Jean Carlu and Art Deco

Art Deco is a post WWI style that very much tried to be modern. In a time where industry is beginning to rise and new materials and technology are being used, massive change was happening in society and this style reflected that. Its predecessors being styles like Art Nouveau, Art Deco was very much on the complete other side of the aesthetic spectrum. While Art Nouveau was characterised by organic shapes, curvilinear forms and often times asymmetry, Art Deco was characterised by strong geometric shapes, industrial imagery and a very prevalent sense of symmetry.  Much like Art Nouveau, Art Deco did not only encompass art but it also made its way to architecture, craftsmanship, and graphic design.

Art Deco in posters and other graphic design mediums very much followed the core style. These posters often feature strong geometric yet dynamic lines throughout the composition. Industry or technology is also common theme that can be seen in these posters.

Jean Carlu aptly visualises what the Art Deco style was all about.  His posters have a very strong sense of linearity which was a key component to the Art Deco style. 

In this poster here we can see an example of this linearity. A profile of a human face is depicted here and it is made to seem like its silhouette is made with solely one continuous line. This makes the figure stand out and look very clean and geometric. While there is the inclusion of curved lines in this piece, they do not detract from the artificial and geometric nature of the piece as a whole. The curved lines seem to be made with mathematical precision and lack the carefree nature that was seen in the Art Nouveau style.  Another thing of note is his use of typography. Big and bold typography was very common in Art Deco and in this case, the typography seems to mirror the style of the figure in an interesting way with its strong geometric nature.

This next image relates to his work with America and their war effort. Jean Carlu has a series of posters of this sort but I feel that this one really brings out the industrial and ‘machine age’ side of the Art Deco style. While the subject matter of this piece is very blatantly industry driven, I feel like the choices he made in the design of this also lend itself to that style. If we were to look at the hand, we can see very gritty, dark colours being used which remind us of the roughness of machines. We can also see that there is a play with the typography to further lend itself to this new industry age art style.

Personally, I feel that Carlu’s work has had an immense effect of the poster we see today. Minimal abstracted figure, harsh geometric lines are all things that have become very popular in the graphic design world of today and I hazard a guess that the work of Jean Carlu plays a big part in it.

References:

• americanart.si.edu-americanart-2014 [http://americanart.si.edu/search/artist_bio.cfm?ID=749][Last accessed on 05/11/2014]
• Carollyn Mcdowall-thecultrueconcept.com-2013 [http://www.thecultureconcept.com/circle/art-deco-a-revolution-of-design-style-for-the-modern-age#sthash.BJvjE9DM.dpbs][Last accessed on 05/11/2014]

Hannah Hoch and the Dada Movement.

Dada was a reactionary movement that sprung up in the early 1900’s due to the stress of World War 1. As World War I raged on, many artists fled to safer lands, most notably of those lands was Zurich as it held as a neutral position.  The war itself brought more than a staggering amount of deaths on both sides, it brought with it frustration of the civilians and in this case, the artists. These artists were angry and frustrated at society for having such a war and they had to express this frustration in some way. So while other people were protesting out in the streets, some artists found their own way to protest, and that was to protest against the art of the time.  These protesters fought back against the traditional views of art and created their own form of (non) art. Thus the Dada movement was created. ‘Dada’ which is basically a nonsense word accurately describes the content of the art they would produce. Since they were protesting the traditional views of art like rationalism, they created their own form of art that flew in the face of these principles, and thus they ended up with their ‘non-art’ Dada.

As ironic as it is to treat a movement with the sole purpose of protesting traditional art movement as just another movement, the vast popularity it received and how much it influenced later avant-garde movements cannot be ignored.  While Dada had no real ‘style’ since the concept was all about being nonsensical there were trends that appeared to be popular within the Dada movement. Techniques such as collage, photo montage, use of typography were all very popular among the prominent Dada artists.

Among the prominent Dada artists was a lady named Hannah Hoch. Professionally trained as and artists and patternmaker, Hannah Hoch explored the Dada style with a focus on collage. Her work excels in portraying the Dada movement because of how nonsensical, and sometimes surreal, her designs were.

In this work here we can see just to what extent the Dada movement and Hannah Hoch went to break down the traditional views and practices of art. Hoch uses collage here is what seems to be a very random and haphazardly way, and while one might say that was the whole point of the Dada movement, I would like to point out that while it does seem very haphazardly, it also has some form of composition.  The composition is balanced as a whole as there the viewer is not just dragged to one part of the image but the image as a whole. The individual images aesthetically make sense in the context of each other, meaning that the images were not placed without any thought for aesthetics but they were placed as they are for a specific aesthetic reason.

I feel that the fact that Hannah Hoch being such a prominent figure (at the time) as a woman should not be glossed over. In such a male dominated society, surely female artists had enough trouble getting their work to be acknowledged, but Hannah Hoch’s work was not only acknowledged but she is now considered one of the key figures of

the Dada Movement for here masterful use of collage, I feel like that is a feat in itself, apart from the actual work she has produced.

References:

·         Shelly Esaak-arthistory.about.com-2014-[http://arthistory.about.com/cs/arthistory10one/a/dada.htm][Last accesed on 04-11-2014]

·         Whitechapelgallery-whitechapelgallery.org-2014- [http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/hannah-hch][Last accessed on 04-11-2014]

Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Charles Rennie Mackintosh was an architect/ designer who played a key role in the United Kingdom side of the Art Nouveau movement.  The Art Nouveau movement came about out of the necessity for a new style of Art and Design.  The Art Nouveau style encompassed more than just imagery, it found its way to architecture, furniture, household items and many other aspects of people’s daily lives. Due to this, they style was very widespread and could be found in many places.

While Charles Rennie Mackintosh had a lot of his work done in the architecture side of design, he did have a few posters which fall under graphic design that I feel are very relevant to the modern styles we see today. This poster was done for the ‘Scottish Musical Review’ and was a giant of a poster as it stood over nine feet tall. At a quick glance, one can see a stylised and somewhat abstracted female figure towering in the centre of the poster decorated with vertical linear patterns and a halo in the rear. On a closer inspection, you can notice that bird like figures seem to flank the female figure on both sides as they seem to blend in to the same linear patterns that cover her. The halo in the back is very reminiscent of many Art Nouveau works of the time.  One can also see the strong Japanese influence in this work with the strong black outlines and stylised figures, something many an artist and designer were applying to their own works. Something that strikes me as interesting in this piece is Rennie Mackintosh’s  treatment of line. He seemed to use very geometric lines across this piece which goes against the trend happening at the time. Art Nouveau at the time seemed to be characterised by curvilinearity and this seems to fly in the face of that. This could be attributed to Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s work in the architecture field.  Towering Figures and strong geometric lines, these are attributes that seem to harken to the Art Deco style which gains popularity some 30 years after the production of this poster.

 This is another example of one of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s posters. While very similar in content and style, this poster seems to lend itself more to the organic style that was so prevalent in the Art Nouveau movement.  Yet again, the Japanese inspiration is evident in this poster, possibly more-so in this one than the previous. The reliance on white space and use of black lines to create figures are all aspects we see on the Japanese prints that made it to the west once they opened their borders.

As a personal  reflection, I feel like these two posters are very similar to some styles we see today. His treatment of the human figure is particularly what I'm referring to in this context. The figure is very stylised and heavy black lines are used to outline it, similar to how we see some cartoonists and comic artists treat their human figures today.

References:

·         Moma-moma.org-2014 [http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=4870][Last accessed on 02-11-2014]

·         Wendy Kaplan-Unframed.lacma.org-2014 [https://unframed.lacma.org/2014/05/01/new-acquisition-charles-rennie-mackintosh-poster-for-the-scottish-musical-review][Last accessed on 02-11-2014]

An Introduction to Graphic Design

What is Graphic Design?

Traffic Sign

Graphic Design is all about creating image using a mixture of techniques like; illustration, printing, photography for a distinct purpose, whether that purpose is to educate, advertise or inform. By modern standards, Graphic design can be displayed in a variety of media and forms. Possibly the most obvious example for people to notice are posters. Posters that advertise products or events all include some form of graphic design. Graphic Design can also be found in places we don’t usually relate to this discipline. Things like road traffic signs also fall under the umbrella that is graphic design. Road traffic signs use imagery that was created by a designer for the sole purpose of informing drivers or pedestrians of vital traffic information, this is a prime example of graphic design and it shows clearly its distinction from other art forms.

Graphic Design and Art

I feel it is somewhat important to note the difference between Graphic Design and something like Fine Art. While both of these disciplines tend to overlap on various instances, their key similarity is that they both try to convey some form of visual message. While this is what I see as their biggest similarity, I also see it as where they differentiate the most.  Yes they both try to convey a message, but the content of said message is where the distinction between these schools lie. In Fine Arts, the artist tries to invoke some form of thought into the viewer, and the viewer could also take that message with his/her own personal interpretation. In Graphic Design, I feel like there is less of that and the message is more direct and specific. With the message Graphic Designer send out to their viewers, they usually leave no room for interpretation as that is the nature of design. If a designer were tasked to create an image to advertise a product, the designer would create this image with the sole purpose to make the viewer want to purchase said product. The designer leaves no room for philosophical questioning and goes straight to the point, relaying his message of advertising clearly, and in a concise manner.

History

Painting in Cauvet Cave

 With that distinction in mind, we can now distinguish between images found in our history and prehistory on whether they fall under the Graphic Design banner or not.  Designs like the early cave paintings in the Chavet cave in France could be potentially considered graphic design with that distinction in mind. These cave paintings relay simple information about the immediate world around them at the time, similar to how we now relay information using iconography and the like. The early forms of typography like the Ancient Egyptians and the Chinese are also examples of Graphic Design.

Calligraphy by Wang Xizhi

Considering that the first examples could be arguably seen as far as I previously pointed out, we can see that graphic design has a vast history and this small write up can only scratch the surface of the huge amount of information about this subject. I did personally find it interesting to be reminded of just how relevant graphic design is in our daily lives. Even sitting here writing this blog, anywhere I were to look I could spot no less than 5 examples of graphic design. I found that quite eye opening. 

References:

·         Aiga.org-aiga.org 2012- [http://www.aiga.org/guide-whatisgraphicdesign/][Last accessed on 01/11/2014]

·         Leslie Claire-examiner.com-May 22 2010- [http://www.examiner.com/article/the-difference-between-graphic-design-and-fine-art][Last accessed on 01/11/2014]