AT WAR: The Creative Forties in America

Prologue

In the late 1930's, after years of the grueling economic Depression, federal projects and war preparations put America back to work. With events like the New York Wold's Fair, a feeling of hope for the future was in the air. The Fair showed the world the promise of America's technological leadership.

From the collection - "Unlock the World of Tomorrow" fold out guide to the New York City 1939 World's Fair.

This feeling conflicted with concerns for the inevitability of war. Ominous threats to peace came from Europe. The World War II began with Hitler's invasion of Poland in September of 1939. In spite of the isolationist majority in the United States, America was left with no alternative after the surprise bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese on December 7, 1941. America had to commit itself then to full support of the war effort. The war and the post-war return to a vital consumer economy were to set the stage for great changes int he visual environment of the Untied States.

In 1939 the British magazine ART AND INDUSTRY featured a special issue titled "The Artist's Function in Time of War." The editor wrote, "War in Europe must inevitably affect many of those engaged in Art for Industry somewhat adversely. There will be much less advertising; much less call for magazine and newspaper illustration; industrial design and styling must await the return of peace, and a great many artist, designers, art schools, teachers and students will be compelled to find some other outlet for their activities and an alternative source of income."

Charles Coiner - Art Director for the Office of Emergency Management.during WWII

Although advertising was scaled back during the war, the layout man, the illustrator and the account salesman persisted as the principal figures in the advertising business.

During the war, consumers saw few new products and little advertising. The great age of American illustration was coming to a conclusion. A close tie still existed among the areas of typography, printing or "the graphic arts" and design. The traditional connections between the fields lingered as dramatic changes in the 1040's became the crucible from which emerged the modern graphic design. The advertising layout man was being replaced by the graphic designer whose work was based on Modernist precepts. The influences of the Bauhaus were modified and adapted for the American business scene. "Given a climate ripe for change, the idea that visual communication could be both powerful and simple was a radical - but fashionably pragmatic idea." (1) Graphic designers interpreted beauty as an element of function and a great debate raged between advocates of maximum typographic legibility and those who were more interested in experimentation. While this philosophical battle raged, the emerging role of the modern graphic designer was that of "... a conceptual problem-solver who engaged in the total design of the space, orchestrating words, signs, symbols and images into a communicative entity." (2) Laszlo Maholy-Nagy wrote, in 1940, that he saw in America "...a new generation was rising with the potentiality and discipline of that America imagined by us in Europe." (3)

A popular consumer magazine was LIFE. It was a picture dominant magazine. Known for its lavish photographic essays, it became especially important to the American public during WWII as it featured expansive coverage of the war through heroic photographic articles. these iconic images of battle brought home the reality of war to the people on the home front.

Design activity, like industrial war production, was diversified across the United States. In Philadelphia, Charles Coiner, who had volunteered his services to the government in the 1930's again offered his professional talents as a consultant. Among his many wartime projects was the design of a graphic symbol system for the Citizens Defense Corps, later called the Office of Civil Defense. This project predicted the corporate design systems of the 1960's. It became well known in America through the printing of the symbols on armbands for air raid wardens and on many other applications. Coiner also assisted the Office of Emergency Management in art directing propaganda posters. As a part of this program, designers were producing dramatic posters to support the war effort on the home front. Coiner was art director for the poster "Production: America's Answer". It was designed by Jean Carlu and was widely hung in factories and industrial plants. Glenn Grohe designed an important but controversial poster "He's Watching You" in which a Nazi soldier is staring over a wall top at the viewer. This poster caused confusion for many war plant workers by its degree of abstraction. This stylistic problem led to more representational style of imagery such as J. Howard MIller's picturing of Rosie the Riveter showing off her strong arm in the poster titled, "We Can Do It!" Other powerful posters were designed by immigrants Leo Lionni, Herbert Matter and Joseph Binder. George Giusti also contributed his considerable talents in support of the war effort by designing posters and collateral print materials.

Another graphic designer, Lester Beall was ineligible for the draft because of his age. On his war poster "Don't Let Him Down", Beall used active graphic images in the cause of national patriotism. His trade ads for Collier's magazine foreshadowed America's entrance int the war in Europe. Beall also designed a publication for the Air Corps in which he translated, through dynamic typography, layout and photo-montage the action of military air engagement. Later, in 1942, he designed a large format publication, working with Nelson Rockefeller, to promote unity among the South American allies. This brochure titled "Hacia La Victoria" (Road to Victory) featured text in Spanish by Carl Sandburg and photographs by Edward Steichen. These elements combined to create a dramatic series of pages.

Richard Edes Harrison designed many maps for Fortune magazine which gave Americans on the home front a better geographic view of the war and a way to relate do the far-flung locations of their loved ones who were in the military service. Of particular interest were the ways in which Harrison created new and different global views of the theaters of war. Later, in 1944, Harrison published these maps in a book Look at the World: the Fortune Atlas for World Strategy.

Others contributed also. In Chicago, Gyorgy Kepes and Robert J. Wolff supported the war effort by conducting a class on camouflage design at the Institute of Design. Illustrators used their talents to help the war effort. Norman Rockwell painted a series of dramatic posters on the themes from President Roosevelt's famous "Four Freedoms" speech and continued to create covers for the popular Saturday Evening Post magazine on poignant war topics. The posters extended the impact of the speech and provided important reminders to Americans about their country.

In the 1040's. graphic design work was exhibited at the museum of Modern Art in New York. In 1941 an exhibit of award-winning posters on defense subjects was mounted. This exhibit hoped to bring attention to the government's role in promoting what TIME magazine called "the propaganda of patriotism." The next year MoMA sponsored an exhibit, "Useful Objects in Wartime" which was divided into a display of household objects made of non-priority materials, a display of products that had been asked for by men and women in the military and a display of equipment essential for civilian defense. MoMA's curator Mildred Constantine sponsored a poster competition to raise awareness and funds for polio research. Many important designers participated with Herbert Matter's dynamic poster being awarded first prize.

At MoMa, Edgar Kaufmann Jr., head of the Department of Industrial Design, championed the cause of quality design with exhibits and awards programs and heralded the cause that "form should be determined by function, structure and materials." (13) Dr. Robert Leslie continues to support immigrants and young American designers through the 1940's with exhibits and publications at The Composing Room, Inc. These exhibits, in retrospect, are like a "who's who" of the pioneers of American Modernist graphic design.

The American graphic designers of the creative forties were critical in assimilating the new avant-garde approaches from the 1930's and making them appropriate for business and industry as they all rode the crest of the post-war economic surge. New York designer, Hands Barschel called this decade "the creative forties." Chicago designer Bruce Beck remembered, "We believed we were part of an era that was creating design. It was a terribly exciting time." (19) There was a feeling of openness to the design of this decade and a common feeling among designers that design did make a difference. The world was better for its contributions. "It was the expansion of the designers' task from a craft to a method of thought that represents the professionalism of graphic design." (20) The challenge was clear; a new profession was taking shape. Through education and the pioneering achievements of the first generation of both immigrants and American designers, in the form and content of graphic design, the scaffolding for the dynamic continued evolution of the field for the next sixty years was secured.

This essay is an excerpt from American Modernism Graphic Design 1920-1960

It is reprinted here with the permission of the author and the publisher, Laurence King Company Ltd. London.