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    Peter Behrens

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    Dejan Bogdanovic
    Peter Behrens was a pioneering German architect and designer in the early 20th century. He designed a villa in 1902 that was praised as a "total work of art" incorporating all aspects of design in a coordinated style, influencing his later works. Behrens also made important contributions to graphic design, including symbolist prints, typeface designs, and work for the electrical manufacturer AEG. In 1907, he became AEG's artistic director, creating a unified visual identity system across their products and buildings that is considered one of the first corporate identities. Behrens's rational yet artistic designs using geometry and contrast helped define modern German design.

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    Peter Behrens

    Uploaded by

    Dejan Bogdanovic
    148 views2 pages
    Peter Behrens was a pioneering German architect and designer in the early 20th century. He designed a villa in 1902 that was praised as a "total work of art" incorporating all aspects of design in a coordinated style, influencing his later works. Behrens also made important contributions to graphic design, including symbolist prints, typeface designs, and work for the electrical manufacturer AEG. In 1907, he became AEG's artistic director, creating a unified visual identity system across their products and buildings that is considered one of the first corporate identities. Behrens's rational yet artistic designs using geometry and contrast helped define modern German design.

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    Peter Behrens was a pioneering German architect and designer in the early 20th century. He designed a villa in 1902 that was praised as a "total work of art" incorporating all aspects of design in a coordinated style, influencing his later works. Behrens also made important contributions to graphic design, including symbolist prints, typeface designs, and work for the electrical manufacturer AEG. In 1907, he became AEG's artistic director, creating a unified visual identity system across their products and buildings that is considered one of the first corporate identities. Behrens's rational yet artistic designs using geometry and contrast helped define modern German design.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    148 views2 pages

    Peter Behrens

    Uploaded by

    Dejan Bogdanovic
    Peter Behrens was a pioneering German architect and designer in the early 20th century. He designed a villa in 1902 that was praised as a "total work of art" incorporating all aspects of design in a coordinated style, influencing his later works. Behrens also made important contributions to graphic design, including symbolist prints, typeface designs, and work for the electrical manufacturer AEG. In 1907, he became AEG's artistic director, creating a unified visual identity system across their products and buildings that is considered one of the first corporate identities. Behrens's rational yet artistic designs using geometry and contrast helped define modern German design.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    of 2

    Peter Behrens, a selftaught architect and

    designer, was a
    prolific and outstanding
    figure of the German
    Jugendstil
    movement at the
    beginning of the
    twentieth century.
    Originally from
    Hamburg, Behrens
    studied painting in
    Munich. Inspired
    by the British Arts and
    Crafts reform ideals of
    William Morris and
    others, he
    designed a villa in
    Darmstadt's artists'
    colony in 1902. This
    was praised as a
    "Gesamtkunstwerk", a
    total work of art,
    conforming to the
    contemporary ideal
    that all aspects of
    design should be given
    equal attention and be
    coordinated
    in the same style. The
    same principle was to
    inform much of his
    later work.
    In the field of graphic
    design Behrens was
    most important for his
    early
    Symbolist prints
    published in small art
    journals, his typeface
    designs and his
    work for the Berlin
    electrical manufacturer
    AEG. All of this was
    largely
    undertaken between
    1900 and 1914; after
    World War I Behrens
    worked mainly

    as an architect. In the
    belief that, with the
    turn of the century, the
    arts were in
    need of regeneration,
    German type foundries
    commissioned Behrens
    to design
    typefaces which would
    express the new spirit
    of the age. It was also
    hoped
    that these might help
    put German industry on
    a competitive footing
    with
    France. Controversially,
    against the German
    tradition of setting
    texts in Gothic
    script, Behrens was
    keen to base designs
    on roman typefaces. He
    inflected
    these with calligraphic
    qualities more
    associated with
    German lettering. The
    first of the designs was
    Behrens-Schrift of
    1902, a distinctive,
    elongated
    letterform compatible
    with Jugendstil
    decoration. Kursiv
    followed in 1906, and
    Behrens-Antiqua was
    available in 1908. The
    latter, a "roman in a
    German
    spirit", was used
    extensively in
    Behrens's designs for
    AEG.
    In 1907 Behrens was
    appointed artistic
    director to
    AEG, a major
    manufacturer of

    generators, cables,
    light
    bulbs, arc lamps and
    other electrical goods
    for domestic
    and industrial use. This
    was among the most
    celebrated
    appointments in design
    history, as it heralded
    the birth of
    the corporate identity.
    Behrens's
    responsibilities grew
    from
    overseeing trade
    pamphlets and
    advertising to
    organizing
    displays at
    international
    exhibitions. He
    redesigned AEG's
    trademark as a
    hexagonal motif,
    reminiscent of a
    honeycomb, which he
    then applied to the
    designs of new
    products, such as
    electric kettles, fans
    and lamps. This
    led to a visual
    consistency in all AEG
    goods, which
    brought instant
    recognition by the
    consumer. Extensive
    use of Behrens-Antiqua
    gave the company's
    identity a
    clean, sober
    appearance and
    brought AEG praise for
    its
    systematic ordering of
    product information.
    Behrens's

    architectural office in
    Berlin also oversaw the
    construction
    of new factories and
    workers' housing for
    AEG.
    The classicism of
    Behrens's designs, with
    their striking
    use of symmetry,
    geometry and strong
    black and white
    contrasts, was praised
    for giving AEG a look
    which was
    artistic yet rational.
    This approach became
    associated with
    much modern German
    design for the rest of
    the century.

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