Oh, the modern life & less is more.

Modernism & the Bauhaus

Modernism, shaped by industrialism and urbanism, was created in 1910. It illustrates a rejection to the Victorian era's styles and values being replaced by functionality and progression through experimentation with unfamiliar forms. De Stijl, an art and design movement, was founded by Theo Van Doesburg in 1917. It's based around rectangular forms, primary colors, and asymmetrical compositions. Another movement, Constructivism in 1918, used industrial materials to create non-representational objects.

The Bauhaus: "a house for building", opened in 1919 by Walter Gropius, was Germany's most important art and design school. It was started in Weimar, Germany for students to develop a combination of practical skills and experimentation of medias. It embellishes many influences, such as De Stijl, Russian Constructivism and the Arts & Crafts movement. They focused on the idea that "less is more". Woman artists were accepted but often segregated into the crafts areas. No direct degrees were offered. This school influenced most modern design and illustrated the importance of design education and production. It was funded by the government and student production.

In 1925, Germany falls into the Depression. The Bauhaus is moved to Dessau in buildings designed by leader Gropius. In 1932, Hitler slowly rises to power and stresses the importance of tradition and keeping things classical. Due to the juxtaposing views, the Bauhaus moves to Berlin but is soon closed by Hitler in 1933. Many of the teachers fled to the United States and Europe due to their Jewish status.

The Bauhaus receives new direction from Ludwig Mies van der Rohe until 1933. The school was then moved to Chicago and founded by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy in 1937 and was soon turned into the Institute of Design at Illinois Institute Technology. Throughout the Bauhaus' period it focused and developed ideas on industrial designs, expressionism, functionality/rationality, modernism, and the importance of production through the study of materials, color theory, and formal relationships.

Q U E S T I O N: Who started the very first Bauhaus and in what year?

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Good to know!

Absolute Measurement: Fixed values expressed in finite terms and cannot be altered. 

Relative Measurement: Measurements linked to type size. Example: leading changes according to type size in order for letters not to mix in with each other.

Points/Picas: A point is a unit of measurement used to measure the type size of a font referring to the height of the type block. A pica is a unit of measurement equal to 12 pts. Is more commonly used for measuring lines of type. 

x-height: the height of the typeface in reference to the height of the lowercase 'x'.It's measured by the baseline to the meanline of the typeface.

The em: Relative unit of measurement used in typesetting to define basic spacing functions and is linked to the size of type. The size increases as the types size increases. 

The en: A relative unit of measurement equal to half of one em. 

Dashes (hyphen, en, em): The en rule denotes nested clauses and can mean ‘to’ in phrases such as 10-11 or 1975-1981. An en is half of an em while a hyphen is one third of an em. increases. An em equals the size of a given type and implies the width of the capital ‘M’. Not always will this equal. 

Alignment: the position of type within a text block. 

((-Justifcation- uses three values for type setting: minimum, maximum and optimum-Flush Left- text aligned to left margin -Flush Right-text alined to right margin))

Letterspacing: adds spaces between letter forms to open up words and make it easier to read.

Kerning: removes spaces between characters.

Tracking: is the adjustments of space between characters.

Word spacing: is the spacing adjustments between words.

Widow: is a lone word at the end of a paragraph.

Orphan: is the final one or tow lines of a paragraph separated from the main paragraph to form a new column.

Leading: is a printing term that refers tot the strips of lead that were inserted between text measures in order to space them accurately.  They are specified in points and it allows the characters to "breathe" so that it can be read easily.

Indentation: provides the reader with an easily accessible entry  point to a paragraph.

Hanging indent:  is similar to a running indent (which is an indentation from the left or right margin, which affects several text lines) except the first line of the text is not indented.

First-line indent: is the text that is indented from the left margin in the first line of the second and subsequent paragraphs.

Unique.

Type designer, Writing master, Printer

 John Baskerville was a great type designer of the 18th century, along side William Caslon. At age 19, he moved to Birmingham to teach writing and bookkeeping while working as a tombstone cutter. . . .interesting. In 1750, John set up his own type and printing workshop in Birmingham. He became the printer for the University of Cambridge in 1758 where he established his four editions of Vergil, as well as several editions of the "Book of Common Prayer". He launched pseudo-classical/modern style with emphasis on contrasting lines. The Didot family, of France, and the Bidoni, of Italy, found his style very intriguing. One of his most prized creations was the folio Bible, published in 1763 and in 1770 he produced a four-volume edition of Aristo's "Orlando Furioso". He was very unique in the way he strived for such perfection and created a staple movement in the typography society. John was highly admired by Benjamin Franklin. The revival of his work began around 1920 by Bruce Rogers and now the font,

 rendered in his name, is vastly used.

<---(Cover for 1954 Specimen booklet shows two weights of Linotype Baskerville {Roman and

 Italic})

Baskerville font is typically large 

with w i d e margins. 

"It is classified as transitional. As a matter of fact, with its generous proportions, the Baskerville appears not very different from its predecessors. But the difference between fine and bold strokes is more marked, the lower-case serifs are almost horizontal and the emphasis on the stroke widths is almost vertical."

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Adrian Frutiger, born in Switzerland in 1928, was a man who principled the legibility of typeface and is known for one of the most widely used typefaces. He studied sculpture, graphic design, and illustration in 1928 after working for a printer. In 1952 he went and worked for the Deberny and Peignot type workshop in Paris. Along side André Gürtler and Bruno Pfäffli, Frutiger founded a graphic design studio in Paris. He then freelanced as a typography working for companies and creating many logos.  He focused on the efficiency of a typeface, without neglecting beauty. He is unique for his creation of the Univers typeface and his classification system (explained in depth below)! "Univers was supposed to be as reticent and neutral as possible so that it would be universal in application."  He designed this font to be rapidly recognizable and easily read. He spent most of his life in Paris teaching and also publishing his book, "Der Mensch und seine Zeichen". He influenced Swiss school of typography and was one of the best designers of the 20th century as he developed over 170 typefaces. 

UNIVERS is very UNIQUE as it consists of 44 faces, with 16 unqiuely numbered weight, width and position combinations. It's classification system eliminates many chaotic questions. The chart used lays out the different faces by weights and width used. Though this system was created to relieve confusion, it seems to be inconsistent. The Linotype Univers, a rework of the orignial Univers, contains 63 typefaces. It reflects more variations within the faces. This typeface has been put to use for many large companies. (I.e. the Swiss International Airlines and Walt Disney World road systems. 

Univers Roman Bold

Univers Extended Volume

Univers Light

Univers Condensed

The grid helps illustrate differences in each face by 

defining their characteristics. A color coded diagram displayed number weights on the vertical axis and different widths on the horizontal ones. 

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The horrible grid.

A grid is a palette and/or set of standards ones uses to execute organizational placement of visual elements.  The grid generates consistency while still allowing creative variety. While striving for overall harmony, a grid aids spatial relationships, unity and balance between elements. Designers use grids to conserve as much sanity as possible. :) Really, they allow the designer to establish control and organization in all aspects. It helps the design with their challenge of engaging the viewer's interaction with the piece. Organization is key!

Functions of a grid: 

Control

o r g a n i z a t i o n

rhythm

harmony

unity

dynamism

readability

movement

balance

directionnnn

contrast

iNtErAcTiOn

order

Parts of a GRID

Margins act as a border to the active area provoking the viewer to analyze the visual elements. Columns are negative space between the elements providing structure and emphasis on the active areas. Grid Modules are the active areas filled with the elements. Flowlines are structure providing lines creating even more structure. A gutter is the space between columns and the elements. 

Modular grids, like multiple-column grids, use horizontal flowlines (to create modules) that increase the flexibility of the composition. They're used a lot in magazines and newspapers, as they accommodate changing contents.