Echo Zheng

International Typographic Style in Various Cultures

12/14/2021

21/FA AHD-2188-A

I have a clear view of International Typographic Style after taking the whole semester class. It's

interesting to learn so many typographic styles from various countries like Canada, Japan, Italy,

and Singapore. Based on the lectures we learned this semester, I came up with my opinion on

International Typographic Style. I'm interested in looking for Swiss-style designers from all over

the world.

As we know, the International Typographic Style emerged during the 1950s. The 1950s is an

exceptional period because it's just ten years after World War Two. Many countries were under

rapid progression during that time or underwent signi cant changes. It's interesting to see how

design styles worked in this unique period. In this case, I chose to introduce Polish graphic

designs from the 1950s to the 1970s. Poland is a really special country during the 1950s-1960s.

This country stayed in the Communist era in the 1960s, but Graphic design was highly progressed

in the meantime.

The rst graphic design work I chose is a lm poster called "The

Birds" in English. There are many "ptaki" on the poster because

Ptaki means birds in Polish. Bronislaw Zelek designed this poster

in 1968, and it is designed for Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" lm

at the Warsaw Biennale. Bronislaw Zelek was one of Poland's

most impactful graphic designers and typographic designers. He

was born in 1935, and he graduated from the Academy of Fine

Arts in Warsaw under Henryk Tomaszewski in 1961(cited

from Bronislaw Zelek's Poster Exhibit at Galeria Gra ki I Plakatu in

Poland by Katherine Brooks). I felt sad when I saw that he passed

away in 2018. He was good at designing horror movie posters,

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 and we can see his style through the "The Birds" poster, which is also a poster for a horror movie.

He focused on poster designs in the whole 1960s. As we know, Poland was under the Communist

era at that time. Based on my research, I learned that the government was competing with

western countries in graphic design, and the government encouraged designers to nd their own

unique graphic design styles. Historical circumstances greatly in uenced Bronislaw Zelek, and he

created his own special style.

I was attracted by this bird poster when I saw it for the rst time. It has a powerful look, and it

shows a unique graphic design style. Since this is a lm poster, I searched for many other posters

from western countries. I found out that many of the western‘s poster versions mainly focused on

the gure of the actress. Designers always put the photo or illustration of the actress in the middle

of the poster and set classic serif typography to align with the gure. On the contrary, Zelek's

version is di erent from most posters. His poster is bold, vivid, and thoughtful. In this poster, he

repeated the word "Ptaki" many times, and all of the words look like numerous ying birds, which

ts the main idea of this lm. He used bold types and thin types together in order to show people

that the birds were ying toward them, which would make people feel nervous and scared.

However, the chaotic types also create a feeling of harmony. The combination of typography and

the skull pattern looks concordant in the full view of the poster. I think this poster also has a little

bit of a feeling of modernism compared with those western versions. Although he used both serif

typefaces and sans serif typefaces in the repeating words, the sans serif typefaces are more

outstanding than serif typefaces, especially the largest bold sans serif "Ptaki" near the skull. When

we look at the poster, I believe most of us will be rst attracted by the bold sans serif typography.

Based on the typefaces he chose and the type settings, I can see the international typographic

style through the typography elements in this poster. Firstly, he used sans serif typefaces in the

title and information part, which made the demonstration objective. Moreover, he chose black as

the primary color in this poster. As we learned from previous classes, black is always considered

the rst typographic color, so the black color also creates

a bold feeling and simple look in this poster. This version obviously looks more like a modern

poster than Western‘s version.

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 By the way, what makes Bronislaw Zelek's style so unique is that he preferred to use still images

in most of his designs. Because of the circumstances in Poland during

that period, Polish designers were hard to access to speci c

photosynthesis (cited from Bronisław Zelek Biography by Culture.pl).

Zelek always chose abstract patterns like a skull in his designs, and

these abstract patterns demonstrate the meaning of posters. We can

see his style in another poster, a lm designed for the lm The Hunger

in 1967. The International Typographic Style is more apparent in this

poster. Zelek combined International typographic Style with his unique

design style together. He used sans serif typeface for the text, and he also arranged the text in a

ush-left version. On the other hand, he put a skull pattern at the center of the poster, which

shows people the feeling of horror.

In conclusion, both posters show the International Typographic Style and Zelek's style. As Icon

Magazine's Andrea Marks said, "The disturbing content of the lm is not given a literal

representation, yet an unsettling feeling is still communicated through abstract

imagery." (cited from Andrea Marks, "The Polish Film Poster," Icon

Magazine) Zelek's poster style combines both abstract elements and

objective-type elements. In my opinion, Zelek’s posters represent Polish

Graphic design and it also a ects the contemporary graphic design style.

Zelek kept designing in 2012 and his style is still outstanding.

Part B

After researching the International Typographic Style in the 1960s, I turned to contemporary

graphic design. Since I'm a Chinese student studying in New York, I'd like to research Chinese

designers and Chinese typographic Styles. The Chinese language system is di erent from the

English language system, and the gure of Chinese types is di erent from English letters. In the

last century, Chinese graphic design was in uenced by Western graphic design style because

many western countries came to China between the 1920s to 1930s(cited by Hangjian, The issues
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 of Chinese Graphic Design History). From the 1960s to 1970s, Designers always traditionally

design their work, like using Chinese ink painting style to create posters. I think the history of

contemporary Chinese graphic design is very short. Chinese designers' styles became more

international starting from the 1980s. In the 1980s, Chinese designers began to learn more about

global graphic design. Chinese graphic design developed rapidly in the past 30 years.

Based on the background of Chinese graphic design history, I chose two posters which are

designed by a Chinese graphic designer called He Jianping. He Jianping was born in 1973 in

Hangzhou, China, and graduated from China Academy of Art with a Bachelor's degree in

1995(cited from Hesign Biography). He also went to Germany to study ne art after his graduation.

His diverse art experiences make his design style unique and international. He follows the Swiss

Style, and he also converts Chinese style elements in most of his works. I think He Jianping is one

of China's most representative graphic designers. Since he was born in 1973, he has been

growing at the same time with Chinese graphic design. In other words, He witnessed the

development of Chinese graphic design, and his artworks also show the progression of Chinese

graphic design.

The rst poster is designed for the exhibition to Create Spaces in

China in 2017. This poster shows the International Typographic

Style completely. As we can see, He used bold sans serif typeface

as the primary visual language in this poster, which created a bold,

simple look for the whole poster. These strong, simple letters are

also designed like spaces. Each letter represents a space, which

also ts the idea of this exhibition—create spaces. He Jianping

also chose sans serif typeface for the layout of information, which

made the information objective and clear. He also used ush left

form for some of the texts. Flush left is also a usual style in Swiss

Style. Based on the whole layout of this poster, I think he used a grid system to design those

types. He Jianping focused on the clarity and order in this poster, which made the poster

objective and functional. Plus, the poster is contemporary and modern-like, which strictly ts the

International Typographic Style.

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He Jianping followed the Swiss Style strictly when he

designed for commercial agencies. He combined personal

elements when he made his designs. I chose the second

poster designed for He Jianping's solo exhibition in 2021.

His theme of the solo exhibition is "daydream," and the

show included his work in the past 25 years. He Jianping

said in his exhibition interview that he thought his design

career looked like a 25 year daydreaming. He kept

designing in a daydreaming way(cited from exhibition

interview: He Jianping Design is a daydream that lasts for 25

years). Thus, he created his exhibition poster in a more

practical way. In this poster, He Jianping also used sans serif typography which followed the

Swiss Style. It’s interesting to see that he turned Chinese characters in to Swiss Style also. In

many of his works, he prefers to make the Chinese characters in International Typography Style,

which I think making both English and Chinese same style can make the whole design looks more

uniformed and modern-like. Furthermore, he repeated the title several times, becoming a

typographic pattern that looked echoing. The echoing feeling is entirely appropriate for his motif

of this show—recalling the past 25 years. The repeating typography also creates a fantasy feel,

which also works well with the daydream idea. The combination of classic Swiss style typeface

and the experimental type repeating makes the whole poster both objective and personalized.

The pure black and white color also show the International Typographic Style. He used a very

simple layout for the title, but he also added new variations to the classic Swiss style typesetting,

which is really interesting and innovative.

Overall, He Jianping is a Chinese graphic designer who strictly followed the International

Typographic Style. He is good at making changes based on the Swiss Style typographies and

creating incredible designs. He combined Chinese culture with Swiss style together in his graphic

design. As he said, graphic design is just like a daydream, bringing him happiness. Researching

International Typographic Styles and learning from di erent designers worldwide also brings me

joy. I feel ful lled when I get used to the Swiss Style. It's also interesting to me to know how
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designers are in uenced by Swiss Style. As a designer, I also in uenced by Swiss Style and I

hope I can develop my own unique design style in the future.

Part A & Part B Citation:

1. Katherine Brooks, Bronislaw Zelek's Poster Exhibit at Galeria Gra ki I Plakatu in Poland

2. Bronisław Zelek Biography by culture.pl

3. Andrea Marks, "The Polish Film Poster," Icon Magazine

4. Hangjian, The issues of Chinese Graphic Design History

5. Hesign Studio, Biography

6. Conversation & Interview: He Jianping Design is a daydream that lasts for 25 years
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