Vorticism
ヴォーティシズム / 1914–1918 / Style / Avant-garde
Britain's avant-garde detonated in the magazine BLAST: diagonal machine-cut lines, blunt heavy type and lists of blasts and blessings turning typography into a declaration of war.
At a glance
Visual cues
- Diagonal machine-cut lines
- Blunt heavy type
- The BLAST/BLESS lists
- The dynamics of the vortex
Best used for
- Manifestos and first issues whose stance must land before it is read
- Statements built as named lists that set two positions against each other
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Dictionary entry
- Type
- Very heavy caps, one word per line, tight leading
- Composition
- Diagonal bands tearing the page, elements drawn toward one core
- Material
- Close to a single black ink on coarse-surfaced stock
- Caution
- Borrowing only the habit of naming enemies leaves a page whose targets mean nothing to today's reader, and nothing but bravado remains.
- Further study
- Wyndham Lewis / Ezra Pound / the difference from Futurism
Related entries
- Italian Futurism (イタリア未来派)Same Avant-garde lineage.Compare Vorticism and Italian Futurism
- Constructivism (構成主義)Same Avant-garde lineage.Compare Vorticism and Constructivism
Often confused with
More from Avant-garde
Continue through styles in the same Avant-garde family, prioritised by shared effects.
- Dada (ダダ)Shared effects: Rebellion / Exhilaration.
- Expressionism (表現主義)Shared effects: Rebellion / Exhilaration.
- CoBrA (コブラ)Shared effects: Rebellion / Exhilaration.
Browse all Avant-garde entries
Cite this entry
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- Link
- https://indexstyle.org/styles/vorticism
- Markdown
- [Vorticism — IndexStyle](https://indexstyle.org/styles/vorticism)
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