Comments on: Learning From El Lissitzky

By: Kevin M. Scarbrough

Kevin M. Scarbrough — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:06:00 +0000

Grab yourself a big ol' copy of Megg's design history for some va-va-voom design history geek-love. Stylepeida by Mr. Steven Heller is a great primer if you're looking for light reading, and those groovy cats over at Under Consideration do a nice thing-or-two about the famous Women of Design (and a bunch of other bits too.

By: carl

carl — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:49:34 +0000

It was the strong current at the time — objectification of design, the Swiss School — that drove the Weiner Werkstadt, later Bauhaus, constructivism, suprematism: all those potent ideas that virtually gave life to what we know as graphic design today.

In strong contrast today we are reminded that, "Form follows emotion" (Hartmund Esslinger of frog Design (who I used to work for)). I'm not sure how the two (objectivism vs. emotional) diametric theoretical approaches to design can be discussed without looking at the challenging transitional phases that link the present to the past. And how we are to design for the future.

Those challenging transitional phases being
• state propaganda (essentially the co-opting of constructivism and Bauhaus to communicate disinformation to the public)
• mass media consumer-focused advertising (especially in democratic, capitalistic societies lead by USA and UK)
• a globally inter-connected consumer culture that transcends politics: communism (China), quasi-Socialism (Scandinavian), outright democratic and capitalistic design (USA, UK, Japanese)

The idea of designer as author is a recent phenomena granted by the speedy pace of global communications and technology. And a youthful culture with an insatiable appetite for new trends and memes. It is a relief to look at the order Helvetica and a Muller-Brockmann grid contrasts with all the chaos of geek + photoshop + internet! Oh, but all the ideas rehashed, remixed, remembered, recreated fresh and new and invigorating!

By: Avant Garde Inspiration: El Lissitzky | Work / Play / Create :: Brandon Moller

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:20:16 +0000

[...] great work from El Lissitzky, a Russian Avant Garde artist focusing on the idea of Visual Hierarchy, Visual Punctuation and [...]

By: My First Designs… | The Design O'Blog by Niki Brown

My First Designs… | The Design O'Blog by Niki Brown — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 11:05:45 +0000

[...] when I told you that I had a design crush on El Lissitzky? I wasn’t lying… This was an assignment from one of my first design classes. We had to [...]

By: BebopDesigner

BebopDesigner — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:21:08 +0000

Brilliant post! I’ve always admired Soviet graphic design…

I used to have lunch at this little Russian place run by an elderly couple, and they showed tons of printed material like magazines, newspapers and stuff from the 60′s and 70′s. They had it hanging all over the place. Honestly, I was blown away.

Yes, we can learn a lot, but with your brilliant explanation of it, we can learn a lot more.

Thanks for sharing this.

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:00:44 +0000

Great post, Niki! I love the way you break down the style and explain how to use it. Fantastic designs featured as well. I, like Brad, wasn’t familiar with Lissitzky’s work, so thanks for the exposure!

By: Niki Brown

Niki Brown — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:42:02 +0000

@brad got an invite last week!

glad you like lissitzkys work! I’ll probably do a series of posts on things we can learn from designers that came before us. Yay for graphic design history!

By: Brad C

Brad C — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:28:25 +0000

I’ve never heard of El Lissitzky, this work is awesome. thanks for sharing.

Also, when did you get a Typekit invite? *jealous*

By: designmoo.com

designmoo.com — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:21:44 +0000

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