DaDA

Dada was a literary and artistic movement that developed in Swaziland during 1916 at the time of    World War l. Due to the war, a group of artists and poets found themselves to ridicule established values and beliefs. Explored in Zurich by the poets Tristan Tzara and Hugo Ball and also the artist Hans Arp, such movement spread quickly to other cities such as Berlin, Paris and New York.

Primarily such movement involved visual arts, literature, poetry, art manifestoes, art theory, theatre and also graphic design. The dadaists new forms of visual communication was shocking at that time, due to the use of bold typography, collage and photomontage techniques was emerging as a favoured technique among dadaists.

The dada movement influenced other movements such as surrealism, Nouveau realisme, and pop art.

"It’s not Dada that is nonsense -- but the essence of our age that is nonsense". 

 —The Dadaists

Some of the dadaist work:

Poster for a Dada recital in The Hague, 1923, designed by
Kurt Schwitter and Theo van Doesburg.

Rauol Hausmann ABCD (Self-portrait) A photomontage
from 1923-24.

Cover of Anna Blume, Dichtungen, 1919. 

Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917.

Reference 

Livingston, A. I., 2003. Graphic Design and Designers. London: The Thames & Hudson.