The Tate museum defines postmodernism as…

a reaction against the ideas and values of modernism. The period that followed modernism’s dominance in cultural theory and practise in the early and middle decades of the 20th century. It is associated with scepticism, irony and philosophical critiques of universal truths and objective reality.

 

 

The Spirit of the Decade…

By the 1970s the modern era was drawing to a close in art, design, politics and literature. The cultural norms of western society were starting to be scrutinised. Within the minorities, there was a call for equality and postmodernism was used to define this climate of cultural change and a need for more cultural diversity. It challenged the order and clarity of modernism. Designers began to break away from the International Typographic Style, which had been so prevalent since the Bauhaus. It gained a string foothold with the generation of designers in the 1970s, who wanted to break away from the thoroughly refined and explored international style. These designers were nicknamed the ‘Me Generation’ a because they created compositions and designs by placing forms into space and  making colour choices simple because it felt right to them, making the designs eccentric and subjective. While these young designers wanted to rebel against the typographic style, they didn’t want to cancel it all together, but to challenge its borders and play around with it. They still represented the previous design movement, but wanted to approach it in a more experimental way.

 

 

 

Not that straight forward…

Postmodernism can’t be described as one coherent movement as it lacks a set of definitive characteristics. It is best described as more of a set of styles and attitudes that were related in how they reacted against modernism. It sparked a wave of art movements that reintroduced representation from disparate sources and experimented with many elements of art and design which challenged previous definitions of art.

 

 

 

New Wave Typography…

With traits of Swiss style, postmodern contrasts and harmonies, and geometric shapes and isometric patterns, New Wave typography was a mix of styles that moved away from the International style. It focused on playfulness rather than focusing on the grid and designers opened many paths to be explored through graphic design. They created a new kind of form and function while adding more intuitive and emotional responses to the layout of their designs.

 

 

 

Wolfgang Weingart…

One of the pioneers of ‘New Wave’ typography, Weingart is an internationally recognised figure with his iconic work within graphic design and typography. He developed a certain set of skills including linocut, woodblock printing and typesetting after completing a applied graphic arts program at the Merz Academy in Stuttgart. 

 

 

In 1963, Weingart began to study with Emil Ruder and Armin Hoffman, both were prominent graphic designers at the time. He worked under their influence as a student before becoming a teacher where he developed different methods to teach his students. Weingart began to question the order and cleanness of typography and like a lot of the new, emerging artists in the 1970s, he felt that the international style had become too refined and simply overused. As a result, a common apsect of his designs was the complete rejection of using the right angle as a way of organising his compositions. 

 

 

 

Over the years 1968 to 1974, Weingart worked with lead type and letterpress systems. He wanted to breathe a new spirit into the typography of order and neatness by questioning the premises, rules and surface appearances. The traditions of typography and visual-language systems were being rethought, for example to emphasise an important word in a headline, Weingart made it white on a chunky black rectangle. As result of the changeover from metal to photographic type systems in the 1960s, an obsession with having tight type, which Weingart discarded with his exploration into wide letter spacing.

 

 

 

 

MEGGS’ History of Graphic Design by Meggs and Purvis

http://sarajacobsendesign.no/New_wave.html

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/postmodernism