Page 59 - Studio International - September 1968

programme and methods, its architecture and environ-
mental design, and its typography and graphic design.
This latter gradually developed from two ideas, and
into two formal streams. In idea first graphic design as
a direct propaganda servant of the Bauhaus idea, second
as a reflection of that idea. In formal approach first as a
typographical equivalent of the machine-based product,
second as a jeu d'esprit vehicle for self expression of the
individual Bauhaus student.
However the clear-cut Bauhaus product took some time
to evolve. At first, any graphic work was entrusted to
the 'fine' artists on the staff. The very first manifesto of
1919, an invitation for enquiries to join the Bauhaus, had
a woodcut cover by Lyonel Feininger straight from the
Les Tendences Nouvelles movement of pre-war days.
This was the period of the Bauhaus 'Tagebuch'
students' notebook and the hand-printed album. As part
of Johannes Itten's primary course the students compiled
books of analytic studies complete with graphic
diagrams. These with their style of lettering strongly
influenced by Klee's use of graphic forms both in his
teaching and his own painting laid the foundation of a
style that was to harden up into a compound of
surrealism and Dada, making strong use of calligrammes
and collages techniques.
Typical of this period are the carnival invitations to
lantern-light parties and kite-flying festivals by Klee,
Kandinsky, Feininger and Itten. What all of these
designs have in common, apart from a generally cubist Johannes Itten
form is a spiky Gothic-ness strongly underlining the cover for the Bauhaus Album 1922