Originally a student of the German school of Bauhaus, studying from 1921 to 1923, Herbert Bayer later taught at the school during the years 1925 to 1928. He became the head of the printing and advertising department, as appointed by the school’s founder, Walter Gropius. A skilful typographer, he taught the school’s first classes on typography.
Soon after Bayer’s work was included in a Nazi Entartete Kunst (literally “Degenerate Art”) exhibition during 1937, Bayer left Germany for the safety of America. Many other students and teachers of Bauhaus fled their homes for overseas countries as the Third Reich’s ridged control over artistic expression threatened not only their livelihood but their lives, too.
I want to share some of Bayer’s poster designs he created for the Container Corporation of America. The advertisements Bayer produced for the company cover themes such as integration and responsibility. The careful use of space, limited use of colour, and placement of text gives these posters an enduring modernity.
This series of posters’ original images are made of mixed media. Most using gouache, pen and ink, and pencil on paperboard; some incorporate collage. And while majority of Bayer’s posters are monochrome – both practical and cost effective – some sport limited colour, such as the Fire Steals awareness poster which makes use of the colour red to reinforce the danger through colour association.
Unsurprisingly, the later posters that Bayer produced for the Container Corporation of America intend to invoke the conscious conservation of materials in hard times of war; they’re not just advertisements, they’re social awareness posters. And they’re effective because they clearly communicate ways in which the viewer has the potential to make an impact.
Regardless of the content of these posters, I feel that their designs are fresh and clean-looking, even by today’s standards. The school of Bauhaus taught the idea that both mass-production and the individual artistic spirit were compatible, and indeed, these corporate, mass-produced posers still hold artistic merit. The flow of text and image is almost melodic.
DESIGN WORKS 