History of Graphic Design Feb. 23th

At the turn of the century, we see the foundations of all the aspects and motivations of Modern art. It begins with Bernhard, establishing a break from naturalism and illustration with his iconicity. Through reduction of the form and typography, he laid the groundwork for professional identity and modern advertisement. Plakastil or the “poster style” took advantage of graphic simplification and the intergation of word and image. These are both ideals that we as students are taught and retaught for the entire duration of our work. The Modern world expects designers to be able to distill any object into its simplest form. Plakastil is now associated with propaganda of the World Wars, representing the Axis powers in symbolic forms, rather than the Mythical Realism of the US and England.

In reaction to the wars, DADA and Futurism form, thereby completing the reactions and counter reactions in the art world, establishing all the forms and visual imagery that would penetrate the art of the 20^th century. Their entire body of work is based around the importance of signs. The linguistic sign versus the signifier and the signified. The knowledge that speech is an empty sign that has no true connection to the object that we associate with said speech allowed a break from the reverence and honor that typography had maintained for so long. Instead, the form of the type became subject to the matter and whim of the design, the poet, the artist. Suddenly, the artistic form is considered to “be” the sign, not a “representation” of the sign.

Herein, we find ourselves as modern designers, repeating the form and function of their work and pursuits. What they established as a counter movement, sacrosanct to the art of the time, is now considered to be the basics of artistic learning. The juxtaposition of signs, usually in opposition of each other, becomes the basis of design of the era. Through photomontage and surrealistic painting, the artists of the early decades of the Century infect those that follow with a duty to force the audience to question what they see.