Field trip to Cooper Hewitt museum was a new discovery for me. It was first time I’ve been there and I was very surprised at how they use technology at the museum. The pen, which you can use to save the pieces you want to look back at later, is very unique and a great idea. I got to enjoy designing a chair with the pen on the big screen board as well.
The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s exhibition was what caught my interest the most. Some posters there were designed by my favorite designer in the 1930s and he is also who I studied about in Graphic Design History class. I was able to see his works with the knowledge of art movement that influenced his works. Also, I really liked the typography they used for the display.
This is UNIC Poster designed by A.M. Cassandre and printed by Alliance Graphique. It’s lithograph print on paper and the size is H160cm × W119cm. I recognized the designer’s name A.M Cassandre because I studied his work in Graphic Design History class. His work is often describes as “Art Deco” influenced by Futurism and also by Constructivism, a Russian form of abstract art which can’t really be see in this work. Compared to his other works I’ve seen before, this one is very still life in nature. Usually his work is very abstract and geometric, but there is a definite resemblance in the use of colors to his other works. In his work there are always gradient colors, which is used on the legs in this piece. I think the typography and the gradient work very well together because of the composition. The title is on the part where the gradient is faded and the illustration leads the eye downwards because the color gets stronger on the bottom. Then there is another information “PRODUCTION DES USINES FENESTRIER” on the bottom to complete it.
Another poster design by A.M. Cassandre and lithograph print by Alliance Graphique. I really like the flow of this piece. The cord leads the eye to the title, then the title leads the eye to the information written in blue. The piece is H 26.7cm × W17.8cm, which is a bit smaller than other posters in the exhibition, but it stood out quite a bit because of the oblique placement. I can say that all elements placed obliquely and the san-serif type are influenced by constructivism, which gave a huge impact to the graphic deign scene around the 1920s. I think that the use of san-serif type and the illustration complement each other very well because the illustration looks abstract. Also, the amount of negative space seem just right, with the intense colors of the illustration, it balances it all out.
This is a book cover written by Daniil Rafalovich, published by Teakinopechat. The size is L17.2cm × W13cm, which is not the most common size for a book. I particularly like how the designer put the title in the illustration. It definitely grabs attention because of the guy holding a megaphone and the spotlight, which both point towards the title. I think having the title in the illustration worked because the designer only used two strong colors here, which are soft red and black. If there were more than two intense colors, it wouldn’t have worked because the eyes would have gotten distracted too much.
