Elizabeth Alexander

60's Design Timeline

Process

I was assigned to curate, and design a timeline for 1960s design. This meant massive amounts of research and sifting through many different references to find the most interesting and iconic designers and designs of the sixties. The objective of this project is to control and create a narrative that is told through visual and informational hierarchy through color, typography and composition.

To start, I researched different design movements of the sixties and categorized the work within each movement. What I found interesting is how each movement interacted with other cultural events of the time. I developed a number of ways to communicate these issues in a timeline. Maybe for one idea I would focus solely on just the international style, and another I would focus more on the space race and how that influenced design, etc.

The final timeline is about the design movements in conjunction with the major cultural events of the time. In many ways the social events of the time acted as catalysts for the changes we saw in design. The beginning of the timeline starts with an international style and new york style inspired feel. The narrative progresses to an experimental and early postmodern work; such as Weingart. The final poster combines a modernist style grid, that contrasts with the more expressive, abstract background. The colors begin in a similar tone, and end with an experimental palate indicative of the times to come.