Mid-Century Modern Graphic Design vs Plakatstil

Mid-Century Modern Graphic Design was influenced by Plakatstil — inherited the reductive object-poster logic and the integrated logotype.

Original specimen in the mid-century modern / corporate-modern style

Mid-Century Modern Graphic Design

Postwar American graphic design that married European modernist rigor with Madison Avenue optimism, building the visual language of the corporate logo, the trademark, and the witty conceptual poster.

  • Reductive conceptual logos built around a single idea
  • Hand-cut paper collage and torn-edge shapes
  • Flat unmodeled color blocks with generous white space
  • Bold sans-serif type set with dramatic scale contrast
  • Geometric simplification of imagery into clean silhouettes
Full Mid-Century Modern Graphic Design guide →
Original specimen in the Plakatstil 'object poster' style

Plakatstil

A radically reductive German poster style that strips the advertisement to a single product, a brand name, and a flat field of color — the 'object poster' that founded modern advertising design.

  • Single isolated product as the subject
  • Flat, unmodulated background color
  • Bold custom brand logotype
  • Elimination of ornament and depth
  • High-contrast legibility at a glance
Full Plakatstil guide →

At a glance

Mid-Century Modern Graphic DesignPlakatstil
Erac. 1945–19701905–1920s
DisciplineGraphic DesignGraphic Design
RegionUnited StatesGermany
FamilyCorporate Modern, ModernistModernist, Poster
Formal traitsflat-color, geometric, sans-serif, negative-spaceflat-color, reductive, custom-lettering, high-contrast

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