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Structuralism is a 20th Century intellectual movement and approach to the human sciences (it has had a profound effect on linguistics, sociology, anthropology and other fields in addition to philosophy) that attempts to analyze a specific field as a complex system of interrelated parts. Broadly speaking, Structuralism holds that all human activity and its products, even perception and thought itself, are constructed and not natural, and in particular that everything has meaning because of the language system in which we operate. It is closely related to Semiotics, the study of signs, symbols and communication, and how meaning is constructed and understood.

There are four main common ideas underlying Structuralism as a general movement: firstly, every system has a structure; secondly, the structure is what determines the position of each element of a whole; thirdly, "structural laws" deal with coexistence rather than changes; and fourthly, structures are the "real things" that lie beneath the surface or the appearance of meaning.

Structuralism is widely regarded to have its origins in the work of the Swiss linguistic theorist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857 - 1913) in the early 20th Century, but it soon came to be applied to many other fields, including philosophy, anthropology, psychoanalysis, sociology, literary theory and even mathematics. In the early 20th Century, Saussure developed a science of signs based on linguistics (semiotics or semiology). He held that any language is just a complex system of signs that express ideas, with rules which govern their usage. He called the underlying abstract structure of a language, "langue", and the concrete manifestations or embodiments, "parole". He concluded that any individual sign is essentially arbitrary, and that there is no natural relationship between a signifier (e.g. the word "dog") and the signified (e.g. the mental concept of the actual animal).

Key Points

Philosophy movement - Europe - late 1800’s - 1960’s

Focuses on society as a system

Differential relations are the key to understanding culture & society

Focus on material practices as points for analysis.

Semiotics, or semiology, is the study of signs, symbols, and signification. It is the study of how meaning is
created, not what it is. Below are some brief definitions of semiotic terms, beginning with the smallest unit
of meaning and proceeding towards the larger and more complex:

Signifier: any material thing that signifies, e.g., words on a page, a facial expression, an image.

Signified: the concept that a signifier refers to.

Together, the signifier and signified make up the

Sign: the smallest unit of meaning. Anything that can be used to communicate (or to tell a lie).

Symbolic (arbitrary) signs: signs where the relation between signifier and signified is purely conventional and
culturally specific, e.g., most words.

Iconic signs: signs where the signifier resembles the signified, e.g., a picture.

"'Commonsense' suggests that 'I' am a unique individual with a stable, unified identity and ideas of my own. Semiotics can help us to realize that such notions are created and maintained by our engagement with sign systems: our sense of identity is established through signs. We derive a sense of 'self' from drawing upon conventional, pre-existing repertoires of signs and codes . . .. We are thus the subjects of our sign systems rather than being 'users' who are fully in control of them."
(Daniel Chandler, Semiotics: The Basics. Routledge, 2006)

Modernism is a cultural movement that generally includes the progressive art and architecture, music, literature and design which emerged in the decades before 1914. It was a movement of artists and designers who rebelled against late 19th century academic and historicist traditions, and embraced the new economic, social and political aspects of the emerging modern world. The word ‘modernism' refers to the characteristics of the modern time and it is a new thought or practice which is called as modernism. Time after the 20th century, the modernism deliberated departure from tradition to modern. Modernism is a artistic and cultural movement with its roots in mid-19th century France, generally defined by new forms of art, architecture, music and literature emerging in the decades before 1914 as artists rejected 19th century artistic traditions such as romanticism.

Graphic design is really a product of Modernism. According to A History of Graphic Design by Philip B. Meggs, it was coined in 1922 by William Addison Dwiggins, a book designer, in 1922. He basically used the term to describe his activities. A graphic designer is someone who brings structural order and visual form to printed communications.
Today it is not just limited to print. Basically where ever one sees text and image, someone or some people have organized the visuals. The internet, television, film, computer graphics, clothing, and of course printed matter can be included in the definition of graphic design.

Modernism and Graphic Design:

Rather, he defines the proper object of linguistic study as the system of signs used by human beings, and the relationships of which can be studied in the abstract, or as he says “synchronicity” rather than “diachronically.” In other words, there is no reference to any particular historical implementation of that language. Saussure claims that the proper object of linguistic study is not the linguistic output of any given individual but the shared knowledge of a community of language users. He further asserts that, “The language, in turn, is quite independent of the individual; it cannot be a creation of the individual, it is essentially social; it presupposes the collectivity.” Broadly, Saussure’s structuralist movement seeks to undertake studies in various social sciences by concentrating on the deep structures that underlie social practices. Typical examples of such structures are grammar or syntax (rather than vocabulary use), rules of narrative rather than linguistic style. In general terms, it is anything that studies sign systems and their rules rather than particular expressions of the system in use.

In 1972, his book Structuralism and Ecology was published detailing the tenets of what would become structural anthropology. In it, he proposed that culture, like language, is composed of hidden rules that govern the behavior of its practitioners. What made cultures unique and different from one another are the hidden rules participants understood but are unable to articulate; thus, the goal of structural anthropology is to identify these rules. He maintained that culture is a dialectic process: thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. Levi-Strauss proposed a methodological means of discovering these rules—through the identification of binary oppositions.

His work entitled Morphology of the Folktale, which has been published in Russia (Russian Language in 1928) clearly underlines the Ferdinand de Saussure’s methodology and further explored the use of grammatical and syntagmatic analysis for explaining the nature and meaning of myths.He generated thirty-one functions that represented a definition of the actual movement of the story and the preparatory part of the story (defining the actors / characters and their actions). Propp clarified that these functions are visible and valid only in the genre of oral folktale and in mythology. Although, he tried to generalize and group stories such as of Perseus, Theseus and the Argonauts as same in their morphological structure and therefore able to be explained / analysed by his method. He pointed out that the thirty-one functions should be used specifically in order and none should be excluded.

“The grid system is an aid, not a guarantee. It permits a number of possible uses and each designer can look for a solution appropriate to his personal style. But one must learn how to use the grid; it is an art that requires practice.”
Josef Müller-Brockmann was born on May 9, 1914 in Rapperswil, Switzerland. He studied architecture, literature, anatomy, psychology and history of art at Eidgenossiche Technische Hochschule and Zurich University. In 1936, he established his own studio and specialized in exhibition design, commercial art and photography. From 1951, he produced concert posters for the Tonhalle in Zurich and at that year, he also designed stage sets in Zurich, Munich and Copenhagen where he made the puppets as well for Hin und zuruck show. His first one man exhibition was held in the Congress House in Zurich in 1957. He along side with Richard Paul Lohse, Carlo Vivarelli and Hans Neuburg became a founder of New Graphic design. In 1959, He became president of the Verband Schweizericher Grafiker. He taught graphic design at the School of Arts and Craft, Zurich from 1957 to 1960.

Otto Neurath (1882-1945) was an Austrian philosopher of science, sociologist, and political economist. In the 1920s Neurath developed the "Social and Economic Museum" to convey complicated and economic fact to a largely uneducated Viennese public. This led him to work on graphic design and visual education. With the ilustrator Gerd Arntz (1900-1945) he created Isotype (International System of Typographic Picture Education), a symbolic way of representing quantitaive information via icons. Eventually Gerd Arntz designed around 4000 signs, wich symbolized keydata from industry, demographics, politic and economy. The two basic rules of Isotype are that a greater number should be represented by a greater number of signs - not by a single large sign - and, second, that the presentation is free of perspective, where distance would require signs to be smaller and thus confuse their value. Isotype was also a visual system for displaying quantitative information of the sort later advocated by Edward Tufte.

A beautifully simple design by Herbert Bayer (1900 - 1985) for the emergency banknotes issued by Die Landesregierung Thüringen in Weimar (State government of Thuringia in Weimar) during the "hyperinflation" economic period of the Weimar Republic. Paper money was so worthless it was more economic to use it as fuel. It is dated 9. August 1923. Herbert Bayer studied at the Bauhaus from 1921, first on the Foundation Course in Art and Design under Johannes Itten and then painting under Wassily Kandinsky and László Moholy-Nagy. During this time he was developing his own typefaces. In 1925, on completion of his final exams, Bayer was appointed by Walter Gropius to direct the new "Druck und Reklame" (Printing and Advertising) department at the Bauhaus in Dessau. Bayer developed the "Universal", a geometric sans-serif typeface in 1925, designed the iconic signage for the Bauhaus' new building complex in Dessau, and the graphic design for Bauhaus product catalogues and posters. In 1928, he left the Bauhaus and became the art director of Vogue magazine in Berlin. Bayer's output is synonomous with the graphic look of the Bauhaus and his influence permeates graphic design even today.

Beatrice Warde was an American typographer, editor and educator who spent much of her working life in England. Warde published her investigations on the origins of the Garamond typeface in The Fleuron (then edited by Stanley Morison) under the pen-name Paul Beaujon. She described 'Paul Beaujon' as 'a man of long grey beard, four grandchildren, a great interest in antique furniture and a rather vague address in Montparesse.' After publishing her discovery of Garamond's origin, "Paul Beaujon" was offered a part-time post in 1927 as editor of the Monotype Recorder, and Warde accepted—to the astonishment of Lanston Monotype Corporation executives in London, who were expecting a man. She was promoted to publicity manager in 1929, a post she retained until her retirement in 1960.

Her famous and influential essay on typography "The Crystal Goblet" was first delivered as a speech, called "Printing Should Be Invisible," given to the British Typographers' Guild at the St Bride Institute in London, on October 7, 1930. The essay calls for increased clarity in printing and typography. It has has since been reprinted many times and is a touchstone for the concept of "clear" typography and the straightforward presentation of content. Throughout the essay, Warde argues for the discipline and humility required to create quietly set, "transparent" book pages.