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