Postmodern Graphic Design

1. Postmodern
Graphic Design
Graphic Design History

2. • By the late 1960s, many believed the modern era was drawing to a close in
art, design, politics, and literature. The social, economic, and environmental
awareness of the period caused many to believe the modern aesthetic was no
longer relevant in an emerging postindustrial society.
• People in many fields, including architects, designers, economists, feminists,
and even theologians have embraced the term postmodernism to express a
climate of cultural change (cultural diversity, equality of women and
minorities)
• In design, the term Postmodern is applied to the work of designers and
architects in the last quarter of the 20th Century who broke with the
international style so prevalent since the Bauhaus.
• Whereas the modernists rejected historical references, decoration, and the
vernacular, postmodern designers drew upon these resources to expand the
range of design possibilities.
• Some believe that since the late 1990’s we are in a Post Postmodern era.

3. Rosmari Tissi
direct mail folder for
Anton Schöb printers
1981

4. Rosmari Tissi
direct mail folder for
Anton Schöb printers
1981
Tendencies toward postmodern graphic
design first emerged from individuals working
within the dictates of the International
Typographic style.
While the main thrust of the Swiss style had
been toward neutral and objective
typography, the younger generation
introduced elements that were playful, full of
surprise, and even disorganized
Rosmarie Tissi (b. 1937) a Swiss designer
creates work with a strong dynamic impact,
playful sense of form, and unexpected
manipulation of space.
Tissi’s direct mail folder for an offset printing
firm achieves typographic vitality by
overlapping and combining letterforms

5. Tadanori Yokoo
Poster for the Play
Koshimaki-Osen
1966

6. Tadanori Yokoo
Poster for Play
Koshimaki-Osen
1966
The work of Tadanori Yokoo (b.1936)
combines Western and Eastern images and
styles.
Combines elements from Dada Art, mass
media, Pop Art, and comic books.
In the 1960s, he used the comic-book
technique of black line drawing as a vessel to
contain flat areas of photomechanical color.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Yokoo’s design
vocabulary and range of art and printing
techniques became increasingly uninhibited.
Yokoo’s shifting values and rejection of
tradition have caused him to gain a cult
reputation.

7. Shigeo Fukuda
“Victory 1945” Poster
1975

8. Shigeo Fukuda
“Victory 1945” Poster
1975
The work of Shigeo Fukuda (1932 - 2009) is
disarmingly simple and readable and often
contains visual puns.
Fukuda became well-known for his
unconventional views of the world.
The New York Times described how Fukuda’s
posters “distilled complex concepts into
compelling images of logo-simplicity”.
This poster was awarded first prize in an
international competition for a poster
commemorating the thirtieth anniversary of the
end of World War II.

9. Wolfgang Weingart
Exhibition poster
1984

10. Wolfgang Weingart
Exhibition poster
1984
• Wolfgang Weingart (b. 1941) questioned the Swiss
typographic style that was of absolute order and
cleanness. He thought the international style had
become so refined and prevalent throughout the
world that it had lost its appeal.
• Weingart pioneered the “new-wave” typography
movement.
• In his poster for the Schweizer Plakat (The Swiss
Poster) exhibition, he uses modulated patterns of
overlapping shapes and color to structure the space.
Switzerland is implied by the shape of the
Matterhorn (mountain in Switzerland)
• In 1972 Weingart traveled to the US and delivered
presentations at eight prominent design schools. His
new design sensibility began to filter into and
American design profession that had grown bored
with the redundancy of sans-serif and grid-based
corporate systems.

11. Christoph Radi and Valentina Grego, Memphis logo designs, 1980s

12. Christoph Radi and
Valentina Grego,
Memphis logo
designs 1980s
• An important inspiration for all areas of design
emerged in 1981 when global attention was
concentrated on an exhibition of the Italian design
group Memphis.
• The group chose the name Memphis to reflect the
inspiration they drew from both contemporary
popular culture and the artifacts and ornaments of
ancient cultures (Memphis is an important city in
Ancient Egypt).
• Function became secondary to surface pattern and
texture, color, and fantastic forms. The Memphis
sensibility embraces exaggerated geometric forms in
bright colors and black & white.
• Christoph Radi headed the Memphis graphic design
section. The Memphis vocabulary of form and
pattern is given typographic expression in this series
of logo designs.

13. William Longhauser, poster for a Michael Graves exhibition, 1983

14. William Longhauser,
poster for a Michael
Graves exhibition, 1983
• William Longhauser (b. 1947) is a Philadelphia
graphic designer influenced by Postmodern
style.
• The poster is for an exhibition of the work by
Michael Graves (b. 1934), a Postmodernist
architect who rebelled against modernist
tradition. Graves combines energetic, high-
spirited geometry of decorative surfaces and
tactile repetitive patterns.
• In the background of the poster, a pattern of
repetitive dots is produced by the letters
M I C H A E L letter-spaced on a grid.

15. Paula Scher
Swatch Watch poster
1985

16. Paula Scher
Swatch Watch poster
1985
• During the 1980s graphic designers gained a
growing understanding and appreciation of
their history. A movement based on historical
revival first emerged in New York and spread
rapidly through the world. Called retro by
some designers, it was based on an interest in
modernist European design from the first half
of the century.
• The New York approach to retro began with a
small number of designers, including Paula
Scher (b. 1948), an outspoken designer with an
ironic sense of humor. Her approach to space,
color, and texture is often personal and
original.
• In 1985, she parodied a famous Herbert
Matter poster from the 1930s for Swatch, the
Swiss watch manufacturer

17. Herbert Matter poster, 1935 Paula Scher poster, 1985

18. Paula Scher, “Great Beginnings” spread for self-promotional
booklet, 1984

19. Paula Scher, “Great Beginnings”
spread for self-promotional
booklet, 1984
• Typographic ideas paraphrasing Russian
constructivism, futurism, and Dada are
freely combined and reinvented with
forms in space packed together with the
weight and vigor of old wood-type
posters
• Scher formed the Koppel and Scher studio
in partnership with Terry Koppel in 1984.
Their “Great Beginnings” booklet
announced their new partnership with
period typographic interpretations of the
first paragraphs of great novels.
• Scher now works for Pentagram, a highly
influential design studio with offices in
New York, London, Berlin, San Francisco,
and Austin (Texas)

20. Neville Brody, editorial pages for The Face, no. 59, March 1985

21. Neville Brody, editorial
pages for The Face, no.
59, March 1985
• Neville Brody (b. 1957) is a British graphic designer
who created album covers for rock music and art-
directed English magazines, including The Face
and Arena
• Brody is inspired by Russian constructivism,
including the work of Rodchenko, and by Dada’s
experimental attitudes and rejection of the ruling
establishment
• Brody’s work evolved from an effort to discover an
intuitive yet logical approach to design, expressing
a personal vision that could have meaning to his
audience.
• Ability to load his layouts with layers of meaning
as seen in this spread of an interview with Andy
Warhol. The repeated images echoes Warhol’s
work, the circle and cross refer to the sexuality in
Warhol’s work and life

22. Neville Brody, album cover design for Parliament,
1985

23. Neville Brody, album
cover design for
Parliament, 1985
• Neville Brody has stated that he never
learned the rules of correct typography,
which left him free to invent working
methods and spatial configurations.
• His typography projects an absolute
emblematic authority that evokes
heraldry and military emblems.

24. April Greiman
Poster for the Los Angeles
Institute of Contemporary Art,
1986

25. April Greiman
Poster for the Los
Angeles Institute of
Contemporary Art, 1986
• While some designers rejected digital
technology during its infancy, many embraced it
as an innovative tool capable of expanding the
scope of the field of graphic design
• Using a computer as a design tool enabled one
to make and correct mistakes. Color, texture,
images, and typography could be stretched,
bent, made transparent, layered, and combined
in unprecedented ways.
• April Greiman (b. 1948), a Los Angeles designer,
embraced the new technology and explored its
creative potential.
• In her first graphic design using a Macintosh,
bitmapped type and computer-generated
textures were photostatted to a large size and
pasted up through conventional typesetting

26. Rudy VanderLans
Cover for Emigre, no. 11
1989

27. Rudy VanderLans
Cover for Emigre, no. 11
1989
• In 1984, Rudy VanderLans (b. 1955) Dutch-
born designer living in San Francisco, began
to edit, design, and publish Emigre magazine
• The journal’s name was selected because its
founders believed that exposure to various
cultures, as well as living in different cultural
environments, has had a significant impact
on creative work
• Emigre’s experimental approach helped
define and demonstrate the capabilities of
digital technology, both in editorial design
and by presenting work that was often too
experimental for other design publications
• In this 1989 issue, three levels of visual
information are layered in dimensional
space, made possible by using the computer

28. Zuzana Licko, from Hypnopaedia type specimen booklet, 1997

29. Zuzana Licko, from
Hypnopaedia type
specimen booklet,
1997
• In 1987, Zuzana Licko formed a partnership,
Emigre Graphics, with Rudy VanderLans
• Zuzana Licko (b. 1961), is a Czech-born designer
living in San Francisco whose educational
background included computer-programming
courses
• Dissastisfied with the limited fonts available for
early Macintosh, Licko created her own digital
typefaces.
• In 1997, Licko created Hypnopaedia, a free
downloadable PDF booklet that contains 140
illustrations made from type. Each Hypnopaedia
illustration was created by concentric rotation of a
single letterform from the Emigre Fonts library.
When repeated, each Hypnopaedia illustration
creates a unique pattern of interlocking letter
shapes.

30. Tibor Kalman, Colors Magazine, 1990

31. Tibor Kalman, Colors
Magazine, 1990
• Tibor Kalman (1949 – 1999) was an American
graphic designer born in Hungary with
innovative ideas about design and society
• Tibor Kalman founded M&Co, a highly
influential New York-based design firm whose
influence is still strong today as a result of its
work and the designers who worked there and
went on to start their own design firms
• In 1990, Kalman moved to Rome and became
founding editor-in-chief of the Benetton-
sponsored Colors magazine. Billed as ‘a
magazine about the rest of the world’, Colors
focused on multiculturalism and global
awareness. The perspective was
communicated through bold graphic design,
typography, and juxtaposition of photographs
and doctored images.

32. Tibor Kalman (Director), Talking Heads music video
for Nothing But Flowers, 1988

33. Tibor Kalman
(Director), Talking
Heads music video
for Nothing But
Flowers, 1988
• In 1988, Tibor Kalman directed a successful music
video for Talking Heads with innovative uses of
typography.
• Kalman had also designed Talking Heads’ iconic
album cover, Remain in Light.
• Talking Heads (1975 – 1991) was a new wave band
that combined elements of punk rock, art rock,
avant-garde, pop, funk, world music, and
Americana.
• The lyrics describe a world where modern
progress has been reverted to a more natural
state, due either to a political movement or by a
necessity, such as dealing with overpopulation.
While the protagonist may have once been in favor
of the transformation, he finds himself now
missing the conveniences and culture of the
modern world

34. David Carson (art director) and Chris Cuffaro (photographer),
“Morrisey: The Loneliest Monk”, Ray Gun, 1994

35. David Carson (art
director), “Morrisey:
The Loneliest Monk”
Ray Gun, 1994
• American David Carson (b. 1956), a former professional
surfer and schoolteacher, turned to cutting-edge
editorial design in the 1980s and 1990s.
• Art director for Ray Gun, Transworld Skateboarding,
Musician, Beach Culture, Surfer magazines
• Carson rejected grid formats, information hierarchy, and
consistent layout or typographic patterns, instead he
chose to explore the expressive possibilities of each
subject, and each page or spread. His work is considered
to be deconstructivist.
• Carson’s text type often challenged the notion of
readability as he played with justification of type, letter-
spacing, contrast of type and image, etc.
• Carson’s work was quite controversial in the 1990s.
While he served as inspiration for many young designers,
he angered many others who believed he was crossing
the line between order and chaos.

36. Stefan Sagmeister
Lou Reed Poster
1996

37. Stefan Sagmeister
Lou Reed Poster
1996
• Born in Austria, Stefan Sagmeister (b. 1962)
founded Sagmeister, Inc. in New York in
1993. He is known for his rock n roll
collaborations and typography. He has
designed graphics and packaging for the
Rolling Stones, David Byrne, Lou Reed, and
Aerosmith, among other clients.
• Sagmeister’s graphic design is consistently
characterized by an uncompromising and
harsh directness. On a poster for a Lou Reed
album, lyrics from one of Reed’s songs are
handwritten across his face like graffiti.

38. Stefan Sagmeister, Opening for The Happy Film (co-directed by Sagmeister),
2013

39. Stefan Sagmeister, Still from
the opening titles of The
Happy Film (co-directed by
Sagmeister), 2010
• While spending time in an artist’s residency in
Bali, Indonesia, Stefan Sagmeister had the
idea to create a documentary about
happiness.
• Stefan Sagmeister is co-directing the film with
designer / filmmaker Hillman Curtis. He is also
the main subject of the documentary.
• The funds to create the documentary were
raised on Kickstarter, a website for raising
funds for creative projects. The opening titles
were created in Bali with pigs, monkeys, tree
climbers, and a duck.
• The Happy Film will follow Sagmeister as he
"undergoes a series of self-experiments
outlined by popular psychology to test once
and for all if it’s possible for a person to have
a meaningful impact on their own
happiness."

40. Chip Kidd
Book jacket for Naked
(outside)
1997

41. Chip Kidd
Book cover for Naked
(inside)
1997
• The designs of Chip Kidd (b. 1964) for Alfred A.
Knopf publishers have helped create a
revolution in book jacket design.
• Kidd frequently uses vintage images such as
old prints and family albums found in flea
markets and junk shops.
• His visual cues require the viewer to
“excavate” the message.
• He has said, “I never really know if the readers
get the subtle visual puns of my jackets, but I
can’t let that inform my design to the point
where I will compromise.”
• When the jacket for the book cover design for
Naked by David Sedaris is removed, the reader
gets a surprise.

42. Chip Kidd, outer book jacket for
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami,
2011

43. Chip Kidd, inner book
cover for 1Q84 by
Haruki Murakami,
2011
• Chip Kidd has designed all the hardcover editions of
Haruki Murakami’s books. Murakami is an award-
winning contemporary postmodern Japanese writer
whose books have been translated into 50 languages.
His writing is is frequently surrealistic and
melancholic.
• The plot of 1Q84 follows two seemingly unconnected
stories that eventually weave together. The first
involves a woman named Aomame, who descends a
service staircase off a busy elevated highway in Tokyo
and enters an alternate reality.
• She refers to this new dimension in her mind as 1Q84
(the book takes place in 1984 and in Japanese ‘Q’
sounds just like ’9ʹ), with the Q standing for “Question
Mark. A world that bears a question.”
• Kidd’s book jacket design has two layers to suggest
the two realities of the main character of the book.

44. Michael Bierut (b. 1957), poster for
the Seduction Symposium, 2007

45. Michael Bierut, poster
for the Seduction
Symposium 2007
• Michael Bierut (b. 1957), is a highly influential
American graphic designer, design critic, and
educator.
• He worked for Vignelli Associates and is
influenced by Massimo Vignelli’s work. He has
been a partner of Pentagram’s New York office
since 1990.
• The Seduction Symposium poster designed by
Michael Bierut for the Yale School of Architecture
includes typography created by Marian Bantjes
inspired by the curves in Rococo art (18th
Century French style)

46. Pentagram (Michael Bierut), new identity for Saks Fifth Avenue, 2007

47. Pentagram (Michael Bierut), new identity for Saks Fifth Avenue, 2007

48. Pentagram (Michael Bierut),
new identity for Saks Fifth
Avenue, 2007
• Saks Fifth Avenue, the New York-based luxury
department store, hired Bierut to design a new
identity for their stores, seeking a strong graphic
program that would encompass signage,
advertising, direct mail, online and, most
importantly, packaging.
• The store had no signature color (like Tiffany’s)
or signature pattern (like Burberry’s) and had
used dozens of logos since its founding.
• Bierut brought back the 1973 cursive logo
designed by his former boss, Massimo Vignelli.
• He used a grid system over the logo and
subdivided it into 64 squares which were
rearranged for the new black and white pattern
that is applied to shopping bags, and
environmental graphics.

49. 1995

51. Hatch Show Print
Concert poster for Wilco
2008

52. Hatch Show Print
Concert poster for Wilco
2008
• Hatch Show Print, founded in Nashville,
Tennessee in 1879 by Charles and Herbert
Hatch, is one of the oldest continuously
running letterpress shops in the US.
• For well over 100 years, they have designed
posters and handbill advertising for
entertainment of all forms, including traveling
circuses, sporting events, state fairs, comedy
troupes, movies, musicians, and concerts.
• Their association with Nashville’s country
music scene has allowed them to work with
musicians such as Elvis Presley, Dolly Parton,
and Hank Williams. They have also worked
with many rock musicians and bands, including
Radio Head, R.E.M, Bob Dylan, Wilco

53. Imaginary Forces (Karin Fong), Herman Miller “Get Real” promotion film, 2003

54. Imaginary Forces (Karin
Fong), Herman Miller “Get
Real” promotion film, 2003
• Imaginary Forces was launched in 1996 and
rapidly became a leading designer of film-
titles by integrating graphic design, motion,
and interactive media
• Inspired by concrete poetry (poetry in which
the typographical arrangement of words is
important in conveying the intended effect),
Dada, and surrealism, the designers at
Imaginary Forces are constantly
experimenting with letterforms and finding
inventive ways of transforming moving type
into image
• Karin Fong has designed and directed
motion graphics for advertising,
entertainment, art, and installation,
including this promotional film for Herman
Miller, the classic modern furniture company
who tells viewers to “Get real”

55. Imaginary Forces (Mark
Gardner and Steve Fuller)
Mad Men title sequence
2007

56. Imaginary Forces (Mark
Gardner and Steve Fuller)
Mad Men title sequence
2007
• In 2007, Imaginary Forces produced this title
sequence for Mad Men.
• Mad Men is a period drama TV series set in
the 1960s. The plot focuses on the business
of advertising agencies at the time as well as
the personal lives of the characters, regularly
depicting the changing moods and social
more in 1960s America.
• Since its premiere, Mad Men has received
widespread critical acclaim, particularly for
its historical authenticity, visual style,
costume design, acting, writing, and
directing, and has won many awards,
including fifteen Emmys and Golden Globe
awards. The title sequence received an
Emmy in 2008.

57. Kenya Hara, MUJI “Horizon” Campaign, 2003

58. Kenya Hara, MUJI
“Horizon” Campaign,
2003
• Kenya Hara (b. 1958) is a Japanese graphic designer
who designs objects and creates experiences deeply
rooted in Japanese culture and the Japanese concept
of “emptiness”.
• Hara has been the art director of MUJI since 2001.
Muji is distinguished by its design minimalism,
emphasis on recycling, avoidance of waste in
production and packaging, and no-logo or “no-brand”
policy.
• MUJI’s vision is based on thinking of their simple
products not as having no design, but as ultimate
design, in which perfection is constantly enhanced.
“In 2003, we came up with an image that would act as
a vessel to receive the many concepts that individuals
had formed about MUJI. It's an empty vessel to catch
that outpouring of imagination, on a large scale”.

59. Render Monkey, website for Color Chart exhibition at Museum of Modern Art,
New York, 2006

60. Render Monkey, website for
Color Chart exhibition at
Museum of Modern Art,
New York, 2006
• Interactive design firm, Render Monkey, was
founded in 2006 by Amelle Stein and Sastry
Appajosyula.
• Their work combines creative interface
design with inventive programming,
providing fluid navigation through complex
layers of information
• Render Monkey’s design for the exhibition
Color Chart at MOMA allows users to
interact with various interfaces for a
customized approach to accessing dynamic
content.
• The exhibition featured the work of forty-
four artists who work with readymade
sources of color, filterable by artist, medium
and chronology.

61. “Boundless Beauty” digital
edition of Martha Steward
Living magazine, November
2010

62. “Boundless Beauty” digital
edition of Martha Steward
Living magazine, November
2010
• When the iPad was first released in 2010,
Martha Stewart’s lifestyle magazine,
Living, was one of the first to use the new
technology as a new format for their
magazine, in addition to the print version.
• The cover animates the blooming of a
peony flower over a ten-hour period,
using 180 still photographs. The inside
spread is a glossary of the different types
of peonies, additional information appears
for each when tapped.
• The launch of the digital magazine marked
a change in how editorial design can be
approached: interactivity increases reader
engagement and creates a new kind of
visual experience.