history lesson
Advertising is a reflection of the daily experiences of our
culture. To understand the work of George Lois, one must look at it in the
proper historical context. While Lois began his advertising career in the
1960s, his work heavily borrowed from the modernists of the first half of
the 20th century (Lois and Pitts, 1977, p.22-23). Lois is attracted by the
use of simplified geometric forms in the work of modernists, from Klee to
Cassandre (Lois and Pitts, 1977, p.22-23; Lois and Pitts, 1991, p.6). These
artists were part of an art movement that gave birth to a new visual vocabulary;
contrast, tension, balance, and space were part of these new design aesthetic
(Meggs, 1989, p.71-2). Modernists believed that form is determined by function,
structure, and materials (Meggs, 1989, p.69). The packaging and advertising
for a product, for example, should communicate that product's essence to the
consumer.
In the early 1930s and 1940s, many European modernists migrated to the United States where they introduced their innovative ideas (Meggs, 1989, p.70). As the advertisement to the left indicates, American design and advertising during this period was becoming mediocre, dominated by traditional illustration (Meggs, 1989, p.69). The "Golden Age of American Illustration" controlled the mass media until the early 1960s. Modernists criticized it for embracing cumbersome illustration and ponderous text, and grew tire of typography laden with romance or sentiment that sought to merely beautify the content of a message (Meggs, 1989, p.69). They preferred contrasts of scale and value and dynamic compositions. Eventually, modernists applied their ideals in the design of magazines, posters, advertisements, and corporate communications (Meggs, 1989, p.68). Among these designers was A.M. Cassandre (Mason, 1981/1982, p.460).
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