Breathnach, T. & Dermody, B. (2010) Critiquing Retro. In: New Retro. Thames and Hudson Ltd. p.11-p.12
Breathnach and Dermody sum up critiques about retro typography and design in this chapter. There are some reasons for forming retro as a practice, including design history which became important as education since the 1980s, and the development of computer science and search engines.
Postmodernism has a strong concern with the use of past styles. Modernism stresses on creating better communication of information, on the other hand, postmodernism is consumer-oriented and approaches deconstructing information. This tendency of postmodernism towards appropriation and this reuse of styles generated criticism.
The first criticism is pastiche or plagiarism. Revivalism is blamed for pillaging the effort made in the past and not creating anything. The second attack is chasing novelty designs for stimulation without real context. Finally, designers’ attitude of making the low-level design, which often just evokes nostalgia, is criticised. However, these problems on retro design of borrowing styles, less innovative design and using it solely for commercial purposes are serious issues. Those are mentioning only some aspect of retro design.
Retro design that essentially refers to past style of design has strong controversy today, especially in the situation that it overflows among commercial design to aim at the customer’s action. This argument gives rise to think about what is the meaningful restored design in the present time to create a positive value on historical design.
Stern, A. (2016) ‘Good History/Bad History, Revisited’. In: ‘Freaks of Fancy, Revisited: Nineteenth-Century Ornamented Typography in the Twenty-First Century’. Design Issues. [Online] 32 (4), 87-90. Available from: http://ud7ed2gm9k.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fsummon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Freaks+of+Fancy%2C+Revisited%3A+Nineteenth-Century+Ornamented+Typography+in+the+Twenty-First+Century&rft.jtitle=Design+Issues&rft.au=Stern%2C+Arden&rft.date=2016-10-01&rft.issn=0747-9360&rft.eissn=1531-4790&rft.volume=32&rft.issue=4&rft.spage=76&rft.epage=90&rft_id=info:doi/10.1162%2FDESI_a_00418&rft.externalDBID=n%2Fa&rft.externalDocID=10_1162_DESI_a_00418¶mdict=en-UK
Stern starts this chapter with the records of the revivalism of nineteenth-century type in the early and mid-twentieth-century. She then goes on to the criticism of revival of nineteenth-century typography in modern times and states opinions about this issue from three aspects, postmodern theory, marketing standpoint and cultural aspect. Stern introduces both positive and negative opinions in general and tries to point out the identity and the meaning of this revival.
From critiques Stern cited, she mentions a future perspective that continues from the nineteenth-century to the postmodern time. She argues that postmodernism was already started from the nineteenth-century, referring to scholars’ views. Subsequently, Stern also discusses the way of reinterpretation of Victorianism in the present context which is the U.S. neo-imperialism in relation to the British imperialism.
Stern states that she sees this revivalism optimistically and finally quoted the idea of the topos of the internet era. She only suggests a relation between this idea and nineteenth-century typography, but she insists that at least it works as a manifest of nineteen-century-ness.
Stern shows a comprehensive view on revivalism and it suggested to me to how to understand and work with typography and its historical context in the present time. Even though the theme of this nineteenth-century typography is a little out of my scope of my practice, knowing this way of reinterpretation in today’s context is useful in general.
Breathnach, T. & Dermody, B. (2013) ‘The Appeal of the Past: Retro Type and Typography’. InPrint. [Online] Vol. 2, Iss. 1, Article 4. pp. 31-pp.42. Available from: https://arrow.dit.ie/inp/vol2/iss1/4
In this paper, Breathnach and Dermody try to describe ‘retro’ as it relates to typography and graphic design and give various interpretations thereof. In this section (pp.31-pp.42), they focus in particular on styles and classification. Breathnach and Dermody begin by analyzing the postmodern plural style, which is significant even in current design.
Firstly, they sort retro by styles of time – early, mid, late century revival and nineteenth-century eclectic style, by referring to a design created by Malone Design and others as examples. The next category is parody, where they point out the balance between obvious authenticity and realisation of the aim as its function and this may be a representation of “distancing from a past” (Breathnach & Dermody, 2013). This parody is intended as a challenge to the viewer’s preconceptions. Following this, they argue for the use of places and cultures as indicators of retro by citing examples including the identities of Schiller and Sant Ambroeus. They also consider generations such as designers’ or audiences’ patents generation or childhood.
Breathnach and Dermody describe critiques of retro and insist that while retro is empty in context it still has the meaning in the world of diversity and there are complex factors to be considered. The evocativeness of the characters of material is also counted as a type of retro. This means reproduction of the material’s authenticity, including the use of letterpress or handwriting.
This classification, not only by styles in the history of design but also from practical aspects, highlights how the concept of retro design spans such a broad range. I personally believe that this is a useful article for making the restored design – to know the categories means to grasp the concepts that will be a basis for creating design.
Berbic, A. & Grant, R. (2008) ‘The New Relevance of Basel Basics’. Georgia Tech Library. [Online] Available from: https://smartech.gatech.edu/handle/1853/29131
As a premise of the introduction of the education of a program at American University of Sharjah, Assistant Professors Berbic and Grant explain the history and pedagogy of the Kunstgewerbeschule Basel, where their approach generated The International Typographic Style. They state the characters of the works of the movement. Kunstgewerbeschule Zurich, where Ernst Keller, who developed the style, taught at has a root in Kunstgewerbeschule Basel. Berbic and Grant focus on the pedagogy of the Basel School of Design.
The pedagogy of the school was developed by Armin Hofmann and Emil Ruder. They laboured to generate and observe forms, all by hand. The physical approach was essential. Hofmann’s approach was to exercise and experiment and make progress in the industry; the skill and technique were less important. Hofmann endeavoured to find a new relationship within the layout, but there was a conflict between the form and the active design. The focus on a single point worked as an intervention of this issue.
Berbic and Grant introduce Ruder’s method, which used handprint letters to develop the form physically and actively. Moving on to Wolfgang Weingart’s method, his belief in the importance of physical creation is also stated. Basel school continued the method of Weingart that they do not decide the outcome. Finally, Berbic and Grant state Weingart’s view that handcraft must be done first before the use of phototypesetting or computer.
I was wondering what was ‘style’ in connection with the current Swiss Style, but this article made clear to me that it was not visual forms, but the active experiment done by the physical body that is required to find a better solution. Since I am very interested in International Typographic Style and its application today, knowing the Basel pedagogy and the practical put out done at American University of Sharjah helped me to understand about this area.
Huppatz, D. (2009) ‘Hong Kong’s nostalgia fever’ In: Designer Nostalgia in Hong Kong. Design Issues. [Online] Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 15-17. Available from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20627803?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
In this chapter of an article, Huppatz considers the conditions of the emergence of “nostalgic design” in a historical context.Huppatz opines that the revival boom in Hong Kong in the 1980s and 1990s, referred to as the ‘golden time’ of Shanghai in the 1920s and 1930s, have a connection with the semi-colonial state of Shanghai and Hong Kong before the latter’s return to the Chinese government. Huppatz assumes that capitalism and world trade are obviously connected with each time of Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Huppatz observes that this phenomenon is based on the disconcerted situation before Hong Kong’s hand-over. He quotes Ackbar Abbas’ arguments that this fever is due to preserving, and pop visuals dissolve the real past and it created this movement toward Nostalgic Design where there is a distinct lack of shape or pain. Huppatz also quoted Fred Davis who argued that this nostalgic past in Hong Kong was more individualistic than collective.
After discussing the global situation of postmodernism and revivalism of the 1980s, Huppatz went on to interpret Hong Kong’s particular situation in the same era. Huppatz postulates that Hong Kong nostalgia commercialism was inimitable, because it of it’s connection to the local past style, but also highlights that Asian exotic style also appealed to foreigners in addition to the local market.
At present, we need to consider the vernacular design with a global context. Although this article is about Hong Kong nostalgia in design with particular focus on the fashion industry, and thus not connected directly to my focus within this module, this way of interpreting popularity of retro designs within the context of a given social situation, in relation to history, and other angles was quite interesting to me.
HELLER, S. (2015) ‘The Post-Postmodern Lettering of Daniel Pelavin’. Printmag. [Online] October 2015. Available from: http://www.printmag.com/imprint/the-post-postmodern-lettering-of-daniel-pelavin/
In an interview with Printmag in February 2015, Daniel Pelavin, who designed ITC Anna and Marquee, talks about his vintage decorative typography. After learning the fundamentals from works, he learned radical typography at Cranbrook Academy. However, the deconstruction of design that was taught at the Academy was not really his style. He eagerly learned hand lettering and this served him to develop his typography skills. Also, he refers to many historical letters such as hieroglyphs, as well as vintage artefacts and some contemporary excellent works.
His title could be both a typographer and “a typographic illustrator” (Heller, 2015) but he does not care about the category of his title and instead focuses on the practice. The author, Heller prefers to call Pelavin’s métier “custom display lettering” (ibid.). Pelavin talks about his methodology of creating novel fonts based on plural sources: He makes lettering for one project then applies it to other projects, until it proves viable as a font. Pelavin has a classical style of aesthetic, focused on enhancing the beauty of his works to such an extent that the audience feels transported to a new reality.
Pelavin’s typography puts importance in function and thoroughly avoids being temporary. This is because fashion is insecure and uncomfortable. He prefers to create typeface that is comfortable and gives joy to the viewer, and states that letters of text which are contemporary, are eternal.
Pelavin’s aesthetic philosophy of beautiful shape of letters and searching for eternal value is interesting for me, since that is what I also ultimately seek. He has his own valuation in himself that he fostered from his long experience and enormous study about letters and typeface from the past. I believe that the revelation of eternal beauty is a core purpose of the study of past typographic styles, and also to give positive value to the current retro design.
The Cooper Union (2016) ‘AN INSIDE LOOK AT “SWISS STYLE NOW” FROM THE CURATORS’. The Cooper Union. [Online] August 2016. Available from: https://cooper.edu/about/news/inside-look-swiss-style-now-curators [Accessed: 2rd Nov 2017]
Due to the opening of the “Swiss Style Now” exhibition which was held in September 2016, the curator of the exhibition and Swiss style practitioner Alexander Tochilovsky and Xavier Erni answered to the inquiries about Swiss design in an article of The Cooper Union. At this exhibition, more than 120 works, including posters and books created only within five years, were displayed. In this interview, they illustrated Swiss style from its history since industrialization, the original aim of universality, characteristic and the reason to have an exhibition of current Swiss design and its situation.
Tochilovsky and Erni explained how the style born in the 1950s changed its way in our time. The flow of times changed the rigid original style to the lax style today. Erni mentioned about the influence of the internet which is full of images and the rapidly changing trends without the national border. They gave an account of this style today using these words: personal taste, emotion including humour, aesthetic diversion and fun.
Clear, explicit and universally legible Swiss style which has been developed from modernism of the early 20th century is good to deliver messages and is still popular in poster design today. But the works shown at this exhibition included many different directions and many of those didn’t look like the so-called ‘Swiss style’. Tochilovsky said “What people think is classic Swiss design, actually isn’t,” in another interview (Brewer, J, 2016). This raised a question of what is a ‘style’ to me. When its appearance is changed, is it still categorised as the same style? Does the style mean not an appearance but an attitude or philosophy? Although evolved Swiss style is somewhat altered from its conventional style through its history, the craftsmanship and printing orientation is still important to the Swiss designers. This attitude toward creation still inherits the spirit of the original Swiss design.
Reference:
Brewer, J. (2016) ‘Swiss Style Now: a cliché-busting cross-section of Swiss graphic design’. It’s Nice That. [Online] September 2016. Available from: https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/swiss-style-now-graphic-design-exhibition-060916 [Accessed: 2rd Nov 2017]
Byrom, A. (2011), Foreword: Type as Object by Andrew Byrom. In: JACQUILLAT, A. & VOLLAUSCHEK, T. The 3D Type Book. [Online] London: Laurence King. Available from: http://proquest.safaribooksonline.com.ezproxy.herts.ac.uk/book/design/9781856697132/title-page/04_book_title_html#X2ludGVybmFsX0h0bWxWaWV3P3htbGlkPTk3ODE4NTY2OTcxMzIlMkYwNl9mb3Jld29yZF90aXRsZV9odG1sJnF1ZXJ5PQ==
This introduction was written by a designer Andrew Byrom, who over the years has produced unique typesetting using real object: for example, chair and kite (see his lecture on TED). He started this book with the intention to explicate key definitions for 3D design and the reason for this style’s current popularity. Byrom goes on to argue that the difference and development of dimensional type designs now and in previous decades are useful to understand what is steric in typographic design. This text suggests how to approach dynamism in typography. To have dynamism in poster design – in relation to flat paper – seems to be one of the prominent challenges especially since the digital screen became familiar to the general public. Installing the idea of 3D type into a plain poster makes the message more powerful and recognised. (Marshall & Meachem, 2012)
This book is about the real/spatial 3D typeface, though Byrom describes that the word 3D means a plain design with spatial effects in many cases. Since UPS changed its plain logo into its rich and geometric design logo, 3D design became a trend. Conventionally design had a technical restriction, but today technology has made progress and every kind of technique seem to be available in type design. The computer abolished the technical ceil in design and designers are keen to find new typography through this digital trend; in other ways, the ‘handmade’ and ‘performance’, are a result of the after digital current. Byron narrated in his book that typography limited by the print material is over and strongly asserted that the 3D type design made by true objects is “type as object: physical and real”. (Byrom, 2011) Here the difference between 3D effect design and real object 3d type is again stressed.
Reference:
MARSHALL, L. & MEACHEM, L. (2012), Type in three dimensions. In: Marshall, L. & Meachem, L. How to use type. [Online] London: Laurence King Publishing. Available from: https://library.herts.ac.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=279330
MILLMAN, D. (2007). ‘Philippe Apeloig: after studying with a host of masters, the French artist developed an incredible typographic style all his own’. Print. [Online] 71 (2). p23-26. Available from: http://content.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.herts.ac.uk/ContentServer.asp?T=P&P=AN&K=123491138&S=R&D=ehh&EbscoContent=dGJyMNLr40SeqLI4zdnyOLCmr0%2Bep7RSsKa4TLKWxWXS&ContentCustomer=dGJyMPGqtU%2ByrrFNuePfgeyx44Dt6fIA [Accessed 24/10/2017]
French graphic designer and typographer Philippe Apeloig is well known for his poster designs. In this interview in Print, Apeloig discussed career and work both in Europe and the US and this transatlantic lifestyle and worldview suggest how he has developed his own unique design style.
Apeloig theorizes his own dynamic typographic style in relation to the composition of music and choreography found in dance. The experimental typography Apeloig is known for is perhaps the balance – or fusion – of different visual elements not only visually significant but also culturally diverse, especially how these integrated features constitute his design philosophy.
In this interview, Apeloig reveals his methodology for creating typography and the essence of design which for him remains a process of emotional deliberation. He especially emphasizes the sense of fragility and pureness in this interview. He states “My goal is to pinpoint an emotional feeling in the design” and interestingly continues his actively receptive way of designing to achieve it. It is not to translate a preconceived idea but to integrate the object into himself, then let the shape itself appear.
Especially, I am interested in Apeloig’s methodology in this article. Appeloig’s approach seems to interpret the message into typographic shape in natural and an acceptable way. Also, this elaboration of personal and object-centred sentimentality seems to give depth and complexity to his works and this might be a key to create advanced design works.
Bibliography:
Butler, A. (2012) ‘Philippe Apeloig Interview’. designboom. [Online] Available from: https://www.designboom.com/design/philippe-apeloig-interview/
NEDELJKOVIĆ, U., NOVAKOVIĆ, D., PUŠKAREVIĆ, I. & TOMIĆ, I., (2014) ‘Helvetica as a trend’. Helvetica as a Type Convention for the Youthful and Trendy Image: A Consumer Response to Designer Safe Option. in: Stanković, L. & Ognjanov, G. (ed.). Časopis Marketing. (45/1) p51-52. [Online] Belgrade: SEMA and Faculty of Economics of the University of Belgrade. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263373027_Helvetica_as_a_Type_Convention_for_the_Youthful_and_Trendy_Image_A_Consumer_Response_to_Designer_Safe_Option [Accessed: 12th Oct 2017]
Helvetica is considered one of the most prominent typefaces in the field. Nedeljkovic et al demonstrated the consumer response towards Helvetica and in this chapter they outlined its historical value and influence today. In the Modernist period, Helvetica’s utilitarian design was considered a symbol of its transferability and often linked to other modern art forms that also engendered innovative, futuristic and progressive values; such a sign system was viewed to improve human capability through the merger of science and technology. After counter movements toward Helvetica, the computer technologies spotted it again to express the cultural and aesthetic values of Modernism. The computer allowed to design easily and such a formula by Modernists was welcomed by non-professionals as it enabled to make modern design.
In some ways I agree with Jeffery Keedy who argues that contemporary designers have followed consumer demand and try to avoid awkwardness arising from making bad designs. This anti-risk inclination makes this phenomenon of overuse of Helvetica – the authors called it a trend. Helvetica became a star and a symbol of today’s good values. The message conveyed by Helvetica is of little importance now because Helvetica itself is the message, and this situation is similar to the brand culture.
The authors calmly observe this enthusiasm over Helvetica. In fact, the reason for the popularity of this typeface and what it really means to design history and cultural history needs to be carefully considered. I would like to think about how to select typeface positively for poster design on this MA course.