New Typography and Art
New Typography and Art
In the early twenties the Bauhaus style was a revolutionary way of creating new artwork; its elementary principles consist of functionality, short and simplified content, organised design. But just a while before the period of Bauhaus the revolution started in Russia, where constructivist themes – often geometric, experimental and rarely emotional – were expressed, amongst others by the two revolutionary artists El Lissitzky and Kazimir Malevich. They both believed the expressive qualities of a painting developed from the intuitive organisation of elemental forms and colours.
The visit of the first Bauhaus exhibition made a huge impact on Jan Tschichold’s work. Tschichold, who was actually a traditionally trained typographer, had attracted radical ideas from both artists. Interestingly, all three carefully balanced their layouts in terms of colour and weight. Although some of Malevich’s art pieces seem more chaotic, whereas geometric character can be recognised in Tschichold’s posters and book designs. The way Lissitzky searched for a geometric system for treating type, geometric elements, and the photographs as a whole, also shows a more structured layout.
Asymmetry is an element appearing in Lissitzky’s work. Tschichold’s work for the phoebus palast represent a similar approach in the movie posters. Meanwhile, Malevich developed visual ideas about balance, space, and form in his paintings, which became the basis for his artwork.
Another similarity between Tschichold and Malevich is especially the use of cubic forms and round elements. Paintings with single shapes, such as a black square, a black circle or a black cross, changed the way of seeing the future – creating, designing and expressing as simple as possible. This guideline is still been applied on today’s art and design.
When looking at Malevich’s artwork you can recognise the poor colour pallet he used, for example in his work ‘Black Square’. This colour reduced approach can
In the early twenties the Bauhaus style was a revolutionary way of creating new artwork; its elementary principles consist of functionality, short and simplified content, organised design. But just a while before the period of Bauhaus the revolution started in Russia, where constructivist themes – often geometric, experimental and rarely emotional – were expressed, amongst others by the two revolutionary artists El Lissitzky and Kazimir Malevich. They both believed the expressive qualities of a painting developed from the intuitive organisation of elemental forms and colours.
The visit of the first Bauhaus exhibition made a huge impact on Jan Tschichold’s work. Tschichold, who was actually a traditionally trained typographer, had attracted radical ideas from both artists. Interestingly, all three carefully balanced their layouts in terms of colour and weight. Although some of Malevich’s art pieces seem more chaotic, whereas geometric character can be recognised in Tschichold’s posters and book designs. The way Lissitzky searched for a geometric system for treating type, geometric elements, and the photographs as a whole, also shows a more structured layout.
Asymmetry is an element appearing in Lissitzky’s work. Tschichold’s work for the phoebus palast represent a similar approach in the movie posters. Meanwhile, Malevich developed visual ideas about balance, space, and form in his paintings, which became the basis for his artwork.
Another similarity between Tschichold and Malevich is especially the use of cubic forms and round elements. Paintings with single shapes, such as a black square, a black circle or a black cross, changed the way of seeing the future – creating, designing and expressing as simple as possible. This guideline is still been applied on today’s art and design.
When looking at Malevich’s artwork you can recognise the poor colour pallet he used, for example in his work ‘Black Square’. This colour reduced approach can