This Week’s Topics

At the end of this session, students should have an understanding of the following:

• • How the Avant-Garde movements of rebellion and rejection of the past (Futurism, Construcivism, Desjil, etc), culminated in the Bauhaus and were further refined in Swiss Typography/International Style found the mainstream in the capitalist version of Modernism in the American corporate identity design.
  • How advertising has influenced society and culture.

Activities

Below find the information covered in this session. Complete all of the following activities, videos, and assignments.

1. Mainstream Modernism + American Corporate Identity (approx. 60 min)

Last class, we saw the evolution of influences from the Constructivists, De Stijl, New Typography, and the Bauhaus that led to the mainstream adoption of the modernist International Typographic Style/Swiss Style in the mid 20th Century. This week we look at the American version of Modernism as corporate identity design and advertising in the 1950s-1960s began to take shape.

Modernism in the United States showed a commitment to “less is more” and a strong reliance on images and geometric forms. The approach was impartial and direct. Corporate identity design came into being during this time and favored a simplification in visual approach. Simple, sharp, and clean, designers developed cohesive brand identities. Commonplace today, designers like Paul Rand, started to used acronyms for logos and corporate brand identity. The identity manuals used today for fully branded company identities came into being.

Below are a series of videos that take you through the history of advertising, corporate identity design, and mainstream designers that influenced the field.

The New York School

Watch the Graphic Design History section on The New York School on LinkedIn Learning (this is the best option to view the work clearly!).

Or, if you must, watch the YouTube video below. NOTE: In the following video, watch from 1:18:14 to 1:18:55

American Corporate Identity

Watch the Graphic Design History section on American Corporate Identity on LinkedIn Learning (this is the best option to view the work clearly!).

Or, if you must, watch the YouTube video below. NOTE: In the following video, watch from 1:25:45 to 1:30:32

Paul Rand

Branding and Belonging

2. Discussion: Week 8

Watch Debbie Millman’s AIGA Lecture “The Complete History of Branding in 20 Minutes” about the history of branding and respond to the prompt below.

• • If branding is how we designate meaning through language, symbols, and words, how do the brands (in the broadest sense) that you affiliate with connect you others and what is the meaning behind them?

3. Assignment: Reading Response 7 (2+ Hours)

Follow the assignment guidelines and prompts for Reading Response 7 – DUE Monday, April 4th, at 6pm

You will be reading and annotating essays written by Paul Rand “Good Design Is Good Will” 1987 in our main text Graphic Design Theory: Readings From the Field by Helen Armstrong and “Underground Mainstream” by Steven Heller, Design Observer, 2008.

Refer to Assignment: Reading Response 7 for prompts.