The Modernist Break

Two world wars shattered the old order, and design shattered with it. The avant-gardes — Futurism, Dada, Constructivism, De Stijl, the Bauhaus — rejected ornament and tradition in favor of geometry, asymmetry, photography, and the idea that design could help build a better society.

Between the wars, modernism spread from experiment to practice: in posters, exhibitions, corporate work, and the first true design schools. The designer emerged as a new kind of professional — part artist, part engineer, part propagandist.