Origin & Growth of Swiss Design / Post-Modernism / The Digital Era / Societal Influence…

Swiss Graphic DesignName:
Professor:
Course: Date:
The Origins of Swiss Graphic Design
The origin of Swiss Graphic Design dates back to 1918 when Ernst Keller initiated the teaching of design and topography in the School of Applied Arts in Zurich, Germany. He is known as a well accomplished teacher who never encouraged his students to adopt a specific style but rather emphasized on the need to develop a design solution that enhanced the respect of content. His emphasis is viewed as the early version of the modernist principle of form following function in the field of graphic design (Hollis, Pp. 12-32). To this person, open mindedness was the best solution that the globe would take rather than strictly restricting persons to following a certain format in order to achieve success in terms of design. He would allow for people to mix different designs so long as the end product has the best characteristics which have been advocated for and not simply to have a specific means that has to be followed via a rubric as such.
The foundation to the field having been laid, a number of exemplary Swiss designers for over three decades have done a significant job in the development of the Swiss graphic design. For instance, in the late 1920s, Theo Ballmer applied De Stijl principles in his graphic design work which employed the use of grids made of horizontally and vertically aligned elements. To this one, the use of the horizontal and the vertical alignments was the best option which people were supposed to take if they really wanted to succeed in anything as well.

During the whole time, he was of the opinion that this was the best and he is the major cause as to why there have been later developments which have followed this course completely.
Similarly, between 1927 and 1929, Max Bill, a classmate of Ballmer at Dessau Bauhaus developed the art concrete concept that entailed the creation of a universal model using mathematical principles. This graphical design comprised of layouts that were evenly distributed and spaced. He is the one who is responsible for bringing in the forms of mathematical concepts that are seen in the whole design format all through. The idea at the time was to make sure that the designs that were made came out well calculated and in short would simply be nothing more other than just perfect as such. His design embraced sans-serif typefaces like Akzidenz Grotesk that enabled it to set text flush-left as well as ragged-right outlook. Later, Max Huber modified the design to give it a finer outlook by adding a generous dash made up of energetic verve to the mix. Using photomontage techniques, Huber created notable exuberant posters observed during that time. He improved the field of graphic design hence being branded the master of the layered composition which he used in the making of overprinted structures while at the same time dynamically positioning typography and photomontage to form structures such as the pieces that promoted races which were displayed at the National Race-track of Monza (Hollis, Pp. 21-32).
In the 1950s, the Swiss graphic design was improved further by Josef Muller-Brockmann. His designs included Constructivism, De Stijl, Suprematism as well as the teachings of the Bauhaus but specially designed in his own unique style. He designed various concert posters in Zurich town and at the same time introduced a special visual method used in the representation of music using mathematically harmonious compositions. It is believed that his work marked the genesis of the modern day Jazz music around the globe. He modernized everything and even brought in the aspect of technology in everything that had already been done. He had taken his cool time to make sure that whatever he was coming up with was just a new idea which the people would always get to view as having not been experienced in the past completely. What all these people had wanted at the time was something that would make them very unique and indeed they did get to achieve the same. He is the person who has been responsible for the modern day Jazz; that is the mere reason as to why the modern day format has so much of the Swiss culture. All this was because in as much as he still brought in new aspects, he would still insist in making sure that the Swiss culture would remain to a greater extent the same way as it had been at the time as such.
In continuation of the work done by early designers, Adrian Frutiger in 1954 designed a new sans-serif by the name Univers. This came to be recognized as the world’s first mega family typeface made up of twenty-one weights. Subsequently in 1957, Eduard Hoffmann upgraded the ubiquitous Akzidenz Grotesk typeface to create a new and improved typeface called Neue Haas Grotesk which was further improved in 1960 by D. Stimpel AG and renamed Hel-vetica. The improved design was appealing to the entire world (Hollis, Pp. 34-45).
The Growth/Exporting Swiss Graphic Design
The new Swiss designs spread all over the world and was embraced in various fields ranging from the fields of arts, engineering to agriculture. Exporting of the Swiss graphic designs led to changes in various fields all over the world hence contributing to modernisation. For instance, the new graphic designs were embraced in fields such as technology leading to the modern innovations in this field (Hollis, Pp. 67-78). There was an urgent need for change in the field of innovation because the Swiss were bringing in their new designs which were more appealing to the market. By looking at the common nature of the market, they would tend to buy the idea just to move with the trends that have been lately set; this then made the innovators to make sure that the forms of innovations that they made also would match and accommodate the Swiss designs, since this is what the people had stated that they want at the time.
During the era of agrarian revolution, scientists in the Americas used the Swiss graphic designs to advance innovations in the field of agriculture. As a result of the latest Swiss designs at the time, the innovators in agriculture had to make more advancements because otherwise they would be ripped off their command of the market, something which they had taken quite long to build on. They had to make sure that they offer the market with what would still amuse them so that the market would also see like as if the world was really moving a notch higher. The benefits ripped from such innovations necessitated the need for the world to adopt the new innovations hence the Swiss graphic designs easily spread across the world. Export of the graphic designs contributed to immense changes in the various fields such as the field of culture as the graphic designs were used in art activities such as movies.
The Origins of Post-Modernism
According to Jean-Francois Lyotard (1926-98), post-modernism refers to the scientific progress marked by the day to day innovations that have in turn changed the general outlook of life in entirety. To him such innovations have changed aspects of life ranging from language, music, dance as well as the economic systems.
Post modernism began with a break in the general principles of graphic designs that were always adhered to up to the 1960s when there was a cultural shift. Post modernism is built on the philosophy that maintains that there is no absolute truth and hence no dogma to observe and thus there is no need for one to strive to attain post modernity.
According to Armstrong (2003), post-modernism is a reaction against modernist principle but at the same time it could mean a continuation with the modernist principles. Post modernism criticizes rationalism, essentialism as well as universalism. Through post-modernism, a new trend of looking at the world emerges in the area of philosophy that presents new and distinct perspectives about the world.
This term was first used in 1917 by a German philosopher by the name Rudolf Pannwitz to present ‘nihilism’ of the western culture observed during the 20th Century. In 1934, the same term, postmodernism resurfaced but this time by a Spanish literary critic by the name Federico de Onis in his reaction against literary modernism. This term was for the first time used in English by Bernard Idding in 1939 to explain the change from secular modernism to return to religion. Later, it was used by Arnold Toynbee, a historian to explain the post-world war. The use of this term spread widely in the 1950s and 1960s to explain the widespread reactions against literary modernism.
In the 1970s, the term post-modernism gained use in the field of architecture to explain the different designs of various structures of buildings (Ostwald, et al: 283-311). Similarly, the term was used in the same 1970s in connection with post-industrial society to offer explanations on the state of the world economy after the world war that was marked by a shift from industrial manufacturing to the adoption of the service industry and later to explain information technology
The Issues with Post-Modernism
Recently, post-modernism has been characterised by technological changes which act as the driving force of social change since exchange of information and cultural production are the heartbeat of any economy in today’s world. Emergence of new processes of production as well as the recent change of emphasis from production to consumption has changed information technology and communications the future industries. Post modernism being the current period has led to immense changes being put down because the imagination of the manner in which things have to go has also changed at the moment. The belief is that the society wants everything to take the technological angle and that is why the field of communication has experienced some reasonable change in general.
Critics of post modernism present several issues that face it. For instance, it is argued that it is difficult to establish whether we have entered the post-modern era since there are slight distinctions between post-modernism era and the modernism era. They say that the presumption that this is the postmodernism era yet there is so little that has changed is something that cannot be bought by them. They are of the belief that we are still in the modernism period and that it is the main reason as to why not so much change has been made.
Some scholars point out that post-modernism is a very slippery and indefinable concept. For instance, according to Nicol (2005), the concept is overloaded with meaning since it has been used to offer an explanation on the features of the social as well as political landscape and at the same time it has been used to explain a wide range of varied examples of cultural production. Some scholars have raised concern over the difficulty in understanding the concept post-modernism.
How Graphic Design Affects Society
The world we live in today is greatly shaped by graphic design. The works of designers that surround us everywhere we go such as logos, drawings of images, symbols as well as signs pose a very powerful influence in our lives. Graphic designs affect our world of politics, culture as well as our general social life.
Graphic design is more symbolical in the changes that the society has seen today in terms of development. The current developments are not only focused on being good alone but then the aspect of design is always very key to it. There have been many projects that have been made up which do follow the elements of graphic design; the intention here being to make sure that whatever is created is going to be very attractive before the people as such.
Graphic design has also been a source of employment to many people. The major issue here is that there is quite a number of persons who have been able to gain employment from graphic design. Even the designers themselves have gained employment from all this since the market currently is more attracted towards making sure that it does achieve the market target.

Work Cited
Ostwald, Michael J., and Josephine Vaughan. “Post-modernism.” The Fractal Dimension of Architecture. Springer International Publishing, 2016. 283-311.
Hollis, Richard. Swiss Graphic Design: The Origins and Growth of an International Style, 1920-1965. London: Laurence King Publ, 2006. Print.