Author(s): Steven Heller

Design

"Iron Fists: Branding the 20th-Century Totalitarian State" is the first illustrated survey of the propaganda art, graphics, and artifacts created by the totalitarian governments of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, the USSR, and Communist China. The iconography produced by these regimes is universally recognized as their 'brands': the swastika and aggressive typography of Hitler's Germany, Mussolini's streamlined Futurist posters and stylish Black Shirt uniforms, the stolid Social Realism of Stalin's USSR, and Mao's Little Red Book and kitschy ceramic figurines from the Cultural Revolution.Written by the eminent designer and design historian Steven Heller, who has long collected two and three-dimensional examples from this period, "Iron Fists" focuses on graphic materials such as typefaces, logos, posters, advertisements, children's books, flags, and medals. As Heller explains, Mussolini fancied himself an art director and the Nazis had a sophisticated graphic program, featuring Hitler as 'logo,' that is remarkably similar to modern corporate identity systems. Heller also explores the meaning of color systems (each dictatorship had a distinctive palette), the development of regime-specific typefaces, and even the slogans used to both rally and terrorize the populace. Delving into the history of once-innocent antecedents in heraldry, color symbolism, and sacred and secular symbols, he demonstrates how these elements were put to disturbingly effective use in selling the totalitarian message. Contents: IntroductionDesign as an Instrument of PowerThe NazisOne Fuhrer All the TimeBirth of a SymbolPropagating the BrandPromoting the Third ReichThe Italian FascistsDuce Duce DuceThe March from Ancient RomeFascist StylePromoting EmpireThe Soviet CommunistsLenin and the Blanding of RevolutionSeeing RedThe Soviet Avant-gardeStalin Comes of AgeThe Communist ChineseThe Cult of MaoSoviet Red ReduxThe Cultural RevolutionBibliographyIndex Author Biography: Steven Heller is a Senior Art Director at the New York Times and co-chair of the MFA/Design Program at the School of Visual Arts in New York. A respected authority in the design world, he has written and coauthored numerous publications, include Merz to Emigre and Beyond, also published by Phaidon.