Graphic Icons Visionaries Who Shaped Modern Graphic Design

by Clifford, John

• ISBN13: 9780321887207
• ISBN10: 0321887204
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2013-08-30
• Publisher: Peachpit Pr
• More Book Details
• Purchase Benefits

Summary

Who are history's most influential graphic designers?

In this fun, fast-paced introduction to the most iconic designers of our time, author John Clifford takes you on a visual history tour that’s packed with the posters, ads, logos, typefaces, covers, and multimedia work that have made these designers great. You’ll find examples of landmark work by such industry luminaries as El Lissitzky, Alexander Rodchenko, A.M. Cassandre, Alvin Lustig, Cipe Pineles, Paul Rand, Saul Bass, Milton Glaser, Wim Crouwel, Stefan Sagmeister, John Maeda, Paula Scher, and more. 

Who coined the term graphic design? Who turned film titles into an art? Who pioneered information design? Who was the first female art director of a mass-market American magazine? In Graphic Icons: Visionaries Who Shaped Modern Graphic Design, you start with the who and quickly learn the what, when, and why behind graphic design's most important breakthroughs and the impact their creators had, and continue to have, on the world we live in.

Your favorite designer didn't make the list? Join the conversation at www.graphiciconsbook.com .

Author Biography

John Clifford is an award-winning graphic designer/creative director, and principle at Think Studio, a New York City design firm. His recent projects include collateral for The World Financial Center, the L.L. Bean 100th-anniversary book, web design for Maine Road Management, packaging for Paul Labrecque Haircare, and books on architecture, photography, and popular culture for The Monacelli Press, Yale School of Architecture, and Abrams. Previously, Clifford worked at Doyle Partners, Platinum Design, William Stout Publishers, and Chronicle Books, as well as in marketing and sales in the entertainment industry. He has designed for notable clients like Pantone, Saks Fifth Avenue, Martha Stewart, Barnes & Noble, and David Byrne. Clifford has also taught at Parsons School of Design, judged the I.D. Annual Design Review, and written for The Designer's Review of Books.

Table of Contents

EARLY MODERN (1900-1935)

Lucian Bernhard

Forerunner of the Sachplakat, or object posters.

Style was also known as Plakatstil, or poster style.

Opened the way to a new kind of advertising image, with simple shapes and flat colors, no superfluous decorative elements, slogans, or explanatory text.

Font designer

Hans Rudi Erdt

Along with Lucian Bernhard, was one of the main representative artists of the Plakatstil movement.

Incorporated the brand name as an integral part of the layout

Ludwig Hohlwein

Enhanced the simplicity of Sachplakat posters, with rich textures and patterns.

Key designer for German propaganda posters during two world wars

Breakout: War Posters (6 pages on WWI posters from different countries, all from LOC, in public domain)

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti

Edward McKnight Kauffer

Revolutionized poster art in Britain with his 1919 poster for the Daily Herald, adapting cubism and futurism and vorticism to his design 

El Lissitzky

Greatly influenced the design of books, exhibitions, photomontage, and type

One of the first to effectively use the diagonal axis, asymmetry, white space, and bold,

sans serif type

Believed art and design can be catalysts for change

Breakout: Design for Good

Alexander Rodchenko

Soviet Constructivist with strong, direct style

Pioneer of photomontage

Stenberg Brothers

Russian cinema poster designers

work was a fusion of Constructivism, Dadaist photomontage, and evocative technique of recreating photographs by hand

Theo Van Doesburg

Designer, painter, architect, and poet was one of the leaders of Dutch De Stijl avant-garde movement

Consistent use of primary colors, rectangular forms, and asymmetrical composition.

Developed a universal language of geometric abstraction

Later experiments with the Dada movement

Breakout: The Bauhaus

Herbert Bayer

incorporated radical European modernist ideas into American corporate culture

Student and professor at the Bauhaus

designed signage, kiosks, posters, an all-lowercase typeface, bank notes, advertising

A.M. Cassandre

Striking designs were some of the earliest to interpret t modern painting ideas, like those of Picasso, Bracque, and Léger.

Emphasized the typographic arrangement of words as a key element.

Simplified forms that characterized much of design known as modern, or art deco

Compositions derived from geometrical base, more common in architecture than graphic design.

W.A. Dwiggins

Coined the term "graphic design"

celebrated a new kind of naturalistic ornamentation

Wrote the book Layout in Advertising, a manual for moving beyond established commercial art techniques.

In his late 40s, began a career in type design

Jan Tschichold

Defined "new typography" in 1920s in his classic book Die neue Typographie

Strict advocate of modernism in graphic design, softened by experience in 1930s

Type designer

Education: Layout Basics

MID-CENTURY MODERN (1935-1960)

Lester Beall

Art director of magazines, government posters, and corporate identities

One of the first Americans to incorporate European modernism and avant-garde ideas

Breakout: WPA Posters (6 pages on Works Project Administration, all from LOC in public domain)

Alexey Brodovitch

Defined modern magazine art direction at Harpers Bazaar

Renowned for fine sense of arrangement of word and image

Introduced leading modern photographers like Cartier-Bresson, Penn, and Avedon to America

Alex Steinweiss

Developed the custom album cover. Before then, music was sold in plain packaging

Designed over 2500 album covers

Breakout: Design for Music (4-6 past and present design of albums/CDs, posters, sites)

Herbert Matter

Designed innovative montage travel posters for Swiss National Tourist office

Worked for A.M. Cassandre and Alexey Brodovitch, and worked closely with Charles and Ray Eames

Consultant for modern furniture manufacturer Knoll for 20 years

Ladislav Sutnar

Czech avant-garde designer who explored Constructivism and abstraction

Moved from early modernism in central Europe to corporate design of US

Pioneering information designers

Wrote important studies of design for visual information

Breakout: Information Design

Alvin Lustig

Master of form and color

Used an intellectual approach to solve design problems

Well-known for design of books, magazines, and interiors

Cipe Pineles

First female Art Director of a mass-market U.S. magazine

First woman inducted into the New York Art Directors Club (1948), and to be elected to the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame (1975)

Hired fine artists to illustrate mainstream magazines

Breakout: Women in Design

Max Huber

Swiss designer who worked mostly in Milan

Well-known for his dynamic posters for the Monza races, and for jazz record covers

Bradbury Thompson

Innovative uses of color, type, and photography

Designed a single-case typeface that combined upper- and lower-case forms

Wrote the book The Art of Graphic Design

Education: Color Basics

Erik Nitsche

Low-key Swiss-born designer of corporate identity, annual reports, exhibits, packaging, and advertising.

Revolutionized the identity of engineering firm General Dynamics, and designed the abstract idea of 'Atoms for Peace'

Simplified complex information

Josef Muller-Brockmann

Central figure in Swiss modernist graphic design

Advocated use of grid, sans serif typography, and objective photography

Author of key books on graphic design

Armin Hofmann

Another central figure in Swiss modernist graphic design

Breakout: Swiss Style

Paul Rand

Classic design of logos and identity for IBM, ABC, and Westinghouse

Combined modernism with American corporate identity

One of the first American designers to write books on his design approach 

Saul Bass

First to elevate film title design as an evocative part of the film

Developed total identities for films, making the titles, posters, and advertising consistent

Designed iconic logos for AT&T, United Airlines, and Warner Brothers

Breakout: Motion Design (6 pages of contemporary broadcast and film titles)

Lou Dorfsman

Oversaw every aspect of advertising and corporate identity for CBS Television

Designed a 35-foot-wide mural called Gastrotypographicalassemblage for the CBS cafeteria that listed menu items in wood type

Georg Olden

Designer for television and advertising, pioneered broadcast graphics at CBS

Grandson of a slave, was the first prominent African-American graphic designer

Breakout: Diversity in Design Archie Boston, Gail Anderson, Venus Dennison, Eddie Opara, Rafael Esquer, Andy Cruz

George Lois

Best known for art direction of Esquire covers from 1962-1972

Created "I Want My MTV" ad campaign

Wrote books, including The Big Idea

Will Burtin

Art director of Fortune magazine

Art director of the house magazine of Upjohn pharmaceutical labs, where he made science comprehensible to a lay audience

Designed 3D walk-through science exhibitions

LATE/POST-MODERN (1960-1980)

Wim Crouwel

Leader in modern Dutch design

Developed "new alphabet" for computer reading

Otl Aicher

As designer for the 1972 Munich Olympics, he created a new set of pictograms that paved the way for the standard stick figures currently used in public signs

Type designer

Breakout: Pictograms in Design

Tadanoori Yokoo

Japanese graphic designer and artist often linked with 1960s pop culture

complex and multi-layered imagery

Yusaku Kamekura

Influenced by Bauhaus and traditional Japanese heritage, his long career is marked by a colorful yet minimalist look

Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar

Leading corporate identity designers

Designed logos for Mobil, Chase, and PBS

Also known for the exhibits and environmental art installations

Breakout: Logo Designs

Herb Lubalin

Master of expressive typography

Type designer

Used type as image

Education: Type Basics (4 pages on classification [serif vs. sans], anatomy, hierarchy)

Milton Glaser and Seymour Chwast (were partners in Push Pin Studio, but I'd like to feature them separately)

Part of illustration revival

Rejected cold modernism in favor of historical references, humor, and surrealism

Muriel Cooper

Pioneer of digital media

Co-founded Visible Language Workshop at MIT

Designed many books and logos

Walter Landor

Brand design pioneer who started Landor Associates

Used consumer research techniques and strategic thinking

Created designs with broad appeal

Breakout: Big Brand Design

Massimo Vignelli

Brought Italian modernism to US

Redesigned NYC subway map

Designed unified system for brochures for National Park Service

DIGITAL ERA (1980-today)

April Greiman

Leader in computer-generated design

Combined Swiss influences with California experience

Wolfgang Weingart

Swiss graphic designer who rebelled against strict Swiss style

Pioneer in deconstructed typography

Peter Saville

Best known for designing for post-punk music in the early 80s

Combined early modern typographic influences with classical art history references, along with the technology of his era

Focused on non-band imagery to make an emotional connection

Tibor Kalman

Controversial editor-in-chief and art director of Benetton magazine Colors

Used provocative imagery to make a point

Education: Image Basics

Karel Martens

Dutch designer and teacher

Specializes in typography

In addition to commissioned work, he makes prints and 3D work.

Émigré (Rudy VanderLans and Zuzana Licko)

Started influential digital type foundry and magazine

Embraced limitations and opportunities of digital design

Breakout: Font Design

Ed Fella

professional commercial artist for 30 years before getting a master's in Design

Now teaches and self-publishes his experimental designs

Produces everything by hand

David Carson

Leader of 90s deconstructive typography

Combined surf culture with design

Paula Scher

Pentagram partner

Combines bold imagery with illustrative typography

Known for work as diverse as Elvis Costello, The Public Theatre, and Citibank

-Pentagram sidebar-

Michael Beirut

Pentagram partner

Known for design of identity, environmental, and editorial design

Erik Spiekermann (maybe not-hard to show)

Influential typographer, writer, and information designer

Started FontShop, the first mail-order distributor for digital fonts

Launched design firms MetaDesign, UDN United Designers Networks, and Edenspiekermann

Steven Heller

Author of over 130 books on graphic design

Co-chair of the MFA Design program at the School of Visual Arts and co-founder of the MFA Design Criticism program

Breakout: Design Writers (Ellen Lupton, Drenttel/Helfand)

 

Stephen Doyle

Expert use of color and classic typography

Balances design for mass market with fine art

Hillman Curtis

Pioneering web designer, author and filmmaker

Designed sites for Yahoo! And Adobe Systems

Early master of Flash, used for high-quality animation on the web

Breakout: Web Design (4 pages)

Bruce Mau

Canadian designer who collaborated with architect Rem Koolhaas on S, M, L, XL book

Co-founded the Massive Change Network, based on ways design can help solve social, economic and political problems

 

Chip Kidd

Influential book-jacket designer

Has written novels about graphic design, as well as books about comic books

Breakout: Book Cover Designs (Henry Sene Yee, Helen Yentus, Mark Abrams)

Stefan Sagmeister

Austrian-born, New York-based designer

Emphasis on concept over style

Known for carving type into his body, nudity, and design for musicians like Lou Reed and David Byrne

John Maeda

Graphic designer and computer scientist who integrates technology, design, and creativity

President of Rhode Island School of Design

Was Associate Director of Research at the MIT Media Lab

Among other books, he published Laws of Simplicity, based on a research project to find ways for people to simplify their lives in an increasingly complex world.