Postmodern

Postmodern 1975-1990

The postmodern era was made up of designs that went against the Swiss/International period and re-established interest in ornamentation, symbolism and visual wit. Designs from this era incorporated humour and consisted of many funny designs.
Elements within this era included:
- Geometric shapes
- Loose collaged approach
- Spontaneous brush strokes
- Energetic
- Various textures
- Overprinted colours
- Spaced typography
- Expressive lines

This is a piece by Wolfgang Weingart who was a teacher at Switzerland's Basel School of Design and was a major influence on the Postmodern era. His designs reflected geometric shapes, a collaged look and energetic colours. In the above design he used a stepped approach in the bottom right hand corner that leads the eye back up the page to encourage the audience to read the poster again. I like this poster as it is playful and energetic and perfect for reflecting this era.

This is a piece by April Greiman, who was one of Wiengart's students and is known to be one of the best female graphic designers in history. She has created the stepped approach by using expressive lines and has also created a collaged effect by layered certain elements on top of each other. Another element of this piece that reflects the Postmodern era is the spontaneous brush strokes that add flashes of vibrant colours. The function of this poster is to promote the 'China Club' (Nighclub) in Los Angeles. Her approach is somewhat simple but effective as it still manages to convey a fun feeling.

Contemporary

1975 - Present

The Contemporary era is still happening now and it is important to realise that what is considered ‘contemporary’ may be very different 20 years from now. The current contemporary style is clean and simple and reflects what is currently in style.
Common elements within contemporary design:
- Grid layout that creates order and structure
- Professional designs created by good use of white space & clear typography
- Simple & easy to understand information
- Creative typography and minimalistic layouts
- Clean block colours
- Many contemporary designs also use hand rendered text

The above is a spread from Rolling Stones magazine produced in 1990. This magazine is known for often breaking new ground as far as typography goes. In this design the spread goes over two pages. It reflects the contemporary look as it is made of clean colours, clear typography & good use of white space. I like this spread because it encourages the reader to look deeper to see the meaning, which is what good design is all about.

This is a design by Michael Schwab that uses silhouettes, clear flat colours (inspired by the Art Deco look) and clear typography. Many of Schwab's designs used a silhouette element to convey a clean and clear layout: making them easy to follow and understand. I like this poster basically because it is so obvious and unlike many designs, you don't have to look too hard to find its meaning.

The Digital Era

The digital style began in the USA and was fast to spread around the world due to the use of the Internet. This style is still happening now and will possibly be renamed by historians after the movement ends.
Digital artists in the modern day are very good with computers and therefore are successful at creating pieces that can look messy, chaotic, extreme and expressive.
During the digital era computer programs such as Photoshop became more accessible and therefore designers found it easier to create layered designs. Pieces from this era often use abstract shapes to make up backgrounds and overall can usually play on the mind, encouraging the audience to look deeper to find meaning. Designers in this age push the boundaries to portray their ideas and see just how far they can take their pieces.

Below is a list of common elements found within pieces from the digital era:
- Abstraction
- ‘Messy’ decoration (things placed randomly throughout backgrounds or designs)
- Disjointed pieces
- Personal expression and experimentation
- ‘Deconstructed typography’ (extremely morphed text)
- Random layouts challenging past eras
- Layered textures
- Illusions of depth
- Illustrative
- Curvilinear shapes This is a magazine cover designed by David Carson in 1982. Here we can see that he is really pushing the boundaries of typography and has created a collaged look by layering different aspects. The Digital era is appealing to me because I like abstracted designs and admire people that test the boundaries.

The left hand side of this image is a design by Katharine McCoy produced in 1989. She was the director of Cranbrook Academy of Arts and encouraged experimentation and personal expression. Digital elements include abstract shapes, typography that is layered and looks somewhat like a typewriter. I like this piece because it is interesting and the colours work well together. It is an effective design as it promotes individual style.
Reference: Tafe lecture video - Digital

Psychedelia

The psychedelic era began in the 1960's during the hippie subculture. Designs within this era were inspired by psychedelic experiences often induced by drugs, which were popular amongst youth culture at the time. The word 'psychedelic' means 'mind-manifesting' and designs that fit into this era often opted to visually capture the feeling of 'tripping out.' Common elements within psychedelic designs included bold colours, lines creating optical vibrating effects, abstract and curvilinear shapes and typography that was often morphed to fit inside shapes or follow abstract lines.

Three influential designs of this era were Victor Moscoso, Alton Kelley and Wes Wilson. Many psychedelic elements were used within their designs, such as bold colours, skewered typography and abstract shapes and all three produced large amounts of pieces during the 1960s. Below I have included some art works by each artist that represent pieces from this era.

This design is by Wes Wilson and represents this era through morphed lines, typography following these lines and contrasting colours. Often designs from the Psychedelic era had text that was very hard to read and encouraged people to look deeper for meaning. This is an example of really capturing psychedelic feelings through the vibrating lines. I like this poster because of the way it flows and I believe it would have been very appropriate and effective at the time it was produced.

The above is a very famous design by Milton Glaser, founder of Push Pin Studios. Here we can see that the image is abstracted to the max and Glaser has used vibrating colours and morphed lines to form the hair. Push Pin Studios became one of the most influential design studios in graphic design and were one of the first studios that sold many pieces based on their distinctive style. The poster was promoting Bob Dylan and I was attracted to the piece just through the bright colours and abstracted elements.

Swiss/International

Swiss/International 1945-1985

The Swiss style was a major force in graphic design and still holds lots of power in today’s designing world. The attitude of art produced within this era was to make it socially useful, universal and scientific. The idea was to achieve objective clarity and order within designs and as a result extreme abstraction was often created based on pure geometry.

The above is a music poster from 1954 created by Josef Muller-Brockman who was a designer, teacher and writer. It is representative of this era as the lines and text follow the same sloped direction and words are spaced out to contribute to the abstract feel of the poster. The writing is balanced by using a grid format which was popular in this time and used to organise typography in a particular way. To me this design is a bit boring so I don’t think the quality is high, however at the time it was produced it was probably effective.

This piece is by Massimo Vignelli and was produced in 1957. Again it represents the Swiss/International era through abstract shapes, contrasting colours and text following a particular direction. This poster would have been effective because the bold colours catch the audience’s eye and make you want to read the content on the poster.

Late Modern

Late Modern 1945-1970

The late modern period was inspired by European new and original early modern approaches. American artists developed a unique personal style and the result was a new simplicity that gained popular acceptance worldwide.

This era was similar to American Kitsch as it still incorporated geometry, simplicity and clear typography.

The above piece is designed by Paul Rand, who was a large influence throughout this era as he used his intelligence to connect ideas with simplicity and wit. This piece is representative of the Late Modern era as it incorporates shapes, clear font, simplicity and slight abstraction of shapes. Rand often made designs that looked somewhat like collages through shapes and objects being placed on top of each other. I think this magazine cover would have been effective at the time of print as it is attention grabbing and simple, yet still portraying a message of the magazine title.

This is a magazine cover by Lester Beall who was a self taught designed who helped revolutionise American graphic design by using symbols and photography in a layered, collage-like way. Although this design has lots of shapes, casual fonts and a collaged surface, Beall still managed to retain simplicity by balancing his colours. As a result of the overall simplicity I think the quality of this piece is good for the era it was created in.

American Kitsch

American Kitsch 1940-1960

American Kitsch is most commonly known as '50s art.' 'Kitsch' is a German word meaning “in bad taste.” Kitsch is usually used to describe art that is pretentious, vulgar and overly sentimental.

Elements of this era included curves, casual script, typography and sexy and sensual shapes.

The above is a magazine cover designed by one of the most influential designers of the time: Rockwell. He designer over 300 covers for the Saturday Evening Post between 1916 and 1963. This piece is representative of the American Kitsch era through the casual typography, exaggerated expressions and dramatic poses of the boys. I think the quality of this piece is good as it also incorporates a sense of humour as the boys have clearly been in trouble for swimming where they weren’t aloud to.

The above is a poster design from the 1950s and again incorporates an exaggerated pose that is rendered realistically to make the woman look dominant over the highway. Her facially expression is also exaggerated and the font is big and easy to read.

Because American Kitsch is considered “outsider art” this style is not recorded in history books, yet graphic designers seem to have a deep affection for this graphic style.

Reference: Tafe lecturer video – American Kitsch