Modernism Influence on Modern Design

In this essay, I will be discussing how my chosen contemporary piece of graphic design has been influenced by the modernism art movement and the art styles within it. My chosen piece of contemporary design practice is the ‘Sex Pistols X Converse Chuck Taylor All Star’ trainer collection (Figure 1). They were released in 2016 by the fashion brand ‘Converse’, a brand well known for their collaborations. There is a clear connection to the modernist art style ‘Dada’ in these pieces through its use of the Sex Pistol’s iconic artwork on the trainer designs. These trainers have design work on them that would have been very provocative at the time that they were designed because of the new and emerging punk style that would have been alarming to the public.

Modernism has clearly been an influence for this design and without it the audience most likely wouldn’t understand it because they never would have been introduced to this style of art work, which is completely different to the classical style of painting that people would have been used to before the modernism movement happened. ‘Painters were the first to explore the revolutionary possibilities of Modernism’ (Levenson, 1999, p.194) which was very socially progressive for its time and many of the public weren’t ready for some of the movements and ended up despising it. A good example of this is how Hitler ordered all modernist pieces of design and artwork to be taken and destroyed when he came into power and ignited World War 2 in September 1939 for being ‘un-German’. Many modernists, such as William Morris, thought in a very modern way and were very political, strongly supporting the left wing. Morris was part of a socialist league alongside other modernists, who all had one aim, to smash society and rebuild it around small societies who made their own things to live with. They all wanted to change the social system by abolishing it, meaning that that there would no longer be ‘rich and poor’ and everyone would be equal, without a social divide.

The designs that were produced as part of the movement were very technological and mechanical because people at the time were amazed and excited about the new technology that was being brought to them, thanks to the developments being made in science. All examples of modernist art and design have one thing in common, that they are functional and lack ornament. The theory behind this was that if something doesn’t work or is without a purpose, then it is useless. They wanted to abolish all pointless elements that were involved in design and examples of this can be seen anywhere, from Mondrian’s painting ‘Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow’ to Henry Dreyfuss’ heavily streamlined train ‘Mercury’. Modernists believed that it was time for this new emerging art style to be incorporated in every element of everyday life, including anything from transport to furniture to fashion design. It was also believed that all classical pieces of artwork that were kept in museums should be discarded and burnt in order to make way for the new emerging designs. 

In the 20th century there were many developments in science and technology. This was very exciting for the public as they were seeing and doing things that they had never done before. Many of these developments contributed to the mass amounts of death and destruction caused by the World War 2. Dada began from the devastating and erratic effects of the war and took a different approach to modernism than other art styles. For example, its aim was to make everything a lot more complicated, rather than more simplistic. ‘Dada does disorient and confuse’ (Jones, 2014, p.1) and the artwork that was produced as a result of dada used conflict as a general theme within it. Dada was strongly against the war and as a result was very anarchistic. Dada had an affect on many different touchpoints throughout the creative industries, including performance, writing, designs and ideas. An active member of the Dada group, Hannah Höch, is a good example of an artist who created some incredible pieces of modernist work in response to the war. She used found typography and images to create very provocative photomontages, such as ‘Die Süsse (The Sweet One) 1926’ (Adamowicz & Robertson, 2011, p.187) (Figure 2), as a form of mass communication. Seeing revolutionary pieces of artwork like this makes it clear that Dada was a hotbed for creativity and a new way of thinking.

Originally Converse’s Chuck Taylor shoe collection was designed for sport and athletic use, however, when its competitors such as Nike and Adidas decided to start producing trainers that were better suited for sport wear in the 1970s (Agnihotri & Bhattacharya, 2018), they faced a big issue due to the lack of sales from their shoes. The decision was eventually made to change their shoes ‘from sport shoes to leisure shoes as a symbol of freedom and individuality’ (Agnihotri & Bhattacharya, 2018) in order to appeal to a different target audience and increase their sales on shoes. The brand had a strong link to the music industry because it was ‘well accepted among artists and musicians and became a symbol of individuality, originality, and self-expression’ (Agnihotri & Bhattacharya, 2018). It was well known for supporting new and upcoming artists by giving them a platform to launch their music from for free. It also provided a studio with all the equipment that the struggling artists they were helping would need to build their music careers. Because of this, it was no surprise when Converse announced that the brands first collaboration of 2016 was the Sex Pistols (Figure 1), who were well known for creating anarchy with their music.

The Sex pistols were a band that produced British punk rock music. They formed in 1975, starting with just two band members and over the years built the band to have five band members in total. The Sex Pistols’ ‘authenticity and social relevance matter as much or more than their music’ (Faulk, 2020, p.133) which caught the medias attention in the 70’s due to their outrageous behaviour, which challenged the public’s ‘working-class values’ (Faulk, 2020, p.133) at the time. Everything about them was provocative, this includes their music, their album covers and even their name ‘Sex Pistols’ was profoundly offensive. This was all done on purpose to shock the public and the media, which drummed up a lot of attention until everybody knew about them. They caused outrage with many of their albums because of their titles and the imagery used on them. Jamie Reid designed many of the Sex Pistols album covers, including ‘God Save the Queen’ (Figure 3), ‘Fuck Forever’ (Figure 4) and ‘Anarchy in the UK’ (Figure 5) which were all clearly influenced by his understanding of the Dada movement. ‘Fuck Forever’ was an outrageous piece of artwork which sounds shocking before you even see the design, which uses imagery taken directly from porn magazines. The provocative wording, imagery and overall look of this piece suited the Sex Pistols deminer perfectly and is easily recognisable as theirs before seeing their infamous logo on it.

The collection of trainers that were produced as part of Converse’s collaboration with the Sex Pistols (Figure 1) all have a clear resemblance of the artwork that was produced for the band on them. There were six different designs as part of the collection, one of which had the United Kingdom flag on, which refers to Jamie Reid’s ‘Anarchy in the UK’ artwork/poster design which was produced in 1977, whilst another is designed with the screen print of the Queen that caused disgust in the public when it was used on Reid’s artwork for ‘God Save the Queen’ in 1977. It is clear how times have changed from the 1970’s to 2016 because it would have been normal to see somebody wearing a pair of these trainers when they were produced, however many people were arrested and charged for wearing the Sex Pistol’s band merchandise and clothes in the seventies because they were so provocative. The collection certainly reflects the Dada influenced design style that was used throughout the band’s marketing, artwork and album cover designs due to the use of typography and graphic images on them. These shoes would have appealed to fans of the Sex Pistols, including both the older generation that grew up listening to the band and the younger generation who still like their modern style of music, artwork and thinking.

It is clear that these trainers have been inspired by the Dada art style because they have the Dada style of artwork that was designed for the Sex Pistols’ printed on them. These trainers would have been worn in the 21st century which shows how modern the Dada art style, which was popular in the early years of the 20th century, really was. In Dada, photomontage and collage techniques became part of the graphic language of the time. These techniques have been used on some of the graphic overlays on the trainers which are clearly inspired by the artwork that Jamie Reid designed for the band in the 1970’s. The designs used on the shoes match the Sex Pistols’ identity perfectly through the use of the typography and imagery, such as the Union Jack, on them. If people walked around wearing these trainers in the early 20th century when Dada first became popular, it would have caused outrage and confusion. This is not only because of the designs on them but the shape of them would have also been confusing to the public. Dada artists did try to push the limitations and normal perceptions of fashion at the time that it was popular, for example Hugo Ball wore a ridiculous outfit (Figure 6) when he performed at the Cabaret Voltaire Zurich in 1916. This relates to Dada because its aim was to make everything more complicated and confuse the audience, which would have been achieved because they wouldn’t have seen anything like this before. Dada was very anarchistic, and the designs used for Sex Pistols were inspired by conflict because the band caused outrage in the public. The designs that were produced weren’t smooth and perfect, instead everything down to their logo looked rustic with jagged edges, thrown together and collaged.

In conclusion, modernism was an essential part of history for art and design; without it we wouldn’t understand many of the designs that are produced today. It was very socially progressive for its time and challenged the public’s values at the time. Modernists thought in a very modern way and were very politically driven. They all tended to have one aim which was to break society’s views and rebuild a world that was full of equality and small societies that helped one another. Modernism had many art movements within it, one of them being Dada. Dada began as a response to the chaos and destruction that was caused by the war and used conflict as its fuel. It has an effect on many touchpoints throughout the creative industries, including performance, writing, designs and ideas. My chosen contemporary piece of graphic design was ‘Sex Pistols X Converse Chuck Taylor All Star’ trainer collection. Converse is a brand that is well known for supporting new and upcoming artists, which was why it was no surprise when the collection was released. The Sex Pistols were a British punk rock band who were well known for creating anarchy with their music, artwork and actions. They challenged the idea of rock music as well as the public’s view with their outrageous behaviour. The trainers that were released in collaboration with the Sex Pistols are designed with graphics that can clearly be related to the band due to the use of typography and imagery that was used on them. They reflect the Dada influenced design style that was used throughout the band’s marketing and Dada photomontage and collage techniques were used for the designs. It is clear how times have changed between the 1970’s and 2016 because it would have been normal to see somebody wearing a pair of these trainers when they were released in the 21st century, however many people would have thought that the trainers were outrageous and provocative  in the 1970’s, like they did with all of the Sex Pistols’ art and design work. These trainers have been influenced by modernism and more specifically Dada because of the use of design styles that were mirrored from Jamie Reid’s artwork that was designed for the Sex Pistols in the 1970’s.