The issue concerning the effects the International Style had on architecture, cityscapes and visual communications, could be argued very controversially. Whether a person chooses to support it or oppose it, the fact remains that it did have an effect on the future of modern design nonetheless. A variety of different arguments exist concerning whether it had a positive or negative influence. .
This essay will consider the positive and negative qualities of both the International Modern Architecture and International Typography Style and draw a conclusion in supporting or opposing it.
Before we can look at either style's qualities, we need to know its origins. .
Both the International Typography and Architecture Style had their roots firmly planted in the Bauhaus. Bauhaus is the famous German school of design that had inestimable influence on modern architecture, the industrial and graphic arts, including typography. It was founded in 1919 by architect Walter Gropius in Weimar as a merger of an art academy and an arts and crafts school. The Bauhaus was based on the 19th century English designer William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement that art should meet the needs of society and that no distinction should be made between fine arts and practical crafts. It also depended on the more forward-looking principles that modern art and architecture must be responsive to the needs and influences of the modern industrial world, and that good designs must pass the test of both aesthetic standards and sound engineering. Thus the Bauhaus style, also known as the International Style, was marked by the absence of ornament and ostentatious facades and by harmony between function and the artistic and technical means employed.
Now, many similarities can be found between Swiss Design (International Typography Style) and the International Modern Architectural Style. Here are some of the more obvious ones:.