Critical introduction

Inspired by modernism is a press and promotions pack for an exhibition that takes place at the design museum. It is a four-page minimalist design spread promoting themes derived from the modernist era of design, Swiss movement and modernist aesthetic.

The inspiration for this project comes from the modernist aesthetic of brands such as Braun and Apple and the overall works of the Bauhaus modernist era. It employs the idea that less is more and strips back traditional Bauhaus posters and focuses on minimalism and block colours. All of the posters also use the Helvetica font that is typically used in Swiss or modernist design. The fonts sleek lines and modern sensibilities helps solidify the modernist identity. Its refined and ubiquitous design helps aid the simple, clean and effective look of all the designs. The drop shadow helps bridge the gap between classic and modern, supporting the idea of the modernist era being carried into the 21^st century.

The posters also use minimal, vibrant block colours in the construction of the entirety of the press promotions pack. For that, it resembles Bauhaus era designers such as Herbert Bayer. It also goes off the somewhat simplicity and clarity of Swiss design to create an overall minimalist final look. The bright colours of the products help highlight the main theme of the exhibition and draw the focus of the viewer’s eye to that.

The press pack also incorporates multiple design principles such as basic layering but not overlapping, to keep within the theme of minimalism. It also uses figure and ground as well as positive space, particularly in the composition of the posters. The designer is very self-aware of balance and positioning on the page. It is evident that there is some use of borders to frame the posters and to help with the positioning. The consistent use of lines and edges again help guide the viewer’s eye around the image and then to the focal point, which are the designs used on all the posters. 

The Inspired by modernism exhibition looks at modernist design and aesthetic over including modernist advertising design for the overall look. Products like bikes and lightbulbs to brands like Braun and early 2000s Apple have curated a design aesthetic channelling old Bauhaus modernist design of fluidity and flexibility, as well as bringing that into the 21^st century. The design of the posters incorporate Swiss minimalist design, whilst still using modernist design principles, particularly in terms of colour and contrast. The minimalism of the products ties together the look of the press pack. Both design eras value the idea that form follows function and this press and promotions pack follows through with that principle.

Overall the press and promotions pack adopts a minimalist design aesthetic through its choice in composition, font and colour, resembling the modernist Bauhaus design era.

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The Press promotions pack - Inspired by modernism

This is all of the finished products contained within the press promotions pack for the exhibition at the design museum, Inspired by Modernism.

The Wallpaper design

For the ipad click through, I wanted to create a background wallpaper to bring all of the four poster designs together cohesively. Because they are four separate designs, it was important for me to create a link between all of them and I felt like this design did just that

Experimenting with Bauhaus

I wanted to try some more traditional Bauhaus designs because I was feeling a little bored of my modernist designs and thought I could see what other inspiration I could draw from traditional Bauhaus poster designs.

I do like the bright colours and the vibrancy of the posters. Although I won’t pursue designs like such, I do feel more confident in my own designs and see more of a link between the traditional designs and mine as well as the modernist aesthetics

Initial badge and T shirt designs

These are the initial t shirt and badge designs incorporating the Bauhaus font design

Again, it is more the font that is annoying me. I think it is too harsh for the overall design and I will switch out the design. I may try and do something a little more with the design because I think it is a little flat. I also need to design the back of the t shirt 

I like the badges and I think the simplicity of them is fine and I think I will just make some more of those

Initial poster idea inspired by modernism

These are the initial poster designs that I have for the inspired by modernism poster for the design museum.

I am not liking the font even though it is Bauhaus font and everything at the moment seems a bit off. But it is still a work in progress and things can be ironed out

Change in idea

from light bulb image, i've decided to focus on modernism because of the clean lines so looked at modernist work e.g. Braun. I would have liked to pursue the timeline design but I felt that spreading that across different platforms, I would have been limited in design and I might have looked quite bland in the end.

Because of the clean lines and structure, I think Bauhaus would be good to look into and how it has inspired design today like the work of Braun, Ikea and Ipods.

I am going to make more designs like so that I have a wider variety of products to place on the posters yet it still links to the same idea