Part 1:Guide through the history of graphic design

Arts and crafts – Key figure of Arts and crafts movement was William Morris, an artist, designer, typographer, and craftsman. He embraced natural forms that he discovered while he was drawing. He is best known for his pattern design which he mostly did on fabrics and wallpapers. His design was sophisticated and it is still commercially used in creating wallpapers and textiles. He founded The Kelmscott Press, designed handmade books and typeface and gave artistic form to printing.

This is artwork of William Morris called ” Trellis”. It is very sophisticated design that shows beauty and liveliness of the nature. It has unique simplicity with soft handmade natural shapes and contrasting earth tones which give this composition an impressive refinement. Although he later turned it into wallpaper design with more vibrant colors, I prefer this original pencil and watercolor sketch. For me it is outstanding timeless design, and I understand why it still inspires many artists nowadays. 

This is another one Morris’s piece of art which mesmerizes me. It is called “Tulip and Willow” and presents another classic elegant design that uses basics symbols of nature such as leaves and flowers. He created dense bush using smaller leaves in vibrant blue tones which gave this composition dynamics, richness, and vividness. To tone down this energy he used big soft flowers in pastel tones and gave this composition more peaceful and sophisticated look. This is a wonderful combination of elements and tones, vividness and calmness. Classic and timeless design which is very inspirational for nowadays artists. This kind of aesthetic is very close to me, especially when it comes to drawing and watercolor.

Art Nouveau – Art Nouveau was based on nature motifs and uses curvilined forms, asymmetrical composition without geometrical perspective, waves and fluidity of lines. Rediscovery of Japanese art in 19th century along with William Morris Arts and Crafts influenced this movement. Style was known in beginning as Mucha’s style, named after Alphonse Mucha, Czech painter, who created numerous posters, book illustrations, jewelry designs. 

I like the way Alphonse Mucha portrayed women.He created a unique sophistication using elements of neoclassicism and combining them with ornamental decoration, flowers and other nature symbols. I like the way he presented different expressions of young beautiful women with long lush curved hair, in beautiful cloths. He caught all grace, coquetry, and feminine vulnerability. I love the way how he accented their sophisticated beauty and femininity using flowers, rich ornaments, and magnificent nature which give sensual and romantic touch to his artwork.

 

Avant Garde – There were two art movements during the First World War, one was Italian Futurists and other was German  Dadaist.

Italian futurism - movement inspired by development of cubism. It was created by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in 1909  when he published “The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism”.  The futurist celebrated speed, car racing, noise, industrial cities, war, violence, technology. The most famous artists were Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni, Gino Severini, Fortunato Depero.

Fortunato Depero “Ciclisti” is black and white design: Motion and speed are main motifs here and they are pictured very well by using this background which gives a feeling of three dimension and parts of bicycle are parted in certain so I have impression of real moving. For me, this artwork is still futuristic even after100 years.

Fortunato Depero - Rotations of a ballerina and birds – 1917-
I like this composition because it is very live and colorful and just like his other artwork  named “Ciclisti” it looks timeless and modern. Futuristic approach is noticeable in his artwork even when he presented nature elements such as birds . He gave birds a “machine look” using geometrical and edgy shapes.

 

Umberto Boccioni “Elasticity” is very dynamic and colorful composition which presents man riding a horse in full movement. On a first sight I didn’t realize that picture shows a horseman, I only saw burst of colors and energy. I like its complexity, vibrant colors and way how he separated parts of horse as well as a parts of man to get impression of real movement. Parts of horse that seems like flames along with warm fire colors on a lower part of picture additionally accented whole dynamic.

German Dadaists was antiwar movement began in Switzerland. Their main goal was to shake up bourgeoisie by rejecting traditional art forms and changing perspective. They wanted to express their disgust with rationalism and standard aesthetic. In my opinion it was some kind of mocking to society. Despite the fact that it is rebellious and full of irony (which I in general like very much especially when it comes to music and literature), I must say that I do not like dada visual arts.  It seems bizarre and grotesque for my taste. It later influenced styles such as avant garde, pop art, punk rock. 

 

This is Max Ernst “The Celeb” that shows some kind of monster that looks like giant pot with the big trunk that sucks everything, and decapitated body that beckons this creature to follow him. Alongside the body is also “headless” tree. They say there is no right way how to interpret dada artwork. I must say I struggled to find the way how to interpret this picture. I could say that  this bizarre picture is a parody at life and shows how it could be worthless and ended and even presented on a funny way. This body without head is peacefully calling this monster, who already cut its head in order to be finished. It all looks so leisurely and even humorous like it is normal things to do. Since dada was anti war movement, artist could have fought against killing and presented his attitude with this kind of irony.

Or maybe it is just ridiculous and suppose to be fun on some bizarre way. He even put a charming little dog in whole composition. Maybe artist just played around and outdared in public. It could be nothing more but mocking to classical aesthetic in art.  

I must admit that I have no clear vision what this image exactly presents.

Russion Revolution – Alexander Rodchenko was one of a founders of constructivism and Russian design. He created design that pointed on everyday life and communication in Soviet Union.  His artwork was socially and politically engaged and was opposite to painterly aesthetic. Although he did painting as well, he became famous for his ideas in graphic design, mostly for poster designs and book covers. Even though I prefer design that has aesthetical purpose and maybe his work is not that visually appealing when it comes to classical aesthetic in art but I like the way how Rodchenko used his talent. He created artwork that send a certain message. He found a way to present his opinion and to portraits social circumstances. 

 

Bauhaus and Modernism – German architect Walter Gropius founded Bauhaus school with intention to brought together all arts. The Bauhaus used simplified forms (forms follows functionality), bringing functionality and rationality to work. Main characteristics of Bauhaus were simplicity,  minimalism and visual clarity. They used clear and concise typeface combined with photography. Because of its simplicity and clarity this style is still used in modern day design such as album covers, poster for movies, events, web design...

Jan Tschichold, book designer and typographer who was trained in calligraphy applied a modern style to typography, condemned all fonts but sans- serif, advocated use of standardized paper size for print. The book he wrote “The new typography” remained classic. He was later working for the Penguin Books where he made big change in book cover design His style is still in use nowadays.

 

Here is an example of book covers while he was doing for Penguin Book.  It is clear, simple design, with minimum of colors and there is no unnecessary details that would drag attention  from the message. Typeface is clean sans serif but very distinctive. The contrast between letters and background and its clarity put the title on center of attention which I like very much. 

Art Deco –Apart from Art Nouveau where curved lines and asymmetries were dominant, Art Deco was based on symmetric lines and geometric shapes and it was regarded as a form of stylish elegant modernism. As a term, it was first used in Paris in 1926. While popular in Europe in 1920s it continued in popularity in USA during 1930s. This style influenced all areas of design,  drew influences from neoclassicism, cubism, futurism and later had influence on styles such as Memphis and Pop art. A good example is design of modern transport such as Henry Ford’s line cars production. It heralded  consumer culture of factory mass production and disposability.

Edward Bernays – He was considered as a “Father of public relations”. He saw the growing momentum for woman’s rights (Suffragette movement). One of his most famous campaign was promoting women smoking cigarettes as order to promote their need for changing role in society. The poster he made for Lucky Strike campaign calling women to enjoy smoking cigarettes instead of eating sweets. Showing women publically smoke cigarettes he encouraged their fight for better position in society. 

Adolphe Mouron Cassandre  – Considered as one of the most influential poster artist of  20 century. He created numerous distinctive commercial posters, perhaps most famous was “Watch the Fords Go By” for Ford Motor Company. He also designed two well known typeface, Bifur which has Bauhaus look, and Peignot which was all purpose font. One of his most famous artwork was logo for Yves Saint Loraine in 1963.

International style – Developed in 1950s by Swiss designer Joseph Muller Brockman and others. It was based on simplicity, geometrical shapes, sans serif  typeface, plain photography and grid to accomplish clean design.  America embraced this style for creating logos and packaging and it also became widely popular all across in Europe. Influential designer Paul Rand . His best contribution for graphic design are corporate logos and many of them are still in use today, like IBM.

Pop art – Art movement that was created after the war and overtly drew on graphic design, creating the work that celebrates colors, sounds, pop music culture. Key figures are Andy Warhol, Tom Wesselmann, Roy Lichtenstein, Peter Blake. They pictured mass production and popular culture in their artwork and I like that slight dose of irony. I especially like Roy Lichtenstein’s work and that old comic strip style with vibrant colors. He made parody on melodrama that is widely presented in our life and especially in culture (movies, songs...) I see a lot of artwork influenced by his style.

 

Of course probably most significant figure of Pop art was Andy Warhol and his colorful portraits of celebrities. His famous phrase  “Fifteen minutes of fame” refers to public short lived fascination of celebrity such as Marilin Monroe who will be in a short time replaced with somebody else. 

The counter culture emerged during the Vietnam war in 1960s. It was a response to segregation in America referring to Afro American civil rights, sexual discrimination and women rights. 

Emory Douglas was one of the most significant designers at that time. He generally portrayed poor and discriminated people as a full of rage, rebellious and ready to fight. Creating the poster for campaign called “Free Huey” dedicated to Huey P. Newton who was co-founder of Black Panthers and who was convicted on a manslaughter, he pointed on some big issues regarding social position of African American in United States. 

Postmodernism – Unlike the Modernism which claimed the idea that there is correct way to design, postmodernism brings multiple viewpoints. It took idea of semiotics  and theory of deconstruction. Graphic design accepts postmodernism and deconstruction creating ironic playful and electing work.