Mid Century Modernism

Overview
The period starting with the advent of WW2 and stretching to the mid sixties is the time when contemporary design principles were defined and implemented throughout the western hemisphere. The output of this period is generally termed as mid century modernistic. Not only graphic design but architecture, industrial and object design reached standarts and fulfilled objectives that were initially established by the Bauhaus school in the 1920's during this time.

It is of course the Bauhaus masters' immigration to the Americas, due to the tragic developments of the 30's and 40's in Europe, that escalated this process. It is thus predominantly in the USA that the design elite of the period work and in Graphic Design the work of those years is generally termed as The New York School. The style that flourished in the mid 1950's in Europe, specifically Switzerland, and has retained its impact from then to today, i.e. Swiss Style is the subject of a separate page on this website and will not be dealt with here. The combination of the vast expertise and theory of these European intellectuals and the freshness, enthusiasm and vigour of their young American students as well as the resources available during the post war years in America led to the generation of a body of work in design that has yet to be surpassed.

Indeed the buildings of architects like Eero Saarinen, Charles Eames and Mies Van der Rohe; the layouts of Alexei Brodovich and graphic investigations of Bradbury Thompson; the famous Bertoia and Knoll furniture are as contemporary today as they were in the 1950's when they were designed. As a specific example: Very little has changed where magazine design is concerned: Vogue and Harper's today look very much the same as they did then, even down to the typefaces used.

All in all the post World War 2 years are a remarkable period in Design and Architecture, a period that has set the standarts under which we work today: Simplicity, elegance, functionality, negative space and grid systems.

Graphic Design
Objects
Architecture
Art


Graphic Design



Paul Rand

Alexei Brodovich

Cipe Pineles


Anonymous Vogue magazine covers

Saul Bass

Herbert Matter

Herbert Bayer


Massimo Vignelli

Olle Eksell

Max Bill

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Objects

Bertoia Chair (left), Thayer Coggin lounge chair (right)

Chairs by Charles Eames (top left), Breuer (top right) and Eero Saarinen (bottom)

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Architecture

Buildings by Eero Saarinen: Milwaukee Art Museum (top), St. Louis Arc (center), TWA Terminal, New York (bottom)

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Art

Alexander Calder

Joan Miro

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