New Graphic DesignModernism & Post-modernism artist research & visual experiments

ModernismModernism is a broad term used to describe a set of art movements that began in the late 19th/ early 20th Century, thecultural properties at the time and the fast moving changes to Western Society.

The industrial societies and new cities combined with the horror’s of World War 1, are a few of the factors that made Modernism what it is today.

In simple terms, Modernism rejects the ideas of ‘realism’ and refers back to works of the past for their inspiration and reforms and rejuvenates the very old fashioned ways of the standard pre-war painter.

Overall, the term describes how artists of that time took the dated forms of art (architecture, religion, literature and daily life activities) and moved them forward using EzraPounds 1934 quote, ‘Make It New!’ as inspiration.

‘Avant-garde’ refers to the period before the movement claimed it’s Modernism title and goes a long way when trying to describe this period to somebody.

The start of the 20th C meant the beginning of fraught thoughts; radical political, social and economical changes that started to happen due to World War 1. It was most definitely a revolutionary time for not only the scientific and technological worlds but also for the art world. The world was forever changing around them from the invention of the car to high tech weapons, therefore their art work had to keep up with these advances.

Some movements from within the Modernist time are

Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Dada, Surrealism, De Stijl, and

Constructivism.

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DadaWhat Was Dada?

Dada was a word, a rallying symbol, a greatly intentional derisory anti-label. As a very provocative slogan it wrong-footed critics, who habitually pinned labels on new tendencies, such as Cubism. The tone was set: the Dadaists were not aiming to win over the critics, but to mock them.

For further research into theDada movement, I took a book out of the librarycalled, “Dada: The Revolt of Art” by Marc Dachy. The following paragraph is taken from the book:

“Emerging in 1996 from the melting pot of abstract painting and avant-garde poetry, Dada was a crisis in art, a leap outside the ranks of the “isms”, a complete insurrection. Reinventing the mechanisms of creation and thought, a group of young artist fundamentally changed the world’s conception of art. The incandescence and integrity of this individualist revolt were to

become the yardstick for all avant-garde art in the future.”Dada was officially not an art movement, it’s artists were not artists and it’s art was not art. The art work that these people created was influenced by how angry they were at how European modern society could allow World War One to happen. As a result of all their negative opinions, they set out to ‘spit’ on all the ‘-isms’ that contributed to starting and encouraging the war, such as materialism, nationalism and rationalism.

They publicly displayed their work so that everyone who supported the war and what it stood for, could see the other side of the story. All this took place in their refuge safe-haven Zurich, neutral Switzerland (this offers the assumption that most people in the Dada were of German or French origin).

Russian ConstructivismTo put it simply, Russian Constructivism was a movement that ran from 1913 to the 1940s and was started by the Russian Avant-Garde but it quickly spread to the rest of thecontinent after World WarOne.

Constructivism art is basically committed too ‘complete abstraction’, themes are often geometric and there is rarely emotion involved. This movement had a huge affect on modern art in the twentieth century, strongly influencing the work from within the Bauhaus and the De Stijl movement.

Not only did this movement have major influence in the art world, it started leaking into many other forms of media such as architecture, graphic and industrial design, theatre, film, dance, fashion and to some extent music.

They wanted to destroy art as we knew it, not to get rid of it all together, but to replace it with something more worthwhile

and ‘substantial’ to add to our community; something that they had made. Most of the artists from this movement were Latvian, Belarussian, Georgian and Ukrainian.

Nearly all of the work from this movement has mainly disappeared entirely from the records. What little remains is showcased and documented in the Royal Academy Show - Building the Revolution: Soviet Art and Architecture, 1915 to 1935.

One of my chosen artists for my research is El Lissitzky, a well-known graphic designer from the great Russian Constructivism period. His work often included “photo-montages, combining bold typography and abstract design with cut-out photographic elements.”

The architecture image above was created by the very famous Vladimir Tatlin and is labelled, ‘Tatlin’s Tower’. This is just one of many architectural pieces created with the influence of this movement.

FuturismFuturism is the artistic and social movement that began in Italy in the early twentieth century.

The movement was all about glorifying the modern ways such as speed, technology, youth and violence. It often also included objects such as cars, airplanes and the industrial city.

One of the main influential artists of this time was the world re-known F.T.Marinetti. He wrote the book, a graphic account of the Battle of Tripoli, ‘Zang Tumb Tuuumb’ 1912 (pictured above) thus leading to modern visual communication been ‘created’. He stated:

“The book will be the futurists expression of our futurist consciousness. I am against what is known as the harmony of a setting. When necessary, we shall use three or four columns to a page and twenty different typefaces. We shall represent hasty

perceptions in italic and express a scream in bold types... a new painterly, typographic representation will born out of the printed pages.”Marinetti’s typographical discoveries and designs made an extremely accurate representation of the hectic modern life. He referred to his style as ‘Multi-linear Lyricism’ which lead us into the use of type in various sizes, text split into columns and positioning horizontal and vertical elements for directionality and to create right angles.

All this came from his career as a poet; he didn’t want the words to just sit there, he wanted them to have meaning and sense.

The Futurism Manifesto

By F.T.Marinetti

1. We want to sing the love of danger, the habit of energy and rashness.

2. The essential elements of our poetry will be courage, audacity and revolt.

3. Literature has up to now magnified pensive immobility, ecstasy and slumber. We want to exalt movements of aggression, feverish sleeplessness, the double march, the perilous leap, the slap and the blow with the fist.

4. We declare that the splendour of the world has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed. A racing automobile with its bonnet adorned with great tubes like serpents with explosive breath ... a roaring motor car which seems to

run on machine-gun fire, is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace.

5. We want to sing the man at the wheel, the ideal axis of which crosses the earth, itself hurled along its orbit.

6. The poet must spend himself with warmth, glamour and prodigality to increase the enthusiastic fervour of the primordial elements.

7. Beauty exists only in struggle. There is no masterpiece that has not an aggressive character. Poetry must be a violent assault on the forces of the unknown, to force them to bow before man.

8. We are on the extreme promontory of the centuries! What is the use of looking

behind at the moment when we must open the mysterious shutters of the impossible? Time and Space died yesterday. We are already living in the absolute, since we have already created eternal, omnipresent speed.

9. We want to glorify war — the only cure for the world — militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of the anarchists, the beautiful ideas which kill, and contempt for woman.

10. We want to demolish museums and libraries, fight morality, feminism and all opportunist and utilitarian cowardice.

11. We will sing of the great crowds agitated by work, pleasure and revolt; the multicoloured and

polyphonic surf of revolutions in modern capitals: the nocturnal vibration of the arsenals and the workshops beneath their violent electric moons: the gluttonous railway stations devouring smoking serpents; factories suspended from the clouds by the thread of their smoke; bridges with the leap of gymnasts flung across the diabolic cutlery of sunny rivers: adventurous steamers sniffing the horizon; great-breasted locomotives, puffing on the rails like enormous steel horses with long tubes for bridle, and the gliding flight of aeroplanes whose propeller sounds like the flapping of a flag and the applause of enthusiastic crowds.

Walter DexelWalter Dexel was born in 1890 and died in 1973, giving him a life span through some of the most artistic and creative decades.

He studied Art History in Munich, which is where he found his flare for a more comprehensive approach. His early works were heavily influenced by the famous painter of the time, Cezanne, and her landscape paintings.

As this Modernist time all became what it is due to World War One starting, there was little surprise when the Nazi’s dismissed him from his post as a Graphic Design Lecturer at the Magdeburg.

This didn’t stop Dexel from doing what he does best. He went on to work some of the most famous artists from the Bauhaus such as Moholy-Nagy. During this period 1920s Constructivism became a major part of his work and complemented his comprehensive approach.

Following his time working with the Bauhaus he wrote a book with his wife that expressed his strong issues with Modern Living. Which again, is very fitting with his love for the Constructivism period as they also had problems with how the Modern Day world had turned out.

He finally became Head of Exhibitions in Jena and his later works were influenced by many a ‘ism’, such as Cubism and Expressionism.

I chose Walter Dexel to study for the Modernism section of this research project as I genuinely think he has a strong grasp on what the Bauhaus is really about. His typography is very simple in block black shapes but he loves to include his own twist on letters by adding corresponding lines of colour, just like in his own paintings. I also appreciate the fact that he didn’t just stick to one ‘ism’ of his time, he experimented in different areas, which probably gave him his style.

El LissitzkyEl Lissitzky was born in 1890 and died in 1941. Lisstizky was a Russian artist, designer, photographer, architect and typographer and was one of the most influential artists of his time - his work greatly influenced the Bauhaus and Constructivism period.

He began teaching other students at the young age of 15 (this says an awful lot about his talent and creativity) but was rejected by colleges and schools as they were only allowed to take on a certain amount of Jews in Russia.

In the summer of 1912 he toured Europe and that’s where he discovered his love for architecture and fine art. On his return, he became an important figure in the Russian Avant-Garde and went on to help his mentor, Kazimir Malevich, develop Supremacy.

Although his main title was ‘Teacher’, he took his skills and talents all across Russia and Germany (in

his early days, he did illustrations for children’s books, trying to spread the knowledge of the Jewish religion across Russia).

He designed numerous exhibition displays and propaganda works for the Soviet Union, whom he was part of.

I particularly love the layout of Lissitzky’s typographical propaganda pieces. He uses a mixture of layering and diagonal elements to lead your eyes around his posters. He also creates three dimensional appearances in some of his work, which can be seen as quite unusual for this time period.

His work will influence me greatly as I plan to take forward his diagonal and layering type ideas and make them more functional and ultra-modern for my masthead designs.

Joost SchmidtJoost Schmidt was born in 1893, died in 1948 and was a Prisoner of War.

Beginning with his educational background, it’s hard to compete with everything that Schmidt is trained in. He had a Diploma in painting and was trained in wood-carving.

His teaching career started in 1925 when he taught Lettering at the Bauhaus. This ended in 1932 but during this period he also taught Sculpture workshops (1928 - 1930) and Life Drawing classes (1929 - 1930).

As well as being highly educated in the creative department, he became a drafts-man and illustrator of maps which helped him along until he began creating exhibitions - he had numerous in the USA.

As he was the main visionary typographer of his time, it wasn’t long before he was head of the Advertising, Typography,

Printing and Photography department at the Bauhaus.

As you probably already know, he is most well-known for his advertisement poster for the famous Bauhaus exhibition in Weimar (the fourth image above).

I particularly love Schmidt’s work as they are very simplistic, using primarily straight lines and block shapes. The way the type follows the famous shapes on this poster leads your eyes from the top of the page down to the diagonal type at the bottom.

All his work has a similar appearance, using blacks and warm oranges primarily. However, I chose the third image as I believed it looked different to most others. It combines some clever photography and dark, subdued colours with minimal writing.

KandinskyKandinsky was born in 1866 and died in 1944. He is most commonly known as a Russian painter and art theorist, but is credited with painting purely abstract pieces of work.

He started out at the University of Moscow studying Law and Economics. It was only when he turned the solid age of 30 that he began to develop his interest in art and all it’s glory.

In 1896 he went to study Art and Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts where he particularly enjoyed Life Drawing, Sketching and Anatomy.

He returned to Germany in 1921 and was soon hired at the Bauhaus where he taught a Basic Design class, as well as Analytical Drawing and a complete course dedicated to ‘Colour’, which we all know he strongly loved.

He worked at the Bauhaus until the Nazi’s shut it down

in 1933. His analytical nature meant he developed a strong interest in Forms Study, Points and Line Forms. He became that absorbed in the matter that he went on to write two books on the subject.

I chose Wassily Kandinsky in particular due to his work not being like any other artist of his time. When analysing his work, you can see that he has had a different educational background as the geometric shapes, lines and angles prove so.

There are many interpretations of his work online and there are also many typefaces dedicated to him and his style which I find fascinating. The third image above is an example of some his work whilst at the Bauhaus - it’s most likely an Exhibition propaganda poster.

Kurt SchwittersKurt Schwitters was born in 1887 and died in 1948. He is most commonly known for his Graphic Design work, however he does include illustration and typography within his works.

If you’re in this area of work, you will probably know him from his famous collages that he produced his barn. He purchased this barn from a family he started living with after he left Germany, running from the Nazi’s. This barn became the ‘Merz Collage Barn’ which can still be seen today as a huge piece of art.

His semi-abstract work that worked closely in Surrealism, Constructivism, Dada and sound led to meetings with the Berlin avant-garde which in turn helped him discover a love for sculpture and poetry.

I chose Schwitters as although he is definitely a Modernist artist, his work borderlines Post-modernism as it is unlike any other artist of his time.

I think as he travelled a lot due to the Nazi’s invading his country, he wanted (and had to) keep his interest going with a lot of the things that he could find lying around.

Some of his work strongly represents the Modernism period such as the first image above - the bold colours and block shapes again, were a main focal point in this period and this piece in particular looks similar to Kandinsky’s work.

The only typography taken from Schwitters work would be newspaper clippings, stamps and other novelty ‘skip’ items or things that would be of no interest to anyone else, “One man’s rubbish is another man’s treasure”.

Post-ModernismPost-modernism is very difficult to define as it isn’t restricted to a specific time period. I’ve spoken to numerous artists asking them how they define the postmodern era. I’ve also spoken to many of my lecturers and read many books (“Introducing Post-modernism: A Graphic Guide” was a particular favourite of mine) and none of these people could supply me with a simple description. I suppose this lack of a simple definitive period is kind of exciting to us in the art world.

We can identify some of the main postmodern artists like Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst, but what about typographers? The only artist I’ve managed to come across that specifically uses the modern age ‘Grid’ technique is Wim Crouwel who created the ‘New Alphabet’.

Before I started research I believed post-modernism was something that we were living today. Artists

that were trying so hard not to be the same as everyone else. Not mainstream in a sense. However, the Conceptual artist Daniel Buren held an exhibition in 1976 entitled, “On two levels with two colours.” which simply featured two adjoining rooms with vertical stripes around the base of the room. This isn’t exactly an accurate representation, but it helped me visualise the difference between the modernism and post-modernism period and similarly it helped me understand (not quite fully, yet!) the difference.

The next artists I’ve chosen are some of the few I can strongly identify as post-modernist designers. You can see from their images that they represent something that is far past modernism in it’s technological advances.

Studio DumbarStudio Dumbar is an international agency with a Dutch heritage that focuses on “Visual branding, online branding”.

The studio was founded in The Hague by Gert Bumbar in 1977. It is currently lead by Liza Enebeis, Karmen Kekic and Tom Dorresteijn who have to have a strong expertise on communication and branding. The studio is now so successful they have 3 locations across the globe: Rotterdam, Shanghai and Seoul.

Their most recent work includes advertisements for classical musical group, ‘The Amsterdam Sinfonietta’.

I chose this group to research as I thought their work had a great personality too it and you can see that they clearly knew what they wanted their style to be and what direction they wanted to go in.

Some of the featured advertisement posters for The Amsterdam

Sinfonietta (some images are shown above) remind me of something quite modernist which perhaps another reason I was attracted to their work.

Their backgrounds are generally quite hectic; still using standard shapes like the modernists but twisting them and manipulating them into something obscure and abstract. They have similar qualities to the 1960s in a sense. The second image above resembles folded paper, and their logo also includes folded paper which I really love as it gives their work texture, dimension and also gives the audience a sneak peak into the work they do.

While the backgrounds are extremely bold and busy, their typography is very simple and fairly straight forward. This offers a calming affect to their dizzy backgrounds.

Michael C PlaceMichael C Place is the founder of ‘Build’. He studied Graphic Design at Newcastle from 1988-1990 but it ultimately didn’t work for him as he primarily wanted to work on record sleeve design. He doesn’t hide the fact that he didn’t complete his course at university and it was one of the best decisions he chose.

He arrived at The Designers Republic in 1992 and worked there for 9 years. However, previous to this change in career he worked with Trevor Jackson in London.

In 2000 he took a break from design and went on a 10 month world trip and on his return he began the foundations for ‘Build’. He also features in the Helvetica Feature Film (2007).

I’ve managed to find a great interview with Michael on the Computer Art’s website (link is on the reference list).

I chose to look at Michael C Place purely based on the fourth image above. I love

his approach to typeface in that he doesn’t stick to the standard formations of the single letter. Although that image doesn’t advertise a font, the second image above does. The word is made up of shapes and flowing lines and I really think that it works well.

I found the third image on the Form Magazine website, in which ‘Build’ had been hired to design their ‘poster’. I genuinely think that it is a beautiful simple piece, with lots of white negative space emphasising the opacity of the bright bold colours.

Overall, I love Michael C Place and that he doesn’t let the stereotypes of typography restrict him and his work. His use of objects and technological pieces suggest his work is very postmodern.

Barbara KrugerBarbara Kruger is an extremely popular conceptual post-modernist artist. She is known for primarily working in black and white and they are often very aggressive and put out a message.

Her typefaces used in her work are ‘Future Bold Oblique’ and ‘Helvetica Ultra Condensed’. She started her career by attending Parson’s School of Design and she works better at billboard size.

She has made some amazing works for some well established businesses such as the world famous fashion magazine, ‘Elle’. She is a huge, dedicated feminist which is why her works are very aggressive.

You can see many black and white images in her works but she states that she doesn’t often take the photo’s herself. They are primarily images taken from the past and I think this adds character to her works as well as the addition

of poetry in her works.

The most popular themes in her pieces are: religion, sex, racial abuse, gender equality, consumerism, greed and power.

Even though Barbara Kruger is a very popular artist, I just had to include her in my research. She hasn’t designed her own typeface, but I would definitely say she has had a huge influence on the Graphic Design industry in that most people in society today are more freely spoken.

Her works are primarily made from found images which is something that attracted me in the first place. I’m fascinated by history and their black and white imperfect images create an amazing theme throughout.

She uses a red border to create a bold impact around her images but then also uses it as a background to her type. This makes you look towards the writing rather than the image and

I think this a really great technique she has used.

The first image above was created for one of many feminist demonstrations and the last image is of oneof her most recent exhibitions. I think that this is unlike any other exhibition I have ever seen, as her work is quite literally everywhere and you are taken aback by how much impact it has on you.

The second image is an example of how her type isn’t always horizontal. She does use angles and varying sizes of text which shows she isn’t afraid to mix it up a little too.

Marian BantjesMarian Bantjes was born in 1963 and is a Canadian designer, artist, illustrator, typographer and artist.

From 1984 to 1994, she worked as a book typesetter and became a well known professional talented Graphic Designer from 1993 - 2003 when she was parnter and senior designer at Digitopolis.

She left her role at Digitopolis to become a Graphic Artist and now works primarily with type and ornament.

She is most known for her highly detailed vector art, obsessive hand work, patterning and ornamental style work. In 20015, she was named one of the top 25 up and coming designers to watch.

Her clients include Pentagram, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bruce Mau Design, Print Magazine, Wallpaper, Wired, The Guardian and The New York Times.

I chose Bantjes as her

work doesn’t really have one specific style. In some instances her typography is very traditional, something that you might see in an old book. In in other cases it’s very futuristic, it has sharp edges and extremely straight lines and angles.

The only thing that I can pick out from her work is the similar layouts. She includes a lot of writing on occasions yet manages to keep a fairly large amount of white negative space.

I chose to include the first image as it show’s her process through a project she was working on at the time. This is structure is similar to what I will be doing with my title designs and layouts thumbnails.

Neville BrodyNeville Brody was born in 1957 in London and is an English graphic designer, typographer and art director.

Brody is an internationally renowned artists and brand strategist. He is most commonly known for his work on The Face magazine (1981-1986) and Arena magazine (1987-1990).As well as magazine work, he also did album sleeve designs for various bands.

In educational terms, Brody is the alumnus of the London College of Art and Hornsey College of Art. He is currently the new Head of the Communication Art and Design department at the Royal College of Art.

He is currently a founding member of Fontworks and he created the company, Research Studios in 1994.

His typography work became heavily influential after the invention of the Apple Mac and is known for constantly pushing boundaries. Around the

time he was working for Arena magazine, he refused to use computers but was soon using the new Apple Macintosh as he discovered it “opened many doors” for him and his level of typography design.

I chose to include Neville Brody in my artist research for this brief as his work is never exactly the same. You can look at many pieces of his work and they will never be exactly identicle.

I chose to feature the Nike advertisement that he did above as the layout strongly reminds me of the way El Lissitzky and Joost Schmidt did their work at the Bauhaus in the modernism period. You can see from Brody’s work, that even though he is very postmodernist in terms of his overall appearence, his methods are still influenced by the Bauhaus.

The Grid SystemEvidence of the grid system in use within my work and others

I had never even heard of ‘The Grid System’ before I started Graphic Design at The University of Huddersfield. To be honest, I had never used InDesign before, so the whole process has been a little scary!

However, I after a little research online, a little help from some friends and of course, a lot of practice, I picked it up quite quickly. In fact, I impressed myself!

I still only know the basics, but that’s okay as I will learn along the way.When I first followed some step-by-step tutorials on how to make my first ever grid, I thought ‘what on earth are you talking about?’ But now, there’s no going back! If my work has typography in it, I can’t even start until my grid system is up and the leading is correct - I am a changed woman!

The grid system became very popular after the modernist movement that

finished (roughly) in the 1950s. Jan Tischichold wrote a book entitled, ‘The New Typography’ and ever since has been a pioneer for the standardisation of design. Making things simpler for the designer.

The grid system was designed to create an equal balance in designs. This system is now used globally to create level balanced layouts for items such as newspapers, flyers, brochures and magazines.

I have used the grid system throughout my research pages to practice and learn how it functions well in preparation for my broadsheet cover design.

Evidence of the GridThis double page spread is dedicated to showing evidence of the Grid System in use within my work.

The system has grown to be a major part of my work in that I find it difficult now, to not use it. It brings me comfort knowing that my writing, typography and images are perfectly in line with each other and that they are the exact same width apart.

I can see this been a key part of my work in the future and once you’ve practiced with using it and setting it up, there is no reason why you shouldn’t use it every time.

I can also clearly understand why magazines and newspapers use the Grid System, as it makes life a lot easier when designing covers and writing articles up as you can save a template and use it time and time again.

It is definitely worth learning the basics of the system, even if you don’t use it.

MagazineLayouts

As part of my research I decided to include a selection of magazine covers and their layouts, just so that it would be simple for me to see how the grid guidelines have been used within the industry.

I chose to use Vogue, Nylon and DG magazines as examples as I thought they were all slightly different.

Vogue is a well established upper-market haute couture fashion magazine that has a very popular masthead which is known around the world. From using the grids on the Vogue magazine covers, I can see that they tend to surround their main focal point (usually a model) with their typography, so their grid is fairly spread to the sides and the top of the cover.

Nylon is also a popular fashion magazine, primarily situated in America and it focuses on ‘different’ clothing. Their covers are generally very minimal with very little typography and

lots of empty negative space around their focal points. I think this brings emphasis to their illumines masthead and their main model.

DG is a graphic magazine with a slightly different approach than the fashion magazines. Their front covers are often very hectic and busy but their masthead is only two letters long and they never use a lot of typography to indicate the content of the magazine.

I think by applying the grids myself to these covers, it helps me visualise how it was originally done and how their thought process moves to different areas of the cover.

Existing Mastheads*I wanted to include some masthead research before I managed to design my own examples for the ‘New Graphic Design’ magazine we are heading towards.

On the previous pages I included fashion magazines as well as one graphic design magazine and focused on their layouts on their covers, so for this page I decided to focus primarily on their mastheads.

Wallpaper, ID and Creative Gaga magazines are all design publications and you can tell from just looking at their covers. Bar Creative Gaga, they’re very minimal with a lot of negative space around them and a very simple typeface which makes it iconic to their genre and makes them stand off the racks. Creative Gaga on the other hand has taken a stronger approach by dominating their cover with a very black, bold typeface which attracts your eyes immediately and reflects their content.

The rest of these magazines are not related to design in any form (content wise) but I did want to include some of this genre as I wanted to see what their layouts were. Wired, Harper’s Bazaar, Interview and Rolling Stone magazines all have a central masthead. Rolling Stone is very iconic to the 60s period reflecting its origin. Interview is in a handwritten script which again, is quite suggestive of the content (as well as it’s name!). Harper’s Bazaar was set up in 1867, so of course a very traditional typeface was expected from such a well respected fashion magazine. Wired is a little more difficult to decipher in terms of content as it looks like it’s target audience is men. The technology references on the front and the stamped out typeface used for the masthead make it appealing to the male gender.

I chose GQ magazine as it didn’t follow it’s other mainstream magazines in terms of layout and I really love the opacity in their masthead.

Mainstream vs. ArtWhilst researching already existing layouts and mastheads on magazines, I realised there was quite a strong separation on the magazine racks. There is a clear difference between the types of magazines, whether its based on content or genre, you can usually tell which is a best seller, what isn’t and who their target audience is just based on some analytical views of their covers.

I put this down to the layout and masthead of course. The masthead attracts the eye and the layout leads the reader around their cover, and hopefully, the rest of their magazine.

Magazines such as Empire, Kerrang and Heat all have extremely busy front covers, focusing on getting as much information to the reader as quickly and easily as possible. Although sometimes Empire has very little on their front cover and focuses on selling the number one film of the moment, you still

quickly understand what the magazine will primarily be about this month.

On a totally different level are all the art magazines available today. These consist of sewing, paper, graphic design and many other art related subjects.

You can see from the magazines I selected above, Design Week, Eye and It’s Nice That, that they are completely different to those mainstream ones below. They give off very little information with typography and focus primarily on the quality of the cover image to sell the magazine for them. This fits well with their minimalistic theme as it also runs through their masthead designs.

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My masthead designs are based on a mixture of background knowledge on magazines, my own personal taste and the specifications from within the brief. I didn’t want to pin-point and produce my masthead so that it focused either primarily on Modernism or Post-modernism as these subjects are only specific to this issue.

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Modifying Mastheads

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Masthead in different layouts

Masthead with colours

Cover Designs

Cover Layouts

Final Designs

_Form Follows Function:An exploration of Modernism& Postmodernism_

April 24th 2013Issue One

FormFollowsFunction

An Explorationof Modernism and Postmodernism

April 24th 2013Issue One

_April 24th 2013_ISSUE ONE

_Form Follows Function:_An exploration of

Modernism &Postmodernism_

_Form Follows Function:An exploration of Modernism& Postmodernism_

April 24th 2013Issue One

To my thirteen year old

self...

To my thirteen year old

self...FormFollowsFunction

An explorationof Modernism &Postmodernism

April 24th 2013Issue One

Existing Article LayoutsRegarding the content for the magazine, ‘New Graphic Design’, I also wanted to do some research into the layouts and designs of articles and how they’re presented in popular and art magazines.

From browsing the internet for a while I came across these examples among an array of various other mediocre examples. I decided upon these for their different qualities.

The first article image has a very clean, minimal layout with a lot of white negative space. I really do like this example as I like the sections of typography coming from their images and revealing just a slither more of their content. This is a very classy way of using great images and showing them off without having a full page spread. I also love that the images stretch horizontally across the two pages in parallel too their short paragraphs beneath.

In regards too the second image (directly above), I picked this one out as I particularly liked the use of cut out rectangles at an angle. By cutting out these shapes and revealing the white beneath, it almost looks layered.

The final images (bottom left) layout is primarily focusing on photography. The full double page spread that the desaturated image takes over is the main focal point and grabs the attention immediately. I chose this one because it is very simple and straight forward. There are no fancy layouts, just typography and photography. The colour theme is consistent throughout and they don’t try to to be adventurous and use bold, bright colours on the black and white background. The image also gives a little perspective to the page which is a pleasant bonus to the layout.

Final Outcome

Modernism Page:First: http://r-blackham1215-dc.blogspot.co.ukSecond: http://rvcc2d.blogspot.co.uk/Third: http://e-lodge1215-dc.blogspot.co.uk/Fourth: http://rvcc2d.blogspot.co.uk/Fifth: http://m-weaver1013-cts.blogspot.co.uk/

Dada Page:First: http://gdefletcher.files.wordpress.com/Second: http://blogs.artinfo.com/Third: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fourth: http://www.littlecollector.com

Russian Constructivism:First: http://rvcc2d.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11Second: http://www.arthistoryarchive.comThird: http://www.tumblr.com/Fourth: http://noellehoffman.tumblr.com/

Futurism Page:First: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/Second: http://www.noahread.netThird: http://www.themplsegotist.comFourth: http://www.russianartandbooks.comFifth: http://english.colorado.edu/

Manifesto:First: http://www.flickr.com/

Walter Dexel:First: http://observatory.designobserver.com/Second: http://art.findartinfo.comThird: http://www.kettererkunst.com/Fourth: http://posterillustration.wordpress.com/Fifth: http://www.moma.org/

El Lissitzky:First: http://www.google.beSecond: http://www.britannica.comThird: http://ashleyellen.comFourth: http://www.wikipaintings.org/

Joost Schmidt:First: http://www.imgspark.comSecond: http://kak.ru/files/columns/bauhaus/Third: http://bauhaus-online.de/Fourth: http://1.bp.blogspot.com

Kandinsky:First: http://www.blogonlyapartments.com/Second: http://mnaves.wordpress.comThird: http://www.smashingmagazine.comFourth: http://www.vanseodesign.com

Kurt Schwitters:First: http://en.wikipedia.org/Second: http://shelleysdavies.com/Third: http://www.outbreakart.co.uk/Fourth: http://www.mariahatling.comFifth: http://www.typophile.com

Post Modernism Page:First: http://studiodumbar.com/Second: http://blog.matt.cc/Third: http://milkwithonesugar.com/

Studio Dumbar:Second: http://studiodumbar.com/First: http://studiodumbar.com/Fourth: http://studiodumbar.comFifth: http://theeyestheysee.tumblr.com/

Michael C Place:First: https://www.creativereview.co.uk

ReferencesSecond: http://blog.matt.cc/Third: http://milkwithonesugar.comFourth: http://www.thefoxisblack.com

Barbara Kruger:First: http://jessicaysl.tumblr.com/Second: http://www.tumblr.com/Third: http://stevedolnack.tumblr.comFourth: http://www.interviewmagazine.com/

Marian Bantjes:First: http://www.bantjes.com/Second: http://www.bantjes.com/Fourth: http://www.bantjes.com

Neville Brody:First: http://stoneletters.wordpress.comSecond: http://lisathatcher.wordpress.com/Third: http://www.behance.net/gallery/

The Grid System:Both: thegridsystem.org

Magazine Layouts:Vogue Covers: http://www.vogue.co.uk/Nylon Covers: http://www.nylonmag.comDG Covers: http://fashionschools.typepad.com/

Existing Mastheads:Wallpaper: http://www.spoonfeddesign.com/ID: http://poketo.com/Bazaar: http://wasteofspace1.wordpress.com/GQ: http://slateandstylish.blogspot.co.uk/Creative Gaga: http://aside.in/Interview: http://dailydesigndiscoveries.com/Wired: http://www.justjared.comRolling Stones: http://www.magxone.com/

Mainstream Vs. Art:Design Week: http://prestonillustration.blogspot.co.ukEye: http://va312aslicaglar.wordpress.comIt’s Nice That: http://www.itsnicethat.com/Empire: http://www.comicbookmovie.com/Heat: http://megansandersasfoundationportfolio.blogspot.co.ukKerrang: http://www.myspace.com/

Article Layouts:Image One: http://bestdesignoptions.com/Image Two: http://bestdesignoptions.com/Image Three: http://www.jaxdeleon.com/