Postmodernism in Graphic Communication

Postmodernism was introduced in the end of the 20th century . Some believe that Postmodernism was a response to Modernism and hence consider them as two aspects of the same movement . There are some major difference between Modernism and Postmodernism. Modernism , an art movement characterized by the deliberate departure from tradition and the use of innovative forms of expression that distinguish many styles in the arts and literature of the late nineteenth centuries. Postmodernism was first used around the 1870s. As a generalization, Postmodernism is a style and concept characterized by distrust of theories and ideologies, and of drawing attention to convention. It is a dominant force in the world of design. Alongside Modernism it's the most influential world view affecting design today.  

Since the 1970s Postmodernism has come to dominate discussion in many spheres of culture. An exponentially increasing number of academic tomes as well as countless newspaper and magazine reports and television programs have put Postmodernism under scrutiny. Postmodernism didn't have much impact on graphic design until the middle of the 1980s. The impact of new technology particularly the desktop computer transformed the visual style of 1980s graphic designers, typestyle and printer media . Postmodernism brought diversity to a world of design that was drowning in unity.Recently, marketers and advertising guides have even begun to talk about people like they are people, instead of utility maximizers. These are good changes that should be recognized by Christians. Unfortunately, the final destination of postmodernism doesn't look so rosy. Pastiche and various modes of visual sampling, morphing and mutation all became conspicuous elements of visual style in fine arts and design .Anti-tech, independent design came into being in contrast to the slicker mani pulsation of desktop work and industry output. In the postmodern worldview it's much more important that the artist or designer express his subjective feeling than that a work communicate truth to an audience."No more rules has its staning point in a close engement with graphic design of the postmodern era the began" (Poynor,R .(2004).p.p6).

Here are some examples for Postmodernism artists : 

David Carson

Tibor Kalman

Allen Hori 

Wolfgang Weingart 

Wolfgang Weingaert,started Swiss-Style Typography, and worked for many years as a typographer, this is probably what influenced his Postmodernist works, in which you can see a lot of the typography styles.His has been critically acclaimed in Switzerland as a Doctor of fine arts, he also wrote a book.

In conclusion, Graphic Design was liberated with the personnel and free style of Postmodernism.Because, Postmodernism is a break away from the International style. The real aim is the break all the boundaries of International style and remake them. International style is very ridged and follows a set guide. Whereas Postmodernism Is a manifestation of the complete opposite.Pop culture being a large influence on the work.And everything is much looser even bordering on the chaotic.Postmodernism Celebrates fragmentation and revels in the use of ones intuition.

Bibliography:

Barnard, M. (2005). Graphic Design as Communication. New York: Routledge.

Eskilson, S. J. (2007). Graphic Design: A New History. London: Yale University Press.

Heller,S.(2004).Teaching graphic design.New york:Allworth Press.

Poynor, R. (2003). No More Rules: Graphic Design and Postmodernism. New Haven: YaleUniversity Press

VenderLans, R. (2004). Graphic design vs. style, globalism, criticism, science, authenticity and humanism. Princeton Architectural Press. 

Henry van de Velde and Magazine Design in the Art Nouveau

The second significant Belgian Art Nouveau practitioner was Henry van de Velde .He was born in 1863. He studied painting from 1881 to 1884 and was influenced by such artists as Georges Seurat and Vincent van Gogh.  In 1980s , he became one of the most successful Jugendenstil  designers in Germany. At first he was a printer. Then he became a decor designer after spending sometime like a fine artists . "Van de Velde's turn from painting to applied art and architecture symptomised the new attempts to democratize art" (Howard,1997,34).The first thing he did when he joined the Art Nouveau is designing three rooms for Siegfried Bing's new gallery. Henry and Paul Ranson designed a model of dining room for Bing's gallery. It's shows the fundamental tents of Art Nouveau.He was responsible for bringing the Art Nouveau style to Paris. He was know as the first Art Nouveau artists to work in an abstract style and developed the concept of the union of form and function.

Art Nouveau was an international movement spreading from european countries like France, Belgium, Britin, Germany and Austria . This cultural movement included decorative , architecture,and painting from1890 to 1905.Photographic images of paintings, prints, architecture, interior design, and decorative works were displayed as photographic images in Art Nouveau publications. These magazines, including “Art Nouveau” magazine, were distributed around Europe due to advances in printing.

The print manifestations of Art Nouveau are important for understanding the movement. Henry designed his first commission that gave him a chance to practice his skills as an artist is designing an advertisement Poster for the Tropon food company. The poster shows the distinct color choices of an Art Nouveau print with orche,green and orange . Combined with letters of Tropon .It was among the first to be used in different versions in multiple European countries. It's the only poster he ever created in his career. He somehow abstracted the whole idea of concentrate food into these amazing egg. This simple composition combines a new style of color choices with curvy lines . 

Henry van de velde is primarily known as an architect. He was also a versatile designer: he designed carpets, furniture, silver objects and ceramics.But he was also a book designer. He considered books to be suppliers of a daily dose of culture, but also monuments for the mind. This is reflected in his designs, which seamlessly combine simplicity and monumentality. His designs span 50 years. in this time his work develops from 'ornament' to 'line'. From Art Nouveau to new objectivity.

Henry  had a good relationship with Nitetzsche .He designed for him more than one cover page for his books. And he also wasreading his books .Reading Nietzche's books was the starting point for Henry van de Velde in his artistic work in the 1880s. His changeover to the applied arts and architecture and subsequent appointment to the court of Weimar in 1901 coincided with a substantial series of works dedicated to Nietzsche's thought on the aesthetic writing of van de Veldes can be traced from the first publications in 1893 with intensification after the turn of the century and it stays virulent until the unfinished memoirs  written in post war Switzerland.

Here some examples of his designs : 

Henry van de Velde, Also Sprach Zarathustra, 1908

Van Velde was successful designer .He moved to Berlin in 1989 , " followed by another to the small German city of Weimar in 1902 "( Eskilson,2007,100).He produced there one of his most esteemed graphic works . Book cover page for  the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzche . It's called Also Sparch Zarathustra.It's represent the theory of the Gesamtkunstwerk or total work of art, on a small scale .He used three colors dark red , beige and brownish yellow . he used geometric shape for the borders.In the middle we can see all the decorative some of the shape he repeated them more than one time .If we flip the paper in the middle we will see all the shapes in the left is the same in the right.

Title page from the first edition of Nietzsche's Ecce Homo, published in 1908

 Ecce Homo is the title of the last original book written by Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche before his final years of insanity that spanned until his death in 1900.It was written in 1888 and was not published until 1908.Henry Van de Velde is the one who designed the cover page of the book.He used curved lines in an abstract style.This style is basically the definition of art Nouveau.He used the same technique in the Toropon poster.His Art Nouveau designs , always bent with dynamic curves.What is especially important about van de velde is that he was the first designer to use curved lines in an abstract style.He also did the same thing he did in the last cover page of Nietzche's book.He repeated the design two times.It's like he copied and pasted the design in the two pages.This time he just used one color , dark red.

book design for Friedrich Nietzsche “Dionysos Dithyramben” (Leipzig, 1914)

In 1926 he returned to Belgium, and the following year he became head of the newly-founded Institut Supérieur des Arts Décoratifs in Brussels. He taught there for the next 20 years and in this period received many state commissions, including the Belgian pavilions at the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1937 and the New York World's Fair in 1939. In 1947 he retired to Switzerland. In addition to his highly varied artistic output, he wrote several books on his ideas and also an autobiography,Geschichte meines Lebens, On October , 15 1957 Henry died in Zurich . 

Bibliography

Art Nouveau:Henry van de Velde.(n.d.). Retrieved on March 9,2011 from http://artsmarts4kids.blogspot.com/2008/01/art-nouveau-henry-van-de-velde.html

Arwas,V.(2002).Art Nouveau: the French aesthetic.U.K: Papadakis Publisher.

Eskilson, S. (2007). Graphic Design A New History. London: Laurence King Publishing.

Henry vand de Velde.(n.d.).Retrived on March 10,2011 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_van_de_Velde

Howard,J.(1996). Art Nouveau: International and national styles in Europe. U.K: Manchester University Press.

Pile,J.(2005). A history of intrior design. London: Laurence King Publishing.

Sembach,J.(2002). Art Nouveau.Germany: Taschen.

The book art of Henry van de Velde – Design museum Gent.(n.d.).Retrived on March 10,2011 from http://eaobjets.wordpress.com/2009/04/15/the-book-art-of-henry-van-de-velde/

Tschudi,S.(2002). The Art Nouveau Style:a comperehenesive guide with 264 illustrations. USA: Covier Dover Publications.