After reading the chapter, students should understand:
Graphic design contributed to a culture of consumption, and modernism became a consumable idea, as once-experimental forms were popularized through style trends.
Graphic designers were increasingly involved in creating lifestyle fantasies that were not inherently connected to the goods and services they sold. These fantasies often concealed production histories while promoting widespread consumption.
Brand identities not only lent an appearance of difference to similar products but also became commodities themselves, demonstrating that a designed concept was a marketable one.
Graphic design in the United States was ennobled by official praise for fusing democratic ideals and entrepreneurship, even as many innovative forms of visual modernism became contested political ground in Europe.
Art directors, commercial artists, and layout designers began to see the value of professional organizations and trade publications that highlighted their respective roles and promoted their field as a whole.
How was advertising different in the 1920s than before?
What is conspicuous consumption, as defined by Thorstein Veblen?
What events contributed to the economic development of the United States in the 1920s?
What terms could be used to describe the modern aesthetic created by graphic designers in the 20’s & 30s?
What were some of the formal elements drawn from Russian Constructivism?
Who coined the term “graphic design”?
What graphic techniques became possible and popular in the 20s and 30s?
What typeface was designed by Stanley Morrison in 1932?
