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Were the nazis a brand!? Did they design themselves?

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Flek

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Ok the title is a bit provocative but do you guys think that the nazis in germany had some kind of ongoing "cooperate design" ? I mean if i look at their typography, their choose of colors, the uniforms and so on it all has a purpose and i can´t stop to wondering if someone actually designed all of this.

While reading up on this topic it turned out that hitler himself thought a lot about the meaning of colors, he even wanted the "hackenkreuz" to be a kind of logo.

What does gaf think?

Do you guys know any Nazi-Designers?
 
I know the Nazis used a black letter typeface for a majority of their reign due to it harking back to older German styles. HOWEVER, no one in the 20th century could easily read blackletter typefaces and it just looked rediculous. So towards the end of their work in WWII they switched to more modern typefaces, ironically, some of the people they kicked out of Germany were people who would actively protest against the typefaces used for those reasons.
 
RobotHaus said:
I know the Nazis used a black letter typeface for a majority of their reign due to it harking back to older German styles. HOWEVER, no one in the 20th century could easily read blackletter typefaces and it just looked rediculous. So towards the end of their work in WWII they switched to more modern typefaces, ironically, some of the people they kicked out of Germany were people who would actively protest against the typefaces used for those reasons.
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I don't think anyone in Germany at that time had any problem reading black letter typeface...
 
JK4W7qR.jpg
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.
 
RobotHaus said:
I know the Nazis used a black letter typeface for a majority of their reign due to it harking back to older German styles. HOWEVER, no one in the 20th century could easily read blackletter typefaces and it just looked rediculous. So towards the end of their work in WWII they switched to more modern typefaces, ironically, some of the people they kicked out of Germany were people who would actively protest against the typefaces used for those reasons.
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That aside, you have to admire how cohesive and complete the branding was. No mean feat.
 
Flek said:
Yes i have this book (on my iPad) but its not really a design manual - its more a kind of overview on all the different ns oraganisations
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I haven't read it in any detail what so ever, but flicking through it, its much more than that.
it describes in detail who is to wear what with what at what occasions.
what colours are to be used for what and when.
quite interesting...
 
It's hardly just a nazi thing. Design and engineering are deeply ingrained in the German ethos. Just give them enough time and they'll redesign the goddamned spoon, complete with a fully illustrated 10 page manual.

It may even win some Red Dot awards just because.
 
Hey they had Hugo Boss to their disposal. It was never a chance the weren't going to look magnificent when being psychotic monsters.

The black SS uniform is probably the best designed uniform ever created.
 
Funky Papa said:
It's hardly just a nazi thing. Design and engineering are deeply ingrained in the German ethos. Just give them enough time and they'll redesign the goddamned spoon, complete with a fully illustrated 10 page manual.

It may even win some Red Dot awards just because.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieter_Rams

Read that. Pretty interesting when you see how much this designer of Braun electronics influenced modern companies like Apple and Sony.
 
obin_gam said:
Hey they had Hugo Boss to their disposal. It was never a chance the weren't going to look magnificent when being psychotic monsters.

The black SS uniform is probably the best designed uniform ever created.
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Real talk, they where evil and all but they surely where Fabulous looking evil doers.

Is there any other army with such fashion sense?
 
FliXFantatier said:
I haven't read it in any detail what so ever, but flicking through it, its much more than that.
it describes in detail who is to wear what with what at what occasions.
what colours are to be used for what and when.
quite interesting...
Click to expand...

At the end it goes into the whole pure Aryan race thing and how Jews are 'tainted' and it has tables that show how to identify how tainted people are depending on their parents. Crazy stuff.
 
Can I say one thing? And I say this with an unblemished record of staunch heterosexuality: SS uniforms were fabulous.
 
Apparently they used the eagle much more extensively as a "party logo" than the swastika, but in US movies it's all swastika because 'murica owns the eagle now.
 
Also the use of the skull/crossbones as an insigna was genius. I have always wondered about that, was the guy in charge of picking that particular logo a massive pirate-fiction fan?
 
Nerfgun said:
Apparently they used the eagle much more extensively as a "party logo" than the swastika, but in US movies it's all swastika because 'murica owns the eagle now.
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British films also place far more prevalence on the swastika than the eagle. I imagine the eagle was more common, but the swastika had more focus on it with the flags, armbands, banners etc
 
They were, long before any war. Because they needed to be a movement, not a party, to eventually reach their goals. Their branding also changed a lot from the 20s, where they wanted to look like a revolution and the "goon squad" SA were their most important division to the 30s with actual power.
 
I drew one of their flag on my notebooks in third grade after seeing it in "Flags From Around the World." It stood out the most and I thought it was badass. Needles to say, I was dragged out of class and asked if I was a Nazi sympathizer. I had no idea the talk I was in for.
 
There was recently a two part documentary about the Nazi party and how it rose to power and it was completely coloured... looks surreal and amazing to see colour footage from the early days of the WW1 and 2. You guys should look it up.

SolKane said:
You know what fascism is, right?
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Most people don't I'm afraid. You can make fascists out of anyone in a very short perioud of time.
 
Flek said:
Ok the title is a bit provocative but do you guys think that the nazis in germany had some kind of ongoing "cooperate design" ? I mean if i look at their typography, their choose of colors, the uniforms and so on it all has a purpose and i can´t stop to wondering if someone actually designed all of this.

While reading up on this topic it turned out that hitler himself thought a lot about the meaning of colors, he even wanted the "hackenkreuz" to be a kind of logo.

What does gaf think?

Do you guys know any Nazi-Designers?
Click to expand...

Design was huge with them. Hitler was an artist and was very much into graphic design. Albert Speer designed buildings, furniture, and basically managed the Nazi brand.

Speer used dozens of searchlights to create a "cathedral of light" for the nighttime rallies at Nuremberg.

albertspeer.jpg


4083892531_1e3e43db3c_o.jpg


Cathedral%20of%20Light%20by%20Albert%20Speer.jpg


Hitler's dream was to build a new Rome all based on his Aryan fantasies and this is how it was branded and marketed to the German people.

Such a fascinating thing to me because of the grand, elegant facade and the way there is this horrifying cruelty and lack of empathy right under the surface.
 
German design is incredible and Hitler funded talented people to create the look of the nazi party. Some of it was really cool, too bad about its connotation.
 
The Nazis conceived themselves as part of a psuedo-mystic mythology that incorporated elements of German/Nordic history and mythology along with a shitton of other esoteric stuff.

When you incorporate symbolism, heritage, music, and other elements such as these it's easier to convert others to your cause and to increase involvement of existing members. As it is perceived to be a more grander cause than what it is. Hitler took every opportunity to display Nazi Germany as the defenders of civilisation, and the leaders of the movement as modern-day representations of mythical heroes. If you have two hours to spare, watch Triumph of the Will and try to frame yourself as some normal dude back in 1935 witnessing this spectacle of defiance, might and self-righteousness. You'll see what I mean.

But even stripping away the esoteria of Nazi Germany and other movements: a unified code of uniforms, colours, symbolism, etc is a good way to change how a group is considered, fully capable of elevating groups from a "bunch of violent assholes" to "bunch of electable assholes."
 
Why is it that all these peripherally cool cults are run by mass murderers and mentally ill crazies? It's like Scientology, imagine where humanity would be if someone recruited everyone into the cult and it was actually aimed at making everyone's life better without mass murder and shit.
 
Rapstah said:
Why is it that all these peripherally cool cults are run by mass murderers and mentally ill crazies? It's like Scientology, imagine where humanity would be if someone recruited everyone into the cult and it was actually aimed at making everyone's life better without mass murder and shit.
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Then they come up with hideous blue helmets..
 
Flek said:
Ok the title is a bit provocative but do you guys think that the nazis in germany had some kind of ongoing "cooperate design" ? I mean if i look at their typography, their choose of colors, the uniforms and so on it all has a purpose and i can´t stop to wondering if someone actually designed all of this.

While reading up on this topic it turned out that hitler himself thought a lot about the meaning of colors, he even wanted the "hackenkreuz" to be a kind of logo.

What does gaf think?

Do you guys know any Nazi-Designers?
Click to expand...

Hakenkreuz

Haken = hook

Hacken = heels



Patrick Bateman said:
Mitchell and Webb made a great sketch about the SS-Totenkopf-thing.
Click to expand...

"...are we the baddies?"

ROFL
 
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