POSTMODERN DESIGN
By the 70’s the modern era of art was seen to be drawing to a close. With that a new idea
of postmodernism was born to express a climate of cultural change.
Precursors to Postmodern Design
Supermannerism and supergraphics were terms coined to discuss anything that broke
away from the modern style. These styles featured bold geographic shapes and colors.
And could be seen in design not only for print but in architecture as well.
Robert Venturi was the most controversial and the original architect behind the
supermannerist label. He proposed a radical design for the American Football Hall of
fame in 1967. It featured a electronic light display that could be seen form the interstate.
Early Swiss Postmodern Design
A lot of the postmodern push came out of Switzerland. They aimed for playful,
unexpected, neutral and disorganized layouts. Rosemarie Tissi, and Siegfried Odermatt
opened a firm together and along side of Steff Geissbuhler produced work that was like
nothing else seen before. (page 468). They used space and angles in new ways and
experimented with color.
Bruno Monguzzi was another artist interested in bending the traditions of design. He was
a designer, typographer and teacher.
A revolt and students in the International Typographic Style sought to re-invent
typographic design. New-wave typography was born.
New-Wave
Wolfgang Weingart taught at Basel school of design, he essentially pioneered the new
wave movement. He traveled to America and lectured and American design schools
where he was praised. He did work with photography and experimented with half tones
and work that broke away form typical grid systems. Weingart and his students…Dan
Friedman, April Greiman, and Willi Kunz…introduced such ideas as letter spaced sansseriff
type, stair-step fonts, ruled lines that punctuated space, diagonal type, italic type,
and reversed type.
Dan Friedman was perhaps one of them ore successful of Weingarts studies. His work
were paradigms of the emerging postmodern currents and he explored texture, surface,
layering, spacing, and geometric forms.
April Greiman helped establish this new wave in LA, and Willi Kunz brought it to New
York where his work was hailed as “quintessential examples” of postmodern design. He
did not use grids and could be called an information architecht who uses visual hierarchy
and syntax to bring order and clarity to messages.
The Memphis and San Francisco Schools
When the 70’s went out..the 80’s brought about more change. Function in design became
secondary to pattern, texture, and color.
These groups used pastel colors, exaggerated geometric forms, and laminates to convey
their messages. Form no longer followed function- it became the reason for design to
exist. The work was minimalist and predominant designers were Michael Graves,
Christopher Radl, Valentina Grego, Michael Vanderbyl, and Michael Cronin.
San Francisco postmodern design emerged quickly in the 80’s earning it a reputation as a
major center for creative design. In bay area design, elements are given symbolic roles
and become part of the content. (Remember the Beethoven work by Michael Cronin with
all the crazy colors and lines? Page 480)
Retro and Vernacular Design
The retro obsession was based off a history of graphic design now being taught at design
schools. Designers were learning respect for work from the 20’s and 30’s and wanted to
emulate it in their own work.
Vernacular work refers to artistic and technical expression broadly characteristic of a
local or historical period. This work paid homage to earlier commonplace designs such as
baseball cards and matchbook covers.
These styles thrived in book jacket designs and posters and were reminiscence of earlier
art deco work. This style even influenced corporate identity.
Charles Anderson developed the Classico pasta sauce bottles that were reminiscent of old
style mason jars with elegant typography.
Joe Duffy also helped developed key identity programs including work for Ralph Lauren.
Neville Brody emerged in London producing graphics and album covers. His works
developed from a vision to reveal not conceal, yet provide a logical approach to design.
He has stated that he never learned the correct rules of typography, leaving him free to
invent his own working methods. He did much of his work for “the Face” publication
inclusing work focusing on Andy Warhol.
Finally Paula Scher used a handmade style that went against what everyone was heading
towards with the use of computers in graphic design to create book covers and posters.
Her work was simple, and could be seen in the free your mind campaign for MTV.
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