The Modern Movement in America

During this period many European artists fled to America to escape the Nazis and in that process, Americans were first introduced to the Modern Movement in 1913 during the Armoury show. People were already accustomed to familiar and existing movements which they considered their conventional style; therefore it was rejected, causing a riot of turmoil and demur.

Eventually in the 1930s, this movement began to flourish while the American Graphic Design’s dominant position began to diminish, welcoming the modern European style.

It is during this period in which Jan Tschihold’s ‘Elementare Typographie’ was promoted in America.

His ideas were rejected but a portion of American Designers such as William Addison Dwiggins, supported his approach and evolved from their classical tradition to the new typography.

Dwiggins is notably credited for boosting the significance and improvement of book format to the public. He also formulated the word‘graphic designer’ to explain and convey his line of work such as illustration and book design to others.

When he was involved in advertising, his designs consisted of odd page arrangements, patterned decorations and synthesis of traditional and cubist art.

European Artists who had immigrated to America and played a role in influencing this Modern Movement were:

George Salter, a Jewish man who had a profound understanding to literary expression was able to translate and reflect the book’s essence onto his cover designs.

His designs in my opinion were truly the mark of literacy in the twentieth century. Looking at them, they seem to be an ordinary cover design that I have seen countless times on every book cover, but during that period they were just introduced, therefore innovative. This only emphasizes his impact on Modern design and how his ideas still withstand. His style was described as the ultimate mixture of watercolour, photomontage and calligraphy.

Alexey Brodovitch was not only significant just for being an art director for the notorious Harper’s Bazaar Magazine but because his teachings also still live on and are being practiced by his descendants. He delivers innovative, refreshing and a sense of relevance in his designs by encouraging the growth of photography into his magazines.

He was intrigued by white space and its simplicity and used it to manipulate perspective with images and type. He was also known for using images from films and incorporating them into his designs creating a cinematic effect.

He liked the idea of contrast therefore made use of sharp and clear type onto his white spaces and also created a new approach to cropping. He sought for movement in his work, a ‘musical feeling’.

Alexey Brodovitch’s early counterpart was Dr.Mehemed Fehmy Agha who worked at Vogue, the arch rival of Bazaar.

He introduced bleed photography, the use of san serif type, constructivist compositions, and abolishing italic type and the sequence of single pages but introducing a double page spread. He had a deep understanding of photography and kindled an exciting and vigorous approach. I personally like his designs but when compared to Harpers Bazaar, it came second place.