THE NEW WAVE design movement

The New Wave design movement was popularized by Wolfgang Weingart, a typographer and designer. Weingart’s works were highlighted by his experimental use of typography. His type was commonly used as imagery at the expense of readability. Eventually Weingart shifted from designing to teaching, remaining a heavy influence to his students, one of which was April Greiman. New Wave design is characterized by playfulness that combined disco, French nouvelle, vague cinema, and suburban boredom among others. Primary shapes (such as circles, triangles, and squares) were reminiscent of movements like Bauhaus, De Stijl, and Constructivism. Primary colors were avoided and other colors like pink became more mainstream. Texture and pattern in repetitions and layers were also customary. New Wave became very commercial, especially in music and many people at the time associated it with cheesy MTV music videos.