In graphic design, a grid is a structure (usually two-dimensional) made up of a series of intersecting

straight (vertical,horizontal, and angular) or curved guide lines used to structure content. The grid serves as
an armature or framework on which a designer can organize graphic elements
(images, glyphs, paragraphs, etc.) in a rational, easy-to-absorb manner. A grid can be used to organize
graphic elements in relation to a page, in relation to other graphic elements on the page, or relation to other
parts of the same graphic element or shape.

Evolution of the modern grid[edit]

After World War II, a number of graphic designers, including Max Bill, Emil Ruder, and Josef MllerBrockmann, influenced by the modernist ideas of Jan Tschichold's Die neue Typographie (The New
Typography), began to question the relevance of the conventional page layout of the time. They began to
devise a flexible system able to help designers achieve coherency in organizing the page. The result was
the modern typographic grid that became associated with the International Typographic Style. The seminal
work on the subject, Grid systems in graphic design by Mller-Brockmann, helped propagate the use of the
grid, first in Europe, and later in North America.

Reaction and reassessment[edit]

By the mid-1970s instruction of the typographic grid as a part of graphic design curricula had become
standard in Europe, North America and much of Latin America. The graphic style of the grid was adopted
as a look for corporate communication. In the early 1980s, a reaction against the entrenchment of the grid,
particularly its dogmatic use, and association with corporate culture, resulted in some designers rejecting
its use in favor of more organic structure. The appearance of the Apple Macintosh computer, and the
resulting transition away from type being set by typographers to designers setting type themselves resulted
in a wave of experimentation, much of it contrary to the precepts of Tschichold and Mller-Brockmann. The
typographic grid continues to be taught today, but more as a useful tool for some projects, not as a
requirement or starting point for all page design.

Grid use in web design[edit]

While grid systems have seen significant use in print media, interest from web developers has only recently
seen a resurgence. Website design frameworks producing HTML and CSS had existed for a while before
newer frameworks popularised the use of grid-based layouts. Some grid systems specify fixed-width
elements with pixels, and some are 'fluid', meaning that they call for page element sizing to be in relative
units like percentages, rather than absolute units like pixels or points.

His work helped transform the genre of animated film into one capable of
communicating the most complex, difficult and serious messages. He was also
recognised as an talented graphic artist, set and theatre-costume designer,
children's book illustrator, postage stamp designer, art critic and major artist of
the Polish poster school. Jan Lenica was born in 1928 in Pozna, the son of musican and
painter Alfred Lenica. He died 2001 in Berlin. He graduated from a secondary school of music
in Pozna in 1947 and from Warsaw Polytechnic in 1952. He started to contribute drawings to

publications in 1945, published critical assessments of drawings, prints, posters and cartoons
from 1948, and took over as art editor of the satirical journal Szpilki in 1950. He was appointed
Assistant at the Chair of Poster of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts in 1954.
In 1957, with Walerian Borowczyk, he made his first animated film. Having made several
more, and having experienced problems with their release, he settled abroad, in Paris. He
lectured on poster art at Harvard University in 1974. From 1979 to 1985 he was head of the
Chair of Animated Film at Kassel University in Germany, and from 1986 to 1994 he was
Professor of Posters and Graphic Arts at the Berlin Hochschule der Kunste.
Lenica took an interest in many arts. A noted director of animated films, he stood out as one of
the finest artists of the Polish school of posters, and made satirical drawings and book
illustrations and designed theatre costumes. His posters, prints and drawings were shown at
exhibitions in Poland and abroad. His art earned him awards including those of the Warsaw
Poster Biennial, Karlovy Vary Film Festival and the Jules Cheret award in Annecy. His lifetime
achievement was recognized with the Alfred Jurzykowski Foundation Award in New York City
in 1987 and with the Smok Smokow Award of the Krakw Short Film Festival in 1999.

Lenica, Borowczyk and animation

No record of the top international achievements in animated film would be complete without
mention of two Polish artists, Lenica and Borowczyk. Their joint film from 1957, By sobie raz
/ Once Upon a Time, followed by Dom / House from 1958 and Lenica's individual films
triggered a revolution, turning this peripheral genre into an art capable of communicating the
most complex, difficult and serious messages. Lenica said that,
I have always liked to move at the periphery of Art, at the crossing of genres. [...] I have
enjoyed [...] combining elements which were seemingly distant, if not quite foreign, blurring
the borders between adjacent areas, transplanting noble qualities to "lower" genres, in other
words - quiet diversion.
Before Lenica and Borowczyk's films appeared, the animated film was such a less valuable
genre in Poland. Considered to be addressed to children, it was devoid of major artistic let
alone philosophical aspirations, and was ideology-driven in addition. Marcin Giycki writes
that,
Lenica and Borowczyk's brilliance did not reveal itself in technical innovation or
inventiveness; on the contrary, it was demonstrated in their nonchalant approach to existing
techniques and conventions. [...] Their films made no secret of the simplicity of means they

utilised, camouflaged nothing, their movement and montage as simplified as possible. Just a
few pieces of coloured paper, old photographs, junk objects, fragments of found drawings.
When asked about the innovativeness of their first joint films, dubbed experimental by critics,
Lenica ascribed it to their unfamiliarity with previous achievements in the genre. The fact is
that the cutout technique used by Borowczyk and Lenica in their first films, and then by Lenica
in several of his subsequent film, successfully produced effects that were funny and satirical,
surrealistically grotesque, and as absurd and horrific as Ionesco and Kafka. Lenica did not find
this formula satisfying for long, however, and having parted with Borowczyk, he went on to
make combined films, live films, films with photographic stills and, finally, cartoons.

Philosophy and effect

Let us consider the philosophy of Lenica's films. They involve an artistic game, patterned on
experimental films made by Ferdinand Leger, a serious, Melies-like treatment of the picture,
references to Chaplin (a man in a bowler hat appears in Lenica films including his debut), a
ridicule of cultural clichs - as found in Nowy Janko Muzykant / New Janko the Musician, and
in Fantorro - Le dernier justicier a - and surrealist games, as found in Stilleben. Yet there is a
deeper message in almost all of them. A, Lenica's simply structured tale of the struggle of a
lonely man against the terror of the first letter of the alphabet, can easily be interpreted in terms
of a conflict between an individual and the machinery of the state. This interpretation also
fits Monsieur Tete, Adam 2, Die Nashorner and, particularly, Lenica's last film, Wyspa R.O. /
Island R.O. No wonder his films are considered pessimistic and catastrophic, and he admitted
to balancing "between grotesque and drama".
However, this interpretation narrows the full range of readings of Lenica's work. He invoked
the myth of Icarus (Labirynt / The Labyrinth) and myths of low culture,such as Fantomas
(Fantorro). He mitigated the absurdity of existence, both the Kafka-esque (Labirynt, A, Adam
2) and Ionesco-like (Monsieur Tete, Rhinoceros), with Max Ernst-like, surprising, surrealistic
juxtapositions of objects (Monsieur Tete, Nowy Janko Muzykant, Labirynt). The beauty and
order of the world of Art Nouveau (Labirynt) contrasts with the monstrous shapes of skeletonlike dream beasts (Landscape, the film invoking Lenica's wartime experience during the
German occupation) or the grotesque, dangerous characters in his adaptation of Alfred
Jarry's Ubu Roi. Despite the variety of techniques, themes and genres, Lenica's style is quite
easy to recognize. Zdzisaw Schubert wrote in 1999 that Lenica's work is very expressive and at
the same time has a discernible intellectual dimension, each film conveying a personal message
"revolving around the dilemmas of human existence".

Jan Lenica: Visual Arts

Lenica graduated from a secondary school of music in Pozna in the piano class before
studying architecture at Warsaw Polytechnic in 1947-52. In 1954 he was appointed assistant
to Henryk Tomaszewski at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. He was preoccupied with
satirical drawing from 1945, regularly contributing to the satirical journal "Szpilki" as well as
with book illustration, and started to make posters in 1950. From 1963 he worked and lived
mostly in France and Germany. In 1974 he lectured on poster art at Harvard University in
Cambridge, USA. From 1979 he was the head of the Chair of Animated Film at Kassel
University, and in 1986-1993 he taught poster and graphic art at the Berlin Hochschule der
Kunste, designing sets for the operas in Wiesbaden and Cologne.
Lenica's work makes one of the key chapters in the history of Polish art of the second half of
the twentieth century. His fame and recognition in Poland as well as international acclaim was
earned by his poster art and animated films, the two areas in which he was considered one of
the world's finest artists. He is regarded as a forerunner of modern animation.
Lenica was an extraordinarily versatile artist, working at the meeting points of genres, blurring
the borders, juggling with conventions and challenging esthetic standards. His works had a
unique poetics. He was always attracted to unrestricted artistic experiments. He was
alongside Henryk Tomaszewski - one of the forerunners of modern Polish press cartoon,
contributing to the journals "Szpilki" and "Wiadomoci Kulturalne" and to the daily
"Rzeczpospolita", and replacing the typical cartoon joke with an artistic feature bordering on
the philosophical treatise. His early, abstract drawings were shown at the Modern Art
Exhibition in Krakow in 1948.
Searching for his own form of artistic expression, he took an early interest in theatre and film
poster. At the time of the Socialist Realism this allowed him considerable artistic freedom,
releasing him from the obligation to follow the academic conventions imposed on other fine
arts. In the early 1950s he was among the young graphic artists who created the famed "Polish
school of poster". Indeed, he is believed to have coined this term when he used it as the title of
his story on the Polish poster, published in the Swiss journal "Graphis".According to Lenica
himself, three stages can be distinguished in the development of his artistic poster language.
The first stage, in 1950-6, was influenced by realism. The works more mostly illustrative and
conveyed the climate of the announced films or theatre plays. Then was the stage of "formal
search", to use Lenica's term. The artist introduced different, experimental means of expression,
such as collages of old drawings and paper cutouts. Around 1962 he started to make posters for
the Warsaw Opera and embarked on the third stage of his poster design to develop his own,

characteristic "handwriting". Lenica's posters are in fact gouache, watercolour, tempera

paintings on paper. Sometimes he would also use cutouts and collage. He created his own,
individual and distinct artistic language which used a capricious, flowing, wavy line betraying
fascination with Art Nouveau and a simplified, detail-free form. There is no room for
decorativeness or ornament in his posters. Conversely, they have a predatory expression and
intense, at times monochromatic, colours. Lenica's extraordinary skill created intelligible signs
that stood for entire topics and produced a sophisticated, lapidary artistic abbreviation.
"Poster art seems closest to jazz: it is all about being able to play somebody else's theme in
one's own way" (Jan Lenica).
Lenica preferred to use two-dimensional forms, the space of his posters having neither
background nor perspective. There was irony and absurdity in them, the artist creating a brand
new, grotesque reality; he was also a master of poetic metaphor. Most of his posters resemble
paintings; many were made in the gouache technique. The people in his posters seem to speak
or cry out to the viewer; Lenica himself used to say that "a poster must sing".
Altogether Lenica made over 200 posters. Among his finest works is Wozzeck which was made
in 1964 to Alban Berg's opera and won the Grand Prix at the Poster Biennial in Warsaw in
1966. It shows a huge red head with wide-open lips in the middle of the face. One gets the
impression that the scream coming out of the throat reverberates, wave-like, in the concentric
circles repeating the shape of the lips. Another famous poster, made in 1968 to Giuseppe
Verdi's Otello, shows an oval blue and violet form cut through by short, horizontal rhythms of
black lines. One can recognize a head seen in profile. From its centre comes out a long, pink
vaginal shape bringing to mind erotic associations.
Before leaving Poland, Lenica had illustrated children's books (most notably Julian
Tuwim'sLokomotywa [The Train Engine]. He resumed that activity in the 1980s, when he was
commissioned by "bohem press", the Swiss publishing house, to illustrate a series of books.
Using a combination of gouache and watercolours, he produced a mood which was totally
different from that of his other works. His characteristic thick line created a lyrical and warm
world of children's tales populated with friendly animals (Biay Niedwiadek Timo [Timo the
White Bear, Mysz i so [A Mouse and an Elephant], Kolorowy ptak [A Bird of Colour]).
From the mid-1980s Lenica worked for the German (initially West-German) Post, designing a
number of stamps, including the one to celebrate Bertolt Brecht's birth centenary. He drew
inspiration from Polish folk art as well as invoking the style of modern children's illustration.

Selected solo exhibitions

1948 - Young Artists' Club, Warsaw

1966 - Filmmuseum, Copenhagen

1966 - Galerie Schloss Oberhausen, Oberhausen

1967 - Visual Art Gallery, New York

1968 - Museum Villa Stuck, Munich

1968 - Wilanw Poster Museum, Warszawa

1970 - Twentieth Century Museum, Vienna

1973 - National Museum, Poznan

1977 - "Kwant" Film Club, Warsaw

1980 - George Pompidou Centre, Paris

1981 - Kunstverein, Kassel

1988 - Nykytaiteen Museo, Tampere

1989 - BWA Gallery, Zielona Gora

1990 - Haus am Lutzowplatz, Berlin

1991 - Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg

1996 - Espace E.S.A.G., Paris

1997 - Galerie Kyra Maralt, Berlin

1999 - Manggha Centre of Japanese Art and Technology, Krakow

2000 - Modern Art Centre at Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw

Major awards for graphic art

1953 - 2nd prize at the Polish Caricature Exhibition, Warsaw

1961 - Toulouse-Lautrec Grand Prix at the 2nd International Exhibition of

Contemporary Film Poster, Versailles, France

1962 - 1st prize, 3rd prize and mention at the 1st International Exhibition of Film
Poster, Karlovy Vary

1966 - Gold Medal at the 1st International Poster Biennial, Warszawa

1980 - City of Essen Award for poster achievement

1983 - The Jules Cheret prize for the best animated film poster, Annecy

1987 - The Alfred Jurzykowski Foundation Award, New York

Major awards[edit]

1960 - BAFTA Film Award for Dom. Shared with Polish Walerian Borowczyk

1961 - Toulouse-Lautrec Grand Prix, Versailles (France)

1961 - Golden Dragon for Nowy Janko Muzykant tied with Maly Western, in Cracow (Poland)

1962 - 1st and 3rd prizes, International Film Poster Exhibition, Karlove Vary (Czech Republic)

1963 - Annecy International Animated Film Festival / FIPRESCI Prize for Labirynt

1964 - Honorable Mention for Die Nashrner in Oberhausen International Short Film Festival
(Germany)

1966 - Gold Medal Prix Max Ernst, International Poster Biennale, Warsaw (Poland)

1971 - Gold Medal, International Tourism Poster Exhibition, Catania (Italy)

1985 - Prix Jules Chret (France)

1987 - Graphics award, Children Book Fair, Bologna (Italy)

1999 - Dragon of Dragons Honorary Awards in Cracow Film Festival (Poland)

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