Ashton - Blog II


Personally, the more interesting content in the reading was the implementation of the elementary principles in Germany. Jan Tschichold explained ten principles for design. The principles being:
           
Typography is shaped by functional requirements
The aim of typographic layout is communication (for which it is the graphic medium). Communication must appear in the shortest, simplest, most penetrating form.
For typography to serve social ends, its ingredients need internal organization (ordered content) as well as external organization (the typographic material properly related) (Hollis, 55)

The principles really resonate with me in my own typographic designs in the sense that I try to use type in only the shortest and simplest forms. The use of thick, bold, sans-serif typefaces is something I also try to apply in my work.















Accessed from https://www.moma.org/collection/works/8078 on 21 January 2020

An example I really liked was the book cover, State Bauhaus in Weimar 1919-1923, designed by Herbert Bayer. Bayer’s all capital, sans-serif type sits simply on a black background, where it has nothing to do but capture the eye of the viewer (which I think it does well).








Accessed from https://www.bauhaus-bookshelf.org/first-bauhaus-book-weimar-1919-1924.html on 21 January 2020

Walter Dexel made some exceptions to Jan Tschichold’s Bauhaus in 1927. The 1929 photographic exhibition poster example shows off a similar thick lettering style to Bayer, but I think Dexel not using the modern gestures idea did help with legibility. Things like typesetting at an angle definitely made things more difficult to read. I think the exhibition example is successful as it uses the thick lettering and creates the black and white process in which is used for photography.












Accessed from https://www.moma.org/collection/works/5153 on 21 January 2020

Comments

  1. Lauren LewisJanuary 22, 2020 at 8:11 AM

    I like the designs that you picked. They are all very type dominate and have simple color palettes that allow for the type to the main focus of the design. I specifically like the black and white one because the contrast of the dark to light makes for a very visually interesting design.

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  2. Ivy MarkhamJanuary 22, 2020 at 1:06 PM

    I also love Bauhaus typography because of the effectiveness of the execution. I find the example by Herbert Bayer very visually appealing because the rectangular type is formatted into a perfect square, and because the primary colors contrast strongly against the dark background - simple but effective. I also love the effect of the reflections of the words in the example by Tschichold.

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  3. Hanna HJanuary 22, 2020 at 2:56 PM

    My favorite out of the three is Bauhaus because the contrast between the two. Reading the two types together is very pleasant. To me it's very fitting for the typography with the contrasting points of text. Most of the text colors are split down the middle until the numbers, which makes me wonder why.

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