wiedler.ch

book (design) story #242

(unknown) :
open oog – avantgardecahier 1

w.l. en j. brusse n.v., rotterdam, 1946
size: 26 x 19 cm
designer: willem sandberg

generally this collection is not about periodicals, and only about german language items. so why include the dutch publication "open oog"?

firstly it can't really be called a periodical since the impressum says: "open eye" will appear whenever we have something to say. only two issues were ever published – this is the first, dated september 1946.

the cover by dutch graphic designer and museum man willem sandberg (1897-1984) is in his distinctive style. among the editors and contributors are listed: rietveld, mart stam, braque, max bill, le corbusier, van eesteren, alfred roth, georg schmidt, hans schmidt. the articles are printed in three languages – dutch, english, and french.

the main article open eye is a manifesto for modernist culture – we read that applied arts "become subject to all influence from the free arts; in particular from abstract painting. typographical art abandons symmetric lay-out and assumes direction and movement; tries to guide the eye across the page. (symmetry is equilibrium, stagnation.) the booklet's typography reflects this design ideology – a position propagated by jan tschichold in his seminal book "typographische gestaltung" (see story 30) which was also published in a dutch version in 1938. this book obviously influenced the design of "open oog" – particularly the contrasting mix of typefaces (e.g. script vs. bold sans-serif on the last page). however, tschichold had abandoned his modernist style ideology since – his famous dispute on this matter with max bill happened in that same year 1946.

the spread above critises the clash between the machine-age exterior design of an ocean liner and its pseudo-traditional interior design – taking on a point already discussed in this 1929 book.

there is actually a bit of german language – below on the left a karl marx quote: "die form hat keinen wert, wenn sie nicht die form des inhaltes ist / form is valueless unless it faithfully reflects the content."