Field Journal 1

By browsing through the book and looking at the pictures and notes, I could see that the history of graphic design began with cave painting and rock drawing.

There are a lot of cave and rock paintings in different parts of the world, which shows that graphic depictions have a very long history, ex. Cave painting from Lascaux, c. 15,000-10,000 b.c.

Cave painting of a horse at Lascaux
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lascaux

Lascaux cave painting of an auroch
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/france/lascaux-caves

Map of the original Lascaux Caves
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/france/lascaux-caves

Running horses and bulls in the Lascaux Caves
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/france/lascaux-caves

Field Journal 9 - improved

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.

His works are very creative, brilliant, and unforgettable. In his designs the medium of photography is montaged and manipulated. He would re-draw and re-photograph the subjects to turn ordinary into extraordinary.

Gunter Rambow
Book poster for Frankfurt-based publishing house, S.Fischer Verlag, 1976
http://libraryland.tumblr.com/post/211007770/karenh-gunter-rambow-book-posters

I really like his Book poster for Frankfurt-based publishing house. The book disappears in the crowd of people, as if it is made up of people, signifying that the context of any book is a collaboration of ideas of many people.

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

There are examples of other creative book posters done by Rambow. Seems like he is trying to tell through his posters that book help people think, develop, inspire new ideas.

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

Rambow was very clear about his political and social views, often depicting them in his posters, even commenting on the plays, for which he produced the posters.

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

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 Rambow’s work. The show was a collection of more than one hundred posters by Gunter Rambow ranging 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 today.

Field Journal 4 - improved

At the end of 19th century a lot of new colorful picture books were created for preschool children. Some of those beautifully illustrated books were created by British illustrators. One of such illustrators was Randolph Caldecott (1846-1886), born in Chester. Caldecott along with Kate Greenaway (1846-1901) and Walter Crane (1845-1915) were three great children books’ illustrators.

While Caldecott’s illustrations closely resemble the drawing style of Crane and Greenway, whom he knew well, he had a more humorous and lighter approach. The setting of his drawing was often an idealized eighteenth century. The sights from the neighborhoods of his place of birth often made it into his decorations: churches, farm building, farm animals and peasants. Caldecott’s images have a sweet and fun mood, which was characteristic of his personality.

While Crane had started a new way of decorating children’s books – same design from cover to cover, Caldecott took it a bit further. He tried to connect the words in the pictures and words in a such a way that they would complement each other: the pictures showed what was missing from the words, and the words told what the pictures did not show.

Beautiful illustrations created by Caldecott captured the attention of Edmun Evans who was planning on publishing a cheap series of children’s books. In 1878, Caldecott started working on illustration and the success of the first publication was so large that for every Christmas for the next eight years he and Evans would produce two colored children’s picture books, published by Routledge. Caldecott’s illustration varied from monochrome sketches to whole page colorful images.

One of his works was a book “Sing a Song for Sixpence” based on the Nursery Rhyme. Yet sixty years back the same rhyme had a lot of political meaning related to “Cato Street Conspiracy” in 1820 in which 24 men plotted a murder of the entire Cabinet at dinner. Caldecott’s illustrations for the book are very colorful and playful, not bearing the heavy context of the actual historical event.

Randolph Caldecott
Illustration for “Sing a Song for Sixpence”,1880
http://www.randolphcaldecott.org.uk/rhymes.htm

His illustration for children books are amazing. He drew characters and captured so well the facial expressions of animals and people. The characters he created are so lively and relatable that everybody would be touched and mesmerized by them and would not be left indifferent.

Randolph Caldecott
Illustration for “Hey Diddle Diddle”, 1880
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hey_Diddle_Diddle


I really like the illustrations for the Nursery Rhyme, “Hey Diddle Diddle”. They are so playful and light. I especially like how the dishes and flatware were transformed into this lively characters with emotions and dresses.

Randolph Caldecott
Illustration for “Hey Diddle Diddle”, 1880
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hey_Diddle_Diddle

Randolph Caldecott
Illustration for “The Milkmaid”, 1882
http://www.randolphcaldecott.org.uk/rhymes.htm

It was interesting to learn that Caldecott, even though he was drawing and modeling since childhood, did not originally start working in the graphic design business. While working in the head office in Manchester of the Manchester & Salford Bank he went to the night school at the Manchester School of Art. He started by submitting his work to local papers. His talent was soon recognized and he was able to become extremely during his lifetime.

Randolph Caldecott
Illustration for “The House that Jack Built”, 1887
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randolph_Caldecott

His pictures were exhibited at Royal Manchester Institute (1869) and Royal Academy (1876), and he was elected to the Royal Institute of Watercolor Painting in 1872. Caldecott Medal was named in honor of Randolph Caldecott. While his work included other illustrations, such as hunting, illustrations of the articles and holiday illustrations, he is more famous for his children’s books drawings. Even nowadays, Caldecott’s work is an inspiration to the children’s book illustrators around the world.

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.