The Search for a Universal Language

Key lecture points:

• The idea that was carried through De Stijl, and ultimately the Bauhaus, was that if you understood the basic elements of form, there must be a universal language. This search for a universal language actually focused in on a particular movemnt that is now pervasive throughout graphic design -- the origins of Information Design.
• Designers align with the notion of engineering - objective, rational, systematic, and programmatic. This becomes a belief system of values for a new post-war world that comes to rely on electronic information management.
• Rudolph Modley was one of the most distinguised pupils of Otto Neurath and is known for his large and comprehensive dictionaires and handbooks of symbols.
• The isotype sets the strategy for isotype design. From this point on, design systems become a pervasive metaphor for design -- the idea of systematic thinking. This came from Behrens, but it's precisely at this moment that you graphic design put its arms around this idea.
• Ladislay Sutnar (Czech) defined information design for a generation of designers at mid-century. He used bleeds extensively with a visual coding system of number, words, and rules. He layed out how someone should design for large catalog-like information; repetitive structures with subtle differences need a system of stripes and bars and other elements to create a structure which allows the complex information to be easily understood.
• Modernism and the NY School -- The flight from Hitler and Fascism created the greatest transitional migration of intellectual and creative talent in history.
• American design was reflected in its culture -- egalitarian with capitalistic attitudes and values. American design was pragmatic, intuitive, and informal.
• Lester Beal literally took on European Modernism and tried to do something with it. He used constructivist layouts and used American fonts -- because there were no modernist fonts. America wasn't interested in modernism so he was forced to use type from the nineteenth century.
• Paul Rand, unlike Beal, was very sophisticated and cultured; aware of exhibitions and, ultimately, traveled in the right circles. He got the right clients and lots of literary magazines allowed him to design a real new aesthetic for modernism -- the idea that it's not about pure form, it's the idea of message-making. "Smart" design; making the unfamiliar familiar.
• Alexey Brodovitch taught editorial designers how to use photography effectively, making it the dominant tool in editorial layout -- introducing techniques like full-bleed photoraphy, sans serif type, as well as white space and asymmetrical layouts.
• The International Style / Swiss Design. The origins of the Swiss grid was actually catalyzed by the need to set multiple languages in a document or book. Early Swiss design saw the designer as a conduit or facilitator for delivering important information with clarity and relevancy.

The idea of a universal language is so powerful; a true pictorial system which transcends the barriers created by different countries and dialects and even rivalries between nations to create a true and clearly understood language. McLuhan's idea of a "global village" is a wonderful one -- and its something which I believe is very close to being acheived, especially with the technologies available to the human race at this moment. If a universal language was ever perfected, we would no longer be held by the fear of visiting a different country simply because we cannot speak in their tongue -- because we could find what we need, when we need it, based on a system of comprehensible isotypes.