Isotypes were initially designed by Otto Neurath (1882-1945) as he realised the need for a systematic way of conveying information to the General Public. At the time (1920’s, following WWI) many members of the public did not know how to read, and in Vienna (where Neurath and his team were based) there was a lot of significant change for the socialist government. Neurath saw the importance of working with the government to ensure that the people were well in-formed about how they would be involved and affected by these changes. The nature of the socialist system was also that the people were very involved with the decision making of the country, so it was in the governments best interest to make sure that the people were well informed about these decisions.
Common Isotypes today include the seatbelt and smoking signs on aircraft. Photo by Gus Ruballo on Unsplash
The Isotypes that Neurath and his team designed are still common today, wether in their original form or updated to fit a new context. Isotypes are still being created by many designers in order to fit new contexts. Some of the most recognisable isotopes are toilet signs, where almost everyone knows that if the man and woman standing next to each other are on a sign, that there will be a bathroom.
In Neurath’s research before he created the first isotypes, he found how Semiotics would need to influence the designs. This is because, to design a ‘language’ for anyone to understand, he needed to understand how people would learn the language. It is important to understand how people are initially taught what a symbol meant and how they would respond when they saw it. This was crucial to the creation of isotypes, as the team had to understand what types of symbols most individuals would already be used to seeing that could be used as a basis for the some of the symbol so that the ease of learning these new symbols would be minimal. After all, the ‘language’ was designed to be understood by all with ease.
Modernism is a design movement that was popularised in the twentieth century. The Modern movement came as response to many world events that were happening at the time, as well as in response to the industrial revolution. Whereas design in the nineteenth century had been in direct response to the industrial revolution, Modernism was seen as a design movement to move past the industrial age.
World War 1
During the beginning of the twentieth century the First World War had a large impact on the nature of design as well as design becoming a major part of communicating information.
Because governments needed to convey important information to a mass majority on both sides of the war effort, propaganda posters were one of the first forms of visual communication design. Many of these posters started to make use of visual metaphor and symbolism in order to effectively convey information. The subjects of these posters included everything from how to stay safe during an air raid, how to identify a plane flying overhead, to helping the government encourage civilians to give to the war effort through war bonds. The image featured below shows a recruitment poster where the aim is to guilt an individual into signing up to the war effort.
Propaganda posters were one of the first times that illustration was seen as more than just to be displayed in galleries. It was now realised to be a tool that could reach the masses in a way that couldn’t be done in many other forms at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Modern Movement
The Modern Movement saw designers trying to move from the ornamental aesthetic that was common at the end of the nineteenth century. Many designer’s saw this as a way of disguising problems in production of goods. They wanted to move to a more simplistic design style, often called a ‘machine age’ aesthetic. The modern movement was especially prominent in architecture.
Aspects of the Modern Movement are still prominent today as it is one of the longest lasting movements. There are many reasons for this including political, production and availability. (Woodner, Twentieth Century Design)
The moral and political connotations of Modernism contributed to it’s longevity in the Western World especially as its major opponents were the leaders of repressive regimes in Germany and Russia. Both Hitler and Stalin were vocal opponents of many of the features of Modernism which helped contribute to the depiction of them by Western leaders.
It is also important to note that during the twentieth century art and design became much more readily available to the public. Museums such as MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) in New York which opened in 1929 allowed the public to enjoy art and design like never before. This therefore contributed to many peoples association of Modernism as the start of art and design as something they could enjoy.
Many of the artistic features of the Modern Movement, such as neatness, cleanliness and purity were linked with healthiness (Woodner, Twentieth Century Design, p. 33) which many people linked with the promotion of these actions in society. This helped further the movement as people saw it in this wholesome light.
Modernism directly links with World events and has been one of the art movements with the most longevity for the reasons above. Modernism greatly influences many of today’s designs.
Eskilon’s view of 19th century design is extremely negative. He justifies this by the cluttered styling and the ‘more is more’ design style.
I don’t agree with Eskilon that the 19th century graphic design is a disgrace to graphic design. Yes, they had (and we still do have) a lot to learn, but from a historical perspective we can see that many designer’s and printer’s were experimenting with the many new typographic styles that the invention of the printing press allowed. It is also important to remember that at that point in time, designers were limited in terms of resources other than the printing press, so therefore the designs had to rely mostly on type.
It is important that we don’t just look at the designs in a positive light because of the limitations of the designers, or the fact that graphic design was only just beginning. It is important to realise how these designs have lasted throughout history. The specifically victorian styling has had a place throughout history, and still today. Originally many people would have seen poster’s with the 19th century styling and probably would have felt excitement through seeing the results of the printing press in a new way than just the small words on the page, but in a more exciting context.
Nowadays, many people see poster’s in a similar styling to above and immediately emotions of joy, excitement and comfort are invoked. This is advertising for an event or more specifically, an experience, designer’s will still use many elements of 19th century design, such as the poster for Disneyland’s splash mountain ride below.
During the 19th century, Europe was a place full of hardship during the industrial revolution. Mass production was a massive part of life for most Europeans. Along with the mass production of machinery and products came the ability for mass print runs, having a large impact in the way designers produced their work.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel’s wrote the Manifesto of the communist party in 1847. They acknowledged the ‘hardships of urban life for the poor’ (Eskilon, 2012, pg. 30). This caused many designers to see their role in society as to bring joy in an otherwise difficult and ugly social context.
Graphic design soon became for catalysing force for social change which has continued throughout history and is still the case today.
Technology
The invention of new technologies which allowed design to spread far further than it ever had allowed designer’s to have a far bigger impact on social change than they ever had before. Technologies such as the Lithograph allowed illustrations to be shared to a much wider audience, this was common in newspapers and was loved by audiences.
The ‘undisciplined electism’ (Eskilon, 2012, pg. 33) of 19th century design, shouldn’t be seen negatively, but rather as a response by designers of freedom, despite the hardships felt by society as a whole.
After Reading
After finishing the excerpt from Eskilon’s, graphic design a history, I think that the 19th century was an important turning point for design. Before the 19th century, the field of design almost didn’t exist. Any design was extremely niche as artisans were more prevalent due to the nature of distribution. With the industrial revolutions, the ability for mass production and distribution was possible. This allowed designer’s to design for audiences in order to spread information (through newspaper’s, posters, lithography) as well as to campaign for social change through these means.
The style of 19th century design is heavily typographic and electic as a representation of both the machinery they had available to them as well as a means of escaping the negative factory environments.
I think 19th century design is heavily romanticised in the 21st century as it represents the sense of excitement that would have been invoked by the audience of the new and different design style in the Victorian era. For that reason, current designers may choose to use the Victorian era as inspiration for their designs when they appeal to an individuals excitement and want for an out of this world experience.
The 19th century design styles represent many influential factors of the time period and whilst not necessarily pleasing to the eye trained to 21st century design, it is influential on the design periods that followed and still has its place in the present day.
Hi, I’m Chalyse. I’m a graphic designer in training and I will be posting to this blog about my thoughts on different theories and histories of design relating to the coursework completed for DESN1002 at the University of Newcastle.
Designed by Chalyse 