National Graphic Design of the 1960s in the Context of World Achievements in this Field

Abstract

Peculiarities of national graphic design formation in the 60s of the 20th century in comparison with achievements of the leaders of the world design movement are considered in the article. The aim of the article is to identify peculiarities of Soviet graphic design formation in the 1960s in the context of world achievements in this field. The research methodology combines the methods of comparative, figurative and stylistic analysis, which are based on historical and systematic approaches. The materials of the article proved that in the 1960s professional development of national design took place in conditions of significant economic and technological gap with the leading countries of Europe and the United States. At the same time, due to the tendency to stylistic inertia and imitation of forms and means of graphic art, including aesthetic evaluation criteria, there also was a stylistic gap with progressive trends represented by the Swiss Printing School, the Polish Poster School and American commercial design. The author concludes that the development of Soviet graphic design in the 1960s was in line with opposite trends. On the one hand an impact of world design achievements was obvious, along with significant progress in certain fields of science and technology, the creation of design universities; on the other hand, there were traditions of applied graphics and aesthetic criteria; ideologization of society and state control over all spheres of creative activity. These factors hindered the perception of graphic design as an independent and specific field of art and design activities. Nevertheless, the period of the 1960s was an important stage in the development of design profession in the USSR. The first design educational institutions were established, including the Kharkiv Institute of Arts and Industrial Design; the All-Union Research Scientific Institute of Technical Aesthetics appeared; the publication of the journal “Technical Aesthetics” began. All these changes were of great importance for the development of graphic design, as they marked the beginning of its professional history, formation of the basis, awareness of a fundamentally new type of activity with its own tools and professional tasks.