Bauhaus

The Bauhaus was a very influential school of the early 19th century. It established design as a discipline taught and practiced using Modernism's form and functionality. It was located in Weimar from 1919-1925 and in Dessau in 1925-1933 and in Dessau from 1925-1933. the bauhaus was organized with a system that involved a master, journeyman, and apprentice. This system was similar to philosophies and lines used by builders of medieval Gothic cathedrals.

important influential individuals:

Herbert Bayer- At Dessau

His innovations:
*used an implied grid system and system for sizes and type rules and pictorial images to create an open composition.
*strong verticals and horizontals with occasional diagonals.
*he almost exclusively used san serif.
*experimented with type - designed a "visual alphabet" in 1925 that emitted capitals.

Moholy-Nagy

*Photoplasitcs - expanded role of photography in design context. he created a new visual language for photograph in enlargement, distortion, dropouts, double exposure, and montage.

Jan Tschichold

Unique in the history of design.
*fully realized bauhaus typographic theories. 20th century typographic expression is based on these theories.
*after realizing bauhaus typographic theories, he rejects dictums and reverted to a classical form of type.
*advocates freedom of modernist dogma.
*He wrote a book called "The New Typography" - described funtional design in the most straightforward means.
- the New Typography advocates design of contrasting elements, dynamic forces (type in motion), white space as interval and structural element, declared sans serif the modernist type.

* Tschichold turned back to "traditions of type" like his re-interpretation of Garamound, which he called Sabon. Returning "traditions of type" implied freedom of thought and artistic expression in typographic design.

Dutch masters of the New Typography

*Piet Zwart - self-proclaimed "typotekt" (architect + typography). He was influenced by Dada and De Stijl's functionalism.

*Paul Soetema

*Hendrick N Wekman - used small presses to produce a unique composition. his techniques were innovative and new.

*Herbert Matter - expressed type and image more fully than any other designer in the 1930s. He understood Russian film innovations, and used montage and collage.

his Significance: the role of extreme contrasts of scale in photography was expanded in the European poster style.

(Btw, sorry I missed class today. I'm sure you noticed that when I came in. Just so you know, that was the only class I missed. I don't habitiually try to skip class without being noticed. I just got thrown off a little since my class before your class got out an hour early, so then I came at 6 instead of 7 and saw no one was there, so I though class might have been canceled or something until later when I noticed what time it was and remembered I got out early. I didn't missed it on purpose.)