Before Class, Chapter 19: The NY School

Modern design in America was booming and more talent was being brought to the table due to European designers coming to our country. New York City played a huge roll during the 20th century that brought forth new ideas and images. At this time in America, the U.S. society was based on capitalistic values and was becoming much more competitive. In the design world, "novelty of technique and originality of concept were prized." This thought process was carried on to the 21st century by American graphic designers.

There were many important people that contributed to the New York School. Paul Rand is one of them. He manipulated shapes, color, space, line and value in his compositions. He was the designer for many magazines, Ken and Coronet to name a few. Rand also knew how to communicate and send his message to his audience through visual communications. Alvin Lustig was another key component in the design world because he in fact help develop a graphic design program at Yale University. As for his design, he liked to "search for symbols to capture the essence of the contents and treating form and content as one." Unfortunately for the talented Lustig, his life ended rather shortly but he did have the ability to teach design right before he died. The New York School eventually moved forward and was brought to Los Angeles by Saul Bass. There, he opened a studio and his design was remarkable. I personally like his work because I like the contrasts he used in his compositions with texture, shape and color.

In the 1940's, few magazines were designed in America. The three famous ones were Vogue, Fortune and Harper's Bazaar. Many people sought the death of magazines but in 1960, there was a rebirth. Specialized audiences were becoming more and more interested. "The new editorial climate with more emphasis on content, longer text, and less opportunity for lavish visual treatment, necessitated a new approach to editorial design."

New advertising emerged during this time alone with figurative typography. Words and images were fused together in advertisements to express products made by companies. Figurative typography involved letterforms becoming objects and vice versa. Another typographic style that came back during this time was the decorative typefaces that hadn't been around for a while due to the modern movement.