The Enduring Legacy of Weimar: Graphic Design & New Typography 1919-1933

Alston Purvis & Cees W. de Jong 

Hardcover |24.13 x 2.54 x 30.48 cm | 400 pp

Prestel | 2019 | 9783791384856

Graphic Design as an artistic genre wasn’t universally accepted until the early 20th century. This striking book focuses on the pivotal years of 1928-1931 to show how fifty artists redefined the field and helped create modern graphic design. Art historian and graphic artist Alston Purvis provides a concise and engaging overview of the dawn of modern graphic design and the artistic possibilities that were laid bare in a seismically shifting Europe. He explores how a variety of burgeoning and established movements contributed to the innovations of graphic design such as the German Dadaists, the Bauhaus School, and the European avant-garde artists. He looks at how groundbreaking trends in typography, the rise of consumerism, and a new focus on schools of graphic design combined to create a new language of design that is still in use today.

Featuring the designs of 50 pioneering artists, such as Walter Gropius, Paul Klee, and El Lissitzky, this book shows how their work in color, typography, and composition broke conventions and set new standards in a seminal period of graphic design.