Week 6 The Modern Movement in America - A History of Graphic ...

A HISTORY OF
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Chapter 17 – The Modern Movement in America
SUMMARY
America was introduced to modernism at the 1913 Armory
Show, but it was met by public protest and initially
rejected. The same reaction awaited Jan Tschichold’s
“elementare typographie” insert. However, a small number
of American typographers and designers, such as
William Addison Dwiggins, S. A. Jacobs, Merle Armitage,
and Lester Beall, recognized the value of the new ideas,
and modernism slowly gained ground in book design,
editorial design for fashion and business magazines
catering to affluent audiences, and promotional and
corporate graphics. By the 1930s, modernist European
design had become a significant influence in America.
Dwiggins began designing books for Alfred A. Knopf in
1926 and established Knopf’s reputation for excellence
in book design. His stenciled ornaments, such as in The
Power of Print and Men, combined the sensibility of
cubist collage with the grace of traditional ornament.
Dwiggins also designed eighteen typefaces for Mergenthaler
Linotype, including Caledonia, Electra, and Metro,
Linotype’s geometric sans-serif created to compete with
Futura and Kabel. Beall understood Tschichold’s new
typography and Dada’s random organization, intuitive
placement of elements, and use of chance in the creative
process. He experimented with planes of flat color,
photomontage, and overprinting. Beall’s posters for the
Rural Electrification Administration, a federal agency
responsible for bringing electricity to the less populated
areas of America, combined photography, graphic signs,
and typography into concise, pro-electrification messages.
During the 1950s and 1960s, Beall became increasingly
involved in the corporate design movement.
An important phase in the development of American
graphic design resulted from the migration of many
European cultural leaders who fled the rise of Nazism
in Europe. Four Russian-born immigrants who brought
European modernism to American graphic design were
Erté (born Romain de Tirtoff), Dr. Mehemed Fehmy Agha,
Alexey Brodovitch, and Alexander Liberman. Their work
focused on editorial design for fashion magazines. Erté,
a major proponent of art deco, designed covers and
fashion illustration for Harper’s Bazaar magazine. His
work combined the stylized drawing of synthetic cubism,
exotic decorativeness, and the elegance of high fashion.
Agha was the first art director trained in modern
design to guide the graphic destiny of a major American
periodical. As art director of Vogue and later Vanity Fair
and House & Garden, he introduced bleed photography,
machine-set sans-serif type, white space, and asymmetrical
layouts. Brodovitch was the art director of Harper’s
Bazaar from 1934 until 1958, where he rethought the approach
to editorial design. He paid close attention to the
flow of text and image through the editorial pages and
had an affinity for white space, sharp type on clear open
pages, and used contrast as a dominant design tool. He
commissioned art and photography from major European
artists such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, A. M. Cassandre,
Salvador Dali, Man Ray, and Martin Munkacsi and taught
designers how to use photography as a design element
through cropping, enlargement, and the juxtaposition
of images. Liberman succeeded Agha as art director for
Vogue and was later appointed editorial director of all
Condé Nast publications. Joseph Binder also came to the
United States, where his strong cubist approach from his
Vienna period yielded to a stylized realism.
When the Bauhaus closed in 1933, faculty, students, and
alumni dispersed throughout the world, making modern
design a truly international movement. Gropius, Ludwig
Mies van der Rohe, and Marcel Breuer brought functionalist
architecture to America while Herbert Bayer and
László Moholy-Nagy brought innovative approaches to
graphic design. Moholy-Nagy opened the New Bauhaus
in Chicago and when it failed, he opened the School of
Design. Other European designers who came to America
were Jean Carlu, George Giusti, Herbert Matter, Ladislav
Sutnar, and Will Burtin, who made a major contribution
to the visual interpretation of graphic information as a
design consultant to Upjohn and other companies.
In 1935, as part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s
New Deal, the federal government created the Works
Progress Administration (WPA), which provided job
opportunities for the unemployed. The WPA Federal Art
Project enabled actors, musicians, visual artists, and
writers to continue their professional careers. A poster
project was included, and thousands of posters were
designed and silk-screen printed for government-sponsored
cultural events, including theatrical performances
and art exhibitions, and public-service communications
about health, crime prevention, housing, and education.

A HISTORY OF
GRAPHIC DESIGN
The flat color characteristic of silk-screen combined with
influences from the Bauhaus, pictorial modernism, and
constructivism to produce a modernist result that contrasted
with the traditional illustration style that dominated
American graphic communication during this time.
A major figure in the development of American modern
design was the Chicago industrialist Walter P. Paepcke,
who founded the Container Corporation of America
(CCA). Paepcke recognized that design could both serve
a pragmatic business purpose and become a major
cultural thrust on the part of the corporation. He was
also a patron of design and provided moral and financial
support for the Institute of Design started by Moholy-
Nagy. CCA established a department of design, and
Egbert Jacobson was selected as its first director. Like
Peter Behrens, who developed an identity system for
Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG) earlier in the
century, Jacobson developed an identity system for CCA.
Cassandre was commissioned by art director Charles
Coiner of the N. W. Ayer advertising agency to create an
ad campaign for CCA. The innovative campaign departed
from the conventional headline and long-winded body
copy of most 1930s advertising and featured a dominant
visual supported by a simple statement. When Cassandre
returned to Paris, CAA continued his approach and
commissioned advertisements from other artists and designers
of international stature, including Bayer, Fernand
Leger, Ray, Matter, and Carlu.
America’s wartime graphics, commissioned by the
U.S. Office of War Information, ranged from posters to
informational training materials to amateurish cartoons.
In 1941, when America’s entry into the global conflict
seemed inevitable, the federal government began to
develop propaganda posters to promote production,
such as Carlu’s famous “America’s Answer! Production”
poster. Illustrator John Atherton, social realist Ben
Shahn, Binder, Edward McKnight Kauffer, and Bayer
were among the other designers commissioned by the
Office of War Information to create posters in support of
the war effort. Bayer, Carlu, and Matter joined Jacobson
in developing an ad campaign for CCA, which continued
the experimentation of the earlier institutional ads.
Strong visuals were used in these ads, with two or three
lines of typography placed diagonally in counterpoint to
compositional lines in the illustration or montage. This
campaign promoted paperboard packaging, which freed
metals and other materials needed for the war effort.
After World War II, the United States converted industry
from wartime needs to consumer markets. CAA created
several noteworthy ad campaigns: the State series and
the Great Ideas campaign. In the State series, artists
were commissioned to create paintings for each of the
then forty-eight states. This series advanced a Bauhaus
idea: the union of art and life. The Great Ideas campaign,
which ran over three decades, presented the great ideas
of Western culture, including themes about liberty, justice,
and human rights. In magazine design, Brodovitch
remained the preeminent editorial designer. He also
had a gift for identifying and assisting new talent, such
as photographers Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, and Art
Kane. Matter’s work for Knoll Associates furniture design
and manufacturing firm included a memorable advertising
series for Saarinen furniture in which he conveyed
concepts with strong photographic images and dynamic
compositions. Binder remained a force on the American
design scene until the 1960s.
Information graphics was advanced by Sutnar’s design
of industrial product information, particularly for
Sweet’s Catalog Service. He worked closely with Sweet’s
research director to develop a system for structuring information
in a logical and consistent manner. They documented
and explained their approach in two landmark
books, Catalog Design and Catalog Design Progress. In
1953, CAA published the World Geo-Graphic Atlas, which
was designed and edited by Bayer over a five-year period.
This publication was an important milestone in the
visual presentation of data.

A HISTORY OF
GRAPHIC DESIGN
KEY TERMS (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE; THE FIRST PAGE NUMBER OF THEIR APPEARANCE IS LISTED)
Armory Show, page 351, the 1913 art show in New York City that exposed Americans to modern art for the first time. It
generated a storm of protest and provoked public rejection of modern art and design.
Rural Electrification Administration, page 351, a federal agency charged with bringing electricity to the less populated
areas of America, which effectively reduced pro-electrification messages to elemental signs in posters by Lester Beall
(Figs. 17-7 and 17-8).
Works Progress Administration (WPA), page 357, Direct relief for the unemployed was replaced by work opportunities,
and billions of dollars were infused into the economy as an average of more than two million workers were paid from
fifteen to ninety dollars per month from 1935 until 1941. Launched in the fall of 1935, the WPA Federal Art Project enabled
actors, musicians, visual artists, and writers to continue their professional careers. A poster project was included
among the various cultural programs. Sculptors and painters joined unemployed illustrators and graphic designers in
the studios. As many designs were by artists, it is not surprising that the project took a strong aesthetic approach to
typography, which was used as both a compositional element and a message communicator (Figs. 17-24 and 17-25).
Federal Art Project, page 357, From 1935 until 1939, when the Federal Art Project was abolished, over two million
copies of approximately thirty-five thousand poster designs were produced. Most of the designs were silk-screened.
Silk-screen printing’s characteristic flat color combined with influences from the Bauhaus, pictorial modernism, and
constructivism to produce a modernist result that contrasted with the traditional illustration dominating much of American
mass-media graphics of the era. Government-sponsored cultural events, including theatrical performances and art
exhibitions, were frequent subjects for the poster project, as were public-service communications about health, crime
prevention, housing, and education.
Container Corporation of America (CCA), page 357, The nation’s largest producer of packaging materials in the 1930s, led
by industrialist Walter P. Paepcke. He was unique among the large industrialists of his generation, for he recognized that
design could both serve a pragmatic business purpose and also make a major cultural mark on behalf of the corporation.
His interests were inspired by his wife, artist Elizabeth Nitze Paepcke (1902–1994), who prompted her husband to
hire perhaps the first corporate design director in America: in 1936, Egbert Jacobson was selected as the first director
of CCA’s new department of design. CCA’s new visual signature (and its implementation) was based on two ingredients:
the vision of the designer and a supportive client. Jacobson had an extensive background as a color expert, and this
knowledge was put to use as mill and factory interiors were transformed with bright colors from traditional drab industrial
grays and browns. A new trademark was applied to stationery, checks (Fig. 17-28), invoices, vehicles, and signage.
A consistent format used sans-serif type and a standard color combination of black and shipping-carton tan.
KEY PEOPLE AND THEIR MAJOR CONTRIBUTIONS (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE; THE FIRST PAGE NUMBER OF THEIR
APPEARANCE IS LISTED)
William Addison Dwiggins (1880–1956), page 350, After two decades in advertising design, Dwiggins began designing
books for Alfred A. Knopf in 1926. He established Knopf’s reputation for excellence in book design, experimenting with
uncommon title page arrangements and two-column book formats. His stenciled ornaments (Fig. 17-2) combined the
sensibility of the cubist collage with the grace of traditional ornament. His eighteen typeface designs for Mergenthaler
Linotype include Caledonia (1938), a graceful text face; Electra (1935), a modern design with reduced thick-to-thin contrast;
and Metro (1929), Linotype’s geometric sans serif designed to compete with Futura and Kabel.
S. A. Jacobs, page 350, modernist-era American book designer who infused Constructivism into American book design
(Fig. 17-3).
Merle Armitage (1893–1975), page 350, as with Jacobs, modernist-era American book designer whose typographic expressions
ranged from Renaissance-inspired designs to books for avant-garde music and dance that helped define the
modernist design aesthetic in America (Fig. 17-4).

A HISTORY OF
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Lester Beall (1903–69), page 350, primarily self-taught, his extensive reading and curious intellect formed the basis for
his professional development. In the challenging social and economic environment of the Depression era, he attempted
to develop strong, direct, and exciting visual forms. Beall understood Tschichold’s new typography and the Dada movement’s
random organization, intuitive placement of elements, and use of chance in the creative process (Fig. 17-5). Often,
flat planes of color and elementary signs such as arrows were combined with photography, as Beall sought visual
contrast and a high level of information content (Figs. 17-6 through 17-8).
Georg Salter (1897-1967), page 353, barred from freelance employment in Germany because of his Jewish heritage,
immigrated to New York in 1934. From 1922 until 1933 he had produced more than 350 book designs for 33 different
publishers. Over two-thirds of Salter’s commissions were book jackets, which became his trademark. His sensitivity to
literary expression made him the ideal artist to capture a book’s content on its cover; his designs were signature pieces
for some of the important works of the twentieth century. A quintessential hybrid modernist, his versatility drew on calligraphy,
photomontage, airbrush, watercolor, and pen-and-ink drawings (Figs. 17-9 through 17-11).
Erté (Romain de Tirtoff) (1892–1990), page 353, a Russian admiral’s son, born in St. Petersburg. After becoming a prominent
Paris illustrator and set designer working in the art deco manner, he was signed to an exclusive contract from
1924 until 1937 to design covers and fashion illustrations for Harper’s Bazaar magazine (Fig. 17-12). Renowned for his
fashion designs, set designs, illustrations, and graphics, Erté became a major proponent of the art deco sensibility. His
work combined the stylized drawing of synthetic cubism, an exotic decorativeness, and the elegance of high fashion.
Dr. Mehemed Fehmy Agha (1896–1978), page 353, born in Ukraine to Turkish parents, he was the first art director trained
in modern design to guide the graphic destiny of a major American periodical: Condé Nast’s Vogue beginning in 1928,
and Vanity Fair and House & Garden soon after. Energetic and uncompromising, he overhauled Condé Nast’s stuffy,
dated approach to editorial design by introducing bleed photography; machine-set, sans-serif type; white space; and
asymmetrical layouts.
Alexey Brodovitch (1898–1971), page 353, the art director of Harper’s Bazaar from 1934 until 1958. With an affinity for
white space and sharp type on clear, open pages, he rethought the approach to editorial. He sought “a musical feeling”
in the flow of text and pictures. The rhythmic environment of open space balancing text was energized by the art and
photography he commissioned from major European artists, including Henri Cartier-Bresson, A. M. Cassandre (Fig. 17-
14), Salvador Dali (Fig. 17-15), Man Ray (Fig. 17-13), and the Hungarian Martin Munkacsi (1896-1963) (Fig. 17-16). In addition,
Brodovitch taught designers how to use photography. His cropping, enlargement, and juxtaposition of images,
and his exquisite selection from contact sheets were all accomplished with extraordinary intuitive judgment (Figs. 17-17
through 17-19). He saw contrast as a dominant tool in editorial design and paid close attention to the graphic movement
through the editorial pages of each issue.
Alexander Liberman (1912–1999), page 353, initially a layout designer for Vogue, he succeeded Agha as the magazine’s
art director in 1943. Using photographers such as Irving Penn, Cecil Beaton, and Lee Miller, he enlivened Vogue with
current images. He was appointed editorial director of all Condé Nast publications in 1961, and remained in that position
until his retirement thirty years later (Fig. 17-21).
Martin Munkacsi (1896–1963), page 355, a staff photographer at Harper’s Bazaar. He slapped long-held conventions of
editorial photography in the face with his new compositions (Fig. 17-16). Munkacsi was one of a new breed of editorial
and advertising photographers who combined the visual dynamic learned from László Moholy-Nagy and Man Ray with
the fresh approach to photography made possible by the new 35-millimeter Leica “miniature” camera.
Joseph Binder (1898–1972), page 355, using an airbrush to achieve highly finished forms, his strong cubist beginnings
eventually yielded to a stylized realism. The subject matter became dominant, and design qualities were subordinated
to pictorial imagery. With his powerful shapes and well-defined subjects, Binder remained a force on the American
design scene until the 1960s. His ubiquitous military recruiting posters (Fig. 17-51) were among the last manifestations
of pictorial modernism and became ingrained in the American consciousness during the 1950s. The geometric and
symbolic shapes of pictorial modernism were converted into monolithic masses symbolizing military might and the
technological accomplishments of a new era of sophisticated weaponry.
Herbert Bayer (1900–1985), page 357 (see also Chapter 16): The posters Bayer produced during and after the war were

A HISTORY OF
GRAPHIC DESIGN
surprisingly illustrative compared to his constructivist approach during the Dessau Bauhaus period. Sensitive to his
new audience and oriented toward communications problem solving, Bayer painted illustrations with a simplified realism,
then combined these with the hierarchy of information and strong underlying composition he pioneered at Dessau.
Will Burtin (1908–1972), page 357, recognized as one of Germany’s outstanding designers, he fled Germany in 1938 after
refusing to work for the Nazi regime. His work combined a graphic clarity and directness with a lucid presentation of the
subject matter. Burtin’s keen understanding of science is reflected in designs for the Upjohn pharmaceutical company,
interpreting such complex subjects as bacteriology (Fig. 17-27). In 1943, Burtin left Upjohn to work on government training
manuals, followed by three years as art director of Fortune magazine. In 1948, he became a design consultant for
Upjohn and other companies, making a major contribution to the visual interpretation of graphic information.
Jean Carlu (1900–1997), page 357, a European design innovator who brought his skills to America, he was commissioned
by the U. S. Office of War Information to create one of the finest designs of his career, the famous “America’s
answer! Production” poster (Fig. 17-30). Over 100,000 copies were distributed throughout the country, and Carlu was
recognized with a top award by the New York Art Director’s Club Exhibition.
George Giusti (1908–1990), page 357, born to Italian and Swiss parents, Giusti worked in both Italy and Switzerland
before coming to New York City in 1938 and opening a design office. He possessed a unique ability to reduce forms and
images to a simplified, minimal essence. His images become iconographic and symbolic. Giusti’s freely drawn images
included evidence of process in his work; an image painted in transparent dyes has areas of flooded and blotted color,
and his three-dimensional illustrations often include the bolts or other fasteners used to assemble the elements.
Herbert Matter (1907–1984), page 357, European graphic designer who came to America and made significant contributions
to design in work for the Container Corporation of America (CCA), magazines including Vogue, Fortune, and
Harper’s Bazaar, and for twenty years as a graphic-design and photography consultant to the Knoll Associates furniture
design and manufacturing firm.
Ladislav Sutnar (1897–1976), page 357, came to New York as design director of the Czechoslovakian Pavilion at the New
York World’s Fair in 1939, the year Hitler seized his country. Sutnar remained in New York and became a vital force in
the evolution of modern design in the United States. He placed an indelible mark on the design of industrial product
information while working for Sweet’s Catalog Service, developing a system for structuring information in a logical and
consistent manner. In two landmark books, Catalog Design and Catalog Design Progress (Figs. 17-54 through 17-56), he
documented and explained his approach to a generation of designers, writers, and clients. Informational design was
defined as a synthesis of function, flow, and form.
Walter P. Paepcke (1896–1960), page 357, a major figure in the development of American modern design beginning
in the 1930s, he founded the Container Corporation of America (CCA) in 1926. Paepcke pioneered the manufacture of
paperboard and corrugated-fiber containers. Paepcke was unique among the large industrialists of his generation, for
he recognized that design could both serve a pragmatic business purpose and become a major cultural thrust on the
part of the corporation. Paepcke was an advocate and patron of design. He had maintained a long-standing interest in
the Bauhaus, perhaps as a response to the school’s experiments with paper materials and structures. Moved by László
Moholy-Nagy’s commitment and determination, Paepcke provided much-needed moral and financial support to the
Institute of Design.
Elizabeth Nitze Paepcke (1902–94), page 358, artist and wife of Walter Paepke, she was the inspiration for his use and
support of design. She prompted her husband to hire perhaps the first corporate design director in America.
Egbert Jacobson (1890–1966), page 358, the first director of the new department of design at the Container Corporation
of America (CCA). Jacobson had an extensive background as a color expert, and this knowledge was put to use
as mill and factory interiors were transformed with bright colors from traditional drab industrial grays and browns. A
consistent format used sans-serif type and a standard color combination of black and shipping-carton tan for corporate
graphics.
Charles Coiner (1898–1989), page 359, the art director for N. W. Ayer, CCA’s advertising agency and later, art consultant
for the U.S. Office of War Information.

A HISTORY OF
GRAPHIC DESIGN
John Atherton (1900–1952), page 359, an illustrator who was the creator of numerous Saturday Evening Post covers,
he penetrated to the heart of the problem of careless talk, gossip, and discussion of troop movements as a source of
enemy information (Fig. 17-31).
Ben Shahn (1898–1969), page 361, the social realist whose paintings addressed political and economic injustice during
the Depression; he reached a larger audience, however, in posters conveying Nazi brutality (Fig. 17-34). Shahn achieved
communicative power with intense graphic forms: the implication of a prison by closing the space with a wall; the hood
masking the victim’s identity; the simple, straightforward headline; and the factual urgency of a telegram.
Art Kane (1925–1995), page 363, a Brodovitch protégé who worked as a photo retoucher and the art director at Seventeen
magazine before turning to photography. He was a master of symbolism, multiple exposure, and the reduction of
photography to the essential images needed to convey the essence of content with compelling conviction.