FINAL Written Analysis (GD I / Post 16 – Exam Week)

In our case: the end… is the beginning (*see our first InDesign Exercise), as this Wassily Kandinsky Exhibition Poster, designed by Bauhaus graduate Herbert Bayer (in an edgy sans-serif) honored the 60th birthday of the ‘master’ artist, designer and educator, known for his use of De Stijl, further interpreted via the Russian Constructivist Movement (with its active, diagonal placement of an otherwise rectilinear grid), and later to be perfected by the Bauhaus and International Typographic Style from 1919… into the 1950’s and beyond (a tradition repeatedly resurrected by designers such as Jan Tschichold, Josef Müller-Brockman and Paul Rand). – Cruz

Saul Bass (GD I / Post 1 – Week 1)

Spartacus (Epic Film), Poster by Saul Bass, 1960
– http://www.empireonline.com/
features/unseen-saul-bass/p6

This 1960 film poster ties together bold/dominant (figure-ground, positive-negative spatial) design principles of the 50’s-60’s, and may relate an early, Archaic figurative style (perhaps of the Ancient Greeks – with consideration for their urn ceramic-glazed-paintings), with a focus on the breaking of chains: for the film epic: Spartacus (about a Thracian/Indo-European slave/gladiator, who leads a revolt against the Roman Republic, featuring actor: Kirk Douglas), by graphic artist/designer Saul Bass. The official website of Saul Bass: – http://saulbass.tv – Cruz
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Weekly Posts that Pay Tribute to One Designer ( – Instructions from Prof. M. Ferranto):

• Due throughout the semester
• You will be assigned a single designer or design group to research throughout the semester. You will then use this research for your final design project of semester, a mock brochure for an exhibition of this designer’s work at the Museum of Arts & Design in NYC.
• Each week you are expected to write and upload one post about this designer or group.  By week 10, when you are assigned introductory texts for the “designer brochure” project, you should have uploaded at least ten posts about your assigned designer.
• Your first post should provide basic biographical info about your designer – include nationality, studio location(s), birth date (year only), and a portrait image of the designer.
• Each blog post should include a single image with a caption.
• Each blog post should be no more than four sentences in length and use accurate spelling & standard English grammar.
• On each post, you may link to further information about the designer and/or work.
• By default all posts will appear on a wordpress blog home page; please keep this default setting throughout the semester.

As you research your designer and write your blog posts, focus on gradually answering the following questions:

• Why is this designer regarded as important in the larger history of graphic design or in the field of contemporary design?
• What are some of this designer’s most significant works?
• Who/what are some of this designer’s major influences? This may include one or more other designers or other individuals; an artistic, political, or cultural movement, the natural world; industrial or technological processes; economics, etc. It could include someone/something they support or someone/something they react against.