The movement originated in Russia in 1919 and ended in 1934. It rejected the idea of 'art for art's sake' and encouraged art as a practice directed toward social purposes. While it was a popular movement for the sculptors and painters it was of paramount importance to the development of design. Designers were affected by the angular geometric shapes, organisational grid structures, sans-serif typestyles and innovative use of photomontage, overall it displayed a groundbreaking use of spatial arrangement.
The Constructionists looked at the properties of an object and it's spatial presence, the designers of the time flattened the objects into two dimensional works such as books and posters with photomontage and 'factography' becoming important concepts.
The Constructivists also worked on public festivals and street designs where groups painted propaganda posters, plaques and buildings, such as Lissitzky's poster 'beat the Whites with the red wedge' from 1919, as shown below.
In 1921, with the release of a new economic policy into Russia's economy, some of the Constructivists worked on advertising for the smaller local businesses. Rodchenko and Mayakovsky worked together and called themselves 'advertising constructors'. Together they designed eye catching images featuring bright colours, geometric shapes and bold lettering. The typography in most of these designs was supposed to create a reaction and operate on emotional subconscious levels. Most of these designs of this group were designed especially for a large department store in Moscow advertising everyday household items. Rodchenko, Lissitzky and the others working with them were an inspiration for the designers in western Europe.
Many Constructivists worked on the design of posters for everything from film to political propaganda. The Stenberg brothers presented the world with their brightly coloured, geometric style while others offered a more detailed, serious photomontage style. Each expressed the reality of practical art such as posters or books being the same visual art which we like to admire and collect. This aspect is also seen in today's designs which are also designed to create a reaction or cause some sort of an impact on the viewers emotion or their subconscious. The majority of art viewed by the average person today is designed for practical reasons such as advertising rather then just being art for art's sake.
ROBYN RAND !!!!!!!!!!!!!
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