Dobravec-Lajovic’s assertively modern graphic identity for the brand-new Biennial of Industrial Design (BIO) held in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 1964, signaled the Federal Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia’s self-consciously international outlook and its commitment to design amid rapid industrialization and ideological transformation. The poster’s logo and reductive visual vocabulary—five sizes of circles and three shades of blue—demonstrate the designer’s familiarity with the promotional materials of leading companies such as Braun, Olivetti, and IBM. Despite its rhythmic complexity, the overall pattern can be grasped as a singular entity. Each circular element retains its integrity yet abuts at least one other, remaining subordinate to the larger formation. On the right-hand side, the pattern seems about to disintegrate, like a cellular structure in the process of dividing and fusing with adjacent clusters.
The poster contains echoes of international Op art and of Nove Tendencije (New Tendencies),
a Yugoslav movement that probed the relationship between art and new media, systems theory,
and Gestalt principles of visual perception. It also reflects the exercises in color and form that were part of the short-lived but influential course for designers—known as the “B course”—in the Faculty of Architecture at Ljubljana’s Academy of Fine Arts. Dobravec-Lajovic was one of the teachers of this course, which featured the holistic, multidisciplinary approach of the Slovenian architect Edvard Ravnikar, with whom she had studied.
Publication excerpt from MoMA Highlights: 375 Works from The Museum of Modern Art, New York (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2019)