Bauhaus

Rebecca Lee
Communication Design 2

Bauhaus is a German expression meaning "house for building." An architect named Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus in 1919. Gropius came from the “Werkbund” movement, seeking to integrate art and economics, and to add an element of engineering to art. The Bauhaus was founded by combining the Weimar Art Academy, and the Weimar Arts and Crafts School.

The school had three goals at its establishment that stayed the same throughout the life of the Bauhaus even though the direction of the school changed significantly and repeatedly.

The first intention of the school was to encourage the individual artisans and craftsmen to work cooperatively and combine all of their skills. The second aim was to set out the school to elevate the status of crafts, lamps, chairs, etc., to the same level enjoyed by fine arts, painting, sculpting, etc. The third aim was to maintain contact with the leaders of industry and attempt to eventually gain independence from government support by selling designs to the industry.

The Bauhaus favored the use of sans serif fonts, which was frowned upon heavily by most of Germany. The font, preferred by Germany looked older and more formal, it was difficult to read, and this was a feature that some Bauhaus teachers disliked.
Laszlo Moholy Nagy, created a font design and theory on fonts and formatting which was published in the Bauhaus book “Staatliches Bauhaus Weimar 1919-1923”, a book on typesetting and typography of the Bauhaus. The German public responded even less favorably to the ideas of Herbert Bayer, a student and later teacher of the Bauhaus who held some even more radical views on typography.

The Bauhaus, for all of its accomplishments in various areas did not have as intense effect on typography as it did in other fields, but the ideas that they brought forth were and still are worth consideration. The Bauhaus took chances in the name of experimentation to show their commitment to improving things and the desire to accomplish their objectives. Although they may not be remembered for their typography, the Bauhaus will not soon be forgotten for their willingness to experiment.