History of Graphic Design

Unite3: part 1

- The Isotype Movement
- ISOTYPE=International System of Typographic Picture Education
- Pictorial language
- Rudolph Modley
- Metaphor for design
- Principles: Optical Interest, Visual simplicity of image and structure, Visual continuity
- The first wave, European transplants.
- Lester Beal-self taught American modernist.
- Art of construction
- Paul Rand
- “Ruthlessly pragmatic and startlingly visionary.”
- “Make the familiar unfamiliar.”
- Alexey Brodovitch
- The International Style
- School of ULM
- Theo Ballmer and Max Bill



The Isotype movement is a pictorial language to help pubic understanding of social issues related to housing, health, and economics after WWI. Designers use simple pictographs to convey information about directions, events, and objects that have complex relationships in space and time. The Isotype movement led to the extensive use of pictographs in signage, identities and information graphics later in 20th century.
Lester Beal is a self taught designer, his posters for rural electrification Administration message in elemental Constructivist forms.

My little thoughts for the movie:
Helvetic is a very common use font, it’s everywhere until it got very boring for some designers. This quote came to my mind when I was watching the movie, “Make familiar “unfamiliar”.” It’s interesting to see how other designers made, transformed the most common font into a new face.