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ANATOMY OF DESIGN
During the 1910s and 1920s, when Futurist and Dada artists printed their
respective manifestos and messages over scraps of old newspaper and other
previously printed sheets of bond, they were, in part, revealing contempt for
conventional aesthetic art and design standards. Yet they were also, in even
larger part, compensating for the high cost of paper during the Great War in
Europe, and for its scarcity afterward.
Overprinting was a language of rebellion born of necessity that evolved
into a stylistic manifestation copied by designers for generations to follow. In
the current argot, it became a cool thing to do, for it signaled a ...