Edward Kauffer, A.M. Cassandre and Jean Carlu were three designers that stood out to me in the PostCubist era. These designers stood out to me because of their simplistic designs, minimal use of color, and the their incorporation of text and image together; while still capturing the idea of movement. The cubist movement inspiration was evident where solid shapes and colors were laid out to create a full image, Cassandre and Kauffer’s designs were most evident of this. All three artists however, succeeded in their use of subject and text working together to create one complimentary image.
Kauffer made hundreds of travel posters for the Underground in London, promoting weekend travel. His type was simple and legible, the letters seemingly cut out from the same square. The images echoed the use of shape as he took scenic landscapes and broke them down, echoing the cubism movement, into a simple color scheme of interlocking shapes with out losing the landscape itself.
A.M. Cassandre kick started his career as a graphic designer creating commissioned posters. Even more so than Kauffer, his designs were known for their simplicity in image. His designs emphasized the two-dimensional, making his subjects silhouette like and using broad and simple planes of color; details that are identifiable to Synthetic Cubism. Cassandre's posters were also known for their excellent use of text with-in the designs, because he did not simply pick a complimentary font to the image but he often incorporated his text into the image. This is most obvious in his poster he made for the Paris newspaper L’intransigeant (pictured below).
Jean Carlu was the third designer I chose, perhaps a bias choice because of the fact he studied art after losing his arm, trained himself to illustrate with his left hand and in the end produced posters I thought were exquisite in the simplest aesthetics of design. His designs consisted of very little compared to Kauffer or Cassandre, but they were just as eye catching, if not more powerful. His use of colors on black background was grabbing and the simplicity dumbed down so much it stood out to me. His goal in creating his designs was to be as simple as possible. Using one line for a whole image or one subject instead of multiple. In his use of lines he expressed emotion as well, “tension and alertness conveyed through sharp angles and lines; feelings of ease and relaxation were transmitted by curves”. The saying I’ve heard for years, “less is more” in design became obvious to me when looking at the work of Carlu.
Kauffer:
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