2nd Project - Max Miedinger

Artist:

1910 - born
1926 - trains as typesetter
1940s - World War II - caused increased exports and delivery to Germans and Switzerland's economy was well off
1947 - typeface sales representative
1950-53 - Korean War
1953-59 - Cuban Revolution
1956 - freelance graphic artist
1956 - Eduard Hoffmann commissions him to develop a new sans-serif typeface
1957 - Hass-Grotesk face is introduced
1957 - advertising increased
1958 - Introduction of roman / normal version of Haas-Grotesk
1959 - Vietnam War
1959 - Bold Haas-Grotesk
1960s - Cold War getting bad
1960 - Haas-Grotesk renamed to Helvetica
1980 - died

Architecture of Doom

I found it rather interesting that Hitler was a failed painter who specialized in watercolors and that when he retired he wanted to devote himself to art.  It was extremely interesting how he was fascinated with his home city and antiquity.  Why?  I also draw my inspiration and try to get influence from my home town, and I love antiques!  In a way, Hitler and I seem to be very similar.  However, I feel like this is true for many fellow artists.  He also focused on the philosophies and writings of Faulkner, who became the center for most of his ideas.

Hitler was also influenced by operas and used it as an illusion, escape from reality.  That describes television and the theatres today!  It's funny how much has not changed. 

What may not be widely known today is that even though Hitler was upset with the contemporary artists of the time, probably from jealousy, degenerate art shows were still allowed (to be mocked, but still).  With the development of the Nazis, he did most, if not all, of the design work.  He designed the swastika and uniforms. 

Hitler teaches a good lesson to designers.  Failing should not stop you from trying and succeeding. 

Project 3: Peignot

Here's my part of the 3rd project.  Probably could use some tweaking.  If you have suggestions, please share :).

EDIT: I just realized I used the wrong paragraph for the text.  I was supposed to use what I had in my previous post.  And I also forgot to include a large version of the date....................   Will fix those issues... now if you have any other issues I haven't seen, please share =).

-Victoria.

Beautiful Loser

Shephard Fairey teaches that a simple and effective design can have a serious impact.  He's created several designs that have so much impact.  He makes art to stop people and make them look.  He creates art that will make people think and question.  Less is more, more is less.

This needs to be kept in mind when our group is designing our posters and material.  If it's overly complicated, maybe we should reconsider how crazy and hectic it is.  If hectic works, then fine, but if not, maybe we should try the Shephard Fairey route for influence.  The Swiss International Typographic Style is much like Fairey's style in the way there are bold colors, simplistic uses of those colors, and an overall clean look.

Charles and Ray Eames

Charles and Ray Eames created influential work throughout their years.  With their creative thinking and unique ideas, it was pure chemistry.  They designed original chairs, tables, and furniture.  Bringing this kind of imagination to every day belongings, they made innovation and outside of the box thinking possible. 

We can apply this to our project by thinking of alternative ways of producing our pieces and not just going for the obvious.  And if we do go for the obvious, we can make it strange and unfamiliar to a point of being interesting and unique.  That is what Charles and Ray Eames did, and they came up with amazing ideas that are timeless, classy, and brilliant.

Final Project: Synopsis

1st Assignment:  As a group we came to an understanding that since our subject is about Swiss typography that we should base our timeline on just that. Using the letter structure of Helvetica we will use our graphic design skills to create a beautiful series of events without actually showing a line of any means. As a collaborate team we were all interested on the Swiss's idea of taking solid colors and applying it to the bold font. 
Format: Printed Poster


2nd Assignment:  To build a map based around one of the typographers. We all looked at several different styles such as info graphics and literal maps but one particular shape caught our eye and we were instantaneously drawn back to it. This circle form is very unique and as a group we feel it will display all the key points.  Its beautiful shape and I personally enjoy how the lines within the circle weave through one another.
Format: Printed Poster 


3rd Assignment:  This project will be overall to present our subject in an artistic fashion! Similar to a show book we will display the types of fonts that the Swiss Typography is all about! Each group member will be assigned a spread and a font. 
Format: e-Magazine


Timeline Info [Click Here]
Our Schedule [Click Here]
Progress [Click Here]

Sketches:

Project 3: Peignot Portion

This will be a 2 page spread of the eMagazine portion of the project.

1937

Peignot, a sans serif font, was commissioned in 1937 by a French foundry named Deberny and Peignot.  It is a nontraditional font and consists of a mixture of traditional lower case font and all caps.  It was popular in poster and advertising publishing, however, it died with the invention of Helvetica.  Helvetica is primarly based on  Akzidenz-Grotesk, however, it also took the leading and some inspiration from Peignot.  Overall, Peignot was considered too decorative at the time, and Helvetica provided a clean and fresh feel.  It wasn't used often until the 1970s.