Experimental Jetset on Modernism

Watching Experimental Jetset's talk on scavenging the ruins of Modernism provided insight into their design practice and how much external influences from both past and present can help shape the works identity. 

Their unique presentation style of explaining an 'alphabet of influences' was much like the presentation style of Studio Laucke Siebein at Offset. 

Experimental Jetset are synonymous with using only Helvetica in their work. With this they raised an interesting point of the relationship between iso 216 and Helvetica itself. As explained they are both standard units, available to everyone, have some egalitarian qualities, possess interesting political and ideological backgrounds and is often relied upon much like their use of Helvetica. This relationship only highlights the modernistic qualities of Helvetica. Its ubiquitous use in design, neutral personality and utilitarian qualities has made Helvetica as useful as the iso 216. 

In creating the graphic identity for the Whitney Museum, Jetset took an atypical approach that I have not considered or exposed to when designing. They created set of instructions that dictated the identity of the museum prior to designing. This due to their role of only laying the foundations for the Museum's design team to apply the graphic language. Therefore the brand identity was communicated through a set of instructions for the Whitney design team to apply. This a hard task as the instructions have to be laid out clearly to avoid confusion and misinterpretation. Jetset's set of instruction are straightforward enough that anyone can recreate the Whitney's identity just from these instructions.

After going through the alphabet it was clear that their work is influenced by the late remnants of Modernism. Through this process they have created a new form of modernism that relates to their belief that Modernism itself does not have one fixed meaning.