MODERNISM, INC.—A GOOD DOCUMENTARY BY DESIGN
I must confess that I wasn’t familiar with Eliot Noyes although, like other baby boomers, I was affected by his work. Noyes, the subject of this first-rate documentary, was an esteemed graphic designer who spearheaded the philosophy and practice of modern design in the years following World War Two. (During the war he was a pioneer in an altogether different field: the use of gliders.) But his ideas were formulated before the U.S. went to war: in 1939 he was the first curator of Industrial Design at the Museum of Modern Art! These are just a few of the takeaways from Jason Cohn’s absorbing feature film. We learn about the man who believed that “good design is good business” from three of his children (including…
