Friday, 21 February 2014

History of Graphic Design Assignement 1.1

Cherise Prinsloo

BE 2010-0496

History Of Graphic Design 
AGHA 300


Assignement 1
International Typographic Style (ITS)


The basic Principles of ITS

The International Typographic style, or other wise known as ITS was first created in Switzerland during the periods of the 1940's to the 1950's. The forefathers of ITS are Joseph Muller Brockman and Armin Hoffman. (http://www.designishistory.com)

These revolutionary designers constructed a design forum based on asymmetry based with in a geometrically calculated grid, to form the aesthetics that would be easily followed and understood by the eyes of the audience. The grid method was applied to the typographic elements, which often occurred in the type font "Helvetica" or other San-serif typographic fonts. Inspired by the simplicity and universality of De Stijl and the teachings of the Bauhaus, the ITS designers rooted for a clean and more intellectual approach to communicating in advertising. 

The Characteristics of ITS

Although the ITS type font was often simplistic, the imagery was an assimilation of photography and patterns. Designers would often use photography in forms of a montage, and manipulate the imagery over each other to create depth and a more illustrated perspective.

These characteristics can be seen in the following images
 


In this image it is clearly seen that there is a San-serif font used. The plain black font in contrast uses a very defined differentiation method also used by the original ITS designers. The white geometric shapes forming the details, in what appears to be negative space, insinuates the entire picture without adding in the picture itself. The structured grid is evident in the layout of the content. There is a clearly defined border surrounding the word "suit", while the insinuated "bow tie" is placed half way above the border, if one had to place a ruler through the bow tie one could see that there would be a perfectly shaped triangle on either side of the bow tie. This is a mirror image technique that is also used in art works by Theo Ballmer in his poster piece for the Office Proffesions exhibition in 1928.( http://lindiewesselshistory.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/modern-logos-11.jpg?w=599)






The American Airlines logo is one of the most famous logos of today, yet it applies the principles of the classic ITS styles. Through a use of juxtaposition on placement and colour, they have created an aesthetically pleasing design that is structured on a mathematical grid. The grid is actually a reflection of the type. The logo element above the title of the company forms what appears to be the tip if two triangles crossing over each other. The font, is again, a San-Serif font. The use of two opposing colours on the colour wheel is often use to create a correspondence between two elements of the design.


Although this logo seems very much drifted from the previous logos, it still remains under the ITS design spectrum. The font used in the typographic elements on the left still contains the ITS principles of San- Serif. The logo elements on the left of the image however seem to be more decorative then functional, however, it still maintains a grid like structure that forms the design element. The font type used for the logo element is also a non serif font and had been manipulated to form a more contemporary ITS design feel much like in  Max Huber designs of the 50's. 


https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPjsZOAn6udn_ROJQqShiEzE0thhEk-0mpGqA8WcntKKoyps5jfxjy6KoDxepK485scX-yFaVXlNtedfdMdBqie606wR2gnbubUbtTng4dKwsGC5k81iAjrhYh12Wqeokt8bGdfdBwmZQ/s1600/8.jpg

This is a huge universal brand that has an incredible fan base. All of their logo designs have consisted of the four iconic squares tat represent the computers screens that they sell. Their symbolic red, blue, yellow and green have been simplified to a mere one colour logo. The font used is San-Serif, more then likely Helvetica. The simplicity and grid like structure of the windows logo element forms the basis of the ITS principles of design. The symbolic meaning is simple, easily understood as a window that contains four other windows, which also relates to the computer screens that we use as it is a computer program. 



This logo is the epitome of ITS principles of design. it contains the grid like structure within the logo, although the grid is slightly tilted to the left. The font of elements are placed within the actual grid itself and the grid forms part of the logo design, much like Theo Ballmers poster design for The Travelling exhibition of the Industrial Standards in 1928. This logo, however as recently developed after its company had become well established. this is the logo for Cartoon Network. this is a channel for children, and so you find a child like appearance brought by the blue drop shadow, buts till maintaining the simplicity of the basic concept. their target base is children, who often are too young to read, and so this particular logo tend to associate the the two letters found in the logo to the channel rather then having the old logo which contained the whole word, as the only aspect as it would be harder for the fan base to relate to. 

Other Examples







Bibiliography

  1. Swiss Design : Design Is History. 2014. Swiss Design : Design Is History. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.designishistory.com/home/swiss/. [Accessed 21 February 2014].
  2. International Typographic Style. 2014. International Typographic Style. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.csun.edu/~pjd77408/DrD/Art461/LecturesAll/Lectures/lecture08/InternationalTypeStyle.html. [Accessed 21 February 2014]
  3.  michaeldavis.j, (2012), suitsafrica [ONLINE]. Available at:https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq395Myi9WnAHYZ1_A_I6sBBdYfAHikct_C05jCKtOAjA6bKSPEvwm04E1bMPlOWFltbAdiodZVk6VtIjagFrZBPpLInyeQry6RCVKGRY5ayCgJZnSE55mayBwH3z0spfIY9i_QQ86RrU/s320/modern+logos+11.jpg[Accessed 21 February 14].
  4. wernerpaver, (2013), american airlines [ONLINE]. Available at:http://wernerpaverhistory.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/international-typographic-style-and-contemporary-logos/ [Accessed 21 February 14].
  5. Unknown, (2008), upART Contemporary Art Fair [ONLINE]. Available at:http://craigscottgallery.blogspot.com/2008/10/craig-scott-gallery-presents-julie.html [Accessed 21 February 14].
  6. wernerpaver, (2013), Windows 8 [ONLINE]. Available at:http://wernerpaverhistory.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/international-typographic-style-and-contemporary-logos/ [Accessed 21 February 14].
  7.  Vanilda Dias, (2013), LE History OF Graphic Design [ONLINE]. Available at:https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVZQVnMEv8p5McBwhCJBrEstCLNNNsfCrN7JmtwZiKBybnctOYGLSFlLfqVLhGYWp-IQMS5qpP3By8BJSNP6skbVEXQRvink9WVMlFQFE7vuovJDCoZfH64PldBw0lFUKY4Ck-pe0O01Q/s320/Cartoon_Network_logo4.png [Accessed 21 February 14].
Other references:
  •  michaeldavis.j, (2011), Mr wok[ONLINE]. Available at:https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq395Myi9WnAHYZ1_A_I6sBBdYfAHikct_C05jCKtOAjA6bKSPEvwm04E1bMPlOWFltbAdiodZVk6VtIjagFrZBPpLInyeQry6RCVKGRY5ayCgJZnSE55mayBwH3z0spfIY9i_QQ86RrU/s320/modern+logos+11.jpg[Accessed 21 February 14].
  • michaeldavis.j, (2011), Six words studio[ONLINE]. Available at:https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq395Myi9WnAHYZ1_A_I6sBBdYfAHikct_C05jCKtOAjA6bKSPEvwm04E1bMPlOWFltbAdiodZVk6VtIjagFrZBPpLInyeQry6RCVKGRY5ayCgJZnSE55mayBwH3z0spfIY9i_QQ86RrU/s320/modern+logos+11.jpg[Accessed 21 February 14].
  • michaeldavis.j, (2011), Insane Revalando Ideas[ONLINE]. Available at:https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq395Myi9WnAHYZ1_A_I6sBBdYfAHikct_C05jCKtOAjA6bKSPEvwm04E1bMPlOWFltbAdiodZVk6VtIjagFrZBPpLInyeQry6RCVKGRY5ayCgJZnSE55mayBwH3z0spfIY9i_QQ86RrU/s320/modern+logos+11.jpg[Accessed 21 February 14].
  • michaeldavis.j, (2011), The body club[ONLINE]. Available at:https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq395Myi9WnAHYZ1_A_I6sBBdYfAHikct_C05jCKtOAjA6bKSPEvwm04E1bMPlOWFltbAdiodZVk6VtIjagFrZBPpLInyeQry6RCVKGRY5ayCgJZnSE55mayBwH3z0spfIY9i_QQ86RrU/s320/modern+logos+11.jpg[Accessed 21 February 14].
  • michaeldavis.j, (2011), Mondrian Furnishings design[ONLINE]. Available at:https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq395Myi9WnAHYZ1_A_I6sBBdYfAHikct_C05jCKtOAjA6bKSPEvwm04E1bMPlOWFltbAdiodZVk6VtIjagFrZBPpLInyeQry6RCVKGRY5ayCgJZnSE55mayBwH3z0spfIY9i_QQ86RrU/s320/modern+logos+11.jpg[Accessed 21 February 14].




























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