Ken-Tsai Lee's "identity" design

In Taiwan, Ken-Tsai Lee is a university professor and principal of a prestigious studio. In New York, where he recently studied English for two years, he found himself questioning the feasibility of Andy Warhol’s adage. “Where were my 15 minutes?” he says, “Who knew me? No one knew me.” With ambitions to expand beyond the localized Taiwanese market, he had been drawn to the city of strivers—“the capital of the world,” he says. “I knew I needed to overcome many problems if I was to achieve my goals,” he says from Taiwan, now preparing applications for U.S. graduate studies in design. “And the first problem was language.” As he realized how formidable his obstacles would be as a foreigner, Lee created a self-promotional poster series featuring his name in 12 languages, including Thai, Bangladeshi, Egyptian, Hebrew, Arabic, and Polish, that comments on the immigrant experience in general and marks his yearning for recognition—which came in surprising places. 

Lee's ideas:
1- social design,
2- identity politics,
3- global reach,
4- be upbeat.

your turn #9 (last post for comment)

LOGO masters: Saul Bass, Paul Rand, Chermayeff & Geismar, GeorgeLois. 1970's Punk, Ed Fella. The Polish School of Poster. The 1980s: Greiman, Sussman, Dumbar. The Memphis School.

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Tadeusz Trepkowski

the largely self-taught Tadeusz Trepkowski expresses a deceptively simple poster aesthetic, seen in the stunning 1948 hand-printed film poster "Last Stage," a stirring drama of survival and tragedy in the camps during WWII. here trpkowski draws on the viewer's vast and often hidden store of associational images. poster evokes a quiet and eloquent note as the bent red carnation -a traditional flower of remembrance in Poland- casts a shadow on the striped prison garb, with the infamous nature of the camps also recalled in the identification patch and number. 

what's Trepkowski's secret? 

1- laconic composition,
2- striking symbols,
3- political honesty,
4- common sense,

your turn #8

 armin hoffman, poster for stadt theater basel, 1963

We've covered propaganda, advertising, WWII (their side & ours), Alvin Lustig, the International Typographic Swiss Style (with the likes of Müller-Brockmann, Max Huber, Eric Nitsche & Armin Hoffman), Helvetica, & the emergence of the "pre logo" artists (Bass, Giusti, Stankowski, et. al.) + the golden era of jazz album covers.

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your turn #7

Alex Liberman, Vogue cover, 1950

last class I lectured on a group of star designers from European descent that came to America during of after WWII, loosely grouped as the New York School. They are:

A. M. Cassandre: influenced by Surrealism and Cubism, a pioneer of the Art Deco style of plakastil (1930s-1950s).
Alex Brodovitch: comes from Surrealism and Art Deco, a pioneer of the New York School with his cosmopolitan style of female elegance, 1950s-1960s. Brodovitch is the BAZAAR side of the New York School.
Joseph Binder: comes from Art Deco Plakatstil and Surrealism, a pioneer of industry design (he is the FORTUNE MAGAZINE side of the NY School).
Piet Zwart: comes from Constructivism, New Typography and De Stijl (Netherlands), a pioneer in  typotechture (typeface + architecture), i.e., strong diagonals, primary colors, use of scale, varying typefaces (also FORTUNE MAGAZINE side of the NY School).
Alex Liberman: comes from Cubo-Futurism, Surrealism and and theater design, Liberman is the VOGUE side of the New York School. In addition he was an accomplished sculptor.
Herbert Matter: comes from Cubism, and the purism of Corbusier. In Switzerland he did photomontage for Ads, transcending the boundaries between art and design. He worked under Brodovitch for Conde Nast, and became a respected consultant for MoMA and Guggenheim.


We also talked about Weegee's amazing photos, Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo, Neue Typographie, Neue Sachlichkeit, Neoplasticism, dada/collage, metaphysical dada, political dada, Magritte, Surrealism, and different techniques of each school.

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Ted McKnight Kauffer's avantgarde design

Edward (Ted) McKnight Kauffer was one of Europe's most prolific and influential advertising poster artists during the twenties and thirties, and as innovative as his more celebrated French counterpart, A.M. Cassandre.

In England, where he lived and worked, Kauffer was hailed for elevating advertising to high art, yet in America only the design cognoscenti knew of his achievements when the Montana-born expatriate returned to New York City from London in 1940—after 25 years there.

Kauffer had attempted repatriation once before in 1921, when he was invited to show his early posters at New York's Art and Decoration Gallery; at that time he also attempted to find work with American advertising agencies.

In Kauffer's hands the poster (or the book jacket, which for him was a mini-poster) was designed to be interpreted rather than accepted at face value. In this regard he continually struggled with the paradox of how to meet his creative needs, his clients' commercial interests and his viewers' aesthetic preferences, all in a limited period of time (AIGA).

life in GOTHAM: here's weegeeeeeeee!

click here for more information,

what do we see?

weegee draws attention to the extremes and foibles of the city crowd: thugs, murder victims, muggers, transvestites, circus, the street at night, as well as beautiful private moments

1. be quick & sensational,
2.get the shot,
3. create your own opportunities, don't just wait,
4. look for people with character,
5. the art of faces,

public health design (the anti-syphilis campaign of the 1940s)

the graphic evolution of Mondrian (from bottom to top)

take a look at Piet Mondrian's stylistic development, from the early 1910's symbolist Red Tree, his post Cubist period, his minimal work of the 1930's and his famous Boogie-Woogie from 1943.

What's the lesson? 

1- adherence to rules,
2- dutch aesthetics,
3- conceptual rigor,
4- less is more,
5- go slowly,