Peter Behrens

Peter Behrens was a German artist, architect and designer. He developed a path for design in the first decade of the new century. He wanted typographic reform, and also was an early fan of sans-serif type. He developed a grid system that was used to structure space in his design layouts He is considered the "first industrial designer". He manufactured many different products such as street lamps and teapots. He also worked for the Allgemeine Elektrizitats-Gesellschaft. Also known as AEG. This company was considered the first comprehensive visual identification program.

Behrens was orphaned at age 14 but he was left a considerable amount of money from his father's estate. This helped him evolve in to the figure he is seen as today. He studied art in Hamburg and chose it as his career.

He embraced the German version of Art Nouveau, Jugendstil when he abandoned social realism. He also designed his own house and all the furniture, including everything in it, demonstrating total design. He was concerned about designs forms of social, technical, and cultural aspects. He believed that typography, after architecture was "the most characteristic picture of a period, and the testimonial of the spirtual progress" and "development of a people." Behrens standardized strokes used to construct his letter forms unlike previous styles.

Eventually Behrens began to accept commissions for architecture and moved away from graphic and product design. He centered around this and eventually his advanced thinking inspired further developments in later years.

Most Interesting:

What I found most interseting was Behrens interest in architecture and how he designed EVERYTHING in his own house.