1940s jenny on the job by kula robbins

the star of this series is jenny, the model production worker. the government had encouraged entry of women into the workforce, replacing men fighting overseas. jenny on the job showcases eight posters issued in 1943 by the United States Public Health Services.

jenny became a role model for many young women, probably new to industrial jobs, on working safely and efficiently, doing her best to help the war effort.

on content:

1. kula is able to sell jenny as the girl next door,

2. jenny is not only a problem solver, but a dutiful citizen in times of war,

3. jenny exhibits a sense of optimism & valor,

on form:

3. accessible rendition: jenny in action, and message, sometimes as imperative ("let's keep our room clear") or descriptive: "lift weight the easy way",

4. friendly atmosphere, 

5. jenny comes out as resilient, witty & productive and    

a gallery of robbins' posters here, 

the impactful design of Herb Lubalin (1950s)

Typography is the key in Herb Lubalin's design. "What I do is not really typography, which I think of as an essentially mechanical means of putting characters down on a page." Lubalin was a brilliant, iconoclastic advertising art director—in the 1940s with Reiss Advertising and then for twenty years with Sudler and Hennessey. Recipient of medal after medal, award after award, and in 1962 named Art Director of the Year by the National Society of Art Directors, he has also been a publication designer of great originality and distinction. He designed startling in the early 60s, intellectually and visually astringent Fact in the mid-60s, lush and luscious Avant Garde late in the same decade, and founded U & lc in 1973 and saw it flourish into the 80s But it is Lubalin and his typographics—words, letters, pieces of letters, additions to letters, connections and combinations, and virtuoso manipulation of letters—to which all must return. The "typographic impresario of our time," Dorfsman called him, a man who "profoundly influenced and changed our vision and perception of letter forms, words and language." (taken from AIGA).

what do we see here?

1- black & white printing on uncoated paper,
2- one or two typefaces
3- Lubalin payed a single artist to handle all illustrations, rather than dealing with multiple creators.
4- the result is a dynamic minimalism that emphasized the underlying sentiment of the magazine,
5- i.e., lubalin was a functionalist/conceptualist.

how graphic design presented jazz (1950-1960s)

oliver nelson's the blues and the abstract truth, 1959, for impulse

oliver nelson was a composer and arranger, the album above is considered his best and one of 1959's best albums. this is produced by impulse, already at a time when record companies felt it was better to have photos instead of illustration. jazz was mature and sophisticated enouch that it can withstand the postraits of the players. 

jim flora design, pete jolly trio, RCA 1955

this is the early 1950s style with RCA album covers. 

david stone master, charlie parker with strings, 1947-1952, mercurty records

david stone master, lionel hampton big band, clef records, 1954

 paul chambers, bass on top, 1957 for blue note (blue note presented a unified design throughout, showing the sophistication of jazz through the realistic photos of the musicians

neil fujita, dave brubeck, time out, 1959, columbia

 

paul bacon,from a de chirico painting, for thelonius monk's misterioso, riverside, 1958

neil fujita,kind of blue, miles davis, 1959, columbia

a very cool sonny, resembling pitcher don newcomb a pitcher for LA Dodgers, blue note, 1957

h. p corbissero design for SUN RA, jazz in silhouette, for evidence, 1959

,

clifford brown ensemble, featuring zoot sims, 1955, for pacific jazz records, 1957

BAUHAUS in architecture

In architecture, new objectivity,

Haus am Horn designed by George Muche

simple cubic design, utilizing steel and concrete in its construction. 

At the center of the house was a clerestory-lit living room, twenty-feet square, with specialized rooms surrounding it. this is how Walter Gropius described the design: "in each room, the function is important, e.g., the kitchen is the most practical and simple of kitchens --but it is not possible to use it as a dining room as well."

or Bruno Taut,

Bruno Taut's Onkel-Toms-Hütte, in Wilkistrasse

What's important is Taut's modern flat roofs, access to sun, air, and gardens, and generous amenities like gas, electric light, and bathrooms. critics on the political german right complained that these developments were too opulent for "simple people."

or else, the amazing Wissenhoffsiedlung!

The square implies flatness, no ornamentation (after loos)

Loos' Rufer House, 1922

Perhaps except for this Parthenon-like freeze (so the idea is still to attenuate the rigidness)... see the random arrangement of windows? the wall is a blank surface, a piece of paper for Neue Typographie 1- no central axis, 2- the "content" dictates the arrangement, 3- let's avoid "standard" solutions.

This freeze is pretty interesting for Loos. It is bridging classical and modern orders.

Loos implements Raumplan to emulate a natural landscape internalized through interconnecting volumes by a multilevel organization on a single floor.

1. see that the first and second floors have a split-level distinction; 

2. the second floor comprises the living area on the lower level and the dining room on the higher level. 

3. the dining area is seen as a part of the living area, and thus its volumes intersect. A small staircase (left) connects the two levels. 

4. the private study found on this floor is seen as separate. It is a solid volume that is disconnected from the continuous spaces of the living and dining areas and grounds the floor to the exterior walls.

BAUHAUS (the designer's angle)

Walter Gropius, Dessau Bauhaus Building, (1926)

clean lines, 

air and sun,

modern aesthetics,

technology rules,

new materials: glass, steel, concrete,

Josef Albers, Homage to the Square (1965)

the square,

colors as symbols,

clean and crisp,

László Moholy-Nagy, Photogram (1926)

photography as technology,
black & white is a color,

Hannes Meyer, Konstruktion ca. 1927

Meyer's teaching manifesto applied to Bau: 1. sex life, 2. sleeping habits, 3. pets, 4. gardening, 5. personal hygiene, 6. weather protection, 7. hygiene in the home, 8. car maintenance, 9. cooking, 10. heating, 11. exposure to the sun, 12. services - these are the only motives when building a house. We examine the daily routine of everyone who lives in the house and this gives us the functional diagram - the functional diagram and the economic programme are the determining principles of the building project.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Barcelona chair (1929)

comfort (you are royal/modern)
curves can be sexy (use with caution)
modern can be expensive and affordable

Paul Klee, Red Balloon (ca. 1919)

think like a child,
color like a child,
reality is magic,

Wassily Kansdinsky, Composition VIII (1923)

art and music are best friends,
geometry can dance!

Walter Gropius, Sugar Bowl (1969)

this is late Gropius,
modern tao,
feminine wins!

Lyonel Feininger, OberWeimar, (1921)

urban,
jagged,
proto-cubist,

Marcel Breuer, Wassily Chair (1927)

tubular comfort,
modern = steel + leather
furniture = sculpture

El Lissitzky, from the series Proun (early 1920's)

I. K. Bonset, typefaces, early 1920's

typeface for the machine age,
pre/digital premonition,
letters sound! blikken trommel = tin drum

Karl-Peter Röhl,Construction (1925)

Erich Dieckmann, Model Furnishings (1928)

 Xanti Schawinsky, Circus Stage Project (early 1920's)

Johannes Itten, Copper foil panel and stained glass (1916)

modern spirituality,
esoteric is cool,
make up your catalog of symbols,

Herbert Bayer, Lonely Metropolitan (1932)

photomontage as propaganda,

be nasty with symbols,

the mark of dada: (l'ecriture automatique) automatic drawing

Automatic drawing by Andre Masson

As I said in class, l'ecriture automatique is a form of graphic design. Call it unconscious design. The idea is to design the spontaneous, the unthought, leave it to the line to do the talking. That -at least- was the premise of the Surrealists.

Wolfgang Paalen, ca 1950

From the 1916 FORM MAGAZINE.