Karl Gerstner, Designing Programmes pg55-61, Joseph Muller-Brockman, “Grid and Design Philosophy” pg62-63 Graphic Design Theory: Readings From the Field by Helen Armstrong; and Margaret Rhodes, The Swiss Designers Breaking Tradition. 

Prompts:

  • How does each of these designers/authors think you should approach design?
  • Include an example of contemporary typography/layout that embodies the two design systems or philosophies described by Karl Gerstner and Joseph Muller-Brockman. And explain why!
  • How do the contemporary Swiss designers describe in Margaret Rhodes’ essay “flirt with breaking the rules of the International Typographic Style”?

Response

After reading the passages and looking at both designer Karl Gerstner and Joseph Muller, I would think they are almost in different directions to the other when it comes to how they organize their layout. Karl Gerstner’s approach was much more systematic. He wanted to be able to calculate and give any range of design solutions. He further this systematic design range by incorporating it with the computer. He mentions “How much computers change—or can change—not only the procedure of the work but the work itself.” This is true about how computers change so the work being done on machines can also be changed. Example AI could be considered a computer but a faster version than a desktop but now work it produces would take a design some time to put together. His systematic thinking of the grid led to thoughts instead of coming up with the solution for a problem, creating a programme or designing them to get the solution. His thoughts on graphic design is that it should be like math or science. When looking at this day now, we can look at some AI creating it like math because it is systematically being done.

Looking at Joseph Muller Brockmann’s approach seems the same as the Gerstener, but one factor that seems to be different about the approach is that the designer has more of a choice in the way the elements in the graphic design should be oriented on the grid. the design should have a sense of understanding and just put stuff on a paper or grid but also have some kind of hierarchy to give flow to the work. 

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