Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Czech Graphic Design (book covers) from the 1920s—on display in the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, AIC


Zdeněk Rossmann (1905-1984)
Fronta, Mezinárodní Sborník Soudobé Activity (The Front: International Review of Contemporary Creativity)
Brno: Edition Fronta, 1927
photograph by versluis 2014

Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson Library label for this piece states:

The architect and designer Zdeněk Rossmann was a member of the Brno chapter of Devětsil from 1923-1927 and studied at the Bauhaus in Dessau in 1928-1929. Rossmann designed the cover for the compilation Fronta, produced by Brno Devětsil in 1927, which concerned the design and construction of an experimental housing colony. The cover design reflects avant-garde aesthetics of the time with the incorporation of typography into designs based on simple shapes.

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Saturday, April 19, 2014

Czech graphic design (book covers) from the 1920s—on display in the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, AIC


Otakar Mrkvička (1898-1957) [Czech painter, illustrator, cartoonist, art critic]
Plán, Revue pro Literaturu, Umeni a Vedu (Plán, Review for Literature, Art and Science)
Prague: Fr. Borový, 1929-
Number 1, 1929
photograph by versluis 2014

Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson Library label for this piece states:

Magazines and Journals
Devětsil members [avant-garde artists], student groups and publishers involved on the Czech avant-garde produced a number of magazines and journals. These often feathered the same techniques of photomontage and innovative typography found n the book covers of the period. Otakar Mrkvička designed he cover for the journal of literature, art and science Plán.

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Sunday, April 13, 2014

Three-dimensional design: polyhedral structures—“geodesic domes”


The Three-Dimensional Design Foundations class produced the
geodesic domes pictured above.


Plan view shows the base (in red) as a 16-sided hexakaidecagon. Right: an elevation view.

During the last two weeks while working in two groups of four students each, the Three-Dimensional Design Foundations class produced the geodesic domes pictured above. After a brief introduction and study of Buckminster Fuller the students began to plan and build their domes. One of the objectives of the project was for students to experience the space within the enclosed structure.

The geodesic dome in the background was constructed using roughly 144 struts made from half-inch EPT conduit. The structure itself is tall enough to stand straight up in the center at 2.575m tall and 3.658m in diameter. The project took over 14 hours to plan, to hammer the ends of each strut, drill the bolt holes, and assemble with fasteners. Group members include: Wade Vollink, project manager; Jordan Shaffer, Nathan Morehead, and Erin Francis.

The dome in the foreground is a geodesic 2V dome, constructed using 65 struts made from half-inch (EMT) conduit. The structure itself is 1.524m (5’) tall and 3.048m (10’) in diameter. A plan view would reveal the form of a 10 sided decagon. The group decided to suggest an enclosure by cutting and adding triangular orange fabric to fill the shapes.. Group members: Kim De Boer, project manager; Caleb Vugteveen, Kit Drennon, Kathryn Van Groningen.

Information supplied by the students.

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Friday, April 11, 2014

Siebren Versteeg: The History Channel’s mark/letterform parody with three-dimensional “Latin” triangular serifs


Siebren Versteeg
(American, b. 1971)
History, 2003
Silicon, bronze, velvet, and wood
photograph by versluis

MCA didactics state:

The History Channel 
Siebren Versteeg's sculpture History greets visitors at the entrance to (Museum of Contemporary Art | Chicago) MCA Screen, with an ironic nod to the culture of infotainment that spins mainstream narrations of history into pulp fiction.

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Sunday, April 6, 2014

“My heart went out!”



Illinois Institute of Technology’s Crown Hall covered in wet snow, March 2014.
photogrpghs by versluis
South elevation and entrance
Mies van der Rohe, architect
Open in 1956

If Peter Behrens, (d. 1940) had seen Mies’s Crown Hall perhaps he would have exclaimed, “My heart went out!” The quote was Behrens’s remark when he saw Mies’s 1927 Weissenhofsiedlung project [*]. (1)

These photographs indicate Mies's classicistic perspective on architectural form in glass and steel. The modernistic formal language and principles of design served the Miesian framework and became the Bauhaus curriculum of architecture. The building is emblematic of Mies’s pedagogical perspective and program on how to become an architect.

*The Weissenhofsiedlung was housing (a subdivision) built for the Deutscher Werkbund in Stuttgart.

  1. Bax, Marty. Bauhaus Lecture Notes 1930-1933. Amsterdam: Architectura & Natura Press, 1991. 53. Print.

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