The Enduring Legacy of Weimar: Graphic Design & New Typography 1919-1933 - Hardcover

Alston Purvis; Cees W. De Jong

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 3791384856 ISBN 13: 9783791384856

Publisher: Prestel, 2019

Synopsis

Graphic Design as an artistic genre wasn't universally accepted until the early 20th century. This striking book focuses on the pivotal years of 1928-1931 to show how fifty artists redefined the field and helped create modern graphic design. Art historian and graphic artist Alston Purvis provides a concise and engaging overview of the dawn of modern graphic design and the artistic possibilities that were laid bare in a seismically shifting Europe. He explores how a variety of burgeoning and established movements contributed to the innovations of graphic design such as the German Dadaists, the Bauhaus School, and the European avant-garde artists. He looks at how groundbreaking trends in typography, the rise of consumerism, and a new focus on schools of graphic design combined to create a new language of design that is still in use today. Featuring the designs of 50 pioneering artists, such as Walter Gropius, Paul Klee, and El Lissitzky, this book shows how their work in color, typography, and composition broke conventions and set new standards in a seminal period of graphic design.

About this title

Review:

The Enduring Legacy of Weimar: Graphic Design & New Typography 1919-1933 (Prestel), dives into the well of essential documentation and is a welcome tutorial about this critical period, the dawn of Modernism and its impact on commercial culture. The texts are more than adequate background for the student looking for a contextual history and while many of the visual can be found in other books discussed here and already in print, there are quite a few that I had never seen before ... representing groups and movements in Weimar, Germany and elsewhere in European design culture that are indeed revealing. --Printmag.com

About the Author:

ALSTON PURVIS is Professor of Visual Arts and Chair of the Department of Graphic Design at the Boston University College of Fine Arts. He is the author of numerous books on typography and graphic design.

About this edition

• Publisher: Prestel
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 3791384856
• ISBN 13: 9783791384856
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400