Yesterday and Today

Disputes arising between the two schools of typographic thought, the traditional on the one hand and the modern on the other are, it seems to me, the fruits of misplaced emphasis. I believe the real difference lies in the way space is interpreted: that is, the way in which an image is placed on a sheet of paper. Such incidental questions as the use of sans-serif typefaces, lowercase letters, ragged settings, primary colors, etc., are at best variables that tend merely to sidetrack the real issue.

“But great original artists,” says John Dewey, ”take a tradition into themselves. They have not shunned but digested it. Then the very conflict set up between it and what is new in themselves and in their environment creates the tension that demands a new mode of expression.”1 Understanding modern and traditional in this light, the designer is able to bring together in a new and logical relationship traditional graphic forms and ideas and “new” concepts based on a contemporary point of view. This union of two supposedly divergent forces provides conditions that lead to fresh visual experiences.

1. John Dewey, “The Natural History of Form,” Art as Experience (New York, 1934), 159.

In advertising one is often faced with the problem of conveying a quality of age. In the example that follows, traditional ornaments combine with geometric forms to establish new relationships. This transition from old to new may be accomplished by arranging these familiar devices in some surprising manner.