postmodern graphic design
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Postmodern (and Post Postmodern)
Graphic Design Graphic Design History
• By the 1970s, many believed the modern era was drawing to a close in art, design, poli/cs, and literature. The social, economic, and environmental awareness of the period caused many to believe the modern aesthe:c was no longer relevant in an emerging pos:ndustrial society.
• People in many fields, including architects, designers, economists, feminists,
and even theologians have embraced the term postmodernism to express a climate of cultural change (cultural diversity, equality of women and minori/es)
• In design, the term Postmodern is applied to the work of designers and
architects in the last quarter of the 20th Century who broke with the interna:onal style so prevalent since the Bauhaus.
• Whereas the modernists rejected historical references, decora:on, and the
vernacular, postmodern designers drew upon these resources to expand the range of design possibili/es.
• Some believe that since the late 1990’s we are in a Post Postmodern era.
Rosmari Tissi direct mail folder for Anton Schöb printers 1981
Rosmari Tissi direct mail folder for Anton Schöb printers 1981
Tendencies toward postmodern graphic design first emerged from individuals working within the dictates of the Interna:onal Typographic style. While the main thrust of the Swiss style had been toward neutral and objec/ve typography, the younger genera:on introduced elements that were playful, full of surprise, and even disorganized Rosmarie Tissi (b. 1937) a Swiss designer creates work with a strong dynamic impact, playful sense of form, and unexpected manipula/on of space. Tissi’s direct mail folder for an offset prin/ng firm achieves typographic vitality by overlapping and combining leNerforms
Wolfgang Weingart Exhibi:on poster 1984
Wolfgang Weingart Exhibi:on poster 1984
• Wolfgang Weingart (b. 1941) ques:oned the Swiss typographic style that was of absolute order and cleanness. He thought the interna/onal style had become so refined and prevalent throughout the world that it had lost its appeal.
• Weingart pioneered the “new‐wave” typography movement.
• In his poster for the Schweizer Plakat (The Swiss Poster) exhibi/on, he uses modulated paNerns of overlapping shapes and color to structure the space. Switzerland is implied by the shape of the MaRerhorn (mountain in Switzerland)
• In 1972 Weingart traveled to the US and delivered presenta:ons at eight prominent design schools. His new design sensibility began to filter into and American design profession that had grown bored with the redundancy of sans‐serif and grid‐based corporate systems.
Christoph Radi and Valen/na Grego, Memphis logo designs, 1980s
Christoph Radi and Valen/na Grego, Memphis logo designs 1980s
• An important inspira:on for all areas of design emerged in 1981 when global aNen:on was concentrated on an exhibi:on of the Italian design group Memphis.
• The group chose the name Memphis to reflect the inspira:on they drew from both contemporary popular culture and the ar:facts and ornaments of ancient cultures (Memphis is an important city in Ancient Egypt).
• Func:on became secondary to surface paNern and texture, color, and fantas:c forms. The Memphis sensibility embraces exaggerated geometric forms in bright colors and black & white.
• Christoph Radi headed the Memphis graphic design sec:on. The Memphis vocabulary of form and paRern is given typographic expression in this series of logo designs.
William Longhauser, poster for a Michael Graves exhibi:on, 1983
William Longhauser, poster for a Michael Graves exhibi:on, 1983
• William Longhauser (b. 1947) is a Philadelphia graphic designer influenced by Postmodern style.
• The poster is for an exhibi:on of the work by Michael Graves (b. 1934), a Postmodernist architect who rebelled against modernist tradi:on. Graves combines energe/c, high‐spirited geometry of decora/ve surfaces and tac/le repe//ve paRerns.
• In the background of the poster, a paNern of repe::ve dots is produced by the leNers
M I C H A E L leNer‐spaced on a grid.
Michael Vanderbyl postmodern architecture poster 1984
Michael Vanderbyl postmodern architecture Poster, 1984
• In the early 1980s San Francisco postmodern design emerged quickly earning the city a reputa/on as a major center for crea/ve design
• Michael Vanderbyl (b. 1947), a San Francisco designer, creates work with a cheerful op:mism, a warm sense of humor, and an unbridled a^tude about form and space
• He uses pastel hues, including /nts of lavender, turquoise, and peach along with gray.
• Vanderbyl combines a casual postmodern vitality with a typographic clarity of the Interna:onal Typographic Style.
• In a series of posters, Vanderbyl used graphic images to make editorial comments about aspects of the postmodern movement.
Paula Scher Swatch Watch poster 1985
Paula Scher Swatch Watch poster 1985
• During the 1980s graphic designers gained a growing understanding and apprecia:on of their history. A movement based on historical revival first emerged in New York and spread rapidly through the world. Called retro by some designers, it was based on an interest in modernist European design from the first half of the century.
• The New York approach to retro began with a small number of designers, including Paula Scher (b. 1948), an outspoken designer with an ironic sense of humor. Her approach to space, color, and texture is o_en personal and original.
• In 1985, she parodied a famous Herbert MaNer poster from the 1930s for Swatch, the Swiss watch manufacturer
Herbert MaRer poster, 1935 Paula Scher poster, 1985
Paula Scher, “Great Beginnings” spread for self‐promo/onal booklet, 1984
Paula Scher, “Great Beginnings” spread for self‐promo/onal booklet, 1984
• Typographic ideas paraphrasing Russian construc:vism, futurism, and Dada are freely combined and reinvented with forms in space packed together with the weight and vigor of old wood‐type posters
• Scher formed the Koppel and Scher studio in partnership with Terry Koppel in 1984. Their “Great Beginnings” booklet announced their new partnership with period typographic interpreta:ons of the first paragraphs of great novels.
• Scher now works for Pentagram, a highly influen:al design studio with offices in New York, London, Berlin, San Francisco, and Aus:n (Texas)
Neville Brody, editorial pages for The Face, no. 59, March 1985
Neville Brody, editorial pages for The Face, no. 59, March 1985
• Neville Brody (b. 1957) is a Bri:sh graphic designer who created album covers for rock music and art‐directed English magazines, including The Face and Arena
• Brody is inspired by Russian construc:vism,
including the work of Rodchenko, and by Dada’s experimental a^tudes and rejec:on of the ruling establishment
• Brody’s work evolved from an effort to discover an
intui:ve yet logical approach to design, expressing a personal vision that could have meaning to his audience.
• Ability to load his layouts with layers of meaning as seen in this spread of an interview with Andy Warhol. The repeated images echoes Warhol’s work, the circle and cross refer to the sexuality in Warhol’s work and life
Neville Brody, album cover design for Parliament, 1985
Neville Brody, album cover design for Parliament, 1985
• Neville Brody has stated that he never learned the rules of correct typography, which le_ him free to invent working methods and spa:al configura:ons.
• His typography projects an absolute emblema:c authority that evokes heraldry and military emblems.
April Greiman Poster for the Los Angeles Ins:tute of Contemporary Art, 1986
April Greiman Poster for the Los Angeles Ins:tute of Contemporary Art, 1986
• While some designers rejected digital technology during its infancy, many embraced it as an innova:ve tool capable of expanding the scope of the field of graphic design
• Using a computer as a design tool enabled one to make and correct mistakes. Color, texture, images, and typography could be stretched, bent, made transparent, layered, and combined in unprecedented ways.
• April Greiman (b. 1948), a Los Angeles designer, embraced the new technology and explored its crea:ve poten:al.
• In her first graphic design using a Macintosh, bitmapped type and computer‐generated textures were photostaNed to a large size and pasted up through conven:onal typese^ng
Rudy VanderLans Cover for Emigre, no. 11 1989
Rudy VanderLans Cover for Emigre, no. 11 1989
• In 1984, Rudy VanderLans (b. 1955) Dutch‐born designer living in San Francisco, began to edit, design, and publish Emigre magazine
• The journal’s name was selected because its founders believed that exposure to various cultures, as well as living in different cultural environments, has had a significant impact on crea:ve work
• Emigre’s experimental approach helped define and demonstrate the capabili:es of digital technology, both in editorial design and by presen/ng work that was o_en too experimental for other design publica/ons
• In this 1989 issue, three levels of visual informa:on are layered in dimensional space, made possible by using the computer
Zuzana Licko, from Hypnopaedia type specimen booklet, 1997
Zuzana Licko, from Hypnopaedia type specimen booklet, 1997
• In 1987, Zuzana Licko formed a partnership, Emigre Graphics, with Rudy VanderLans
• Zuzana Licko (b. 1961), is a Czech‐born designer living in San Francisco whose educa:onal background included computer‐programming courses
• Dissas:sfied with the limited fonts available for early Macintosh, Licko created her own digital typefaces.
• In 1997, Licko created Hypnopaedia, a free downloadable PDF booklet that contains 140 illustra:ons made from type. Each Hypnopaedia illustra/on was created by concentric rota/on of a single leRerform from the Emigre Fonts library. When repeated, each Hypnopaedia illustra/on creates a unique paRern of interlocking leRer shapes.
Tibor Kalman, Colors Magazine, 1990
Tibor Kalman, Colors Magazine, 1990
• Tibor Kalman (1949 – 1999) was an American graphic designer born in Hungary with innova:ve ideas about design and society
• Tibor Kalman founded M&Co, a highly influen:al New York‐based design firm whose influence is s:ll strong today as a result of its work and the designers who worked there and went on to start their own design firms
• In 1990, Kalman moved to Rome and became
founding editor‐in‐chief of the BeneNon‐sponsored Colors magazine. Billed as ‘a magazine about the rest of the world’, Colors focused on mul:culturalism and global awareness. The perspec/ve was communicated through bold graphic design, typography, and juxtaposi/on of photographs and doctored images.
Tibor Kalman (Director), Talking Heads music video for Nothing But Flowers, 1988
Tibor Kalman (Director), Talking Heads music video for Nothing But Flowers, 1988
• In 1988, Tibor Kalman directed a successful music video for Talking Heads with innova:ve uses of typography.
• Kalman had also designed Talking Heads’ iconic album cover, Remain in Light.
• Talking Heads (1975 – 1991) was a new wave band that combined elements of punk rock, art rock, avant‐garde, pop, funk, world music, and Americana.
• The lyrics describe a world where modern progress has been reverted to a more natural state, due either to a poli:cal movement or by a necessity, such as dealing with overpopula:on. While the protagonist may have once been in favor of the transforma/on, he finds himself now missing the conveniences and culture of the modern world
David Carson (art director) and Chris Cuffaro (photographer), “Morrisey: The Loneliest Monk”, Ray Gun, 1994
David Carson (art director), “Morrisey: The Loneliest Monk” Ray Gun, 1994
• American David Carson (b. 1956), a former professional surfer and schoolteacher, turned to cu^ng‐edge editorial design in the 1980s and 1990s.
• Art director for Ray Gun, Transworld Skateboarding, Musician, Beach Culture, Surfer magazines
• Carson rejected grid formats, informa:on hierarchy, and consistent layout or typographic paNerns, instead he chose to explore the expressive possibili/es of each subject, and each page or spread. His work is considered to be deconstruc:vist.
• Carson’s text type ojen challenged the no:on of readability as he played with jus:fica:on of type, leNer‐spacing, contrast of type and image, etc.
• Carson’s work was quite controversial in the 1990s.
While he served as inspira/on for many young designers, he angered many others who believed he was crossing the line between order and chaos.
David Carson (art director) and John RiRer (photographer), “Is Techno Dead?”, Ray Gun, 1994
David Carson (art director) “Is Techno Dead?”, Ray Gun 1994
• David Carson’s magazine designs are informed by film and video techniques. He creates a shi_ing, kine/c spa/al environment where type and image overlap, fade, and blur.
• Carson believes that one should not mistake legibility for communica:on, because while many highly legible tradi/onal printed messages offer liRle visual appeal to readers, more expressionist designs can aRract and engage them.
• Ray Gun magazine provided a rare open forum for illustrators and photographers, introducing new ar:sts and turning a half‐dozen pages over to readers’ illustra/ons for song lyrics.
• Ray Gun helped incite the new art form of zines, self‐published personal magazines using desktop‐publishing so_ware and cheap prin/ng or copier reproduc/on.
Stefan Sagmeister Lou Reed Poster 1996
Stefan Sagmeister Lou Reed Poster 1996
• Born in Austria, Stefan Sagmeister (b. 1962) founded Sagmeister, Inc. in New York in 1993. He is known for his rock n roll collabora:ons and typography. He has designed graphics and packaging for the Rolling Stones, David Byrne, Lou Reed, and Aerosmith, among other clients.
• Sagmeister’s graphic design is consistently characterized by an uncompromising and harsh directness. On a poster for a Lou Reed album, lyrics from one of Reed’s songs are handwriRen across his face like graffi/.
Stefan Sagmeister, Opening for The Happy Film (co‐directed by Sagmeister), 2013
Stefan Sagmeister, S:ll from the opening :tles of The Happy Film (co‐directed by Sagmeister), 2010
• While spending :me in an ar:st’s residency in Bali, Indonesia, Stefan Sagmeister had the idea to create a documentary about happiness.
• Stefan Sagmeister is co‐direc:ng the film with designer / filmmaker Hillman Cur/s. He is also the main subject of the documentary.
• The funds to create the documentary were raised on Kickstarter, a website for raising funds for crea/ve projects. The opening /tles were created in Bali with pigs, monkeys, tree climbers, and a duck.
• The Happy Film will follow Sagmeister as he
"undergoes a series of self‐experiments outlined by popular psychology to test once and for all if it’s possible for a person to have a meaningful impact on their own happiness."
Chip Kidd Book jacket for Naked (outside) 1997
Chip Kidd Book cover for Naked (inside) 1997
• The designs of Chip Kidd (b. 1964) for Alfred A. Knopf publishers have helped create a revolu:on in book jacket design.
• Kidd frequently uses vintage images such as old prints and family albums found in flea markets and junk shops.
• His visual cues require the viewer to “excavate” the message.
• He has said, “I never really know if the readers get the subtle visual puns of my jackets, but I can’t let that inform my design to the point where I will compromise.”
• When the jacket for the book cover design for Naked by David Sedaris is removed, the reader gets a surprise.
Chip Kidd, outer book jacket for 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami, 2011
Chip Kidd, inner book cover for 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami, 2011
• Chip Kidd has designed all the hardcover edi:ons of Haruki Murakami’s books. Murakami is an award‐winning contemporary postmodern Japanese writer whose books have been translated into 50 languages. His wri:ng is is frequently surrealis:c and melancholic.
• The plot of 1Q84 follows two seemingly unconnected stories that eventually weave together. The first involves a woman named Aomame, who descends a service staircase off a busy elevated highway in Tokyo and enters an alternate reality.
• She refers to this new dimension in her mind as 1Q84 (the book takes place in 1984 and in Japanese ‘Q’ sounds just like ’9′), with the Q standing for “Ques/on Mark. A world that bears a ques/on.”
• Kidd’s book jacket design has two layers to suggest the two reali:es of the main character of the book.
Michael Bierut (b. 1957), poster for the Seduc:on Symposium, 2007
Michael Bierut, poster for the Seduc:on Symposium 2007
• Michael Bierut (b. 1957), is a highly influen:al American graphic designer, design cri:c, and educator.
• He worked for Vignelli Associates and is influenced by Massimo Vignelli’s work. He has been a partner of Pentagram’s New York office since 1990.
• The Seduc/on Symposium poster designed by Michael Bierut for the Yale School of Architecture includes typography created by Marian Bantjes inspired by the curves in Rococo art (18th Century French style)
Pentagram (Michael Bierut), new iden:ty for Saks Fijh Avenue, 2007
Pentagram (Michael Bierut), new iden:ty for Saks Fijh Avenue, 2007
Pentagram (Michael Bierut), new iden:ty for Saks Fijh Avenue, 2007
• Saks Fijh Avenue, the New York‐based luxury department store, hired Bierut to design a new iden:ty for their stores, seeking a strong graphic program that would encompass signage, adver/sing, direct mail, online and, most importantly, packaging.
• The store had no signature color (like Tiffany’s) or signature paNern (like Burberry’s) and had used dozens of logos since its founding.
• Bierut brought back the 1973 cursive logo designed by his former boss, Massimo Vignelli.
• He used a grid system over the logo and subdivided it into 64 squares which were rearranged for the new black and white paNern that is applied to shopping bags, and environmental graphics.
1995
Hammerpress (Brady Vest) Concert poster for Yo La Tengo 2005
Hammerpress (Brady Vest) Concert poster for Yo La Tengo 2005
• In the midst of the technological revolu:on, designers are bringing back centuries‐old techniques and processes, including leNerpress design and printmaking.
• Brady Vest (b. 1972) graduated with a degree in printmaking and founded Hammerpress, an experimental design company that uses an/que type, blocks, and presses, along with found art and illustra/on in the work
• In his poster for the band Yo La Tengo, Vest used random typefaces and arrangement and broke the words into different colors to organize the image
Hatch Show Print Concert poster for Wilco 2008
Hatch Show Print Concert poster for Wilco 2008
• Hatch Show Print, founded in Nashville, Tennessee in 1879 by Charles and Herbert Hatch, is one of the oldest con:nuously running leNerpress shops in the US.
• For well over 100 years, they have designed posters and handbill adver:sing for entertainment of all forms, including traveling circuses, spor/ng events, state fairs, comedy troupes, movies, musicians, and concerts.
• Their associa:on with Nashville’s country music scene has allowed them to work with musicians such as Elvis Presley, Dolly Parton, and Hank Williams. They have also worked with many rock musicians and bands, including Radio Head, R.E.M, Bob Dylan, Wilco
Imaginary Forces (Karin Fong), Herman Miller “Get Real” promo:on film, 2003
Imaginary Forces (Karin Fong), Herman Miller “Get Real” promo:on film, 2003
• Imaginary Forces was launched in 1996 and rapidly became a leading designer of film‐:tles by integra:ng graphic design, mo:on, and interac:ve media
• Inspired by concrete poetry (poetry in which the typographical arrangement of words is important in conveying the intended effect), Dada, and surrealism, the designers at Imaginary Forces are constantly experimen/ng with leRerforms and finding inven:ve ways of transforming moving type into image
• Karin Fong has designed and directed
mo:on graphics for adver:sing, entertainment, art, and installa:on, including this promo/onal film for Herman Miller, the classic modern furniture company who tells viewers to “Get real”
Imaginary Forces (Mark Gardner and Steve Fuller) Mad Men :tle sequence 2007
Imaginary Forces (Mark Gardner and Steve Fuller) Mad Men :tle sequence 2007
• In 2007, Imaginary Forces produced this :tle sequence for Mad Men.
• Mad Men is a period drama TV series set in the 1960s. The plot focuses on the business of adver:sing agencies at the :me as well as the personal lives of the characters, regularly depic/ng the changing moods and social more in 1960s America.
• Since its premiere, Mad Men has received widespread cri:cal acclaim, par/cularly for its historical authen/city, visual style, costume design, ac/ng, wri/ng, and direc/ng, and has won many awards, including fi_een Emmys and Golden Globe awards. The :tle sequence received an Emmy in 2008.
Eddie Opara, Iden:ty for UCLA Architecture and Urban Design, 2010
Eddie Opara, Iden:ty for UCLA 2010
• Eddie Opara studied graphic design at the London College of Prin:ng and Yale School of Art. He began his career as a designer at ATG and Imaginary Forces and worked as an art director at 2×4 before establishing his own studio, The Map Office, in 2005. He joined Pentagram’s New York office as partner in 2010.
• His projects have included brand iden:ty, publica/ons, packaging, infographics, environments, exhibi/ons, interac/ve installa/ons, websites, user interfaces and so_ware, with many of his projects ranging across mul:ple media.
• In 2010, Opara created a new iden/ty system, including logo, for University of California at Los Angeles. The design is an innova:ve solu:on in crea:ng depth of space and in implying architecture and the urban environment.
Eddie Opara, Stealth poster, 2007
Eddie Opara, Stealth poster, 2007
• “Stealth” was designed to promote The Map Office (Map) in Harlem, a contemporary art ins:tu:on that focuses on ar:sts of African or African‐American descent.
• Eddie Opara wanted to make a poster that despite being a physical object was about invisibility. Its folded form evokes that of the stealth bomber (hence the name), which is a feat of engineering and design genius—a visually striking object that has been built to be invisible.
• What emerges as you look at the piece is a quote from Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man —“I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me”—highligh/ng the ideals of graphic design and the strength of its bond to the crea/on of iden/ty.
• The typeface is Foundry Gridnik, chosen because of its rec/linear and acute angles, which makes it more legible within the horizontal lines of the piece.
Eddie Opara, Stealth (detail)
Kenya Hara, MUJI “Horizon” Campaign, 2003
Kenya Hara, MUJI “Horizon” Campaign, 2003
• Kenya Hara (b. 1958) is a Japanese graphic designer who designs objects and creates experiences deeply rooted in Japanese culture and the Japanese concept of “emp:ness”.
• Hara has been the art director of MUJI since 2001. Muji is dis/nguished by its design minimalism, emphasis on recycling, avoidance of waste in produc/on and packaging, and no‐logo or “no‐brand” policy.
• MUJI’s vision is based on thinking of their simple products not as having no design, but as ul:mate design, in which perfec:on is constantly enhanced. “In 2003, we came up with an image that would act as a vessel to receive the many concepts that individuals had formed about MUJI. It's an empty vessel to catch that outpouring of imagina/on, on a large scale”.
Kenya Hara, Typography for KITTE, 2013
Kenya Hara Typography for KITTE 2013
• KITTE is a play on the Japanese word “kiNe” which literally means “postage stamp”. This refers to the historic central post office building in Marunouchi district of Tokyo which re‐opened its doors in March, 2013 as a newly renovated seven‐floor retail and restaurant des/na/on.
• KiNe’s iden:ty and signage system was designed by Kenya Hara.
• The new iden:ty plays out through a contrast of ideas, old and new, that begin with a single rectangular shape. This shape is lined up at regular intervals crea/ng an image that references the /les of the interior walls and symbolizes the historic building. The red color also symbolizes the post office while the blue‐green expresses the youthfulness of the new commercial facility.
Render Monkey, website for Color Chart exhibi:on at Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2006
Render Monkey, website for Color Chart exhibi:on at Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2006
• Interac:ve design firm, Render Monkey, was founded in 2006 by Amelle Stein and Sastry Appajosyula.
• Their work combines crea:ve interface design with inven:ve programming, providing fluid naviga/on through complex layers of informa/on
• Render Monkey’s design for the exhibi:on Color Chart at MOMA allows users to interact with various interfaces for a customized approach to accessing dynamic content.
• The exhibi:on featured the work of forty‐ four ar:sts who work with readymade sources of color, filterable by ar:st, medium and chronology.
“Boundless Beauty” digital edi:on of Martha Steward Living magazine, November 2010
“Boundless Beauty” digital edi:on of Martha Steward Living magazine, November 2010
• When the iPad was first released in 2010, Martha Stewart’s lifestyle magazine, Living, was one of the first to use the new technology as a new format for their magazine, in addi/on to the print version.
• The cover animates the blooming of a peony flower over a ten‐hour period, using 180 s/ll photographs. The inside spread is a glossary of the different types of peonies, addi/onal informa/on appears for each when tapped.
• The launch of the digital magazine marked a change in how editorial design can be approached: interac:vity increases reader engagement and creates a new kind of visual experience.