mp's graphic art history blog: Homework #10

The Modern Movement in America and the International Typographic Style: Immigrants to America and War Years

When we think of the Modern art movement, we imagine the 1930’s with very traditional illustrations. Yet the movement was breaking ground many years before the 1930’s, with typefaces, book designs and editorial designs for business and fashion magazines. During the early 1900’s new typefaces were being designed and new ways to layout information was being created. Graphic designs during this time could be found with uncommon title-page arrangements and two-column book formats. And with typefaces like Futura, Kabel, Caledonia and Electra, fonts were now taking a design of their own. These graphic styles helped form a movement that has altered the way we design in the 21^st Century.

During the late 1930’s migration was at an all-time high. The influx of immigrants to the United States also brought new designers with new ideas. Many artists from European countries like Germany had to migrate in order to continue work as a designer. Artists like Georg Salter, had been barred from employment in Germany and immigrated to New York. During 1922-1934, Salter produced hundreds of book designs and specialized in creating book jackets. Due to his sensitivity to type and literary expression, he had an amazing capability of creating a design for the cover of books. Salter specialized in pen-and-ink drawings, panoramic watercolors, calligraphy and photomontage. His amazing combination of calligraphy and illustration had the ability to entice any reader. Each of his cover designs held a different energy that almost told the story that was inside book.

Erte, was a Russian-born immigrant who was a set designer and designer for Harper’s Bazaar magazine. Erte designed in a very art deco manner, which combined cubism with exotic decorativeness and fashion. Later in his career he even designed fashion for movies. Yet his graphic designs and illustrations set him above the rest. Many of his magazine covers displayed a sophisticated and feminine image. With new rich and eye-catching designs, a desire to capture the reader’s attention had been ignited. Artists like Alexey Brodovitch began to use photography in their graphic designs. Brodovitch designed covers for Harper’s Bazaar magazine as well as Erte. Yet Brodovitch had a way of cropping and juxtaposing images together. Along with his amazing use of text and images, he used white space and open pages. This brought a new freedom to magazine cover designs during this time.
The war years, which began in 1941, brought a massive change to graphic designs during the era. Designers were creating informational training material, posters and even cartoons. The U.S. Office of War In formation asked designers to help create many of these works through commissions. Artist Jean Carlu, helped the U.S. by creating posters using visual and verbal elements about labor and production. These strong designs usually had one key illustration with text. Since the goal of these posters was to stir emotion in the American citizen, designs were usually simplistic and minimal, yet held a strong emotional presence. With the use of dramatic contrasts of color, these simple graphic symbols became very powerful. Artists like Herbert Bayer, created intense graphic designs with his use of simple, straightforward headlines, along with a chilling image. Designs like this brought a sense of urgency to helping the cause. Many artists used this sense of urgency and fear in their designs. Other artists like Ben Shahn, created a startling poster design that effectively displayed the war, by using direct words and images. During this time graphic design went in a direction it had not yet traveled. In the United States, designs and artworks were now being used to instill a sense of fear and necessity, which had not yet been touched by designs.