I was having a conversation the other night with some designer friends and we were trying to come up with a name to encapsulate this style (example by Erik Nitsche). I have heard it generally referred to as "modernism" but we wanted something a bit more specific. In particular it should refer to this sort of subject matter; mid-century technical manuals, industry literature, signage, World’s Fair campaigns, Olympics campaigns; basically any design commissioned by an institution or by a company, like General Dyanmics, who doesn’t market directly to the public. I suggested "Institutional Modernism" and I think "Industrial Modernism" was thrown around.
So is there an established term for this sort of design? This seemed like a very unique time in history when a large amount of money and talent were directed at projects which weren’t corporate ad campaigns directly targeted at the general public. I think this fact alone shaped the output and resulted in some of the best graphic design the world may ever see. Whatever the case may be it’s designs like these, more than anything else, that have influenced and informed my own application of typography. It seems that no one has done it better before or since.
FYI: As Vytis quickly pointed out, the headline reads "Atomy na sluzhbi myra" – Translated: “Atoms – serving the world” In a servant-master way…"
As many of you noted, iTunes originally only posted "The Daydream" as a single; "The Disconnect" was supposed to be included as the B-side. The error has been fixed; the single now shows up as a new item with both songs included. Unfortunately it is now missing all the original comments and ratings. At any rate you can now get the full version of the single here.
Others have asked whether there is currently any alternative to iTunes for purchasing the songs. Ghostly released the single as a 2 month exclusive on iTunes, so when that time is up it will be available everywhere, including right here for direct purchase.
Some great shots of the Carl Zeiss Universarium IX from the Griffith Observatory in LA from Metroblogging LA via FFFFOUND. Someone needs to start producing scale replicas of this thing, I’d be first in line.
Last week I noted that this reminded me of some fractal-like plate designs but I couldn’t remember the source. Joshua Gajownik was kind enough to fill in the blank. The second image is a plate from Klaus Haapaniemi’s Taika series for Iittala. The detail in these is amazing.
Jakub sent me the Timothy Saccenti video for Animal Collective’s "Peacebone"; a perfectly amazing visualization of a perfectly amazing song. I’ve embedded the Youtube version for ease of use, but I’d encourage you to check out the higher quality Quicktime version here. It does a little better justice to the audio / visual.
A nice plate from Owen Jone’s 1856 "The Grammar of Ornament". I really like this original version best; I have the new version which is not quite as vibrant. I hear there is a "professional artist" edition on CD-ROM which is supposed to be truer to the original. Via Eric Gjerde‘s Flickr
