Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Born out of necessity during the 1990's, constructivist ideas provided an explanation
for the unpredictable fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War in a way that the
longstanding, well-established theories of realism and liberalism could not. This is because
constructivism does not hold to the assumption that there is a system of some sort inherently
in place in the world and that all events will occur in concordance with this system.
focus on construction. Objects were to be created not in order to express beauty, or the artist's
outlook, or to represent the world, but to carry out a fundamental analysis of the materials and
forms of art, one which might lead to the design of functional objects.
Constructivist art often aimed to demonstrate how materials behaved - to ask, for
instance, what different properties had materials such as wood, glass, and metal. The form an
artwork would take would be dictated by its materials (not the other way around, as is the case
in traditional art forms, in which the artist 'transforms' base materials into something very
different and beautiful). For some, these inquiries were a means to an end, the goal being the
translation of ideas and designs into mass production; for others it was an end in itself, a new
The seed of Constructivism was a desire to express the experience of modern life - its
dynamism, its new and disorientating qualities of space and time. But also crucial was the
desire to develop a new form of art more appropriate to the democratic and modernizing goals
workers on par with scientists in their search for solutions to modern problems.
You’ll see it in the sans serif sign outside a hipster coffee shop, or in the monochrome
patterned print of an expensive wallpaper. It looks curiously fresh. But lying behind much of
what feels like breezy, urban, 21st century design is, in fact, the impact of a momentous period
in history – that of a turbulent revolution. Today’s graphic designers, knowingly or not, owe a
debt to the intrepid designers who were inspired, embattled and even persecuted by this
momentous revolution. Many designers now employ these vintage mannerisms without any
concept of the struggles that brought them or why they were suppressed for decades. Others
understand that these -isms represent leaps forward and backward in modern culture. Visual
language, like any other, is an amalgam of past and present, and the Russian Revolution’s
contribution is endemic to the way a wide swath of typography, imagery and composition is
made – a way that would not have existed without the crucible of revolution.
Minimalist colour. The Modern colour palette was minimal, primary and bold. Red was
the primary colour – the colour of the proletariat, associated with working class revolutionary
forces since the French Revolution of 1789. When paired with black, it creates a startling visual
combination (see El Lissitzky’s Red Wedge, below). In addition to that pairing, yellow, blue
and green were also frequently used alone or in combination. Colour ink was at a premium, so
the use of just one or two colours was common; full or four-colour reproduction was expensive,
the old typographic order, and before Socialist Realism came to dominate the visual landscape,
avant garde typography was a defining element of the new Soviet aesthetic. Modern
were readable, but they were not composed on a page in the tradition manner of one or two
typefaces in logical columns; instead there were multiple sizes and shapes within the same
word or sentence.
Fonts were scrounged from wherever they could be found and the masters of the form,
El Lissitzky, Solomon Talingater, Alexander Rodchenko and Gustav Klucis among them,
combined serif and sans serif poster typefaces – with the type made in both metal and wood –
to build veritable letterform word monuments. In this advertisement, Rodchenko uses bold sans
serif letterforms that are skewed to give a sense of motion and dynamism.
his approach defined a short-lived Soviet style, but were eventually squeezed out in favour of
Socialist Realism once Stalin came to power. Constructivist typography did, however, survive
the Stalinist purge outside of the USSR, where it had a lasting impact on designers. In the
1920s, it fell under the umbrella of “The New Typography,” noted for its asymmetry, sans
serif and slab serif geometry and lack of ornamentation. During the 1920s and 30s, this mode
of communication was conveyed through professional trades and independent avant garde
magazines, exhibitions and visiting professorships throughout the world, becoming the visual
For hippies, The term hippie is derived from "hip" or "hipster" used by the beats to describe
someone who was part of their scene. It literally means to know, so someone who's "hip" is
wise. Hippies never adopted this term for themselves. They preferred to be called the "beautiful people".
However the media played up "hippy" as the catch-all phrase to describe the masses of young people
growing their hair long, listening to rock music, doing drugs, practising free love, going to various
gatherings and concerts, demonstrating and rejecting the popular culture of the early 60's. Hippies were
the adults of the baby boom post-World War II. They wanted to test and enjoy the limits of life adopting
such as the USA marches on Washington and civil rights marches, and anti-Vietnam war
demonstrations including the 1968 Democratic Convention. A popular slogan of the time was “Make