Circulation Magazine Prototype

DECEMBER 2021

pablo rochat looking at it digitally

paula scher the goddess of graphic design

CIRCULATION

THE REFLECTION ISSUE

PAULA SCHER THE GODDESS OF GRAPHIC DESIGN PAGE 6

CONTENTS

LOS ANGLES SUMMER OLYMPICS PAGE 18

BAUHAUS AUSSTELLUNG PAGE 20

WATC H I N G W O R D S MOVE PAGE 16

WET PAGE

MAGAZINE 14

THE JEWISH MUSEUM PAGE 12

PABLO LOOKING IT PAGE

ROCHAT AT DIGITALLY 22

THE LINOTYPE MACHINE PAGE 34

der PAGE

FILM 32

P R O PA G A N D A PAGE 30

ECKMANN PAGE

SCHRIFTE 28

PAULA SCHER

exploring the work, life, and career of Paula Scher that how it all nearly never came to be

7 PEOPLE

THE GODDESS OF GRAPHIC DESIGN written by austen wallenfang

CIRCULATION

8

To those in the world of graphic design, Paula Scher does not need an introduction.

She has been called “a titan in Graphic Design,” “a legend,” “a rock star,” “the goddess of Graphic Design,” and many other admirable names. Much of her work is apart of pop culture, and she is simply one of the most famous postmodernist graphic designers and typographers.

A partner at one of the most prestigious design studios in the world and nearly fifty years of experience practicing graphic design at such a high level, her reputation precedes her – and she is virtuously inexhaustible. She has held hundreds of industry honors and awards, from being named to the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in 1998 to being the first woman awarded the Type Directors Club Medal in 2006. Whether you know her or not, odds are you have interacted with some of her work. From the identity systems for

Paula admits she did not perform well in most of the disciplines she experimented with while completing her general studies at the university, she remembers one moment with a professor that advanced her into graphic design. While she and other students worked with typography, trying to lay letters down on paper in neat, grided structures, Paula’s work would always look sloppy because it was never in as straight of lines. This prompted one of her teachers, Stanislaw Zagorski, to suggest that Paula “illustrate with type” and from that moment, she started experimenting with the graphic potential of typography and never looked back.

In her 2002 book, Make it Bigger, Paula talks about her inspirations while she was in school and the early parts of her career. She cites Zigzag rolling papers, specifically The Beatle’s album covers, Pushpin Studios, Victor Moscoso, and California psychedelia. Paula cites how her passion for eclectic typography progressed from Roman classicism through Victoriana, art nouveau, and art deco before modernism, constructivism, and combinations thereof.

“Paula has been designing in a state of play to create identities that breathe” Windows 8 and Shake Shack to the Citi Bank logo and The Public Theater identity, her work has reached many audiences.

With much of her work, Paula has been able to design in a state of play, create identities that breathe, and trailblaze for designers who follow – she is the goddess of graphic design.

In 2017, Paula Scher was featured in the Netflix documentary series Abstract: The Art of Design, where she talked about her start in graphic design, her design process, and her evolution of her work through her career. In 1970, Paula graduated with a BFA from the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. While at Tyler, she notes that she was not always the best in her class. Paula has described her experience on multiple podcasts, talking about how one of her professors doubted her and asked her why she was even going to school to become an artist. Although

With her reputation, she has been called a titan of postmodernist design, and her large variety of work reflects her postmodern abilities. As she has grown into different styles and embraced different eras, she is mainly a postmodernist because of how flexible her creativity can be in creating good design for a broad scope of clients ranging from corporate to the antithesis of corporate. When talking about her design process, Paula admits that her first ideas are usually her best ideas and that the best of those

believe any of her work is ever finished, right, or good enough and with every high, there is a smack in the face the next day.

After graduating from Tyler School of Art in 1970 with her BFA, she started working for CBS Records and designed album covers for big names in the music industry. Stephen Eskilson, in Graphic Design a New History, talks about her work with album covers and how the covers acted as mini-posters and “branded” the musical groups. As she talks about in her book, Make it Bigger, she was often inspired by Pushpin Studios and how influenced she was by their work in illustration during the 70s. Pushpin Studios stood out in the world of corporate and international styles that were incredibly prevalent at the time. As a studio, Pushpin had an incredibly eclectic and emotional style inspired by an incredibly unique variety of historical design eras. These eras include art nouveau, art deco, surrealism, American primitive paintings, Chinese wash drawings, and beyond. Looking at

“One of Paula’s most iconic works is the identity system for the public theater”

ideas come from being in a state of play. She credits taxi cabs for being where she comes up with her best work – finding value in the mundane and boring situations to spend time in thought and spark creative solutions. This is one of her favorite parts of graphic design, chasing the “Aha!” moments where “you really get it.” And she talks about this in her section of Peter Ahlberg’s 2016 book Please Make This Look Nice. She goes on to talk about how she doesn’t

how Paula’s work progressed, her early album covers were illustration-heavy and later pushed the imagery to the back, really focusing on the expressive potential of typography. In Abstract, she talks about how when artists did not have much in mind for their album covers, she would create highly expressive typographic options and play more with the expressive potential of type – and that was what she liked doing most.

One of Paula’s most iconic works is the visual identity for The Public Theater in New York. In 1994, after designing a series of posters promoting summertime shows for what we now know as The Public, Paula helped launch a new identity for the Public Theater. It needed to be bold and represent the people of New York while

9

PEOPLE

a hand painted poster for “Brin in ‘DA Noise Bring in ‘Da Funk”

paula scher working at her desk early in her career

CIRCULATION

10

11 PEOPLE

embodying the loud and proud essence of New maps that she makes. These maps illustrate different complicated narratives and are York. The inspiration came from a demonstration of dense with information such as counties, cities, zip codes, populations, and the like typographic weights in Rob Kelly’s book American – it is a very humanist approach to informational graphic design. In her book Maps, Wood Type. In Make it Bigger, Paula talks about Paula talks about her relationship with maps. Growing up, Paula learned that all the other designs presented in her first presentation maps were distorted in some way or another. Her father was a civil engineer and to George Wolfe, the director of The Public, and invented the Stereo Template to help correct map distortions, who believed serious how the option that was “too something” was people became engineers and not artists. None the less, he was impressed by Paula’s chosen. This “too something” design used different level of creativity - she mentions this in Abstract. Her inspiration for the typography weights and widths of letterforms in the same mark. is (again) connected to Pushpin Studios. This time, her inspiration is related to how She realized that she could combine different Seymore Chwast, Milton Glaser, Edward Sorel, and the company expressed the weights into the same mark to represent the spirit held by typography beyond the clean and mechanical typography prevalent different people within New York. The typographic from the corporate and international styles of the time. The eccentric maps are The identity that came after was something that could use of wit, pop colors, and intellectual thinking are present in the products of Pushpin be deconstructed and put back together – it was Studios and Paula’s eccentric maps. Although many of these maps are quite large (as something that could almost breathe. With this new tall as 12 feet), her stylistic approach is dense with information, ideas, and narrative system, Paula demonstrated the incredible amount and has transpired into commissioned work, environmental installations, and painting of character within typography and how you could beyond the canvas. Further conveying the global reputation she holds, she recently create something spectacular with immense power mentioned on a podcast that she is painting a Porsche for a client in Germany. by combining the sensibility of type with meaning.

In the historical context, this was a very constructivist Paula Scher is among the most notable and influential postmodernist graphic designers aesthetic. This can be observed in the typographic and is inspired daily by the idea she has not created her best work yet - and with roughly mark alongside the posters and collateral material fifty years of creating that says a lot. She is virtuously inexhaustible, able to create the that followed; expressive typography layered over best work subjective to the needs of her clients. She has radically shaped the field of cut-out images using bright colors. The system is graphic design and continues to push forward incredible humanist design that stretches incredibly flexible and can adapt to different types boundaries. And although she never considered herself a feminist, she has paved the way of imagery but primarily used photographs. This for women in graphic design and beyond. Her constructivist work is widely appreciated system worked so well that it would eventually be around the world. Paula’s early work with album covers showcases incredible use of copied quite often by other designers. The system illustration and imagery in graphic design but evolved eloquently into an expressive designed for The Public continues to be something typographic style that was bold and original. She exhibits an impressive scope of design that breathes, performs, and evolves to this day. solutions that range from adaptable corporate identities to the everperforming and breathing constructivist identities for institutions like The Public. With all of the accolades Another set of Paula’s work that is quite notable is to go alongside her incredible history of work, she has more than earned the title of the impressively large, handpainted, typographic “The Goddess of Graphic Design.”

THE JEWISH MUSEUM

CIRCULATION

12

xWhen looking at the team of all-stars, it is quite apparent because of how much depth is in this case study and branding identity system. It is truly something that one person would not be able to do on their own in a reasonable amount of time. Also included in the branding is a processing app for photos, which is quite spectacular. This project includes so many digital pieces, with spectacular animations by Zipeng Zhu and other talented designers.

This project is important not for just being incredibly fascinating, but because of who lead it – Jessica Walsh. Jessica Walsh is an

“The new identity is based off of the sacred geometry from Judaic tradition.” incredibly talented woman in graphic design and her work has been pushing the way for women in design. I chose this project for a couple reasons – one, I am a huge fan of Walsh and two, I have a lot of Jewish friends who have shared their traditions with me. The branding on this project I find spectacular and the collateral pieces are incredibly well done. I think this is a reflection of having such a good system in place. For Walsh, I have recently taken a liking to her work and creative direction. The vivid colors in her projects always leaves me with inspiration.

jessica walsh posing for

written by austen wallenfang

the sacred gemoetric grid used to create the identity

PROJECTS

the museum’s new logo

13

stationary used with the identiyt system

WET MAGAZINE

CIRCULATION

The first issue was released in 1976 by Leonard Koren and was originally a one-man operation that included artwork fro people he knew but soon grew to include people beyond that bubble.

The magazine’s content covered a variety of cultural issues but was renowned for its new wave graphic design aesthetic defined by improvisation and spontaneity. There was a large focus on bathing as performance art within the magazine. In addition the magazine focused on the developing scenes in Los Angeles of

leonard koren circa 1985

14

WET mar/april 1980 issue

written by austen wallenfang

“Leonard Koren’s design aesthetic for WET was experimental, imaginative, and incredibly expressive in the most punk way possible” punk, new wave, and the emerging gallery scene. Leonard Koren’s design aesthetic for WET was experimental, imaginative, and incredibly expressive in the most punk way possible. This magazine is important because while documenting the emergences of the LA punk scene this magazine helped to catalyze and formulate postmodern graphic design styles that would eventually be known as California New Wave. I chose WET as my artifact this week because I have always had a great appreciation for magazines.

When I was barely old enough to read I would always flip through my grandma’s extensive collection of National Geographic magazines – a very formal magazine in the sense of layouts, but the photographs consistently captivated my attention. In addition,

I have recently been working with a music publication on campus. This semester I was incredibly disappointed with the work that was put out and quite frankly embarrassed that my name was attached to it. The copy written for the issue was well done, but the layouts lacked a level of expression and missed an incredibly opportunity to experiment with the issue’s theme. Lastly, I have also been playing around with the idea of a UW Madison publication dedicated to the art and design fields – something uniquely expressive to exhibit different ideas and showcase student and faculty work while connecting campus to the greater design community.

internal spread of issue 9

cover of WET issue 9

internal spread of issue 9

PROJECTS

internal spread of issue 23

cover of WET issue 13

15

internal spread of issue 9

CIRCULATION

16

written by austen wallenfang

For my eleventh artifact I will be talking about a notebook titled Watching Words Move which was designed by Robert Brownjohn around in 1959. The word “designed” feels like the wrong word to use in this case because the notebook is comprised of a series of studies pertaining to the graphic potential of words. On each page, in black lettering on white paper, was often more than one composition that took a word written in Helvetica and animated the words by cutting them up, rearranging the letters, cutting through words horizontally or vertically, or sometimes removing

“a series of studies exploring the graphic potential of words“ letters all together. These studies and the ones that came after it were all incredibly important because they showed the graphic design world how expressive type could be without even moving away from neutral typefaces. These studies lucidly showed how much type could truly speak and how much potential already exists in implied visual meanings and where letters are placed on the page. I chose this as my artifact this week because this was the first formal graphic design exercise Iever did. Before I transferred to UW Madison, I took an intro to graphic design class at my previous university. The first exercise we did was this very one. Without the use of color or anything besides our words in Helvetica we brought them to life. Below is probably my favorite of the ones I designed over a year ago. It was interesting to me to see such an artifact like this after completing the exercise.

robert brownjohn

WATCHING WORDS MOVE

a study exploring “again” “equal” and “bloated”

PROJECTS

a study exploring “stop” and “end”

a study exploring “sex” “tunnel” and “surprise”

17

the cover of “watching words move”

written by austen wallenfang

CIRCULATION

The artifact I chose for this week, is more of a project than a specific singular item. I am choosing to do this week’s reflection on Deborah Sussman’s visual identity for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. The visual language that Sussman, her team, and the Olympic organizing committee were trying to replace was one that was extremely patriotic to the United States. Their final product was referred to as “fiesta federalism” and, as designed, took form in reflecting the culture of southern

deborah sussman

18

poster for the 84 olympics

Los Angeles Summer Olympics

“everything created was torn down just as fast and many of the materials were rented” California and other subtropical and tropical areas. The final product was an incredibly vibrant and adaptable to many forms with its 150 interchangeable design components. The most brilliant part of the identity was how temporary it was. Nothing was built permanently for the 1984 Olympics and everything created was torn down just as fast – many of the materials were rented. It is also important to note that this was the first Olympics to be televised and the environmental graphics acted as if not doubling as television sets. I chose this work for my reflection this week because I have always been incredibly fascinated with the Olympic games. I played a lot of sport growing up, and grew up in a family of artsits. To me, the Olympics is like my two worlds colliding. Art is culture and the vehicle that brought so much rich culture together was sport. There is so much work that goes into the Olympics every time they happen, and it gets me incredibly excited every time. There truly isn’t anything like it. Maybe one day I can dream to help contribute to the creative direction for a US-hosted Olympic games.

sussman’s brand applied to pillars in the olympic villiage

PROJECTS

the entrance to the olympics

19

the document outlining branding for the games

CIRCULATION

written by austen wallenfang

The artifact I chose for this week is a poster from the Bauhaus.

Titled Bauhaus Ausstellung, and produced in 1923 by Fritz Scleifer, this constructivist style poster is of an abstract human figure – an abstract facial profile to be more specific. The facial profile is represented with a large and slightly opaque red square representing the eye and then light blue rectangles outlining and defining the front contour of the face along the nose, mouth, chin and neck. This poster has an incredible sense of constructivism

“With this poster, the Bauhaus had officially alligned itself with the machine aesthetic” and industry and was designed with the intention of moving the Bauhaus forward and away from the more arts and crafts direction of the early Bauhaus. With this poster, the Bauhaus officially aligned itself with the machine aesthetic – moving visually forward into the future and using the tools of engineers in design. The idea of moving towards industry was because industry is more neutral and cultivates less creative expression and more critical thinking. It is important to note that the face used in this poster was adapted from a Joost Schmid exhibition poster from 1923 and that this design would later be included in a remake of the Bauhaus guild. I chose this piece because it immediately caught my eye when I was reading the text. Also I have lately been fascinated with design that conveys complex ideas with incredibly simple forms and geometric shapes. The use of a grid and the color blocking within it are incredibly fascinating to me. I also chose this piece because relative to the designing of the figure, this poster sits in the middle between its original design use and ending up in the Bauhaus guild.

fritz scleifer

20

BAUHAUS AUSSTELLUNG

PROJECTS

the original joost schmid poster design from 1923

21

the original design of the bauhaus ausstellung poster

Pablo Rochat

CIRCULATION

22

exploring the work, life, and career of the commedic digital artist Pablo Rochat

written by austen wallenfang

Looking At It Digitally

CIRCULATION

24

ded to For this assignment, I have deci al artists, research one of my favorite digit d his foun I r yea last Pablo Rochat. This lling scro up ed work on Instagram and end I day through most of his account the first he has followed him. Many projects that 510K with unt, acco posted on his Instagram a lot h oug Alth followers, are quite comical. first, at , of his work that I was familiar with arching was quite satirical, I enjoyed rese h more muc so to me him because it exposed – most ut abo of his work that I did not know for big e of which being illustrations he’s don and the companies like Nike, Adult Swim New York Times.

Rhode In 2011, Pablo graduated from the BFA in Island School of Design with a me beca he there Graphic Design. From re befo rds Reco a designer at Matador ming moving on to Microsoft and then beco rstien the creative director for Goodby Silve creative & Partners – a San Francisco based up his ned ope company. In 2017 he has and own studio, Pablo Rochat Studio, dently. successfully been working indepen s with When looking at how his work align s with this class, it most appropriately align es, and the first few projects – altered imag al work form e mor His gifs most specifically. keting mar for provides creative solutions more ide campaigns that yield gifs to prov rations. dimension and character to his illust ks, I wor nt rece his ugh While looking thro the of e som by found myself mesmerized it think I . gifs before moving on to the next es piec is also important to note that in all his in rved obse be to nt mea seem like they are t, prin for e mad are a digital sense and if they ns, ratio like some of the New York Times illust more he will have a digital version that has res at animation and depth. The two pictu by ted crea and the right have been altered him ing Pablo, and I highly recommend look up because his work is quite fun!

25

PEOPLE

a graphic created for the cover of the New Yorker titled “ The Loonacy of Text Therapy”

s 10”

“Little Fanfare as a Bull Turn

CIRCULATION

26

lane crawford x pablo rochat 20 18 summer colle

27

PEOPLE

ction and 2019 winter collection

ECKMANN SCHRIFTE

CIRCULATION

leonard koren circa 1985

28

written by austen wallenfang

This week, I decided to choose Otto Eckmann’s typeface Eckmann Schrifte. This artifact is important because it was one of the first typefaces that pushed German design away from using blackletter script which was very traditional in early German design. The exaggerated calligraphy and highly ornamental letterforms were seen everywhere - there is a rich history and relationship between medieval quill writing styles, the German language, and blackletter script. Acknowledging said history and

“one of the first typefaces to push German design away from using blackletter script” talking about blackletter script, it is important to acknowledge that these traditional German letterforms are different from the decorative letterforms that are often times illegible.

Talking further about Eckmann Schrifte – this typeface tries to break away from the folk tradition of blackletter script by eliminating the classical flourishes, but remains connected to that traditional style of German lettering by remaining heavy and having a similar rhythm. This typeface is a great example of how art nouveau frequently varied in style but stayed true to the traditional design values while tying to break away from said traditions.

I choose this as my artifact for this week because I have always been fascinated with typeface design. There is so much that goes into designing a typeface; from the simple optical illusions around contrast within letterforms and the infinite possibilities I can’t seem to ever get enough. I appreciate how this is a transitional specimen when it comes to typeface design and moving towards what we now know as san serif / gothic type.

type specimens of prototyped eckmann schrifte

PROJECTS

type specimens of prototyped eckmann schrifte

29

eckmann schrifte basic character set

CIRCULATION

30

written by austen wallenfang

savile lumley

MANIPULATING PROPAGANDA

This week, I decided to choose the poster titled “Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War?” by Savile Lumley from 1915. This poster is an incredible piece because of how simple in composition, complex in the underlaying story, and highly effective in the world of propaganda. More specifically, this piece is a piece of manipulation propaganda. The poster is composed of an illustration with a quote at the bottom. The illustration is of a man and his, what I must assume are his son and daughter. With his daughter sitting on his lap and his son sitting on the floor playing with toy soldiers, he looks off in the distance (towards the viewer) while he is asked the quote listed on the bottom of the poster. The quote reads “Daddy,

“manipulation propaganda that has been manipulated to cover contemporary ideas” what did YOU do in the Great War?” This is a recruitment for war poster with an incredible guilt trip. It is historically significant because it points out the value of a clear, understandable, and manipulative concept in the world of propaganda.

I chose this piece this week, because I have seen this same message in the last six months regarding police brutality and other social struggles within the United States. This artifact is a piece of manipulation propaganda that has been manipulated to cover

contemporary ideas, both ironically and un ironically. I will admit it was successful again with both myself and peers as we noticed the historical significance of what is currently happening in the US. We began imagining how our future children and grandchildren could ask us this same question. What would we say? Well that depends on the action or inaction we chose in the moment so we chose action. Looking back at this message, we definitely did not think about it in terms of manipulation or guilt tripping, but its quite clear now to understand the extent of this type of messaging.

PROJECTS

an adaptation of the original poster used at the 2017 climate and science marches

31

the original design by savile lumley in 1915

der FILM

CIRCULATION

For this week’s artifact, I chose to look at Swiss designer, Josef Müller-Brockmann’s poster titled The Film. This poster was made using offset printing. It’s purpose was to advertise a film series at a museum in Zürich. The poster uses type and space to communicate in relatively simple but incredibly inventive terms.

The word “der” is in grey with a black background, positioned slightly bleeding off the left edge. The word “Film” superimposed in front of “der” covering half of the “e” and “r.” Also a part of the

“poetic harmony of mathematical devision exists between the elements of the poster” composition is smaller red lettering that pertains to the film series.

This poster is important because of how indicative it is of the poetic harmony of mathematical division of the poster. It is one of his most iconic works and appeals to the modernist question “what do you need?”

I chose this piece because I am a big fan of Brockmann’s work and I love how he was able to execute the design of this poster and the many other posters that he designed – especially the one of the motorcycle and the child.

josef müller-brockmann

32

written by austen wallenfang

33

PROJECTS

the original design by savile lumley in 1915

CIRCULATION

written by austen wallenfang

One of the artifacts talked about in this week’s lecture is the linotype. Invented in 1986 German-American immigrant, Ottmar Merganthaler, the linotype was one of the first successful machines that was able to create lines of type and didn’t require individual letters to be set by hand for printing presses.

The machine operated in a way where keys would assemble a line of text via matrices that had small impressions on one side. The keys (90 characters and glyphs) were connected to

leonard koren circa 1985

34

THE LINOTYPE MACHINE

“small metal tubes filled impression of matrices with molten metal alloy [...] producing a full line of type ” small metal tubes of molten metal alloy. These small metal tubes filled impressions of the matrices with molten metal alloy. The product of this hot machine producing a full line of type. This invention meant the an incredible jump forward in efficiency.

Instead of having typesetters set individual letters, the entire line would be set at a much faster rate. Being able to print at a rate that was faster than ever before, more jobs were created because newspaper, book and magazine companies were able to expand.

This invention did not come to exist over night. Merganthaler spent nearly a decade refining his invention and getting it to

work. The need for the invention was great. So great that new York newspapers offered $500,000 to anyone who could reduce production time by 20-30 percent. Spoiler alert: Merganthaler was the winner.

This artifact has always interested me and I am not exactly sure why. I first learned about it when I was watching a PBS documentary with my dad when I was around 12 years old. It’s an exciting machine, and 12 year old me was definitely fascinated about molten metal being poured at the operators finger tips. As I type this essay and the pixels appear on my screen, I cant help but imagine the feeling of molten metal being poured instead.

PROJECTS

ottmar merganthaler and the linotype

35

a drawing of the linotype machine