the meggs reading introduces two graphic designers and details how they make use of tension in their work. the first is piet zwart, a designer from the netherlands in the 1920s, who is compared to lissitzky as another pioneer. the work in question is a spread from a cableworks catalog from 1928, dominated by 45 & 90 degree angles. the images are presented in their proper vertical orientation but all of the text is set along diagonals. an arrow that runs parallel to the type unifies the two halves of the composition while they remain separate halves of a spread. the second designer is cheryl a. brzezinski, about whom we are not told anything else. there is so much going on in this poster design for "new dutch graphics" that it is something of a miracle that the piece holds together so well. divided into a light side and a dark side, both text and imagery cross the dividing line and interact with it in different ways. tulips are held together by sheer content properties alone, because their appearance is astoundingly different in every instance, especially the largest, which is divided into halves with photographic duotone one one side and a high contrast line drawing on the other. the repetition of the windmills is 2/3rds encapsulated in whirling circles and while one windmill is large and inverted to balance the darker side out.
what i'm learning from this is how little it takes to bind together a design, as though all it takes is one simple, well placed element, and how precarious a composition could look while still being effective. tension is all about being one misstep away from chaos while holding it all in with simplicity and precision.
i'd be so curious to learn more about the mathematics of composing things in this way... my sense (when i have one) of composition is, at this juncture, rather instinctive and indistinct.
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