Category: 141

Colour Theory & Cool Type (1925 – 1930)

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Colour

The Exploration of Colour

Johannes Itten was a professor at the Bauhaus who taught the study of colour. His teachings were shaped by a diverse body of previously developed artistic, psychological, and scientific theories of colour, tested and innovated through practical exercises. Itten correlated his to the 12 pitches of a chromatic musical scale as a visual depiction of colour harmony. He researched the hues’ contrasting properties and developed strategies for pleasing colour combinations. He was also inspired by Philipp Otto Runge’s colour sphere and created this star that would fold into that sphere. This was undoubtedly a complicated system and many other colour theories were developed by instructors at the Bauhaus, including Paul Klee, Vasily Kandinsky, and Josef Albers. One can only imagine how confused (or extremely knowledgable) about colour Bauhaus students must’ve been by the end of their studies.

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Architecture

The bizarre legacy of E-1027

There’s a bizarre story behind Eileen Gray’s marvel of a villa named E-1027 in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin on the French Riviera. While she was overshadowed by many celebrated modernist architects of her time, her work was literally covered over by Le Corbusier—more specifically, by his uninvited murals on the walls of the villa.

Villa E-1027 was Eileen Gray’s first architectural creation, and she poured a lot of thought and attention into every detail of the design. It was designed as a flat-roofed white building that responded to her keen observation of weather patterns and sunlight. Gray spent three whole years designing the built-in and free-standing furniture while working with her partner and fellow architect, Jean Badovici, on the plans, but it is argued that the credit should be mostly on Gray.

They ran in the same circle as Le Corbusier and he would be a guest in the villa while the couple were together and after they separated in 1932. Le Corbusier would be encouraged by Badovici to paint provocative sexually-charged murals on the white walls Gray had planned the villa to have. Gray was apparently unhappy with the murals, but by this time, she was no longer visiting the villa but it is still odd that someone would alter the original look and feel of a building as a guest. I wonder what Le Corbusier would have felt if another architect stayed in one of his buildings and decided to paint all over it against its original design… It’s unfortunate that Le Corbusier is so tied into the credit and story of Gray’s modernist masterpiece.

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References

Colour Images: https://www.getty.edu/research/exhibitions_events/exhibitions/bauhaus/new_artist/form_color/color/

Architecture Images:

1: https://www.wmagazine.com/story/eileen-gray/

2: https://www.vogue.com/article/eileen-gray-sheftel-gallery

3: https://capmoderne.com/en/lieu/la-villa-e-1027/

Sturgis, Daniel. “Bauhaus: To Turn Away from Normality.” Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education, vol. 19, no. 1, Apr. 2020, pp. 9–18. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1386/adch_00010_1.

Constant, Caroline. “E. 1027: The Nonheroic Modernism of Eileen Gray.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, vol. 53, no. 3, 1994, pp. 265–279. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/990937. Accessed 8 Dec. 2020.

https://www.wmagazine.com/story/eileen-gray/

Rationale

I decided to connect my typography infographic to the art movements we’ve been looking at in this class as well as Jeff’s class. My aim was to plot out the timing of the art movements to the typefaces that were created at the time to better understand where art and typography intersect.

The whole infographic aims to tell the story and connection between the two visually and without the support of too many words in a more general survey view. I decided focus on the visuals by making them the biggest and most colourful parts of the project. I recreated mini versions of famous artworks by artists who were popular at the same time as the typeface and then I overlaid a letter from the typeface mentioned, in its actual form. I tried my best to select artworks from the same country and year the type was created (only 2 are slightly off by country or date). I also chose artists that we’ve covered this term in our class so it would be familiar for all of us.

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Grade

9/10

I did a lot of background research in an attempt to get the timeline right, but even between your class and Jeff’s, there are a few minor discrepancies in dates and the internet just makes it even more confusing. I did a lot of planning ahead of time to find artworks and artists who we’ve already heard of from the exact same time the type was invented. I also did several rounds of sketches so I could just execute once. I think the final result isn’t 100% what I imagined and planned, but it captures the spirit of what I was going for.

This was another multi-media project where I found myself using different kinds of papers, pens, and pencil crayons. I also dyed some string red for the main timeline as well as making use of extra black for contrast.

I’m quite proud of the fact that I completed this entire term’s projects without the use of a printer. It has made work a bit more tedious and time-consuming, but it was a fun challenge figuring out how to recreate things with good old fashioned methods.

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Rationale

While I loved the Art Nouveau style and wanted to create something related, the German Plaktstil/Sachplakat style also stood out to me as it was a completely 180° from the highly decorative aspect of Art Nouveau. I like the simplicity and the graphic quality of the posters so my artifact is half a replica of a Ludwig Hohlwein poster advertising fancy riding lessons. While I kept the illustration the same, I changed up the copy below to the paragraph explaining the significance of the Sachplakat style in the history of visual communication. I chose to follow the original lettering style of the copy for the description to keep within the authenticity of the original.

I placed the poster on a backdrop of newsprint to show a contrast between the boldness of the Sachplakat style to plain text type. This goes to show just how effective this style could be in a sea of text and how the viewer does not need to try very hard to understand what is being advertised as its clearly stated in the imagery and text.

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Grade

7.5/10

I definitely planned well in advance but left the execution for a bit later. Though I wrote the paragraph several times before and revised a couple of times as I went along, I still had trouble getting it perfectly down on the paper and despite the pre-planning, mistakes were made as I went to the inking stage. This just makes me appreciate the magic of working digitally even more.

I could have worked out the dimensions of the poster to be a bit bigger to fill up the eventual space allotted, but I actually quite like the layout of the final result. I know I could’ve experimented a bit more with layout before I landed on this.

I also really enjoyed painting the illustration part at the top of the poster as its in a style completely different from my own. It was a great exercise in simplifying shapes and colours for the sake of clarity and I think I did alright in replicating that part!

Dreams & Designers
(1895 – 1905)

Peter Behrens was a key figure in the later part of the Jugendstil movement (the German counterpart to the Art Nouveau movement). Its elements showed up in all of his work as an artist, type/graphic/furniture designer, and architect. Behrens’ work would bridge movement into modernism in the early 20th century.

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Typography

A Quintessential German Typeface

Peter Behrens’s typeface Behrens Schrift was released in mid-1901 by the Rudhard’sche Foundry of Offenbach. It was Behrens’ attempt at a simplified gothic style with a broad-pen calligraphic look in a very German way. He was going for the hand-lettered feel of which he associated with integrity and formality of letterforms. He was also inspired by the handiwork of the medieval scribes. It was ideas like this that tied him to the philosophies of William Morris’ Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain from the the 1860s on. Though it is simple, this typeface still holds some Jugendstil characteristics, such as the elemental decorations like the whiplash curve at the tops of the I and J.

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This typeface became very popular for the foundry. It was most popular in advertising and fine printing. A variation of it was even used for the German exhibitions at the 1904 World Expo in St. Louis and for the 1910 World Expo in Brussels. At the bottom of the second page, you can even see that Peter Behrens was in charge of the printing and supervision of the German catalogue.

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Architecture

Peter Behrens was a multi-talented man, much like William Morris, the father of the Arts and Crafts movement in England in latter half of the 19th century. When he was invited to participate in the Darmstadt Artists’ Colony in 1890, he got to design his own house, now called the Behrens House, and all the interior furnishings—down to the dishes. In his endeavours into architecture, he was interested in creating functional forms and improving and modernizing the designs of factory-produced everyday objects. His “model family house” was the most elaborate of all those in the colony. You can see from the photos that he was still highly decorative, even adding linear geometric designs to the ceilings and in other pieces in the house. He was a huge proponent of getting these designs into production by local factories and he was backed by the governments to make this happen. At the time, artist-designed products were not typically sent off for general production runs, but he found some success for his items which help solidify his reputation as the first industrial designer.

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Behrens and his group the Deutscher Werkbund (modelled after William Morris’ design group) would go on to train the future head of Bauhaus, Walter Groupius, and another pioneer of modern architecture, Le Corbusier. The work of Behrens and his group was at the forefront of the transition from the Jugendstil movement into modernism in Germany.

References

Type Images: https://fontsinuse.com/typefaces/14729/behrens-schrift https://archive.org/details/internationalexp00germrich/page/n9/mode/2up

Architecture Images: http://architectuul.com/architecture/behrens-house

Burke, Chris. “Peter Behrens and the German Letter: Type Design and Architectural Lettering.” Journal of Design History, vol. 5, no. 1, 1992, pp. 19–37. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1315850. Accessed 2 Nov. 2020.

Rudoe, Judy. “Aspects of Design Reform in the German Ceramic Industry Around 1900, As Illustrated By The British Museum Collection.” The Journal of the Decorative Arts Society 1850 – the Present, no. 14, 1990, pp. 24–34. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41809173. Accessed 2 Nov. 2020.

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Rationale

I chose to do a zine on Clarendon because I came across the fact that it was the first registered typeface in Britain in 1845 while we were learning about copyright in other classes which I found quite interesting.

I chose a limited colour palette with just white, black, and red because it would keep the small format of the zine cohesive and simple. I added small illustrations and illustrative details to each page to bring life to the facts.

I also chose to use a variety of materials (gouache, ink, pencil crayons, tracing paper) to bring some textural elements to an otherwise white letter-sized sheet of paper. Also, because I worked in a limited palette, I was afforded the opportunity to incorporate a range of materials and still have it look like it all fits together.

I took advantage of a 2-page spread to share some of Clarendon’s typographic characteristics which allowed me to demonstrate in a clear way how it’s constructed without just listing out a bunch of facts. It aims to educate readers in a ‘show, don’t just tell’ way.

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Grade

8/10

I could have made the copy more interesting. Even though I planned and adjusted the wording several times, I never landed on anything too quippy, which I personally find the most engaging.

I almost never work with red, but I think it turned out quite striking! I had a great time working with gouache, pencil crayons, ink pens, and most of all, tracing paper for this zine. The tracing paper added a nice softness in texture to the otherwise bright white paper underneath. It started out as an experiment, but it ended up being a big element of the project in the end!

I’m quite happy with the end-result and this may be my favourite zine out of the four I’ve made in the last year. This is definitely getting mailed off to my old roommate in Toronto who got me into zines!

Steam and the speed of light (1750 – 1850)

Queen Victoria was crowned in 1837 at the age of 18 and would continue on to reign for 64 years. Her time on the throne was the reason an entire era was named after her—The Victorian Era. The Queen undoubtedly had a huge influence on her subjects throughout the British Empire and beyond.

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Fashion

The rise of white bridalwear

You can thank Queen Victoria for popularizing the modern day tradition of white bridal-wear. She decided to defy royal tradition at the time—instead of wearing her coronation dress for her royal wedding to Prince Albert in 1840, she chose a fashionable gown made of English-made Spitalfields satin, trimmed with Honiton lace.

Typical brides at the time tended to wear brighter and more colourful dresses that could be worn again for other occasions. Wealthy brides soon hopped on the trend of wearing white on their own wedding days which flaunted the fact that they could afford to have the dress cleaned—a task that was notoriously difficult in those days.

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Geopolitics

During the reign of Queen Victoria, the two opium wars happened. This was the first Anglo-Chinese conflict. The First Opium War lies in this survey’s time frame (1839–42) was waged by Britain against China to enforce the opening of Chinese ports to trade in opium. Opium from British India paid for Britain’s imports from China, such as porcelain, silk, and, above all, tea. The First Opium War resulted in the cession of Hong Kong to Britain and the opening of five treaty ports for trade (Guangzhou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningbo, and Shanghai).

References

http://www.vintageconnection.net/QueenVictoria.htm

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2018/04/queen-victoria-royal-wedding

“Opium Wars.” The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide, edited by Helicon, 2018. Credo Reference, https://ezproxy.capilanou.ca/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/heliconhe/opium_wars/0?institutionId=6884. Accessed 21 Oct. 2020.

Scientific Revolution + Baroque
1600 – 1700

This century brought about revolutionary scientific ideas by Newton in England. This was also the time when the Baroque style flourished under the use of Bernini in Italy.

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In Britiain

Science + Tools

Newton and his productive pandemic

Isaac Newton had to leave Cambridge University to return back to his home in Lincolnshire during the plague year of 1665-66. In this isolated time (much like we’re going through now), he made three great discoveries (along with many more).

1. Gravity – Watching an apple fall to the ground from the tree outside his bedroom window in his countryside home made him question why it fell straight to the ground.
2. White light is made up of all the colours (eventually led to the fundamentals of physical optics) – He drilled a hole in the shutter of his bedroom window and held a prism up to the beam of sunlight that came through it to make the discovery
3. Calculus – He finally had the time to contemplate complex mathematical questions that he had began to think about while he was at Cambridge, and out of the year, he wrote three papers on fluxions (early calculus)

Architecture

Baroque Brilliance

This period was also the time when the Baroque style flourished. Baroque architecture was mainly characterized by complex shapes, extravagant ornaments, its movement, and theatrical drama. 

One of the leading figures of Baroque architecture was Gian Lorenzo Bernini. He was an Italian architect, sculptor, and painter known for his work on the interior and exterior of St. Peter’s Basilica redesign in Vatican City. From from 1656-67, his was the sole architect of Piazza San Pietro outside of the basilica and it was a full display of his brilliance working with optical illusions and spatial ordering. Bernini’s main objective was to fully interpret the great meaning of the basilica and provide a sacred area where the faithful could come and be protected from the harsh outside world and feel like they’re being welcomed by the pope and surrounded by the arms of “maternal arms of Mother Church”.

(Offside: I visited Vatican City in 2012 when I was just a teenager touring with my high school orchestra, but I had no background knowledge on any of the architecture at the time. While I remember being impressed at how beautiful everything was, I wish I knew then what I’m learning now about the genius and creativity behind the architecture! But then again, this place was designed to be experienced by a naive visitor who would not have known all the work that went behind it.)

References

Kurian, George Thomas. “Bernini, Gianlorenzo (1598-1680).” The Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization, George Thomas Kurian, Wiley, 1st edition, 2012. Credo Reference, https://ezproxy.capilanou.ca/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/wileyenchci/bernini_gianlorenzo_1598_1680/0?institutionId=6884. Accessed 14 Oct. 2020.

Indus Valley Civilization
3300 BCE – 1300 BCE

The Indus Valley Civilization, also known as the Harrapan Civilization, is thought to possibly have brought the origin of Hinduism and is believed to be one of the most peaceful civilizations to have existed. It extended from what we know today as northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan, and northwest India.

Architecture/Urban Planning

World’s First Major Urban Centres

Mohenjo-daro and Harrapa were the two largest cities of the Indus Valley. Not only that, they are now thought to be two of the world’s first major urban centres. Both cities showed incredible signs of advanced architecture and urban planning.

The street planning of these cities was elaborate. It was gridded and orientated to the points of the compass. Towns were sophisticatedly divided into wards according to their function (shops, workshops, residences). All buildings were built with uniformly-sized baked bricks through both these major cities which is an obvious indication that their civilization was widely organized. They found public wells at street intersections and they found private wells inside the courtyards of two-storey residences. Most importantly, they had an urban sanitation system which consisted of covered sewers and a drainage system leading water out of the city. All these elements of urban planning suggest that the Indus Valley civilization had an efficient city governments who priority placed on hygiene. Mohenjo-daro also features an impressive public bath and social gathering site known as the Great Bath.

Surrounding the cities were massive perimeter walls constructed of mud brick and sometimes additionally faced with fired brick or stone. These perimeter walls were most likely built to protect against floods, but they also could have helped deterred military conflicts. Surprisingly, there are no other obvious signs of fortification within these large cities, which was very uncommon for the times. There is also no evidence that these walls have been damaged by warfare in any way over its lifetime.

Science and Tools

Consistency is key
The Indus civilization are believed to be among the first to develop a set of standardized weights and measures. Archaeologists have discovered a highly standardized system of stone weights was used throughout the entire area of the Indus civilization that is thought to have been based off of the weights of grains, such as wheat, barley, and edible seeds. These weights were used with matched scale
pans, which were made of copper or bronze and occasionally of terracotta and were used broadly. Indus weights, along with seals and sealings, have been found in the Arabian Gulf to as far away as Mesopotamia, and Central Asia which goes to show just how effective and widespread its use was.

References