Graphic Language: Herbert Bayer’s Environmental Design

May 23, 2011 at 12:07 pm Leave a comment

“Graphic Language: Herbert Bayer’s Environmental Design,” Environmental History, 12:2 (2007), 254-279.

Environmental debates are greatly indebted to artistic communication. This article discusses the work of the former faculty member of the German Bauhaus school, Herbert Bayer, who introduced modernist imagery in relation to globalization, conservation values, and maps dealing with environmental concerns in the United States. His Romantic defense of environmental design demonstrates that the humanist legacy of modernism has made more constructive contributions to the history of environmental debate than its critics have been willing to admit. Bayer’s global humanism and environmental designs created a visual language of colors, images, symbols, and dynamic illustrations that aimed at harmonizing human relationships with the natural world.