unit 3 lecture 1

The ISOTYPE Movement- Origins of the pictographic models used in 20th century graphic design.
Pictorial languages- lexicons for communication
"International System of Typographic Picture Education"
Otto Neurath
Rudolph Modley- Ottos most distinguished pupil
Ladislav Sutnar- defined information design for a generation of designers at mid-century
Design systems become a pervasive metaphor for design
Visual "unit" becomes the double page spread- defined for function, flow and form.
Herbert Bayer- World Geo-Graphic Atlas - Milestone in making the complex accessible
The NY School- Beginning of WWII modernist flee Europe.
Lester Beal - posters for rural electrification Administration- used elemental Constructivist forms
Paul Rand- initiated an unique American approach to graphic design
Alexy Brodovish- Harper's art director from 1934 - 1958 - Also taught night classes at SVA to some of the great art directors
Brodovish introduced full bleed, photography, sans serif type, white space and asymmetrical layouts
The Age of Information - economic shift
The International Style - Need for universal communication
Origins of the SWISS grid- the need to set multiple languages in a document or book
School at ULM- Developed a curriculum that addresses new needs of this age. - study of semiotics - a philosophical theory of signs and symbols
Early Swiss Design- Set guiding principles for the movement: 1. designer is a conduit or facilitator 2. clarity of means and form 3. solutions emerge from close examination of its content
Theo Ballmer and Max Bill - established its early formal vocabulary based on a rationalist model
Anton Stankowski- major contribution- creation of visual forms to communicate invisible processes and physical forces.
Emil Ruder
Armin Hoffmann

Tonight we started into the more modern design periods. We started with the ISOTYPE movement and went through the 60s and Swiss style. I have had 2 classes where we have dealt with ISOTYPES and i had never heard that it was an acronym, not really sure how that one slipped through the cracks. I think ISOTYPEs are pretty interesting. Their ability to communicate ubiquitously is pretty amazing. Making them is a challenging experience. I thought the World Geo-Graphic Atlas was really cool. I'm going to look into that further outside of class. It seems like it would be an pretty interesting thing to study. We briefly covered the beginnings of the information age which is always interesting to talk about, i think the early days of the computer age is pretty crazy. We finished the class off with watching the move Helvetica which i love. I've seen it a few times before but it is still always a good watch. Great movie.