The Role of Graphic Design in

the Iranian Architectural

Conceptions

The interior of dome of the mosque of Sehikh

Lotfollah
Graphic design plays a central role in the
numerous architectural conceptions of Iranian
buildings. In General, architecture itself is
considered a visual art like painting and
sculpture. By engaging their stunning creative
power Iranian architects of various era have
designed edifices in which a wide verity of art
vehicles are employed to create unified and
pleasing artistic statements. This is particularly
evident in the Safavid era buildings of Isfahan.
The intricate abstract design of mosaics
combined with effusive use of colors is the first
striking feature of these buildings. The above
picture shows the inside design of the dome of
the mosque of Sehikh Lotfollah the first mosque
built by Shah Abbas I, in the Naqsh-i Jahan,
square, in 1542. which encompasses a number
of striking edifices.

The dome of the mosque of Sehikh Lotfollah

The renowned British travel writer describes the

graphic design of the mosque in this way:
The dome is inset with a network of lemon-
shaped compartments, which decrease in size
as they ascend towards the formalized peacock
at the apex... The mihrāb in the west wall is
enameled with tiny flowers on a deep blue
meadow. Each part of the design, each plane,
each repetition, each separate branch or
blossom has its own sombre beauty. But the
beauty of the whole comes as you move. Again,
the highlights are broken by the play of glazed
and unglazed surfaces; so that with every step
they rearrange themselves in countless shining
patterns... I have never encountered splendid of
this kind before.

The 12th century Jameh Mosque of Yazd,

which was first built under Ala'oddoleh
Garshasb of the Al-e Bouyeh dynasty, was
largely rebuilt between 1324 and 1365. The
decorative pattern of its mosaic work and the
use of calligraphy reveals an early aesthetic
attempt in harmonizing various graphic design
dimensions.

As Kim Sexton of the Department of

Architecture at the University of Arkansas in an
article entitled Isfahan – Half the World writes:
Unprecedented use of color dominates the
decoration of the entrance gateways, domes,
minarets, and some interior spaces of both the
Shah Mosque and the Mosque of Sheikh
Lutfallah. The use of polychromatic tile as
surface ornament was known in other periods of
Iranian history, but it was the Safavids who
established colorism as the most salient
characteristic of Iranian architecture. Before the
Safavids, colored tiles would be used to accent
certain architectural elements, but artisans
working for this dynasty would cover every
surface of a building with colored tiles, marble,
plaster, or painted wood. Architectural historians
see this propensity for elaborate surface
decoration as a triumph of Persian aesthetic
purpose over Turkish structural values. The
application of colored tile patterning (i.e.
curvilinear arabesques, floral designs, kufic
inscriptions, and imitation tile "carpets") hides a
building's structure. It prevents the viewer from
contemplating the workings of the physical laws
which keep the building standing up. Thus, a
huge building can be made to seem rather
weightless, like an otherworldly miracle hovering
on earth.
 Masjed-e Shah

The crown jewel of the Naqsh-i Jahan square is

the Masjed-e Shah, designed by Shaykh
Bahai the great architect of the Safavid era.
Some of the best craftsmen and artists worked
on this project, and the whole work was
supervised by Master calligrapher, Reza Abbasi.

Winter mosque in Masied-e Shah

But such elegance of design existed even

before the Safavid era. For instance, great
Seljuq Empire (1037-1194 CE) has been
described as a period with stunning scientific
and artistic achievements. Isfahan was in fact
the Sejuq capital under Malikshah I (d. 1092).
Among the monuments of this era, the Great
Mosque, or Masjed-e Jomeh, is probably the
most remarkable. The mosque is renowned for
its four diverse and stunning Iwans.

An stunning composition of calligraphy and

geometric patterns in the Great Mosque,
Masjed-e Jomeh

The western iwan is the most unusual and

complex of all. While all iwans had been added
to the Seljuq mosque after a fire pillaged by the
Assassin sect in 1121 AD, their decorations are
from the Timurid and early or even late Safavid
periods (late 15th till early17th century). As
Grabar in his book about the Great Mosque
writes, although both western and eastern iwans
were built at the same time as the southern iwan
(early 12th century), both of them are, “in their
visible shape, late Safavid works of the
seventeenth and, in case of the west one, even
early eighteenth centuries” . However, the
additions on the southern iwan of Masjed-e
Jomeh were done during the time of Uzun
Hassan, the great ruler of the Aq Qoyunly
dynasty, and show the highly decorative late
Timurid style.

The South iwan of the Great Mosque, Masjed-

e Jomeh

The artist Sayyid Mahmud-e Naqash is the

creator of the southern iwan, dated 1475-76.
The Darb-e Emam shrine which is near this
mosque, and was built during the reign of the
Qara Qoyunly ruler Jahan Shah, represents
another decorative work of this artist.

Peter J. Lu of Harvard and Paul J. Steinhardt of

Princeton in an article in the Science, argue
that the mid-nineteenth century, western
mathematicians had demonstrated that only
two-, three-, four-, and six-fold rotational
symmetries are possible, and five- and ten-fold
symmetries are crystallographically forbidden.
While pentagonal and decagonal motifs appear
frequently in a unit cell, they are usually
repeated within the allowed symmetries. It
appears that the artisans of the Great Mosque
were aware of such complexities. Lu and
Steinhardt show that by 1200 AD , these
artisans used a set of five different types of
equilateral polygonal tiles for creating an almost
unlimited number of complex tessellations: a
decagon, a pentagon, a hexagon, a bowtie, and
a rhombus, which they called girih tiles. Each
tile had decorating lines which intersect with the
midpoints of every edge at angles of 72 and 108
degrees.
One of the most studied square panel on the
western iwan, uses calligraphy to celebrates the
name of Ali the first of Shiet Imams . According
to Oleg Grabar in The Great Mosque of Isfahan
(New York University Press 1990) it contains in
the four corners the pious quatrain: “As the letter
of our crime became entwined [i.e., grew so
long], [they] took it and weighed it in the balance
against action. Our sin was greater than that of
anyone else, but we were forgiven out of the
kindness of Ali.” Grabar notes that the central
part of the panel is nothing else than the plug of
the artisan who was diligently involved in
restoring the mosque in the 17th century,
Muhammad ibn Mu’min Muhammad Amin.This
is an example of “a simple design rotated 45
degrees which acquires two separate values,
one as a carrier of geometric forms filled with
(by the time of the panel) antiquarian writing, the
other one as a violator of the sequence of both
writing and architecture by forcing one into rare
contortions to read the writing”. The southern
iwan which had got additional decorations by
Sayyid Mahmud-e Naqash in 1475/76 sports a
similar but definitely Timurid swastika-like panel,
with its ample arabesque and floral motifs.

The construction of the Great Mosque

encompasses a period of ten centuries,
between 800 to 1800 AD.
Almost every dynasty of the Iranian Kings has
contributed to the construction of this mosque,
with their distinct graphic design.

The minimalist simplicity of decorations in Great

Mosque is hauntingly sublime.
 The striking simplicity of exterior design of the
mausoleum of Pir-e Alamdar in Damghan, a
circular domed-tower, dated to 1026 AD create
a powerful spiritual statement, against the blue
background of sky.

The use of Kuffic calligraphy in the brick

decorations of the mausoleum of Pir-e Alamdar
is bold and unparalleled aesthetic
accomplishment.
 The brickwork design of the citadel of Karim
Khan-e Zand in Shiraz, mid 18th century,
was a move away from the Safavid elaborate
decoration towards a more minimalist approach
of Seljuk era.

The design of Nasiralmolk mosque of Ghajar

dynasty in Shiraz, mid- nineteenth century, was
 a happy synthesis of the color and austere
brickwork design of Zand era.

Khalvat-e Karimkhani or Karim Kahan

secluded place in the gardens of the Golestan
Palace is another example of Zand era
decorative design.

The elegant design of vault ceiling of

Nasiralmolk mosque in Shiraz, incorporated a
three dimensional approach to surface design.
The Brujerdiha mansion in the historical part of
city of Kashan is a unique example of
enhancing functionality of a building by graphic
design . The architect has designed the house
to not only maximize the use of solar energy
throughout the year, but also to utilizes various
local winds of different seasons to create a
moderate climate at various seasons in a city
where the summers are hot and the winters are
very cold .
 A unique approach to Graphic Design in the
Brujerdiha mansion

The Tabatabie's House in Kashan is another

example of the exquisite use of Iranian graphic
design.

Composing with various materials such as

mirror, carved wood, stained glass and plaster,
the architect of the Tabatabaie's House has
created this breathtaking work of art in a three
 dimensional approach.

Ejeh-ee House in Isfahan

The above panoramic picture depicts the

intricacy of compositional juxtaposition of
various graphically designed spaces in the Ejeh-
ee House in Isfahan. A Safavid period
architecture which has been redecorated in
Qajar era.
Zinat al Mulk House in Shiraz
Narenjestan e Ghavam is a traditional mansion
in Shiraz,that was built in the mid-to-late 19th
century by Mirza Ibrahim Khan Qavam. His
family of merchants, originally from Qazvin,
soon became active in the government during
the Zand era. They became prominent during
the Qajar dynasty. The Qavam "Naranjestan",
with its wall covered mirror-work porch, and
elegantly carved wooden doors represents the
artisan and craftsmen achievements of the 19th
century.

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This work is licensed under a Creative

Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0
Unported License.
Posted 9th March 2011 by Guity Novin
The Bauhaus school of art and
architecture in early 20th century
Germany was the birthplace of a
revolution in modern design.
Founder Walter Gropius’ form-
follows-function philosophy
transformed advertising,
typography, architecture, people’s
living spaces, and the public’s
aesthetic expectations in
fundamental ways. The Bauhaus
mission — to provide affordable,
artistic, utilitarian design for every
class of person — was a smashing
success. Today, their crisp,
geometric style is reflected in
successful design everywhere:
from billboards to infographics. And
it still serves its original purpose: to
honor functionality with beauty, to
please the eye and capture the
mind.
So what can today’s graphic
designers learn from the Bauhaus?
Let’s go to school!
1. Form Follows Function

Everything made at the Bauhaus

School was meant to embody one
central tenet: form should always
reflect and enhance function. Utility
comes first.
The lesson: never sacrifice your
message for your design. Focus on
readability, narrative, and
information first, artistic flair and
frills second. Use your design to
reinforce your message, never the
other way around.
2. There is Always a Connection Between Color and Shape

One of the school’s most famous

thinkers and artists, Wassily
Kandinsky, strove for a universal
aesthetic: a visual style that would
transcend cultural differences and
language barriers. He believed
certain shapes and colors
complemented each other and
communicated a specific idea or
emotion to the viewer. For
example, he believed yellow and
the triangle were natural partners:
they strengthen each other’s
sharpness. He tested his students
on this theory, presenting them with
a circle, square, and triangle
alongside the colors red, blue, and
yellow (blue, a spiritual color,
corresponded with the circle while
red, an earthbound color,
corresponded with the square.)
Amazingly, the vast majority of his
students (and of all people who
take the Kandinsky
Questionnaire today) make these
choices.
The lesson: colors and shapes may
hold deeper connections than we
realize. Consider your
combinations carefully.
3. Clean, Powerful Typography Matters

In the world of graphic design,

typography is perhaps the
Bauhaus’ great legacy. For the
Bauhaus, the words were an
integral graphic element. They
were architectural — like a chair in
a room — functioning on their own,
as words, and as artistic tools in
the space. Bauhaus typographers
were pioneers of wrapping text,
and of setting words at sharp
angles. But again, the meaning of
the words always came first, clever
design second.
The lesson: be as imaginative with
your typography as you are with
every other tool in your toolbox, but
make sure it never detracts from
your message.
4. You Don’t Have to Abolish Capital Letters, But Sometimes
It Helps

Like Kandinsky’s universal

aesthetic, Herbert Bayer’s universal
alphabet was designed to foster
communication. At the time of its
invention, almost all of Germany’s
printed text was in Fraktur: a
strange, antiquated, difficult-to-read
typeface; a remnant of an age
when monks and scholars
published manuscripts for other
monks and scholars. You’re
probably familiar with Fraktur. It’s
available in many modern font
packages and in some versions of
Microsoft Word.
Fraktur represented the opposite of
the Bauhaus ideal. Its ornate
illegibility reflected the elitism of
old-fashioned German intellectual
culture. It was a typeface for the
upper classes. In stark contrast,
Bayer’s universal alphabet was all
lower-case and sans serif: simple
and legible. It was a typeface for
everyone.

The lesson: Make your design

accessible. If you’re hoping to
appeal to a wide audience, avoid
over-stylizing. Reduce your design
to its most essential elements.
5. Share and Collaborate

The Bauhaus was founded on

collaboration. Even though its
founders and teachers were all
giants in their fields, they also all
served a greater purpose: design
enlightenment. Not that there
weren’t disagreements, but they
managed to achieve an openness
and collaborative style few groups
of artists ever have. Their
timelessness is a testament to that.
The lesson: Work with others, share
ideas, and don’t live in fear of
losing credit. Sometimes getting
better and learning is more
important.
6. Imitation is the Highest Form of Flattery: The Bauhaus is
Everywhere

Art is a continuum of great ideas.

Many of the best ones have been
done before, but you can always
frame those ideas in new ways.
Even if you didn’t know anything
about the Bauhaus before reading
this article, you probably recognize
the look. It’s a cultural eye-worm
and for good reason: it works.
The lesson: When you see a great
graphic idea, be inspired.
An original Bauhaus advertisement
from 1928:
A poster advertising Obama’s visit
to Berlin in 2008:

Let us therefore create a new guild of

craftsmen without the class-
distinctions that raise an arrogant
barrier between craftsmen and artists!
Let us desire, conceive, and create the
new building of the future together. It
will combine architecture, sculpture,
and painting in a single form, and will
one day rise towards the heavens from
the hands of a million workers as the
crystalline symbol of a new and
coming faith.
– Walter Gropius, “Manifesto,”
(1919).
https://visual.ly/blog/six-lessons-from-the-
bauhaus-masters-of-the-persuasive-graphic/
 Graphic Design In The
20th Century
RELATED TOPICS
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 industrial design
 interior design
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 Jan Tschichold
 art
Early developments
In the first decade of the 20th century,
the experiments with pure form begun in
the 1890s continued and evolved.
Although the Glasgow group received a
cool reception in the British Isles,
designers in Austria and Germany were
inspired by their move toward geometric
structure and simplicity of form. In
Austria, a group of young artists led
by Gustav Klimt broke with the
Künstlerhaus in 1897 and formed
the Vienna Secession. These artists and
architects rejected academic traditions
and sought new modes of expression. In
their exhibition posters and layouts and
illustrations for the Secession
magazine, Ver Sacrum, members pushed
graphic design in
uncharted aesthetic directions. Koloman
Moser’s poster for the 13th Secession
 exhibition (1902) blends three figures,
lettering, and geometric ornament into a
modular whole. The work is composed of
horizontal, vertical, and circular lines that
define flat shapes of red, blue, and white.
Moser and architect Josef
Hoffmann were instrumental in
establishing the Wiener
Werkstätte (“Vienna Workshops”),
which produced furniture and design
objects.


Poster for the 13th Vienna Secession exhibition,
designed by Koloman Moser, 1902.
Collection of Philip B. Meggs

The German school of poster design

called Plakatstil (“Poster Style”)
similarly continued the exploration of
pure form. Initiated by Lucian Bernhard
with his first poster in
1905, Plakatstilwas characterized by a
simple visual language of sign and shape.
Designers reduced images of products to
elemental, symbolic shapes that were
placed over a flat background colour, and
they lettered the product name in bold
shapes. Plakatstil gained numerous
adherents, including Hans Rudi Erdt,
Julius Gipkens, and Julius Klinger.


Plakatstil poster for Priester matches, designed by

Lucian …
Collection of Philip B. Meggs

Concurrent with these developments, in

Germany Peter Behrens played an
important role in graphic design. Behrens
helped to develop a philosophy of Neue
Sachlichkeit (“New Objectivity”) in
design, which emphasized technology,
manufacturing processes, and function,
with style subordinated to purpose. In
1907 Emil Rathenau, head of
the AEG(Allgemeine Elektricitäts-
Gesellschaft, a vast electrical
manufacturing firm), appointed Behrens
as artistic adviser for all of AEG’s
activities. Rathenau, a farsighted
industrialist, believed industry needed the
visual order and consistency that could
only be provided by design. For AEG,
Behrens developed what may be
considered the first cohesive “visual
identity system”; he consistently used the
same logo, roman typeface styles, and
geometric grids to create product
catalogs, magazines, posters, other
printed matter, and architectural
graphics. Behrens’s work for AEG was
a harbinger of a major area of graphic
design in the second half of the 20th
century: the creation of a corporate
identity through a program using
 trademarks, typefaces, formats, and
colour in a consistent, controlled manner.

Logo for AEG (Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft),

designed by Peter Behrens, 1907.
Collection of Philip B. Meggs
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 art collection
 Cervantes Prize
 abstract art
 Islamic arts
In addition to such aesthetic, commercial,
and corporate purposes, graphic design
also played an important political role in
the early 20th century, as seen in posters
and other graphic propaganda produced
during World War I. Colour printing had
advanced to a high level, and
governments used poster designs to raise
funds for the war effort, encourage
productivity at home, present negative
images of the enemy, encourage
enlistment in the armed forces, and shore
up citizens’ morale. Plakatstil was used
for many Axis posters, while the Allies
primarily used magazine illustrators
versed in realistic narrative images for
their own propaganda posters. The
contrast between these two approaches
can be seen in a comparison of German
designer Gipkens’s poster for an
exhibition of captured Allied aircraft
with American illustrator James
Montgomery Flagg’s army recruiting
poster (both 1917). Gipkens expressed
his subject through signs and symbols
reduced to flat colour planes within a
unified visual composition. In contrast,
Flagg used bold lettering and naturalistic
portraiture of an allegorical person
appealing directly to the potential recruit.
The difference between these two posters
signifies the larger contrast between
graphic design on the two continents at
the time.


Army recruiting poster featuring “Uncle Sam,”

designed by James Montgomery Flagg, 1917.
James Montgomery Flagg— Leslie-Judge Co.,
N.Y./Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-
USZC4-3859)

Modernist experiments
between the world wars
BRITANNICA STORIES


DEMYSTIFIED / TECHNOLOGY
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SPOTLIGHT / SOCIETY

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SPOTLIGHT / SCIENCE

The Fermi Paradox: Where Are All the Aliens?



DEMYSTIFIED / SOCIETY

Why Do We Carve Pumpkins at Halloween?

Building upon the formal design

experiments from the beginning of the
century, between the world wars,
European graphic designers utilized the
new forms, organization of visual space,
and expressive approaches to colour of
such avant-garde movements
as Cubism, Constructivism, De
Stijl, Futurism, Suprematism,
and Surrealism. Inspired by these
movements, graphic designers
increasingly pursued the most elemental
forms of design. Such a concern with the
essential formal elements of a medium
characterizes the Modernist experiments
prevalent in all the arts of the period.

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

Ready, Set, Know!

One pioneer of this approach was an
American working in England, E.
McKnight Kauffer, who was one of the
first designers to understand how the
elemental symbolic forms of Cubist and
Futurist painting could be applied to the
communicative medium of graphic
design. Throughout the first half of the
20th century, his posters, book jackets,
and other graphics achieved an
immediacy and vitality well-suited to the
fast-paced urban environment in which
his visual communications were
experienced.


Poster for the London newspaper the Daily Herald,

designed by E. …
Collection of Philip B. Meggs

Cassandre (the pseudonym of Adolphe-

Jean-Marie Mouron) used figurative
geometry and modulated planes of
colour, derived from Cubism, to
revitalize postwar French poster design.
From 1923 until 1936, Cassandre
designed posters in which he reduced his
subject matter to bold shapes and flat,
modulated icons. He emphasized two-
 dimensional pattern, and he integrated
lettering with his imagery to make a
unified overall composition. Cassandre
also utilized airbrushed blends and
grading to soften rigid geometry. His
clients included steamship lines,
railways, and clothing, food, and
beverage companies.

Poster for the Paris newspaper L’Intransigeant,

designed by …
Collection of Philip B. Meggs

The austere visual language developed

by artistic movements such as De Stijl in
the Netherlands and
by Suprematism and Constructivism in
Russia influenced a Modernist approach
to page layout. Suprematism, founded
by Kazimir Malevich, inspired a young
generation of designers to move toward a
design based on the construction of
simple geometric forms and elemental
colour. Attributes of this approach in
design included an underlying structure
of geometric alignments, asymmetrical
composition, elemental sans-serif
typefaces, and simple geometric
elements. Ornament was rejected, and
open areas of white space were used as
compositional elements. Works by the
Russian Constructivist El
Lissitzky exemplify this design approach.
He developed design programs that
utilized consistent type elements and
placements. For example, his 1923 book
design for Vladimir Mayakovsky’s Dlya
 golosa (For the Voice) is a seminal work
of graphic design. The title spread for
each poem is constructed into a dynamic
visual composition, with geometric
elements having symbolic meaning. In
the title page to one poem, Lissitzky used
a large red circle to signify the sun, the
subject of the poem.

A two-page spread from Dlya golosa (For the Voice)

by Vladimir …
Collection of Philip B. Meggs
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The Bauhaus, a German design school
founded in 1919 with architect Walter
Gropius as its director, became
a crucible where the myriad ideas of
modern art movements were examined
and synthesized into a cohesive design
movement. In its initial years, the
Bauhaus held an Expressionist and
utopian view of design, but it later
moved toward a functionalist approach.
Bauhaus artists and designers sought to
achieve a new unity between art and
technology and to create functional
designs—often utilizing the pure forms
of Modernism—that expressed the
mechanization of the machine age. In
1923 the Hungarian
Constructivist László Moholy-
Nagy joined the faculty. Among his
numerous contributions, Moholy-Nagy
introduced a theoretical approach to
visual communications. Important in his
theory was the use of photomontage (a
composite photographic image made by
pasting or superimposing together
different elements) as an illustrative
medium. He also promoted
the integration of words and images into
one unified composition and the use of
functional typography.
Herbert Bayer was appointed first master
of the newly founded Druck und
Reklame (“Printing and Advertising”)
workshop at the Bauhaus in 1925.
Bayer’s poster for Wassily Kandinsky’s
60th-birthday exhibition (1926)
incorporates Constructivist and De Stijl
influences. It clearly embodies the
Bauhaus design philosophy: elemental
forms are shorn of ornament, and forms
are selected and arranged in order to
serve a functional purpose (“clarity of
information”), with a visual hierarchy of
size and placement in descending
prominence from the most important to
secondary facts. The elements are
masterfully balanced and aligned to
create a cohesive composition, and the
tilting at a diagonal angle energizes the
space.

CONNECT WITH BRITANNICA

The unprecedented graphic designs
produced during this period were
explained and demonstrated to printers
and designers through writings and
designs by Jan Tschichold, a young
German designer. As a result, many
designers in Europe and throughout the
world embraced this new approach to
graphic design. An announcement for
Tschichold’s book Die neue
Typographie (1928; “The New
Typography”) typifies his own
philosophy. Tschichold advocated
functional design that uses the most
direct means possible. His
systematic methodology emphasized
contrast of type sizes, widths, and
weights, and he used white space and
spatial intervals as design elements to
separate and organize material. He
included only elements that were
essential to the content and page
structure.
Many designers sought other ways to use
geometry to evoke a modern spirit for the
machine age. Art Deco, streamline,
and moderne are terms used to denote the
loosely defined trend in art, architecture,
and design from the 1920s to the 1940s
that utilized decorative, geometric
designs. Everything from skyscrapers to
furniture to—in the case of graphic
design—cosmetics packaging, posters,
and typefaces used zigzag forms,
sunbursts, and sleek geometric lines to
project a feeling of a new technological
era.
At the same time, a number of Dutch
designers, including Piet Zwart, drew
upon the Modernist vocabulary of form
and colour to develop unique personal
approaches to graphic design, applying
their vision to the needs of clients. While
working at an architectural firm in the
early 1920s, Zwart received commissions
for graphic-design projects by
happenstance. In his work from the
1920s and ’30s, he rejected the
conventional norms of typography and
instead approached the layout of an ad or
brochure as a spatial field upon which he
created dynamic movements and
arresting forms. An example of this can
be seen in his dynamic advertisement
for NKF cable factory (1924), which
proclaims, “Normaal cable is the best
cable for the price.” Zwart believed the
fast pace of 20th-century life meant
viewers had little time for lengthy
advertising copy. He used brief
telegraphic text, bold typefaces placed at
an angle, and bright colours to attract
attention and to convey his client’s
message quickly and effectively.


Advertisement for the NKF cable factory, designed

by Piet Zwart, 1924.
Verlag Niggli AG, Switzerland
TRENDING TOPICS

 Johannes Kepler
 Great Depression
 William Shakespeare
 Intolerable Acts
 Haiti earthquake of 2010
 Nile River
 Open Door policy
 Aristotle
 Renaissance
 Black Death
Swiss designers also brought tremendous
vitality to graphic design during this
period. After studying in Paris
with Fernand Léger and assisting
Cassandre on poster projects, Herbert
Matter returned to his native Switzerland,
where from 1932 to 1936 he designed
posters for the Swiss Tourist Board,
using his own photographs as source
material. He employed the techniques of
photomontage and collage in his posters,
as well as dynamic scale changes, large
close-up images, extreme high and low
viewpoints, and very tight cropping of
images. Matter carefully integrated type
and photographs into a total design.


Poster for the Swiss Tourist Board, designed by

Herbert Matter, c. 1932.
Herbert Matter Archives/Alex Matter

When the Nazis rose to power

in Europe during the 1930s, Modernist
experiments were denounced, and many
artists, architects, and designers
immigrated to the United States. This
migration, along with their professional
and teaching activities, would play a
major role in shaping postwar American
art and design. During World War II,
posters were used once again as a major
form of political propaganda, although
they then functioned
alongside radiobroadcasts and
propaganda films in governmental war
efforts.

Graphic design, 1945–75

The International
Typographic Style
After World War II, designers
in Switzerland and Germany codified
Modernist graphic design into a cohesive
movement called Swiss Design, or the
International Typographic Style. These
designers sought a neutral and objective
approach that emphasized rational
planning and de-emphasized the
subjective, or individual, expression.
They constructed modular grids of
horizontal and vertical lines and used
them as a structure to regularize and
align the elements in their designs. These
designers preferred photography (another
technical advance that drove the
development of graphic design) as a
source for imagery because of its
machine-made precision and its ability to
make an unbiased record of the subject.
They created asymmetrical layouts, and
they embraced the prewar designers’
preference for sans-serif typefaces. The
elemental forms of the style possessed
harmony and clarity, and adherents
considered these forms to be an
appropriate expression of the postwar
scientific and technological age.
Josef Müller-Brockmann was a leading
designer, educator, and writer who
helped define this style. His poster,
publication, and advertising designs
are paradigms of the movement. In a
long series of Zürich concert posters,
Müller-Brockmann used colour, an
arrangement of elemental geometric
forms, and type to express the structural
and rhythmic qualities of music. A 1955
poster for a concert featuring music
by Igor Stravinsky, Wolfgang Fortner,
and Alban Berg demonstrates these
properties, along with Müller-
Brockmann’s belief that using one
typeface in two sizes (display and text)
makes the message clear and accessible
to the audience.
The programmatic uniformity of this
movement would be widely adopted by
designers working in the area of visual
identity systems during the second half
of the 20th century. Multinational
corporations soon adopted the tenets of
the International Typographic Style:
namely, the standardized use
of trademarks, colours, and typefaces; the
use of consistent grid formats for signs
and publications; the preference for the
contemporary ambience of sans-serif
types; and the banishment of ornament.
Postwar graphic design in the
United States
While designers in Europe were forging
the International Typographic Style into
a cohesive movement, American
designers were synthesizing concepts
from modern art into highly
individualistic and expressive visual
statements. From the 1940s through the
1960s, New York City was a major
centre for innovation in design as well as
the fine arts.
During the 1940s, Paul Rand emerged as
an American designer with a personal
and innovative approach to modern
design. Rand understood the vitality and
symbolic power of colour and shape in
the work of artists such as Paul
Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, and Pablo
Picasso. In a 1947 poster promoting New
York subway advertising, for example,
Rand created a design from elemental
geometric forms and colours that can be
read as both an abstracted figure as well
as a target, conveying the concept that
one can “hit the bull’s-eye,” or reach
potential audiences for plays, stores, and
other goods and services by advertising
in the subway. An ordinary message is
rendered extraordinary through the
power of visual forms and symbols.
Rand’s work spanned a range of graphic
media including advertising, book
jackets, children’s books,
corporate literature (such as annual
reports), packaging, posters, trademarks,
and typefaces.
In the 1950s Rand began to spend more
of his time on corporate image projects,
and he designed what would
become ubiquitous trademarks and visual
identities for major corporations
including IBM, Westinghouse, the ABC
television network, and UPS. Many other
prominent designers—including Saul
Bass (whose many visual identity
programs included logos for AT&T),
Lester Beall, and the partnership of Tom
Geismar and Ivan Chermayeff—focused
their practices upon corporate design, as
multinational corporations understood
the need for consistent graphic standards
in their facilities and communications
throughout the world.
Bradbury Thompson, a prominent
magazine art director, designed a
publication called Westvaco
Inspirations for a major paper
manufacturer from 1938 until the early
1960s. His playful and innovative
approach to type and imagery is shown in
the design of a spread from Westvaco
Inspirations 210 (1958). Here,
Thompson responded to the geometric
forms of African masks in the Ben
Somoroff photograph in the spread by
“drawing” a masklike face out of letters
spelling “Westvaco.” Thompson’s
complex layouts combined art with
coloured shapes and unusual typographic
arrangements. He explored printing
techniques by separating the four plates
used to print full-colour images—cyan (a
warm blue), magenta, yellow, and
black—and having them printed in
different positions on the page. He also
had engravings from old books enlarged
and overprinted in unexpected colours.
These experiments were very influential,
as they showed a generation of designers
new possibilities.


A two-page spread from Westvaco Inspirations 210,

designed by …
Westvaco Corporation, Westvaco Inspirations, 210,
1958, by Bradbury Thompson

Magazines placed more emphasis upon

graphic design during the postwar
period. Alexey Brodovitch, the art
director of Harper’s Bazaar from 1934
until 1958, pioneered a new approach to
magazine design. He created a flowing
perceptual experience for the reader who
paged through his magazines by varying
sizes of type and imagery, alternating
 complex pages with simple layouts
containing large areas of white space,
and creating an overall sense of rhythmic
movement. The beauty of Brodovitch’s
designs was enhanced by the impressive
team of collaborators at Bazaar, which
included photographer Richard Avedon.


Editorial two-page spread from Harper’s Bazaar,
designed by Alexey …
Harper’s Bazaar, November, 1951, designed by
Alexey Brodovitch and photographed by Derujinski.
The postwar period has been called a
“golden age” of magazine design, when
art directors including Henry
Wolf (at Esquire and Harper’s Bazaar)
and Otto Storch (at McCall’s) extended
Brodovitch’s imaginative approach to
page layout in large-format magazines.
Storch believed concept, text, type, and
image should be inseparable in editorial
design, and he applied this belief to the
editorial pages of McCall’s.
The emergence of television began to
alter the roles of print media and graphic
design, while also creating new
opportunities for designers to work on
television commercials and on-air
graphics. “Motion graphics” are kinetic
graphic designs for film titles and
television that occur in the fourth
dimension—time. A variety of animated
film techniques were applied to motion-
picture titling in the 1950s by Saul
Bass and, in Canada, by Norman
McLaren of the Canadian National Film
Board. For example, Bass’s titles
for Otto Preminger’s 1959 film Anatomy
of a Murder reduce a prone figure to
disjointed parts, which move onto the
screen in carefully orchestrated
sequences that conclude with their
positioning to form the figure; the
lettering of the film’s title appears as part
of the sequence.
Vernacular imagery and
popular culture inspired a generation of
American designer/illustrators who
began their careers after World War II,
including the 1954 founders of the Push
Pin Studio in New York. Their work
combined a fascination with the graphic
simplicity and directness of comic books
with a sophisticated understanding of
modern art, especially
of Surrealism and Cubism. The Push Pin
artists’ unabashedly eclectic interest in
art and design history led them to
incorporate influences ranging from
Persian rugs to children’s art and
decorative Victorian typefaces. In their
work, a graphic vibrancy supported a
strong conceptual approach to the visual
message.
Several major directions emerged in
American graphic design in the 1960s.
Political and social upheavals of the
decade were accompanied by a
resurgence of poster art addressing
the civil rights movement, the women’s
movement, environmentalism, and
the Vietnam War. Placing ads on radio
and television was beyond the economic
means of most private citizens,
independent art groups, and social-
activist organizations; however, they
could afford to print and distribute flyers
and posters, and they could even sell
their posters to public sympathizers to
raise money for their causes.
As popular music became increasingly
culturally significant, graphics for the
recording industry emerged as a locus of
design creativity. One Push Pin Studio
founder, Milton Glaser, captured the
imagination of a generation with his
stylized curvilinear drawing, bold flat
colour, and original concepts. Glaser’s
poster (1967) for folk-rock musician Bob
Dylan is one of many music graphics
from the 1960s that achieved an iconic
presence not unlike that of Flagg’s I
Want You poster from World War I. Over
the course of the second half of the
century, Glaser steadily expanded his
interests to include magazine design,
restaurant and retail store interiors, and
visual identity systems.


Poster for musician Bob Dylan, designed by Milton

Glaser, 1967.
© Milton Glaser

The 1960s also saw the rapid decline of

hand- and machine-set metal type as they
were replaced by display-and-
keyboard phototype systems. Since it is
very inexpensive to produce new
typefaces for photographic typesetting,
the widespread use of phototype systems
set off a spate of new designs and
reissues of long-unavailable typefaces,
such as decorative Victorian wood types.
American Herb Lubalin is notable among
the designers who embraced the new
flexibility phototype made possible for
designers. Type could be set in any size,
the spaces between letters and lines could
be compressed, and letters could be
expanded, condensed, touched,
overlapped, or slanted. Lubalin’s ability
to make powerful visual communications
solely with type is seen in a 1968
announcement for an antiwar poster
contest sponsored by Avant
Garde magazine. The magazine’s logo,
placed in the dot of the exclamation
point, uses ligatures (two or more letters
combined into one form) and alternate
characters to form a tightly compressed
image. This logo was developed into a
typeface named Avant Garde, one of the
 most successful and widely used fonts of
the phototype period.

Announcement for Avant Garde magazine’s antiwar

poster contest, …
Ralph Ginzberg

A creative revolution in advertising

writing and design also occurred during
this period. Advertising agencies
approached marketing objectives through
the use of witty headlines, simple
layouts, and clever visual images.
Copywriters and art directors, working as
collaborative creative teams, sought
a synergy between word and image. The
Doyle Dane Bernbach advertising agency
played an influential role in the history of
graphic design by creating
advertisements that spoke intelligently to
consumers and avoided the hyperbole of
the typical “hard sell.”
One of the many advertising designers
who launched his career at Doyle Dane
Bernbach was George Lois, whose works
were engagingly simple and direct. Lois
went on to design over 90 covers
for Esquire magazine in the 1960s. He
used powerful photographs and
photomontages, usually by Carl Fischer,
to make succinct editorial statements
about the United States. These designs
acted as independent visual/verbal
statements about such topics as
assassinations and civil rights.


Cover of Esquire magazine’s May 1967 issue,

designed by George Lois, …
By permission of Esquire Magazine. Hearst
Communications, Inc. Esquire is a trademark of
Hearst

Postwar graphic design

in Japan
During the 1960s and ’70s, American
graphics from the New York area, as
well as European graphics from the
International Typographic Style,
influenced designers around the world.
In postwar Japan, for example, when the
country emerged as a major industrial
power, graphic design evolved into a
major profession serving the needs of
industry and cultural institutions.
European Constructivism and Western
design exerted an important influence on
Japanese design, but these lessons
were assimilated with traditional
Japanese art theory. For example, the
Japanese tradition of family crests
inspired many Japanese designers’
approach to trademark design. Similarly,
symmetrical composition, central
placement of iconic forms, harmonious
colour palettes,
and meticulous craftsmanship—all
characteristics of much of Japanese art—
were often elements of Japanese
graphics.
 The first generation of graphic designers
to emerge after the war was led
by Kamekura Yusaku, whose importance
to the emerging graphic-
design community led to the affectionate
nickname “Boss.” Kamekura’s poster
proposal (1967) for the Japanese World
Expo ’70 in Ōsaka, for example, displays
his ability to combine 20th-century
Modernist formal experiments with a
traditional Japanese sense of harmony.


Poster proposal for the Japanese World Expo ’70 in
Ōsaka, designed by Kamekura Yusaku, 1967.
Yusaku Kamekura

In counterpoint to the formalist

tendencies found in much Japanese
graphic design, some Japanese designers
drew upon other sources of inspiration to
arrive at individual approaches to visual-
communications problems. Iconography
from diverse mass media—including
comic books (manga), popular science-
fiction movies,
and newspaper photographs—provided a
rich vocabulary for Yokoo Tadanori,
whose work beginning in the 1960s
inspired a new generation of Japanese
designers. In his early posters and
magazine covers he utilized a variety of
contemporary techniques; for example,
he used crisp line drawings to contain
photomechanical screens of colour. He
worked in a Pop-art idiom, but he used
revered Japanese imagery as source
material, rather than the contemporary
imagery usually found in Pop art. In his
poster publicizing four Noh
theatre productions (1969), for example,
he placed iconic images on a luminous
gold-and-blue field, combining
traditional imagery with a contemporary
sense of whimsy. Over time, montage
effects became increasingly important to
Yokoo as he built his designs from
photographic and graphic elements filled
with dramatic luminosity.
A very different vision emerged in the
work of Satō Kōichi, who from the 1970s
created an
otherworldly, metaphysical design
statement. He used softly glowing blends
of colour, richly coloured and
modulated calligraphy, and stylized
illustrations to create poetic visual
statements that ranged from
contemplative quietude to celebratory
exuberance. For example, in his poster
(1988) for a musical play—which was
itself adapted from a nursery
rhyme about soap bubbles—Satō
combined an astronomical sky chart and
a handprint glowing with a lavender-and-
blue aura to evoke a feeling
of ephemeral atmospheric space. Such
designs achieve a rare level of visual
poetry.


Poster for a musical play, designed by Satō Kōichi,

1988.
Koichi Sato

Graphic design, 1975–

2000
Postmodern graphic design
By the late 1970s, many international
architectural, product, and graphic
designers working in the Modernist
tradition thought that the movement had
become academic and lost its capacity
for innovation. Younger designers
challenged and rejected the tenets of
Modernism and questioned the “form-
follows-function” philosophy that came
to be associated with the diluted,
corporate version of Modernism that
derived from the International
Typographic Style. Designers began to
establish and then violate grid patterns;
to invert expected forms; to explore
historical and decorative elements; and to
inject subjective—even eccentric—
concepts into design. This reaction to
Modernist developments is called
postmodernism, and it took design in
many new directions.

During the late 1970s, April Greiman

was acclaimed for her postmodernist
experimentation. (In the 1970s and ’80s,
increasing numbers of women entered
the graphic-design field and achieved
prominence.) Her dynamic typographic
innovations and colourful montages were
often made in collaboration with
photographer Jayme Odgers. A cover
for WET magazine, for example, evokes
the vibrant cultural scene in southern
California. In this work from 1979, a
colour photocopy of singer Rick Nelson,
collaged images from magazines,
Japanese papers, and airbrushed blends
of colour are combined into a cohesive
design. Greiman also explored the
application of video imagery to print
graphics.


Cover for WET magazine, designed by April Greiman,

1979.
WET Magazine cover by April Greiman in
collaboration with Jayme Odgers, 1979

The dynamic spatial arrangement and

decorative geometric patterns that
enliven many postmodern designs are
seen in a 1983 poster designed
by William Longhauser. The letters
forming the last name of postmodern
architect Michael Graves become
 fanciful edifices, which echo the patterns
and textures found in Graves’s buildings.
As with much postmodern design, the
result is strikingly original.


Poster for a Michael Graves exhibition, designed by
William Longhauser, 1983.
William Longhauser

Such a disruption of expected forms and

grids was also apparent in the work of
Japanese designer Igarashi Takenobu.
After studying design fundamentals in
Los Angeles, Igarashi began his
independent design practice in Tokyo
and used basic design elements—point,
line, plane, grids, and isometric
perspectives—as the building blocks of
his work. This design vocabulary enabled
him to invent imaginative solutions. His
poster proposal (1982) for Expo ’85, an
international exposition of the dwelling
and construction industry, turns the
letters into structural forms pulled apart
to reveal their inner structures. In this
way, his experimentation with form
fulfilled both an aesthetic and a
commercial purpose: the deconstructed
forms clearly make reference to his
client, the construction industry.


Poster proposal for Expo ’85, designed by Igarashi

Takenobu, 1982.
Takenobu Igarashi

Graphic design in developing

nations
Late in the 20th century, increasingly
accomplished graphic-design activity
began to appear in developing nations.
These advancements occurred because of
a number of factors, including expanded
access to professional education at local
schools and abroad, the increased
availability of computer and printing
technology, and a growing base of
industrial, cultural, and communications-
industry clients. Designers from these
nations often drew upon established
design approaches from industrialized
nations, but they commingled these
lessons with local and national traditions
in their quest for effective visual
communications.

In the Middle East, graphic designers

often applied new technology to
depictions of traditional subject matter
and iconography. Throughout the late
20th century, Iranian graphic
designer Ghobad Shiva evoked the
colour palette, traditional Arabic
calligraphy, and page layouts of ancient
Persian manuscripts in his graphic work,
which ranged from packaging to
advertising and editorial design to stage
sets. His poster (1984) celebrating the
800th anniversary of the birth of the
renowned Iranian poet Saadi, for
example, displays his exquisite control of
colour and his ability to create a vibrant
image. These stylized illustrations
continued the traditions of ancient
Persian manuscript books, but within
the context of a contemporary design
idiom.
Graphic design developed slowly in
Africa after World War II, but by the end
of the 20th century, a number of
designers there received international
acclaim for their individual creations. In
Zimbabwe, filmmaker and designer Chaz
Maviyane-Davies created films and
graphic designs in the late 1980s and the
1990s. His posters, advertising designs,
and magazine covers captured the spirit
and life of his nation and often
promoted social change. At the turn of
the 21st century, Maviyane-Davies was
living in the United States. His interest in
photographic symbolism, prop building,
and computer manipulation were seen in
a powerful poster series that
included The Last Portal of Truth 42,
produced just before the 2002
Zimbabwean elections.
In Latin America, professional graphic
design similarly developed slowly after
World War II. Eventually, in Argentina
and then in other nations, a graphic-
design profession began to evolve. Latin
American designers often built upon
European and North American influences
to develop distinctive communication
designs. For example, a film
festival poster (1992) by Venezuelan
designer Santiago Pol utilizes clear
symbolic forms within a highly
sophisticated spatial configuration, both
elements of Modernist graphic design. In
this work, dynamic shapes signify three
peppers, symbols that are redolent with
regional symbolism; the central pepper is
formed by the white, or negative, space
between the red and green ones. These
peppers are punctuated by film sprocket
holes, which connect the image to the
poster’s theme of film. In this way, Pol’s
creative combination of symbols
provides a distinct regional image for the
film festival.
The digital revolution
Until the late 20th century, the graphic-
design discipline had been based on
handicraft processes: layouts were drawn
by hand in order to visualize a design;
type was specified and ordered from a
typesetter; and type proofs and photostats
of images were assembled in position on
heavy paper or board for photographic
reproduction and platemaking. Over the
course of the 1980s and early ’90s,
however, rapid advances in digital
computer hardware and software
radically altered graphic design.
Software for Apple’s
1984 Macintosh computer, such as
the MacPaint™ program by computer
programmer Bill Atkinson and graphic
designer Susan Kare, had a revolutionary
human interface. Tool icons controlled
by a mouse or graphics tablet enabled
designers and artists to use computer
graphics in an intuitive manner. The
Postscript™ page-description language
from Adobe Systems, Inc., enabled pages
of type and images to be assembled into
graphic designs on screen. By the mid-
1990s, the transition of graphic design
from a drafting-table activity to an
 onscreen computer activity was virtually
complete.

Screen interface design for MacPaint™ by computer

programmer Bill Atkinson and graphic …
Illustration reprinted by permission from Apple
Computer, Inc.

Digital computers placed typesetting

tools into the hands of individual
designers, and so a period of
experimentation occurred in the design of
new and unusual typefaces and page
layouts. Type and images were layered,
fragmented, and dismembered; type
columns were overlapped and run at very
long or short line lengths; and the sizes,
weights, and typefaces were often
changed within single headlines,
columns, and words. Much of this
research took place in design education
at art schools and universities. American
designer David Carson—art director
of Beach Culture magazine in 1989–
91, Surfer in 1991–92, and Ray
Gun magazine in 1992–96—captured the
imagination of a youthful audience by
taking such an experimental approach
into publication design.
Rapid advances in onscreen software also
enabled designers to make elements
transparent; to stretch, scale, and bend
elements; to layer type and images in
space; and to combine imagery into
complex montages. For example, in a
United States postage stamp from 1998,
designers Ethel Kessler and Greg Berger
digitally montaged John Singer Sargent’s
 portrait of Frederick Law Olmsted with a
photograph of New York’s Central Park,
a site plan, and botanical art
to commemorate the landscape architect.
Together these images evoke a rich
expression of Olmsted’s life and work.

U.S. postage stamp commemorating Frederick Law

Olmsted, designed by Ethel Kessler and Greg Berger,
…
Stamp Design 1999, U.S. Postal Service. Reproduced
with permission. All rights reserved. Written
authorization from the Postal Service is required to
use, reproduce, republish, upload, post, transmit,
distribute or publicly display this image.

The digital revolution in graphic design

was followed quickly by public access to
the Internet. A whole new area of
graphic-design activity mushroomed in
the mid-1990s when Internet commerce
became a growing sector of the global
economy, causing organizations and
businesses to scramble to establish Web
sites. Designing a Web site involves the
layout of screens of information rather
than of pages, but approaches to the use
of type, images, and colour are similar to
those used for print. Web design,
however, requires a host of new
considerations, including designing for
navigation through the site and for using
hypertext links to jump to additional
information.
Because of the international appeal and
reach of the Internet, the graphic-design
profession is becoming increasingly
global in scope. Moreover, the
integration of motion
graphics, animation, video feeds, and
music into Web-site design has brought
about the merging of traditional print and
broadcast media. As kinetic media
expand from motion pictures and basic
television to scores of cable-television
channels, video games, and animated
Web sites, motion graphics are becoming
an increasingly important area of graphic
design.
In the 21st century, graphic design is
ubiquitous; it is a major component of
our complex print and electronic
information systems. It permeates
contemporary society, delivering
information, product identification,
entertainment, and persuasive messages.
The relentless advance of technology has
changed dramatically the way graphic
designs are created and distributed to a
mass audience. However, the
fundamental role of the graphic
designer—giving expressive form and
clarity of content to communicative
messages—remains the same.
Architecture’s increasing role in
branding and advertising
2
Experiential design firms
need cool spaces to sell
brands. Architects make it
happen
BY PATRICK SISSON AUG 4, 2017, 5:34PM EDT

The City Cave, an installation designed by Hush

for Google to help visualize the value of real-time
data and advanced technology. Hush

The principal of a firm currently working

in New York City, Jeff Straesser has a
solid resume for someone in the
architecture field.
He obtained a graduate degree at Yale,
worked in a number of studios across the
country, and was even part of the team at
Resolution 4: Architecture who won a
contest sponsored by Dwell magazine to
design a modern modular home. He
could probably be working on a variety
of residential or institutional projects, but
he’d rather focus on finding ways to get
you interested in cycling.
Straesser isn’t a salesman. As one of the
lead architects working at Eight Inc., a
multidisciplinary experiential design
studio, he focuses on creating branded
environments, new retail spaces, and new
experiences for companies and
organizations such as Shimano, a bicycle
parts maker, the school charity Donors
Choose, and Apple (his firm was
approached by Steve Jobs years ago to
help create the company’s now-famous
retail outlets). He’s far outside what he
considers traditional, siloed architecture,
and he loves the opportunity
“I’m really intrigued working at a place
where architecture is a piece of the
puzzle,” he says. “When you have to
factor your work into branding,
communication, and digital technology,
it’s a much more intriguing proposition.”
The Shimano Cycling World installation in
Singapore, designed by Eight Inc.

Eight Inc. is one of many firms working

in the emergent field of experiential
design. Combining architecture,
branding, graphics, event production, and
digital technology, it’s a hybrid of design
and marketing that’s been around for
roughly a decade.
Arising as part of the confluence of
numerous trends—advances in mobile
and display technology; the demise of
traditional retail; the millennial
preference for experiences; and tech
firms looking to expand their brands into
the physical world—the discipline is
offering architects a new way to practice
and new opportunities alongside
designers and marketers.
“It’s more about traditional architects
realizing it’s not enough to design
something that’s visibly compelling,”
says Straesser. “It’s about bringing all
these other considerations into design
experiences.”
Building for brands

Architects working for brands—and the

concept of experience design itself—is
really nothing new. Frank Lloyd
Wright designed car showrooms in New
York. The Eameses created a massive
pavilion for IBM, and Disney
Imagineering built theme parks decades
ago that brought together many of the
same disciplines. Temporary pop-up
installations have become almost cliche
in advertising and marketing, especially
at Austin’s SXSW, which has become a
carnival of themed set pieces in recent
years.
But the field has changed significantly in
the last decade, driven by technology and
the attention economy. Retailers and
brands, seeing traditional advertising dry
up and traditional store design fail to lure
shoppers—according to Elite Wealth
Management, there were 34 billion visits
to U.S. stores in 2010, and just 17.6
billion by 2013—have turned to new
physical spaces, from pop-ups to
elaborate retail spaces, in search of
awareness and profits. And they’ve
become incredibly elaborate: Ford built
an escape room-type stunt, asking people
to try and find their way out a giant
maze while driving one of their vehicles,
while Bumble, a dating app, created
a physical room for users to meet before
going out.

Eight Inc.’s design for a Lincoln showroom in

China, a new concept for an experiential
dealership, was a linchpin of the brand’s launch
in that country in 2014.

At the same time, the world of

architecture is changing, too. Between
parametric design and programs such as
Grasshopper and Revit, digital
technology is becoming more and more a
part of the profession, and the field of
experiential design offers opportunities
to experiment with it in new and novel
ways.
“It’s about the through line, where the
architectural profession overlaps with
digital design,” says David Schwarz, a
partner at Hush, a New York-based
experiential design firm. “These brand
activations aren’t bound by huge
construction timelines, developers, or
financing. They’re less formal and more
playful.”
Experiential work also offers the
opportunity to see fast-moving projects
take shape much quicker than traditional
buildings, which often have multi-year
timelines.
“Architecture school is pretty divorced
from the real world,” says Marc Kushner,
partner at Hollwich Kushner
Architects and co-founder of the website
Architizer. “Jobs like this aren’t
theoretical. They’re embedded in a fast-
moving pop culture world.”
The world after the Apple Store

“Apple changed everything,” says

Kushner, discussing how the store shifted
the retail landscape. “It was a revolution
that opened up a Pandora’s box of
experimentation.”
While Apple Stores and their approach to
service and streamlined design were
revelatory, the introduction of this new
shopping experience in 2001 wasn’t just
impactful due to aesthetics. It was a new
way to interact with customers—events,
product demos, Genius Bars for service
and troubleshooting—and a tech
company making its mark on a physical
space (while Apple has such a massive
hardware business, over time, both
Facebook and Google would become big
clients for experiential design firms).
“Look at the last decade of retail, and
think to yourself, ‘how much have you
bought on Amazon compared to five
years ago?’” says Schwarz. “Amazon is a
brandless space, there’s no frills. If retail
is moving to digital, what do brands do?”
Hush’s Camp Victory Installation for the 2012
London Olympics included this interactive wall
that let visitors visualize the speed of Olympic
athletes.

What’s left, and the area where

experiential design is growing, is in
creating ways to engage with customers,
ideally in new, intriguing spaces (if they
stand out on social media, even better).
Luxury brands such as Tesla and Cartier
still offer upscale shopping experiences.
The rest are trying to build a culture, or
even a cult, around themselves, and are
increasingly trying to do that through
interactive, social spaces that tell a story
through design. Technology companies
are especially eager to create branded
spaces (and boring software needs
experiences to show customers where
brands are going). In this environment,
marketing and advertising firms are eager
to tap the experience of those who
understand environmental graphic
design, placemaking, wayfinding, and
fabrication.
Eight Inc.’s recent project for Shimano in
Singapore is an event space and a library
consisting of hundreds of books about
cycling. Hush recently built
an interactive space for Google that
allowed visitors to play with and interact
with an overhead light sculpture, a visual
metaphor for the power of data and
digital interaction.
These examples show how architects
working on these projects are being
pushed to utilize an entire suite of tools.
Robert Cohen is the Director of Digital
Experience Design at Gensler, which has
had a branded design department for the
last 35 years. He says that the real
challenge to create an engaging
experience is integration, bringing
together sculptural and kinetic elements,
and thinking beyond just physical space
and figuring out how to integrate
narrative content.
“How do you craft an experience where
people have a more emotional reaction to
the space?” he says.
Last year, Hush opened a sales room to help sell
condos in a forthcoming Zaha Hadid-designed
building in New York.
Advertising’s big event

With the changes in the media and

advertising worlds expected to
accelerate, experiential design to
continue to expand. Cohen sees the
confluence of digital technology and
physical design blurring even further.
Instead of relying on specialists, Gensler
has created its own in-house team,
bringing together content, software, and
hardware on one team.
As the discipline expands, Cohen
believes the focus will be on telling
better stories. We have enough screens in
our lives, so it takes more than a moving
image to capture a consumer’s attention.
“How do we use this as a tool so we
don’t have Times Square everywhere?”
says Cohen. “Most people who are new
to this world see it as a hardware play,
and just put up screens. They’re thinking
just like an architect. The content is what
you want people to remember, not a 30-
foot-long wall of monitors. Without the
content, it becomes an arms race.
Nobody remember the third-tallest
building. But they’ll always remember
the Chrysler Building because the design
is incredible.”