Constructivist Influence in the 21st Century

Constructivism started in 1919 In Russia, it was heavily influenced by the ‘De Stijl’ (‘My Style’) design period of 1917. The constructivist approach was mainly aligned with Vladimir Lenin when he split with the Bolsheviks. The constructivist way of designing is based upon the rejection of self-expression which was the basis of the Bauhaus Movement during the same period. Constructivism is based on the industrial revolution in Russia and the faith was on Communism.

This is the new Franz Ferdinand album cover for the album titled ‘You can have it so much better’.  This is quite obviously a modern take on the constructivist art and design piece. There are several characteristics in which the constructivist period is characterised. This includes the invention of the sans serif typeface, as opposed to the serif that had been used before. The sans serif typeface was invented in 1917 and was used throughout the modernist period. The sans serif typeface was used primarily in the constructivist and Bauhaus Movement of  1919-33. The simple design and imagery is symbolic of the time period and the geometry of the design is typical of constructivism. The colours that have been used for this design are also the main colours that was used nearly 100 years ago. This piece was designed by Matthew Cooper and was a rework of one of the most famous constructivist pieces. The original piece is below. The image below is one of the most famous Rodchenko photomontages, which was made in 1924 for a Moscow Publisher. The Large red word simply says, ‘Books!’.

The second example that I have chosen to use as a modern example of constructive influence in modern day Graphic Design is also one of the most famous of the artists pieces.

This piece is designed and created by Shepard Fairey. It was created when Barack Obama wanted to associated himself with the modern day and with the younger generation, he went to Shepard Fairey and had this poster made up for his election campaign. The constructivist influence is evident with the bold, slab sans serif typeface that is used in this poster. Also, the poster campaign only uses 4 colours, the colour scheme during the constructivist design era was also very limited. The simple imagery again uses the characteristics of the constructive era. This could also be said to be influenced by the Bauhaus Movement in Germany during the same period as the constructivist. This is because of the sans serif typeface and the colour palette of only a few colours. The only thing lacking would be the geometric style shapes being used in the designs.

Bauhaus Influence in 21st Century

The Bauhaus Movement was started in Germany on the 12th April 1919. After the first world war, there were wishes to construct a new social order and a new look for peacetime Germany, enter, the Bauhaus Movement. This would include art and design, as well as some theatre and technology. The aim was simply to unite the look and to give the German population a feel of consistency and stability after the destruction of war. The main influences of the Bauhaus Movement comes in the form of design. Mainly in painting, sculpture, metal work, pottery, textiles, architecture, product design, graphic design & typography.

This is one of the modern day examples that I have chosen. It is the 2008 Berlin Campaign for (now President) Barack Obama. There are several main characteristics that make it clearly influenced by the Bauhaus Movement. The block colours are stereotypical of the Bauhaus movement. Also, Bauhaus is very well known for the use of a simple sans serif typeface, that is used across a range of medias. One of the main things that the Bauhaus Movement are well known for, is the simplicity of the design. The designers pride themselves on their function over form approach to design. This can be seen in the right hand side of the page. Also, seen in the left is a basic image of the subject and with all the information that is required, there is nothing more for decoration or to make it look attractive. This is typical of Bauhaus. The design is based around the use of geometry and the geometric shapes. This can be seen in the right hand side of the campaign image.

This is a modern web design by a design student. As you can tell, the use of geometric shapes, which are stereotypical of the Bauhaus Movement, are only too clear in the design. The simple use of the sans serif typeface is also a strong characteristic of the Bauhaus Movement. There is nothing on this design that doesnt have a function. Everything in the design has a use and is not there simply for aesthetic purposes. The imagery is simple and the grid on the right hand side is representative of Bauhaus. Bauhaus designs are usually very asymmetrical, this design is also asymmetrical. The design is a very simple one with a large use of triangles and splitting the images using these images. It is a modern design but clearly has the influence of the Bauhaus Movement of nearly a century ago.

 

 

Modernism

Modernism refers to a set of aesthetic movements that emerged in Europe in the 1880’s – flourished before and after the First World War and became institutionalised in the academies and art galleries of Post World War Europe and America’. Modernism is characterised by the rapid population growth, along with the progression of technology, science, consumption and industrial output. This in turn is based upon the industrialisation of the country in question.

Modernism in terms of Art and Design is the most prominent thing that I will look at in this post. The modernist period of art came from artists such as Pablo Picasso. The idea behind the modernist art period was that the image would be how the artist sees the subject, rather than just an accurate representation of the subject that had been used for many years previously to the modernist era. The catalyst to this abstract/surreal art period came from none other than Albert Einstein. During this period, he was in the process of challenging Isaac Newtons ideas of how space and time exist. The artists of the era took this idea on board, that he was challenging something that meant a second thing, can be seen in several different ways. This has been termed, illusionism. One of the art periods that came out of modernism is Cubism. Artists used this to represent the experience as opposed to the usual subject.

There are 4 main characteristics that are typical of the modernist period of art and design.

– Self-Reflectiveness –

Aesthetic self-reflectiveness: consider, think about one’s own practice. Work explicitly announces itself a product of a particular medium Man Ray rayograms and El Lissitzky’s photograms. This refers to the matter in which we are interested and curious in the artists own subject area.

– Montage –

this refers to the disruption of sequence and narrative by juxtaposing items from different sources. The unsettling of temporal sequences or representing images by juxtaposing elements from diverse sources. everyone is familiar with the term of ‘montage’, whether it be a video montage of a print montage, the meaning is still the same. It refers to the method of taking different parts, sometimes from different images/sources, and putting them side by side to create something wholly.

– Paradox –

This refers to the multiple meaning and ambivalence, or uncertain meaning.Paradox means ‘beyond belief’ and alludes to the sense of the absurd or the enigmatic in a work. Ambiguity and uncertainty indicate either the absence of a single, clear meaning or the presence of multiple contradictory meanings. This is basically the fact that pre-modernist art and design, simply had a single meaning, during the modernist period, there were sometimes less obvious/more ambiguous meanings, but then some didn’t even have meanings.

– Integrated Single Subject –

Loss of an ‘integrated single subject’: individuals are no longer in harmony with
themselves, divided/tormented. Essentially, this is the matter that pre-modernism, each piece of art and design would usually only have one subject and therefore only a single meaning. During the modernism period, this changed to having several subjects, sometimes with completely contrasting meanings. This had never been done before this time period.