DESIGN JOURNAL 6

     The military recruiting poster during World War I by James Montgomery Flagg in 1917 appeared everywhere around the world, especially the cropped image of the hand. I have seen many companies, organizations and even student unions inspired by this poster by using similar image and changing the text to spread a strong message. 

James Montgomery Flagg
poster for military recruiting, 1917

      Jan Tschichold was the son of a designer and sign painter in Germany. He introduced new design approaches to a wide audience of printers, typesetters, and designers through his book Die Neue Typographie (i.e. The New Typography). He was tired with the "degenerate typefaces and arrangements", so he found a new asymmetrical typography to express the spirit, life, and visual sensibility of the day. His goal was functional design with straightforward means, so, he deliver a message as short and efficient as possible for every typographic work. Below were some examples ofJan Tschichold'swork. 

Cover, "Elementare Typographie"

The New Typography

Paperback book cover, 1950.

This series format evokes designs and prints of Shakespeare's era.

Exhibition poster for Der Berufsphotograph, 1938. 

Using photographic negative.

     Eric Gill was a type designer and calligrapher in England. He embraced historical influences, such as the Trajan capitals, medieval manuscripts, the incunabula, Baskerville, and Caslon. He designed Gill Sans (typeface of England), type family that eventually included 14 styles that based on Johnson's railway type and roman structures. He designed Golden Cockerel, which is a revitalized roman incorporating both old style and transitional qualities. He also designed Perpetua, an antique roman face inspired by the inscription on Trajan's column but subtly reconceived to accommodate the needs of typecasting and printing. He issued types between 1928-1930. He did inscription carving, stonecarving, flush left, rag right typesetting and wrote essay on typography. His work for The Four Gospels used his Golden Cockerel typeface, a revitalized roman demonstrated synthesis of Old Style and Transitional qualities. 

     Paul Renner introduced the very important typeface of Futura in 1927, which was used by Bauhaus designers most of the time. The features of his typeface was sans serif geometric typeface. He believed that every generation should try to solve problems of older generations in their own way to create contemporary forms. His typeface became most widely used geometric sans-serif family. Below is an example of Renner's work in Futura typeface. 

     Rudolph Koch's famous typeface included Neuland and Leichte Kabel. He was the most important German type designer of the A&C Movement. His typeface Neuland was strongly influenced by the Gothic style. Below is an example of his typeface. 

     Stanley Morison designed the Times New Roman. He was the typographic advisor to the British Monotype Corporation, supervised the design of a major twentieth-century typeface that was introduced on October 3, 1932. He is associated with monotype, responsible for redesign of newspaper. Morison was also typographical consultant to The Times newspaper from 1929 to 1960; and in 1931, having publicly criticised the paper for the poor quality of its printing, he was commissioned by the newspaper to produce a new, easy-to-read typeface for the publication and Times New Roman was born. Below example is his work. 

Poster that are inspired by the military posters: