Volume 16–1.pdf

TYPOGRAPHIC
COMMUNICATIONS TODAY
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10 Piet Zwart's advertisements often
followed De Stijl principles but just as
often departed from them, using diagonals,
curves, circles, freely handled
photographs. He, as did the other De
Stijl artists and designers, preferred the
primary colors of yellow, red and blue.
HEADLINE/TEXT: ITC BAUHAUS MEDIUM HEADER: ITC MODERN NO. 216 LIGHT
verything came
together in Weimar,
Germany, in 1919. A
new kind of school
opened its door
there. It was on interdisciplinary
blending of fine and
applied arts. It was at once
pragmatic and idealistic. It
emphasized crafts and excellence
of craftsmanship. It was a
blend of hands-on, learn-bydoing
workshops and new attitudes
towards artistic expression
of all kinds. In architecture,
pointing, sculpture, product and
graphic design, it sought to
blend order in presentation with
vigor and relevance in expression.
The Bauhaus quickly became
a compelling cultural magnet.
Artists and designers from every
part of Europe journeyed to it and
exchanged ideas and concepts,
then, as teachers or students,
migrated and spread Bauhaus
thinking throughout the civilized
world. Typographic design, one
of the concerns at the Bauhaus,
metamorphosed there, never to
BAUHAUSBCICHER
SOHRIFTLEITUNG
WALTER GROPIUS
L. MOHOLV-NAGV
be the same again. Although
the surface appearance of
today's communication design
often bears little resemblance to
the typographies produced at
the Bauhaus, many of today's
approaches to typographic
design are offshoots of the work
done under the influence of
Bauhaus masters Johannes
Itten, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Herbert
Bayer and Joost Schmidt as
well as the influence of Theo van
Doesburg and El lissitzky.
Walter Gropius was the
school's principal when it was
named Das Staatliches Bauhaus
in March 1919. The school was a
modernization and a merging of
the Weimar Arts and Crafts Institute
and the Weimar Academy
of Fine Arts.
Typography was not
included in the school's original
manifesto and program, but it
soon played an important role in
the curriculum, and in posters
and publications. Here, as never
before, typography was achieving
a new, effective, and exciting
balance between orderly, clear
presentation and eye-appealing
treatment.
L. M OHOLY-NAGY:
MALEREI
L. MOHOLY-NAGY,
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11 Title-spread of Painting, Photography
Film. 1925. This was the eighth
volume in the series of 14 Bauhaus
books designed and edited by Moholy-
Nagy and Gropius. At a time when the
Bauhaus still did not have a graphic
design workshop, these books, by their
teaching and by their design, were
creating a Bauhaus style.
12 Simplicity and clarity were being
sought in typefaces as well as in graphic
design.
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t has been said that every
cause, to be successful,
needs a passionate
advocate. If the Bauhaus
was the focal point where
new ideas and new practices
in painting and typographic
design came
together, the passionate
advocate, the apostle for
spreading the gospel of the
new typography was Jan
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13 Herbert Bayer, 1923. One of a series
of banknotes designed for the State
Bank of Thuringia. Functional, readable,
and very alive.