Week 3 - Modernism

Modernism

When speaking about design, modernism is the period following the Industrial Revolution and Contemporary is the current period.

Feudalism was the dominant social system in medieval Europe. This system had only two classes, nobility and peasants. The nobility were wealthy and the peasants were poor. In this social system, there was no gaining of wealth or moving from one class to another. The rich stayed rich and the poor stayed poor. This was changed with the scientific revolution, which introduced a middle class between nobility and peasants. The Industrial Revolution was a direct result of the scientific revolution. During the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions, the lower classes were put to work in factories for long hours each day. These factories often had limited or no rules regarding the safety and wellbeing of its workers. This limitation of rules lead to a reaction by people such as William Morris, who was closely connected to the Arts and Crafts Movement.

Modernism in design followed the Arts and Crafts period. Bauhaus was a very well known school of design and is a good example of modern design. It was open between 1919 and 1933. Constructivism was a Russian design movement that was happening at the same time as Bauhaus. Constructivism began in 1919 and lasted until the 1930s. During that period, everything in design was happening in Germany and Russia.

Constructivism utilized ideas from Bauhaus. Asymmetrical balance, diagonal shapes and lines and the use of red, yellow and black are all visual characteristics of Constructivist design. Constructivism was about politics and propaganda. Alexander Rodchenko was a well-known constructivist. Constructivists absorbed Cubism and Futurism to create a new movement, which unified communist ideology with visual form.The Bauhaus was very much about rules for design. They had a ‘less is more’ approach and liked to reduce designs down to their simplest forms. One Bauhaus rule was to use asymmetrical balance instead of symmetrical balance. Piet Mondrian was a painter who strongly represented modernism through his paintings. Mondrian was very well known for his composition paintings which included only simple shapes and lines, primary colours and a large use of negative or white space. Mondrian definitely used a less is more approach in these paintings. Mondrian was closely associated with the Dutch De Stijl movement. The famous Red and Blue Chair, created by De Stijl designer Gerrit Rietveld is iconic of Bauhuas design

Some visual characteristics of modernist design are

• Reds, yellows and blacks used in posters
• Dramatic colours
• Simplicity and lack of ornamentation
• San serif type
• Bold rules
• Diagonal shapes and lines
• Asymmetrical balance

There were many different design and art movements that were linked to modernism. All of these movements were about experimenting. They were developed as a result of dissatisfaction of the past and they were all linked to a need for radical change in society.

Through modernism, more thought was being put into graphic design, where lines, shapes and colours were placed on a page to serve a specific function or purpose. Elements and colours would lead the viewer around the page and make them feel a certain way. Modernism was pulling away from the overcrowded chaotic style of Victorian Graphic Design.