Page 95 - Studio International - April 1968

J. 12th Century scraps of paper, as geologists have recreated the
English MS Dinotheriurn and the Mastodon from fragments of bone
preserved in museums of natural history. It is natural
2. CO\·er design and, indeed, inevitable that this collection should have
Jan Tscl1ichold been formed by Dr John Johnston, who was interested in
19:3, social history and an archaeologist before he became
a printer and learnt to respect what he is not afraid to
call rubbish long ago whilst digging for scraps of
Greek manuscripts in the dust-heaps of ancient Egypt.
At that time it was not so generally recognized as
it is today that what was buried as rubbish may be
exhumed as treasure. Some of the most valuable records
of our progenitors have been rescued from the
middens of prehistoric man. Rubbish is, after all, a
relative term; it may be anything for which there is no
immediate use; anything, in fact, may be rubbish
Funktionel Typografi at some time or in some place.' 4
i
\\:hat is it then, that makes one uneasy about the
inroads of pseudo-revival into typography? What is the
place of the art nouveau 'rc,·ival' beneath the
umbrella of' pop' ?
It would be facile to attribute the art nouwau revival in
print design merely to art and design schools although
they have provided fertile ( I have heard DipAD
graphic design being briefed to 'do it in art
nouveau'). Competition for the teenage market and
mass production, promoted the art nouveau fashion to an
Whistler's title page has more in common extent that earlier generations could not have imagined.
with Tschichold's cover or the 12th Century This is equally true of the many
English MS than with pseudo art nouveau other pop art ingredients and their reflection in design.
typography Design magazine, having described 'post-modern' as
'essentially a non-literate, non-verbal, non-theorist
movement' and introduced the concept of'freewheeling
design thinking' ,5 says 'the chief criticism that must
:l. Ti tic pag-e be made of Post-Modern design is that it has produced
.l McN very little original work. Those of us who have
Whistler championed the movement, not as a rejection of Modern
189.'l design but as a logical step in its development,
welcomed it not entirely for the intrinsic quality of the
THE GENTLE ART things which it produced in the initial stages, but as
v
much for the creative designing which ,.e hoped would
MAKING ENEMIES
blossom in a later, non-derivative period. The sad
AS PLEASINGLY EXEMPLIFIED thing is that Post-Modern has still not produced its own
IN MANY INST .A,NCES, WHEREIN THE SERIOUS ONES contemporary style or handwriting .... Overall,
OF THIS EARTH, CAREFULLY EXASPERA'TED, HAYL
BEEN PRETTILY SPURRED ON TO UNSEEMLINESS and particularly in the area of industrial design, there
AND INDISCRE'TION, WHILE OYERCOME ST AN has been surprisingly little.'
UNDUE SENSE OF RICH1
Is it really surprising? If indiscriminate eclecticism is
r
mistaken for 'f ee experiment' then surprise and sad
disappointment can hardly be wondered at. You can be
'non-literate, non-verbal, non-theorist' and yet
creative in many arts; within limits you can be in
marginal fields of design; but certainly not in industrial
design for essential products and services, and
hardly at all in engineering or the communication of
information. To say 'The arts, design, and engineering
Ul1''00� '1/CIJLIII
WJU.l,UI HEl."llMA.\'N LTD
are becoming increasingly intertwined and necessary
to each other', just does not get to grips with the problem.
The word 'marginal' has been used advisedly, and by no
means pejoratively. The word 'design' is often
bandied about loosely; just as 'typography' is used to
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