- Graphic design at the Bauhaus focused
on typography, shape and color.
Professors integrated the tenets of modernism
into the classes and workshops.
In product design, furniture making and architecture,
design for the masses slowly replaced
Gropius' original idea of designer as craftsman.
In graphic design, however, the refinement of form
and typography maintained the concept of craftsmanship.
Typography was one of the Bauhaus' greatest legacies;
it was bold and clear with simple sans serif fonts.
At one point, this was simplified further
by Herbert Bayer's attempt to create
a typeface with no capital letters.
The typography was based on rational anathematical systems.
Grids and the Golden Section were part of each solution.
Every element, from a word to a hairline
rule, existed to serve a function,
from indicating where a letter begins on a letter-head,
to organizing text into the legible blocks.
Design solutions favored photography, again,
due to its realism as opposed to something handmade
or interpretive, like a painting.
Lazlo Moholy-Nagy introduced experimental
photography with unusual points of view,
montage and darkroom techniques.
This enhanced the design work, adding dynamic energy.
The photography moved away from
a static image taken at eye-level,
and shifted to a cinematic approach.
The camera could be placed at a
bird's-eye view, or from the ground up.
The subject was part of a larger world,
beyond the frame of the image.
The next time you watch any action movie,
you'll see these ideas used, over and over.
Color at the Bauhaus followed the ideas of
the De Stijl movement: black, white,
and primary colors were universal and not attached
to any specific political party or nationality.
Professors Johannes Itten and Paul Klee
taught foundation classes in color and shape.
The exercises they invented are
used by most design courses today.
In 1932, the Nazi Party had taken over
the German government.
They quickly shut the school down.
The Nazis in charge of the faculty contracts
deemed the work to be Bolshevik and degenerate.
The students dispersed and many of the teachers migrated
to the United States, sparking a revolution in design.
Eighty years after the last student left the building,
we see examples of the Bauhaus influence:
specifically, good design for the masses.
Companies like Design Within Reach, Crate & Barrel,
and Target use this as a core value and marketing message.
The Bauhaus also left designers and the masses
with a new philosophy about design.
Today, the public expects a product to be functional.
It should be the best quality and aesthetically beautiful.
They demand graphic design be clear and legible,
and mistrust work that is too elaborate,
ornamental, or hard to understand.
But, most importantly, it is not even questioned
that a designer works to make life better.