novum: 85. years of design history. Mnchen: Stiebner Verlag GmbH. Disponvel em www: <http://www.novumnet.de/en/world-of-novum/web-specials/design-affairs/novum-85years-of-design-history.html>.

novum: 85. years of design history FROM GEBRAUCHSGRAPHIK TO NOVUM THE HISTORY OF A PROTOTYPE. GLOBALISATION NOTWITHSTANDING, THERE ARE IN FACT ONLY A FEW TRULY WORLDWIDE DESIGN MAGAZINES. No, the test of a truly international magazine is its ability to reach out to subscribers and newstands all over the world from Helsinki s Academic Bookstore to London s Zwemmer s and Tokyo s Junkudo. novum known as novum gebrauchsgraphik from 1971-1996, and before that as Gebrauchsgraphik has done this since 1924. The Munich publishers who are celebrating this auspicious anniversary are too modest to boast, but this contributor has no hesitation about blowing the trumpet on their behalf. There is no doubt that the history of novum gebrauchsgraphik also represents a piece of the history of graphic design, wrote the publisher of the day, Erhardt D. Stiebner, in the 60th anniversary issue (10/89), which duly focused on six decades of creative work all over the globe. Now, when reflecting on the magazine s 80 years of existence, it is a good moment to emphasise the relevance of the design press in general and novum in particular for the field of graphic design.

In the profession s formative commercial art years, the technological, socio-economic and demographic changes of the Industrial Age brought forth the mass media, commercialisation and a revolution in artistic conventions. Suddenly vast quantities of packaging, banknotes, postage stamps, posters, advertisements, mass circulation weeklies and an array of other printed matter was being created by a medley crew of printers, illustrators and self-styled artists. The trade of the designer was emerging and so were groups of collectors, keen to find a forum for critique or exchange of views about cultural and commercial issues of the day.

In Germany, the reports by the Society of Friends of the Poster (Verein der Plakatfreunde), later published under the name of Das Plakat, proved to be a decisive factor in the emergence of the design press. From 1910 until its closure in 1922, the publication evolved into a bi-monthly journal with a circulation rising from an initial 200 to well over 5000. Inevitably, it prepared the ground for the publication of the first ever bilingual (German/English) journal of graphic design Gebrauchsgraphik, in Berlin in 1924. Within two years, this publication for the promotion of artistic advertising, founded by the visionary professor K.H. Frenzel, became a monthly journal. Until his untimely death in 1937, Professor Frenzel, in addition to editing, reviewed German poster art each year, focusing on the experimental work of the Bauhaus, as well as other avant-garde protagonists. High quality in applied graphics was the undisputed quest of the professor, who apart from being a founder 1

member of the BDG (Association of German Commercial Graphic Designers), stood out as a real internationalist with professional contacts in Europe and the United States.

The magazine s readers were thus kept abreast of world developments, e.g. the Russian Constructivism of El Lissitzky, and the London activities of American-born designer McKnight Kauffer. A North American distributor The Book Service Company of New York secured Gebrauchsgraphik s international breakthrough. Subtitled International Advertising Art, the magazine miraculously survived through the early years of the Third Reich. Because of World War II and its aftermath, however, it was obliged to cease publication for six years in 1944.

Already during the first decades of its existence Gebrauchsgraphik developed into a seminal prototype for latter-day graphic design magazines such as Graphis, Communication Arts or Idea. Recognising this fact does not deny the notable product development that has continuously been taking place since the publication s re-establishment in 1950, in Munich.

Nothing serves better to illustrate the timely response to the changes in visual communication by the magazines consecutive editors-in-chief Dr Eberhard Hlscher, Hans Kuh, Hans Baumeister, Prof. Dieter Urban, Brigitta Nitsch than leafing through its old copies. Take issue 3/58, from the time when the mainly illustrative covers were not subjugated to any particular house-style. The body type was Futura, while the type used in the articles shifted between so-called commercial graphics and the imminent corporate style. Accordingly, the Helvetica-typeset Gebrauchsgraphik of April 1966, featured FHK Henrion, the British master of European airline identity. By the 1970s attention was clearly on educational subjects. A new series, novum education, presenting practical examples from work at training centres of graphic design was introduced in issue 11/76, and complemented by the novum basis report, from the special issue 1/79 (distinguished by a Victor Vasarely cover) onwards. Subsequently, the textbooklike novum kompendium, novum info, and novum praxis ran well into the 1980s. Following the switch to phototypesetting (9/79), the Univers-dominated layout appeared visually plain and functional, while the editorial content was beginning to reflect the greatest upheaval design had ever faced: post-modernism and computerisation. Thus novum 8/1984 presented the posters of the provocative Alain Le Quernec, alongside some digitally generated images from Japan. The questionable trendsetting role of the 1980s design resulted in a variety of styles running in parallel. Perhaps as a sign of the escalating pace of life, the look of the magazine has been altered three times during the closing decade of the last millennium. A compressed old-face font gave way to Otl Aicher s Rotis, and eventually to Garamond. Most significantly though, there occurred a generational change in the staffing of novum s editorial office. Design history books overlook the role of the trade magazines and their instrumental role in spreading information about styles, techniques, prolific designers, illustrators and 2

photographers, great schools, outstanding projects, etc. Not to mention the promotional aspect. One who has touched upon the subject, Steven Heller, calls the journals The Missing Link, which helped graphic design to evolve into an autonomous profession, with its own tradition, iconography and personalities. Jeremy Aynsley, an art historian, ascribes the success of German graphic design in the 20th century (in a book of the same title) to the seriousness of its promotion. He singles Gebrauchsgraphik out, for acting as a momentous cultural forum in that process. The designer Lucian Bernhard describes the international scope of the phenomenon thus: there was not a drawing board without a copy of Gebrauchsgraphik in pre-World War II American advertising agencies. novum may be turning 80, but while sentimentally leafing through its back pages, let us praise the fact that it still maintains a position as one of the few design magazines graphic designers and students throughout the world eagerly turn to for inspiration and that is just as much true today as it was in the 1920s.

Today novum is published by Stiebner Verlag in Munich with a monthly circulation of 13.500 and the magazine is being sold in 80 countries worldwide.

Vincent, Sandi Gebrauchsgraphik Covers, 1955. 2010. Consult. em 10/06/2013. Disponvel em www: <http://aqua-velvet.com/2010/08/gebrauchsgraphik-covers-1955/>.

Gebrauchsgraphik No. 8, 1955 by ? (illegible signature) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............. I have a new vintage obsession, Gebrauchsgraphikan early graphic design magazine from Germanyfirst published in 1924. Articles cover a broad range of topics, among them graphic design, advertising, typography, trademarks and illustration. The subject matter includes both contemporary and historical content. While the magazine is German, the articles are translated into several languages, including English. Beginning with the stellar cover designs, Gebrauchsgraphik is a veritable treasure chest of images and information. Virtually all of the illustrations are completely new to me. Im eager to begin my exploration of this splendid resource and thought Id kick things off by sharing a few of the 1955 covers. Gebrauchsgraphik, Monatschrift zur Frderung knstlerischer Reklame (Commercial Graphics, Monthly Magazine for Promoting Art in Advertising), which was published in Berlin from 1924 until 1944, was one of the first-generation graphic design journals in Europe. It followed the poster movement and typographic reforms associated with German Jugendstiland their respective literature in the pre-1924 years and developed them in new directions. Gebrauchsgraphik published some of the first reviews of an activity still to be termed graphic design, together with articles on book design, advertising, publicity and 3

packaging. In the years before the Second World War, Gebrauchsgraphik established itself as a successful bilingual (German-English) publication, with a hiatus between 1944 and 1950. Then it was relaunched from Munich where it is still published under the revised title of novum gebrauchsgraphik. Excerpt from article by Jeremy Aynsley; Journal of Design History, Vol. 5, 1992 on Questia Since 1996, the magazine has been published under the name novum. Today novum is published by Stiebner Verlag in Munich with a monthly circulation of 13,500. It is being sold in 80 countries worldwide. This remarkable international publication celebrates its 86th birthday this year. For further reading: >> novum: 85 years of design history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............. >> Gebrauchsgraphik Magazine flickr set

----http://www.monolithmagazine.co.uk/gallery/gebrauchsgraphik-international-advertising-art GEBRAUCHSGRAPHIK INTERNATIONAL ADVERTISING ART Gebrauchsgraphik International Advertising Art was originally founded in 1923 by Berlinbased professor, Dr. H. K. Frensel. A bi-lingual, English and German publication, its pioneering artwork was birthed from an era before graphic design had evolved to the gargantuan media tool that it is today. In t he publications earliest stages, graphic design as a trade was emerging and pre-war editions of the magazine exhibit a distinctly futurist, art deco feel with obvious influences from Bauhaus and Construtivism. These initial editions in the opening decades of Gebrauchsgraphiks lifespan essentially helped lay the groundwork for the graphic design journals that would follow, and comparisons are consequentially drawn, especially between Gebrauchsgraphik and the later Graphis. Gebrauchsgraphik continued to exist as a monthly publication until 1944. A lengthy hiatus followed until 1950, when the publication returned just in time for what some have described as the Golden Age of Advertising under the name Novum Gebrauchsgraphik. This era spurred the birth of the Creative Revolution, when a younger generation of advertisers took over from their tired predecessors to innovate advertising with a more receptive view of their demographic, which incorporated humour and intellect with the more obvious tools of social aspiration and personal ambition. With evolving new content and technique, the conjunction between art and advertising followed suit and Gebrauchsgraphik was on hand to document this growth accordingly. Gebrauchsgraphik continues to be published today by Munich-based publisher, Stiebner Verlag, under the shortening of Novum, which was adopted in the late 90s. A publication that has run for 80 years successfully surviving numerous recessions, cultural undulations and a war is a feat worth celebrating, and the modern covers are as exceptional as the wisened ones documented here.