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American Modernist

The Growth of Graphic Design

Introduction

R. Roger Remington stated that “In the 1800 the United States did not have its own national cultural form - it relied instead on the prevalent Victorian style from Britain and Europe.”

This statement conveys that there was already an artistic movement in Europe that influenced artistic style in America in early 19th Century. However, since then there have been no vast changes in the American arts and design. Modernism is an ideology that was established in early 20th century Europe avant-garde, which covers a range of styles including Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism, Dadaism, Suprematism, Constructivism, Bauhaus, and De Stijl. All of these movements have a common thread: experimentation, and in the urge to create radical changes in society. These radical movements came to America through cross-pollination of ideas from European designers who migrated and/or travel to America and vice versa. The philosophies of these movements highly influenced the development of early 20th Century of Graphic Design as it flourished in America. Modernism in America is significant to the design movement because it was a breakthrough from traditional styles of the Victorian Era. Modernism impacted the development of contemporary design and the growth of corporate identity design. Its impact on both corporate identity and graphic design in general is still felt today.

Discussion

The History of Modernism

Modernism emerged because of a group of artists in Europe who are eager to break the traditional style of the Victorian Era. The Victorian Era around late 18th century is a movement which all of the works are very decorative and consisted of embellishments. Artists, designers and writers who were breaking the rules are referred as the “Avant-garde”. It is a French term, that means new, innovative or experimental and as such describes the transition from traditional to Modernism of that period.

Artist and designers in this period were engaged about expressiveness and interested in total visual organization. Phillip B. Meggs and Alson W. Purvis stated, “Some of these movements, such as fauvism had a limited effect on graphic design. Others, such as cubism and futurism, Dada and surrealism, De Stijl, suprematism, constructivism, and expressionism directly influenced the graphic design language of form and visual communications in this century. The evolution of twentieth-century design closely relates to modern painting, poetry and architecture” (256)

Influence on the Graphic Design

Each of the movements has a definite influence on graphic design:

Cubism: The artist well known for his cubist work was Pablo Picasso. He saw things in a different and more simplified way. One of his inspirations was derived from the African mask that is made of out simple geometric shape. This new way of thinking and drawing challenged the traditions of Victorian era and or the Renaissance representational through its exploration of art traditional of pictorial art (Meggs, pp. 256-9). This movement contributes to graphic design of unconventional visual composition that encourages experimentation. The abstraction of simplified geometric shapes also urges design to have a new perspective.

Futurist: The most ...