I

CONSTRUCTIVISMT

YP

OG

RP

HI

C

JO

UR

NA

L

II

C

O

N

T

E

N

T

S

III

Introduction

Historical Context

Theoretcial context

Experiments

Typeface

Bibliography

IV-V

VI-VIX

X-XIII

XIV-XXXI

XXXII-XLIX

L-LI

IV

NTRODUCTION

The end of an era brings about

the new. Revolution is in the air and

new ways of design are taking over,

traditionalist methods of old are

shunned and a new way of thinking is

needed. Artists and designers are no

long the elite of society. They are the

engineer, the worker, the labourer

and the constructor.

Constructivism was an

avant-garde art movement that

originated in Russia shortly after

the revolution in 1917, it was

very strongly associated with

communism. Although short lived

its bold aesthetic quality meant

it has influenced a variety of

contemporary designers.

Contemporary

Neville Brody

Jaime Gili

Oscar Niemeyer

Vaughan Oliver

Historical

El Lissitzky

Vladimir Tatlin

Naum Gabo

Alexander Rodchenko

Vladimir Mayakovsky

The Stenburg Brothers

Aleksei Gan

Lyubov Popova

Kasimir Malevich

Artists associated with constructivism

V

VI

ISTORICAL CONTEXT 1917REVOLUTION

“Death to Art!It arose naturallyDeveloped naturally And disappeared naturally.”

VII

1917, Russia is in revolution.

In these new terbulent times

there is no place for the ways of

old and the Artist elite is pushed

to the side by the new avant

garde designers.

It is a time of industry, of new

materials and of design created

for the people.

VIII

El Lissitzky’s ‘Beat the white

with the red wedge’ is an iconic

constructivist design and a good

example of the simple geometric

shapes and contrasting bold

colours that are associated with

constructivist design. The design

is seemingly abstract but the

message is clear and bold.

IX

El Lissitzky, Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge, 1919

X

heoretical context

“Let the picture imitate nothing”

Albert Gleizes.

Constructivist thinking was

heavily intertwined with communism

and marx theory, it was a socialist

design movement with goals aimed

towards the benefit of greater

society. Ideas of ‘non-objective art’

and art without subject matter were

explored. Art that had an aspect

personal to the individual became

unfashionable and functional design

for the masses was in.

XI

The Slogans of the Constructivists

1. Down with art. Long live technic.

2. Religion is a lie, Art is a lie.

3. Kill human thinking’s last remains

tying it to art.

4. Down with guarding the traditions

of art. Long live the Constructivist

Technician.

5. Down with art. This only

camouflages humanity’s impotence.

6. The collective art of the present is

constructive life.

Stephen Bann ‘The tradition of

constructivism’ pp-9

XII

The Constructivists seemed just

as interested in the philosophy of

their movement as much as their

designs. There was a lot of emphasis

on renouncing the old ways of art and

looking at design from a more scientific

or logical perspective with many artists

likening themselves to engineers

Alexander Rodchenko .The Board for the Leningrad

branch of the State publishing house . 1924

XIII

The movement explored a number

of different themes throughout design

including-

Mathematics

Chance or random design

Optical phenomena (optical illusions)

Movement

Light

Colour

Space

xperimental stages

Constructivist designers

used alot of paper cut outs to

create geometric shapes and

compositions. so i began by

making some simple designs out of

coloured card.

XIV

XV

“I sought refuge in the form of the square.”

kasimir Malevich 1913

XVI

Letterforms can be found in unlikely

places. Here a well used cutting

board was used to create abstarct

letterforms made up from random

straight lines and shapes

XVII

XVIII

Taking the paper cut out techniqes

further to create letters. A successful

technique and a good basis for future

development. The bold simple shapes

and colours are similar with those

associated with constructivist designs.

XIX

Experiments using positive space to create shapes.

“Treat nature in terms of the cylinder, the sphere, and the cone,”

Paul Cézanne.

“we declare uncompromising war on art!”

the 1st working group of constructivists 1921 moscow.

XX

XXI

Initial pencil layouts explorng different shape combinations

XXII

“long live the communist expression of material construction!”

the 1st working group of constructivists 1921 moscow.

XXIII

The aim was to make letters that

were basic, bold and yet sturdy as if

products of industry. A lot of emphasis

was placed on using triangles, columns

and semi cicles with strong contrasting

colours for maximum effect.

Original sketches

were taken further into

digital format. Recreated

using the pathfinder tool.

XXIV

XXV

A quick and effective method

of working with shapes and

using traditional Constructivist

techniques in a modern way.

XXVI

Here the technique of

photomontage was explored.it

was a teqchnique used widely

by the constructivists. It is an

interesting and unique way of

constructing letterforms

XXVII

XXVIII

Many of the original designs

were slightly more complex than

they needed to be. So in keeping

with simple Constructivist thinking

they were simplified down to more

basic shapes, losing the coloured

backround aswell.

“The collective art of the present is constructive life.”

XXIX

XXX

XXXI

Through experimenting i’ve

found that limiting the colours i

use creates the best results, black

and red work well together and

ive stopped including grey and a

coloured backround. it’s become

apparent that the letters need to

be simple and bold in order to be

legible and satisfy the contructivist

element of the typeface.

XXXII

he

ypeface

L E T T E R S

N U M B E R S

P U N C T U A T I O N

XXXIII

XXXIV

L

e

t

t

e

r

s

XXXV

XXXVI

L

e

t

t

e

r

s

XXXVII

XXXVIII

L

e

t

t

e

r

s

XXXIX

XL

L

e

t

t

e

r

s

XLI

XLII

L

e

t

t

e

r

s

XLIII

NU

MB

ER

S

XLIV

XLV

XLVI

NU

MB

ER

S

XLVII

Pu

nc

tu

at

i on

C

o

m

m

a

F

u

l

l

s

t

o

p

C

o

l

o

n

Se

m

i-

co

lo

n

H

y

p

h

e

n

Ex

cl

am

at

io

n

Ma

rk

Qu

es

ti

on

M

ar

k

XLVIII

XLIX

C

o

m

m

a

F

u

l

l

s

t

o

p

C

o

l

o

n

Se

m

i-

co

lo

n

H

y

p

h

e

n

Ex

cl

am

at

io

n

Ma

rk

Qu

es

ti

on

M

ar

k

L

LI

LII

LIII

LIV

B

I

B

L

I

O

G

R

A

P

H

Y

LV

Website articles

<http://simonthebold.wordpress.com/2009/07/05/constructivists/> (2009)

<http://www.lilithgallery.com/arthistory/constructivism/> (unknown date)

<http://jesseturri.com/wordpress/?p=210> (2009)

<http://artpulsemagazine.com/constructivist-jungle-interview-with-jaime-gili/> (2010)

<http://artandthis.typepad.com/art_and_this/2009/06/mark-danceys-graphics-and-russian-constructivism-.html> (2009)

Videos

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PduzgLz9bQY> Rodchenko and Povova.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC6fgr5ggHQ> Alexander Rodchenko smashing the mouldbbc 4 ‘the art of Russia’ series.

<http://channel.tate.org.uk/media/35371670001/24280276001> ‘Constructivism and the art of everyday life’ series of lectures on constructivism - from the tate channel.

Books

Ricky, G,1968.Constructivism - origins and evolution. George Braziller Inc.

Bann, S 1974 The Tradition of Constructivism. Viking press.

LVI

“Down with art. Long live technic.”