Karin Buffie - Blog Post 2




Bayer, H. (1925) “Universal Alphabet” poster. Retrieved from https://www.widewalls.ch/bauhaus-typography/herbert-bayer/ on January 22, 2020

One of my favorite sections from this week’s reading was about Germany, and how Bauhaus greatly influenced the design world with their modernization and their geometric and simplistic approaches to typography. It is safe to say that these ideas that Herbert Bayer explains about how letters and type should be simplified into an easier form for people to understand is even being brought out today in various logos and signage. Using all lowercase letters can be seen in Targets new logo, Amazon’s logo, in many song titles, etc. Not only is it becoming somewhat of an aesthetic choice, but it does make reading it much simpler. 



 Nezval, V. (1926) “Abeceda” poster. Retrieved from https://monoskop.org/log/?p=11843 on January 22, 2020



Another designer I found had an interesting view of type and geometry by using human form to recreate letters was Vítězslav Nezval. Our textbook samples his letter ‘V’ from his entire alphabet pictured above. Each letter uses geometrical shapes and lines to create a letter symbol, while also placing an image of a model recreating that specific letter. This captured my eye because it is simple and bold at the same time, by graphically using minimal shapes but executing a complex idea. 


Huszar, V. (1917) “De Stijl” magazine cover emblem. Retrieved from http://rietveldschroderhouse.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-de-stijl-magazine-pictures.html on January 22, 2020

Focusing more on how geometry was used in design, Dutch designers made geometry a major focus in their work. From the 1917 De Stijl magazine cover, I noticed how every shape used had no curved lines, and that every shape was made as some type of rectangle or polygon. I really enjoy this style, because I love how designs look with minimal kinds of shapes and not a lot going on design wise. The magazine title was even spelled out using rectangles. I find this to be a really fun way to create letterforms in a unique and bold way.


Comments

  1. SamJanuary 23, 2020 at 1:12 PM

    I like your comment about Vítězslav Nezval use of human forms to represent his text. It is very simple, but it captures movement and the human side and artistry of text. Also, in my typography class we have been talking a lot about how the vocabulary in describing the anatomy of type uses a lot of words from human anatomy. It is interesting to think of why we are drawn to comparing letters to the human form, maybe because they are so powerful and words can carry a life of their own, it is like we see our little creations in our image.

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  2. Dolores WilberJanuary 26, 2020 at 6:26 AM

    Emphasis on form is excellent always. Dutch design is amazing!

    ReplyDelete

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