De Stijl

We shall now look into another movement which originated in the early 20’s, De Stijl (which is Dutch for the style). As with any art movement inspirations and influences may come from many different aspect such as social aspects, previous art movements and current art movements. In this case De Stijl was influenced by some of the Dada movements ideas. The originator of this movement is Theo Van Doesburg. De Stijl was committed to the unity of the arts. There artists believed that art can be a universal language understood by all, no matter what upbringing or background. One can say it was a quest for harmony and order through the universal language of form. Their view was highly minimalistic, restricting themselves towards the use of straight lines and right angles. Even their use of colour was minimalisting suing only primary colours, and black white and gray. When linking them to modern day graphic design the best comparison I can give is grid work. Granted grid work is basically the skeleton of graphic design and only used in the stages of creating an artwork, but it is an important aspect, and in my opinion the designer within this movement had a realization that order is an art. De Stijl  also influenced the Bauhaus.

 

Apart from the graphical artworks, De Stijl also focused on the typographic side of art. Much like their paintings, their typography was highly disciplined, using straight lines and rectangular blocks. Sticking to the minimalistic side of things they also used a sans serif typeface. They made use of innovative asymmetrical layouts which in turn paved the way for international typographic style.