Despite the theoretical approach, the research emerged from my professional practice questionings as an e-commerce art director: What are the fundamentals of web design?
I could go deep into understanding the major designing principles for visuals in digital media on the web. On the way back, such reflections brought me new questions I can now face in my design practice again –namely, the phenomenon of reaching an aesthetic monoculture and revisiting the term “good” graphic design.
I could go deep into understanding the major designing principles for visuals in digital media on the web. On the way back, such reflections brought me new questions I can now face in my design practice again –namely, the phenomenon of reaching an aesthetic monoculture and revisiting the term “good” graphic design.
Programmatic thinking permeates much of today’s digital production in its most varied applications, besides serving the designer as a tool to design amid a fluid, infinite interface. The questioning that guided the study revolves around reflections on what aspects the modernist graphic design anticipated from the programmatic thinking of the web design while also questioning the unfolding of those roots in recent designs. Two moments in the graphic design field were elected: modern Swiss design from the 1950s and 1960s and contemporary graphic design from the 2000s and 2010s.
The title itself has driven the dissertation structure. At first, we presented and exemplified how ‘thinking by programs’ is expressed in the design of the digital interface in the online medium – as responsiveness, design system, and rational production process. We located this design approach in the modernist movement — mainly through the work and production of Karl Gerstner and Josef Müller-Brockmann. Then, we went on to trace connections between the two moments and concluded by discovering reflections arising from these relationships — the phenomenon of “sameness” and questions about the “good” design.
The title itself has driven the dissertation structure. At first, we presented and exemplified how ‘thinking by programs’ is expressed in the design of the digital interface in the online medium – as responsiveness, design system, and rational production process. We located this design approach in the modernist movement — mainly through the work and production of Karl Gerstner and Josef Müller-Brockmann. Then, we went on to trace connections between the two moments and concluded by discovering reflections arising from these relationships — the phenomenon of “sameness” and questions about the “good” design.
The most critical learnings were:
1. Synthesize ideas and go further in a well-delimited focus subject;
-2. Survey at an unpublished and no categorized matter;
3. Academic writing;
4. Prepare and do presentations in conferences and among colleagues; and;
5. Produce, conduct, and edit interviews.
It was such a delight to have the chance to go into an in-depth theoretical study about modernist graphic design from the ’50s and ’60s (primary Swiss design), a matter I’m continually doing. Also, web design’s inherent concepts include responsiveness, designing for efficiency and scaling, design systems, interactivity, testing possibilities, and the digital grid. Moreover, this portfolio was built mainly with CSS grid and flexbox, learning I had in my Master’s research.
1. Synthesize ideas and go further in a well-delimited focus subject;
-2. Survey at an unpublished and no categorized matter;
3. Academic writing;
4. Prepare and do presentations in conferences and among colleagues; and;
5. Produce, conduct, and edit interviews.
It was such a delight to have the chance to go into an in-depth theoretical study about modernist graphic design from the ’50s and ’60s (primary Swiss design), a matter I’m continually doing. Also, web design’s inherent concepts include responsiveness, designing for efficiency and scaling, design systems, interactivity, testing possibilities, and the digital grid. Moreover, this portfolio was built mainly with CSS grid and flexbox, learning I had in my Master’s research.
The simultaneous examination of the two moments of graphic design—1950 to 1970 and 2000 to 2020—revealed new elements of reflection and common phenomena. That said, beyond identifying modernist aspects in contemporary design, we observed what factors the previous movement may have generated today. The “sameness” is a process observed by some critics of web design as a crystallization of the design process in a mere system that is replicable. It is like narrowing the programmatic thinking, achieving an aesthetic monoculture in contemporary design production.
Now and throughout history
Going back to our Modernism learning, we noticed a similar process in the International Typographic Style. On the one hand, there is the extensive use of website templates as one of the most common expressions of the sameness process nowadays. On the other hand, it’s possible to compare it with numerous manuals of graphic design produced in Modernism –such as Josef Müller-Brockmann’s Grid Systems.
The sameness is relevant to how designers can deal with today’s consumer society. In the thesis’s fourth chapter, we discussed which aspects are related to programmatic thinking and how designers can take advantage of this approach to projects to reach social interests.
Now and throughout history
Going back to our Modernism learning, we noticed a similar process in the International Typographic Style. On the one hand, there is the extensive use of website templates as one of the most common expressions of the sameness process nowadays. On the other hand, it’s possible to compare it with numerous manuals of graphic design produced in Modernism –such as Josef Müller-Brockmann’s Grid Systems.
The sameness is relevant to how designers can deal with today’s consumer society. In the thesis’s fourth chapter, we discussed which aspects are related to programmatic thinking and how designers can take advantage of this approach to projects to reach social interests.