Type Journal: Thinking Form

This week for type I explored the thinking form. Through their blog they: "salute the great artists, architects, designers, photographers, and typographers of the past and present, the remarkable individuals that have given great contributions to the world and to whom we owe so much. We would like to create a platform to remember all of our design heroes."

ROMAN CIESLEWICZ:
A graphic designer and illustrator from Poland, he was born in 1930. He graduated from Cracow Academy of Arts in 1955. Some of the places he worked includes WAG agency, Vogue, Elle, and he even taught at Ecole national superieure des arts graphisques. 

His bio opened with this quote: 'Posters need powerful occasions and significant subjects, which they can't find at the moment. As a means of communication they belong to another age and have very little future.'
I found this a very interesting and a good summary of poster design - little future but need powerful occasions. It made me think of well designed posters that I've kept that have no meaning after the event is over - but if its a beautiful design the receiver of the poster will want to keep it. 

Here are some of my favorite works from this portfolio:

WILL BURTIN:
"The creative person who can find himself or herself in this expanding universe is not only fortunate but indispensible."
Burtin was born in Germany in 1930. He was a typographer/graphic designer, and studied at Handwerkskammer in Cologne. His work was noticed by Adolf Hitler and was commissioned to do propoganda work, but instead him and his wife fled to the USA. He eventually served in the US army and even designed for them. He also was the art director for Fortune Magazine, and after worked in his own studio. He earned the medal of the American Institute of Graphic Arts which honored him recognition of their exceptional achievements.

My favorite part of his work, especially in these examples, is how he turns image into pattern. 

BRUNO MONGUZZI:

“Design is the intellectual and pragmatic process aimed at giving an appropriate form to a given function.”

A Swiss designer born in 1941, he studied typography, photography, and gestalt psychology and graphic design at Ecole des arts decoratifs in Geneva and also he studied in London. The author of the passage of him on the site said that he met him and he was nice, and you could see his passion for design. See some of his work below.

 I enjoy his use of sizing, and the contrast of very large elements vs very small elements on the page. You can tell from these few layouts he was a great designer, and knew how and where to place elements on a page.

KURT WIRTH:

A Swiss designer born in 1917. He studied graphic design, and after school worked at his own illustration studio designing for books newspapers and magazines.
He became the president of the Association of Swiss Graphic Designers from 1956 to 1959. Throughout his career he designed everywhere: Paris, Greece, Thailand, Spain, and more.

You can tell he is an illustrator through the examples on the site. The houses posters has amazing detail, and it's one of my favorite of his works. I also really enjoy his abstract work and the emotion it evokes even though a clear picture cannot be seen.

GREGORY VINES:
An American designer who studied at the Massachusetts College of Art. He then studied graphic design at Basale, and was a teacher there until 2011. His teaching area embraced classes for Graphic Formulation, Poster Design, Imagery, Imagination, Word-Image, Verbal Communication and Time Based Media. His current work focuses on things like photography and drawing. See some of his work below.

 

When looking at his work I found it interesting that some of the posters were illegible because of the design, such as the third one down on the left. It seems to be a poster but you can't read all of the content. I also loved the simple yellow type over the messy dark collage like background magazine spread.

BRADBURY THOMPSON:
An American designer born in 1911, who graduated from Washburn University in Kansas. He started his career by working at Capper Publication and he promoted to be an Art Director with Rogers-Lellog-Stillson. After the war he started experimenting with CMYK design and prints, which are some of my favorite works by him. He uses type in a wonderful way.
"Type can be a tool, a toy and a teacher; it can provide a means of livelihood, a hobby for relaxation, an intellectual stimulant- and a spiritual satisfaction."