Blog: Design Inspiration

May 10, 2013

The Bauhaus Movement - A school of arts

In the aftermath of World War I, Germany was left in "economic, political, and cultural strife" (Meggs, p.326). Walter Gropius, a well-known architect, believed that the arts would help rebuild Germany by educating artists and craftsmen to meet the new age of industrialism. In establishing this idea, Gropius founded the Daat Staatliche Bauhaus, otherwise known as "the State Home for Building" (Meggs, p. 326). The Bauhaus school first opened their doors in 1919 in Weimer, Germany. Gropius wrote a manifesto for the school, which in the last sentence reads, "Let us strive for, conceive and create the new building of the future that will unite every discipline, architecture and sculpture and painting, and which will one day rise heavenwards from the million hands of craftsmen as a clear symbol of a new belief to come" (the bauhaus). By uniting the arts with technology, Gropius hoped to not only meet the standards of creative design, but also modernize it for mass production. This school would be the beginning of the Bauhaus movement, which established an environment that combined all artists, embraced modernism, influenced the principles in typography, educated designers who would lead the way in art movements that followed, and contributed to the development of modern design.

Influence on Typography

Among the students at Bauhaus that proved to be a pioneer in graphic design was Herbert Bayer. He later became a teacher and taught one of the first typography classes at the Bauhaus (Herbert Bayer). His classes included workshops that focused on "commercial art," particularly the use of letterforms to visually communicate (Typography teachers at the Bauhaus – Experiments in Idealist Typefaces). He is most notable in designing "the type used in the signage at the Bauhaus building in Dessau" (Herbert Bayer). He also created a new sans-serif type named "Universal." His work in typography was highlighted in many of Bauhaus's publications such as the cover design in Bauhaus Advertising and the 1923 Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimer.