Josef Albers

Bauhaus typography was typically unadorned and clean; san-serif types and strong horizontal
and vertical rules were characteristic. They believed: “Typography is an instrument of communication. It must present precise information in a suggestive form… For legibility, the message must never suffer from a priori aesthetics.”

The Architype Albers typeface, designed by Freda Sack and David Quay, is a revival of the typographic experimentation of Bauhaus Professor Josef Albers.
Albers produced sketches for geometrically constructed, universal, sans-serif, stencil typefaces the “Kombinationschrift” alphabets.

He used 10 basic shapes drawn on a grid in a size ratio of 1:3. It consisted of the perfect harmony of circles, squares and rectangles and their combinations, to write any letters or numbers. The system was simple, easy to learn, efficient, cheap for production and expressed purity, regularity and simplicity. The typeface was designed for use on posters and in large scale signs; it was never intended to be used for text.

Albers followed the theory of Die Neue Typographie, or "New Typography". Brought to the Bauhaus by László Moholy-Nagy and put to print by Jan Tschichold in his design manifesto; "New Typography" considered typography to be a medium for communication, and was concerned with the "clarity of the message in its most emphatic form". Albers also followed Herbert Bayer in his hypothesis; since speech does not recognize upper-case letters, they are unnecessary in type.

 

Joost Schmidt

Joost Schmidt received his degree in painting in 1914 at the Großherzoglich-Sächsische Kunstgewerbeschule (Grand Ducal Saxonian school of arts and crafts) in Weimar. He then continued his studies from 1919 to 1925 at the Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar in the preliminary course taught by Johannes Itten. In 1922, he passed his journeyman’s examination in wood sculpture, along with others. He successfully participated in the poster competition for the Bauhaus exhibition of 1923 and worked intensively on typography projects from 1924.

Within the scope of the preliminary course at the Bauhaus Dessau, all students were required to attend two semesters of the lettering design course taught by Joost Schmidt. Here, Schmidt explored the structure of letters – circle, square and rectangle – and their flexibility in terms of shape and size as well as the treatment of colour and surface. In addition, he had his students examine aspects of advertising such as language, visual effect, psychology and economy. With his teaching, Joost Schmidt strove for the comprehensive reform of lettering, which was to be validated and standardized internationally.

Bauhaus typography

 The Bauhaus was founded in 1919 in the city of Weimar by German architect Walter Gropius (1883–1969). Its core objective was a radical concept: to reimagine the material world to reflect the unity of all the arts. Gropius explained this vision for a union of art and design in the Proclamation of the Bauhaus (1919), which described a utopian craft guild combining architecture, sculpture, and painting into a single creative expression. Gropius developed a craft-based curriculum that would turn out artisans and designers capable of creating useful and beautiful objects appropriate to this new system of living.

The typography workshop, while not initially a priority of the Bauhaus, became increasingly important under figures like Moholy-Nagy and the graphic designer Herbert Bayer. At the Bauhaus, typography was conceived as both an empirical means of communication and an artistic expression, with visual clarity stressed above all. Concurrently, typography became increasingly connected to corporate identity and advertising. The promotional materials prepared for the Bauhaus at the workshop, with their use of sans serif typefaces and the incorporation of photography as a key graphic element, served as visual symbols of the avant-garde institution.

It wasn’t until the summer of 1923 when a poster was made for the school that intrigued others to notice the unique typeset and design. Effective visual communication was a main focus when designing. You will see a balanced layout, vibrant colors, harmony, geometric shapes strong bars, bold and universal type. Using upper case or lower case fonts, but not a combination of the two, the typeset was clear and concise. The type was laid out in various ways. In addition to being horizontal and vertical orientation, Bauhaus is well-known for placing text at angles and also wrapping text around objects.

As the legacy continues, Bauhaus style typography is still used in modern day designs and posters. You will find their style on album covers, posters for movies, events, and signage. One of the most notable was a print designed for the Obama Presidential Campaign, a rally which was held in Berlin.

Robert Rauschenberg

Robert Rauschenberg was a man of American nationality, he was born on October the 22^nd in 1925 in Texas and he died on may the 12^th in 2008 in florida. Rauschenberg was a man that worked in many different medias such as printmaking, graphic art, painting, photography and papermaker, some of his early work was in the era and style of popart and is well known for his combine paintings which are built up of non-traditional materials and objects being used together..

 Rauschenberg was very interested in the iconography of American popular culture. He worked in the style of Abstract Expressionists without losing the expressiveness by developing a style that included collage and used materials that were easy to come across such as house paint. Rauschenberg used unusual techniques such painting with a tire that he had dipped in ink. He expanded his collages by uaing three and two dimensional objects in one piece of work, which he referred to as “combines.” This ground-breaking technique contributed to the course of modern art and creative expression. The works are sometimes called Neo-Dada. Rauschenberg’s fascination with popular imagery and his anything goes attitude when it came to his work strongly influenced Pop Art.

Rauschenberg used images of current events which he gathered from magazines and the newspapers for his 1964 collage Retroactive 1 (1964). A large press photograph of John F. Kennedy speaking at a televised news conference was the source for this screen print on canvas. He combined the image of Kennedy with another photo silkscreen of a parachuting astronaut. The overlapping of the two images creates a colourful visual commentary on a culture struggling to come to grips with the television era.

Rauschenberg studied at the Kansas city art institute, at the academie Julian in paris, france and also at the black mountain college in north Carolina. From 1949 until 1952 rauschenberg was a student at the arts students league of newyork.

In a lot of his work Rauschenberg used the process of silk screen printing to transfer photographs on to a canvas. In 1951 Rauschenberg created a series of work known as the White Paintings, in the style of monochromatic painting, the purpose of which was to make a painting seem its most essential nature, and to give the impression of being pure.

 When I look at Robert Rauschenberg’s work straight away I can see that most pieces of his work are in the style of abstract expressionism, I knew this by the old free lashings of paint in different colours and also by looking at the way that he layers images and paint over eachother this gives he work a lack of control, abstract feel to it  and it works really well in most pieces of his work.

I also really like the way that Rauschenberg uses different media in his work he incorporates printing into his work as well as painting and other methods of creating an image and I think that this is what makes rauschenberg’s work different from other artists that work in the abstract expressionist style.