ILLUSTRATOR BRIEF

After a lecture on modernism and postmodernism and a context of practice seminar on Soviet Russia and the Russian Revolution, everything seemed to tie in quite nicely. In the mid-1910's, shortly before the October revolution, a new movement began to emerge in Russia, they were to be primarily known as the constructivists, but also went under the titles of the futurists and the productivists. It is stated that 'constructivist art is committed to complete abstraction with a devotion to modernity.' (http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/constructivism/) They took inspiration from Western work, from Bauhaus to Le Corbusier, even creating their own school, the Moscow art school Vkhutemas. Vkhutemas seemingly didn't get the same coverage that the Bauhaus evidently did, and it is almost impossible to find any books on it. However, it has been noted that the work and ideas produced were extremely ambitious.

 They began by moving on from the world of painting, and began to look into textile design, photography, book design and the most popular, architecture. 

Note Tatlin's 'Monument to the Third International', which was certainly seen as ambitious

"Monument to the Third International" (1919-20, Moscow)

His plan was to utilise 'real materials in real space' on an extremely massive scale.

Constructivists were mainly focused on the use of industrial materials, including glass, steel and plastic, showing a great admiration for machines, technology, functionalism and modern ways of working.

Constructivism, modernism and Russia, have all influenced the alphabet soup illustrator brief. 

As the typeface had to be based upon an existing letterform produced from a past project, the word 'build' was to be used as the foundation. All of this tied in extremely nicely.

'Build' letters

An article on the constructivists and the Russian Revolution in art and architecture from the Guardian has been my main source of inspiration. It has provided a great grounding for the project. 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/nov/04/russian-avant-garde-constructivists

 Rusakov Workers' Club, designed by Konstantin Melnikov. Photograph: Richard Pare