Futurism

Futurism

Definition: Concern with events and trends of the future or which anticipate the future (Google Dictionary).

Futurists expressed there ideas through painting, ceramics, sculpture, graphic design, interior design, theater, film, literature, music and architecture. As a whole they despised anything that wasn’t new as it would go against what they stood for. (Design is History)

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti

Marinetti declared that “Art […] can be nothing but violence, cruelty, and injustice” in the Le Figaro, on 20 February 1909 within hisThe Founding and Manifesto of Futurism article on the first page. Marinetti went as far to say that they “will glorify war—the world’s only hygiene—militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of freedom-bringers, beautiful ideas worth dying for, and scorn for woman” (itainianfuturism.org).

Marinetti celebrates in his book Zang Tumb Tumb (1914) “the battle of Tripoli through his concept of words-in-freedom” (Armstrong and Lupton: 51). The typography used on the cover reflects the emotional power of language which is what the futurist concept describes.

Contemporary

This piece of typography also expresses emotional power of language through the repetition of some letters and symbols plus the fonts and sizes used.

References:

Design is History, Futurism, http://www.designishistory.com/1850/futurism/ [9/10/2011]

itainianfuturism.org, The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism, http://www.italianfuturism.org/manifestos/foundingmanifesto/ [9/10/2011]

Armstrong H and Lupton E, Graphic Design Theory: Readings from the Field, 2009, Princeton Architectural Press: New York