an early the cubist movement include: Georges Braque (France), example of industrial classicism. , Ludwig Marcel Duchamp (France), (Switzerland), Mies van der Rohe and the Swiss-French architect Le Fernand Leger (France), Marcel Duchamp (France), Corbusier were among Behrens’s assistants. All three George Grosz (Germany) and Juan Gris (Spain/France). later became important figures in the modern architec- ture movement in Europe. Another less well-known Around the same time as cubism emerged, another European architect of the time was . His group of artists formed in France called Les Fauves (the theories on were influential. wild beasts). Their name came from their use of vibrant colour and fierce brushwork. This group, included The young American architect Henri Matisse, Georges Braque, Raoul Dufy and Marc studied his craft under Louis Sullivan “the father of the Chagall. The expressionist post-impressionist move- ”. He set up his own practise in in ment also emerged in the first decade of the twentieth 1893 and became one of the founders of the Arts and century. The expressionist painters portrayed their Crafts inspired of architecture. Lloyd feelings in a more viceral, and often dark way. Vin- Wright quickly became the driving force in the U.S. cent Van Gogh (), Paul Gauguin (France), modern architecture movement. Edvard Munch (Norway) and In 1913 New York’s 60-storey Woolworth Building be- () were all important figures in the expressionist came the tallest in the world. New York’s Grand Central movement. Kandinsky (who would later teach at the railway terminus and Penn Station opened in the same Bauhaus School) founded the Der Blaue Reiter (The year. Both were built in the Beaux Arts style. Grand Blue Rider) German expressionist group. Other expres- Central Station is famous for its elaborate style, celestial sionists include: Max Beckmann (Germany), Paul Klee ceiling mural and four-faced clock. (Switzerland), Oskar Kokoschka (Austria), Amedeo Fashion: Modigliani (Italy/France) and Jean Dubuffet (France). Throughout the Victorian era skirts gradually nar- In 1913 these painters participated, along with over rowed and—with the help of S-bend corsets—the em- 200 other European and North American artists, in a phasis was increasingly placed on the bust. Influential huge art exhibition at the 69th Regiment Armory in French designer Paul Poiret’s introduction of oriental New York. The Armory Show has been called the most influences later contributed to softer silhouettes and a important exhibition ever held in the as move away from corsets and figure-hugging contours. it changed the way Americans thought about modern Popular culture: art. Not all the artists on show were radicals: works The Anglo-Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw wrote by American painter Edward Hopper and Canadian over 60 plays around the turn of the century. An ad- painter David Milne were also represented. mirer of his contemporaries William Morris and John In Italy the focus was on the future and the speed of the Ruskin, his work often addressed social and ethical the modern world. Filippo Tommaso Emilio Marinetti issues. His comedy Man and Superman opened in Lon- was an Italian poet and editor who founded the Futurist don in 1905. It explored German philosopher Friedrich movement. He brought attention to the movement with Nietzsche’s philosophical ideas about the evolution of his 1909 Futurist Manifesto that was published in the mankind. Shaw opened plays in London and New York. Le Figaro French newspaper. Others in the movement By 1905 the cinema’s popularity was growing fast and included: Umberto Boccioni (Italy), Carlo Carrà (Italy), there were close to 10,000 movie theatres in the U.S. Giacomo Balla (Italy), and Natalia Goncharova (Russia). In 1914 Charles Chaplin appeared for the first time in

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