Great things are often hard to describe or explain. This is why artists, poets and musicians can be obtuse when asked to explain themselves and their work.

The name PROUN refers to artworks done by the seminal modern Russian artist El Lissitzky. While MOMA’s definition of PROUN does a great job contextualizing the word, Lissitzky left us with nothing but a tantalizing fragment: “the station where one changes from painting to architecture.” Tantalizing because it is intentionally ambiguous, thus compelling us to do what great works do: Think, feel and ask questions.

El Lissitzky’s PROUN, originally pronounced ‘pro-oon’ but we like to rhyme it with ‘noun’ instead, was a acronym in Russian that loosely translates: “Project for the Affirmation of the New.” Just after the Russian Revolution, Lissitzky and a number of artists called the Suprematists consciously went looking for a new way to express, teach and distribute art. This was a direct response to the Russian Revolution and it celebrated the language of industrialization as a language of hope, modernity and a departure from the old.

The Suprematists, seeking a complete departure from the representational art and design of the past, expressed themselves in simple, geometric forms that could not have existed in nature. Their graphic works were made to be mass produced as propaganda posters.

The Suprematist visual language has had an immense influence on 20th century design. Their simple elegant geometries resonate throughout our industrialized world, not only because they are easily reproduced by machinery, but because they tell our story and proclaim the spirit of our time.

El Lissitzsky’s PROUNs go beyond the embrace of a new revolutionary visual language. The PROUNs are a step beyond the Suprematist two-dimensional orthodoxy into a realm of new possibilities and endless imagination. The PROUNs defy the surface of the canvas and extend into space adding a third dimension to the modern vocabulary. The PROUN of the 21st century would certainly include a new sense of dimensionality that goes beyond two and three dimensions to include time and interactivity.

PROUN 21 is a” Project for the Affirmation of the New” for the 21st century. Like the early days of the industrial revolution, the digital revolution has radically changed the way we design and the means of distribution.

PROUN 21 is Fahrenheit Studio’s effort to chronicle design and designing in the formative years of the the 21st century. New ways of working, thinking, making things, communicating and sharing have created an infinite array of options and possibilities. PROUN 21 is our effort to explore and share those options and possibilities with you.