Late Modern (1945-1970)

In Late Modern, classical Modernist techniques were popularly accepted and widely applied, without the dogma associated with them.

Modernists fled Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia, and many came to the U.S.

After the war, international corporations needed identity systems and strategic communications; a new rationalist design approach emerged in the “International Style”

Then, beginning in the mid-1950s, a revived interest in the design styles of the 1900s and in artifacts of material prosperity emerged.

Late Modern is not about conformity: its diversity comes from the rejection of unworkable or unappealing ideas…

Designers sought with great purpose to make styles that responded to the character of their time, whatever that was (there wasn’t consensus)

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  Swiss designers saw the grid
  
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  New York designers preferred a provocative interplay of historical styles and forms
  

No one style dominated.

Influences: Christian Dior and miniskirts

American artists developed a unique personal style and several superstars were born.

Paul Rand: “To design is to add value and meaning, to illuminate, to simplify, to clarify, to modify, to dramatize, to persuade and perhaps even amuse. To design is to transform prose into poetry.”

Others: Saul Bass, Lester Beall, Bradbury Thompson, Alexey Brodovitch

INCLUDED IN YOUR BOOK UNDER LATE MODERN: SWISS INTERNATIONAL AND PSYCHEDELIC (WE WILL LOOK AT THESE ERAS SEPARATELY IN CLASS)

THEMES A new simplicity Timeless simplicity and elegance Humor and wit

DESIGNS Unadorned, economical graphics Kinetic photographic accents Bringing back primitive painting, Victoriana, Art Nouveau, and Art Deco graphic motifs Painterly and drawn images reunited with typography as a total design Reducing an array of predictable images to a minimum of graphic elements Stripping visual complexity from messages Using simple pictographs that exert great graphic power Clean typography Integration of text and image Use of white space