Field Journal 9

Gunter Rambow (b. 1938) is a German designer who is very famous for his poster designs. He produced outstanding posters and a lot of photo books.

He was trained as a glass painter prior to entering the graphic department of the Hochshule für bildende Kunste (Academy of Art and Design] in Kasse).

At twenty-two, while still a student, Gunter Rambow started his own design studio in Kassel, He worked together with Gerhard Lienemeyer and Michael van de Sand, but he has always been the creative member of team.

Gunter Rambow
Book poster for Frankfurt-based publishing house, S. Fischer Verlag, 1970s http://libraryland.tumblr.com/post/211007770/karenh-gunter-rambow-book-posters

Gunter Rambow
Book poster for Frankfurt-based publishing house, S. Fischer Verlag 1970s

http://libraryland.tumblr.com/post/211007770/karenh-gunter-rambow-book-posters

Gunter Rambow
Book poster for Frankfurt-based publishing house, S. Fischer Verlag, 1970s
http://www.designrelated.com/inspiration/view/editor/entry/3429/gunter-rambow-book-posters

In his designs the medium of photography is montaged, manipulated.

Gunter Rambow
Poster “Utopie Dynamit”, 1976

http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A4799&page_number=1&template_id=1&sort_order=1

He re-draw and rephotograph the subjects to turn ordinary into extraordinary.

Gunter Rambow

Poster for the play “Die Hamletmaschine”, 1980

http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A4799&page_number=2&template_id=1&sort_order=1

In 2007, the Museum fur Angewandte Kunst Frankfurt dedicated a major solo exhibition to his work. The show is an encounter between more than one hundred posters by Gunter Rambow ( from 1962 to the present) and Richard Meier's architecture.

Gunter Rambow

Poster against violence “Think before you're thought “, 1995

http://www.gunterrambow.de/index2.php#

His work still influences many artists.

Field Journal 8

One of the influential figures and pioneers of the New York school was Alvin Lustig (1915 - 1955). Lustig was an American typeface and graphic designer. He was strongly influenced by Modernism and Cubism movements.

Among Lustig's works there is a large number of book covers designed for New Directions and Noonday Press. He did not like the typical designs of the book jackets, which would almost summarize the contents of the book with an image. Instead, he would read the book and get a feeling that would inspire him to create book cover. Each one of those designs was very unique. His designs were abstract and characteristically had small font titles, which was an influence of Jan Tschichold work.

The first one of those designs, 1941 edition of Wisdom of the Heart, by Henry Miller, was very different from what was popular back then. It was made from different pieces of type metal that he had in his own experimental printing shop (by James Laughlin, New Directions - Print Magazine, Oct/Nov 1956)













Alvin Lustig
Book jacket for Henry Miller “The Wisdom of the Heart”, 1941
http://www.alvinlustig.com/bp_nd/bp_nd.php


Lloyd Wright had also influenced some of Lustig's works; they studied together for three months at Taliesin East. In his design for The Ghost in the Underblows, 1940, he was experimenting with abstract designs made from pieces of typographic metal.













Alvin Lustig
Book jacket for Alfred Young Fischer “The Ghost in the Underblows”, 1940 http://www.alvinlustig.com/aa_intro.php


"27 Wagons Full of Cotton" is another good example of Lustig's imagination and his ability to redefine the media in terms of what could be done with it.





















Alvin Lustig
Book jacket for Tennesse William “27 Wagons Full of Cotton”, 1949
http://susanneschade.ifunnyblog.com/27wagonsfullofcotton/


In his book "The Book Jackets of Alvin Lustig," James Laughlin discusses how Lustig approached book design, in essence he would try to reflect authors creativity through the abstract and angular designs of his book covers.





















Alvin Lustig
Book jacket for E. M. Forster “The Room with a View”, 1946
http://library.rit.edu/gda/designer/alvin-lustig


In 1944, Lustig moved to New York and accepted the position of visual research director for Look magazine. He was given an opportunity to redesign offices for his offices, which he did by replacing heavy, old-fashioned and dark furniture with lighter, thin-legged furniture, which gave an impression of floating.












Alvin Lustig
Look Magazine Offices, New York, 1944
http://www.alvinlustig.com/ai_intro.php


Lustig also created design for Fortune and Girl Scouts of America. When Lustig started going blind, he continued to work by giving directions to his wife and other assistants by giving reference through the shapes and colors found in his house.

Lustig died at the age of forty. Even at that age he had already brought the principles of Modern art into graphic design. His work still influences both American and international artists. His contribution to the development of graphic design in US was very significant.

Field Journal 7

A lot of great designers came to America during the late of late 1930s. One of them was Jean Carlu.

Carlu was born in France (1900 – 1997) and originally studied to become an architect, but after he lost his right arm in the accident, he decided to work as a commercial artist.

Carlu is famous for his poster designs. He was one of the leading poster artists in France during 1920's-1930's.





















Jean Carlu
Pépa bonafé poster,1928
http://www.artnet.com/artist/660320/jean-carlu.html


In his early work it's easy to see his love for angular forms and other Cubism influences.




















Jean Carlu
Paris 1937 Exposition,1937
http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Paris-1937-Exposition-1937-Posters_i1250945_.htm

Carlu came to US for the New York World's Fair and ended up staying when Paris was invaded by the German Army. He created one of his most famous works while living in US, the “America’s Answer! Production” poster.

















Jean Carlu
Patriotic war poster for the U.S. Government, 1942
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Carlu

This work has won him a New York Art Directors medal and became a poster of the year.

Carlu stayed in US through the duration of World War II and worked on the posters for the government war related topics.
















Jean Carlu
Give 'em Both Barrels poster, 1941
http://moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A977&page_number=1&template_id=1&sort_order=1


His works carried out the same precision of forms as the rest of his art, which worked very well to echo the efficiency of industry.





















Jean Carlu
Stop 'Em to Sell 'Em poster, 1947
http://moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A977&page_number=4&template_id=1&sort_order=1

His work still influence the work international and American artists. He played a great role in the development of graphic design in US.

Field Journal 6

The Modern Arts movement had also made an influence in the world of photography. The abstract forms and a play of color has become the subject matter for many artistic photographs.

As we can see in works American photographer Francis Bruguiere (1880 – 1945), photographic abstractions and the play of light and shadow becomes his subject matter.

Bruguière worked for many famous publications: Vanity Fair, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and the New York Theatre Guild.

In 1923, he started working with shaped or cut paper designs. He would lit those paper designs using some light source to create dramatic abstract patterns and movement with light and shadow and photograph them.

Bruguière held an exhibition in Berlin in 1928, and he work has attracted a lot of attention.

Francis Bruguiere
Untitled (cut paper abstraction), c.1927
Gelatin silver photograph
http://www.museumofnewmexico.org/mfa/ideaphotographic/cgi-bin/display.php?img=bruguiere.jpg

Another American artist known as Men Ray (1890 – 1976), born Emmanuel Radnitzky, applied Dada and surrealism to his photography.

Ray has contributed a lot to Dada and Surrealist movement. He is mostly known for his avant-garde photography, however, he worked in a lot of different media, and had considered himself to be mainly a painter. He had also done a lot of fashion and portrait photography.

Ray had come up with a very unique work of art, while living in France, they are known as ‘Rayogrammes’. Those were pictures that were made on photographic paper, yet the camera was not used: the subject would be laying directly on the paper, then exposed to light and later developed. This put a shadow from the subject the main focus, once again stressing the importance of light and shadow. His most famous piece from this unique series of work is “Electricity” (1931).




















Man Ray
Electricity
Rayographies, 1931
http://artdecoblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/man-ray-electricity-lee-miller-1931.html


While in France, Ray was also a part of the Dada art movement and the only American member of the Paris surrealist movement.















Man Ray
Tears
Photograph, 1930 - 1932
http://www.kyushu-ns.ac.jp/~allan/Documents/CCEurope-05.html

















Man Ray
Observatory Time — The Lovers
Photograph, 1936
http://www.kyushu-ns.ac.jp/~allan/Documents/CCEurope-05.html

He was one of the greatest artists of his generation.

Cubism, futurism, data, surrealism and expressionism, all part of the modern arts movement, had a great influence on photography and other art forms, including film and graphic design.