A2 - Constructivist Design

Constructivism was a design movement prevalent in the 1920's in Russia. Two of its most celebrated proponents were Alexander Rodchenko and his wife Vavara Stepnova. The movement was based upon a socialist-based ideology which looked at design as a to construct a new culture and society for the benefit of the masses. Constructivism used advertising and medium to promote benefits of the new socialistic and eventual communist government positions and programs. As such, most designs created by Rodchenko were advertisements for government-owned and or sanctioned products and services.

While most design projects centered around Constructism stress the formal qualilties of the movement – bold san-serif type, the prevalent use of red and black, photography and photomontage, arrows and graphic directionals, asymmetrical and dynamic symmetrical layouts, we will be more concerned with it's emphasis on message construction, compositional hierarchy and strong visual syntax.

Research and find three exemplanary samples of visual communication created by each of the following four constructivist designers in Russia after the revolution in the early 20th century:
• El Lissitzky
• Gustav Klutsis
• Alexander Rodchenko
• Vavara Stepanova

Choose one design example and write a hypothetical creative brief for the project discerned by the design as well as the context (time and place) in which the designer lived.

Analyze the design using the four steps of visual message processing:
• Attention
• Orientation
• Interpretation
• Retention,
then write a short explanation of how your chosen design addresses each step.

Have the 12 samples, a selected design, a creative brief and written analysis posted on your blog by the beginning of class, Tuesday, March 20th.