MOVEMENTS. again.

Early Modern: DeStijl

I've always had an affinity for Vans shoes, even though I've never stepped foot on a skateboard.  While looking up some of the more cleverly designed pairs, I came across these.  I love the play off Piet Mondrian's Composition.  Obviously, very DeStijl.

American Kitsch

When I think Kitsch, I think Las Vegas.  Kitsch is a german word meaning "in bad taste."  So naturally, I my brain jumps to the word tacky.  Colorful, bright, geometric, glitzy -- Nothing is more kitsch than the Las Vegas sign.

Late Modern: New York School

While studying the New York School, I found the Otto Storch's designs were my favorite of them all.  I love the way he believes that art and typography are inseparable.  So, I found this advertisement on Google for the Australian Post Office, and I thought it captured Storch's style and flair very well with simply a more modern take on it.

Swiss/International

I read Douglas Coupland's book Hey! Nostradamus about two years ago, and it ended up being one of my favorite novels.  Since then, I've always looked at his different novels and thought about buying them in hopes that I'd have time to read.  So, I've found this one many times at various book stores.  Nearly all of his book covers look like this.  They all have a style much like the Swiss designers.  There is this fascination with simple layouts, colors, and Helvetica.  So, I thought this book hit the nail right on the head.

Contemporary

I just recently bought this book at Books-A-Million.  I just saw it sitting on my desk and thought to myself, "Perfect!"  Many of the textbook images for this design movement shows very simplistic shapes, relatively flat designs, and bright colors.  This Charles Bukowski poetry book reminds me a lot of the Contemporary designs from the 60s and 70s.

Psychedelic

So, I've seen this poster many times because my friend Will introduced me to this band about a year ago.  They're music very easily reflects the Psychedelic era.  They are a band called Animal Collective, and this concert poster has a lot of qualities that the Psychedelic music posters of the 60s and 70s had.  The unstable, hand-written typography, that really isn't meant to be read too closely; the swirling patters; and the bright colors make this quite psychedelic.

Postmodern

During the time of Postmodern design, one of the most overused elements was the "stair step" look.  In the mid to late 70s to early 80s, this "stair step" was in just about every design.  In our textbook, designers such as Willi Kunz and Michael Manwaring use the "stair step."  The left side of this building I found, when looking at interesting architecture on the internet, shows that element of postmodern design.

Digital

Digital design could be ANYTHING recent, but instead of just finding something random, I wanted to look into one of the designers from the book -- Gitte Kath.  I think her work is fascinating.  I'm attracted to the dark, almost scary looking designs, so I googled her and found some more of her work.