March 29th

http://www.miniaturegigantic.com/1.html

After looking through most of those posters, I settled on this one. The reason why I chose this poster was because the message it portrayed. This is a very powerful poster that can cause a lot of uproar from Americans. The idea is suppose to be funny but it hits down deep when you stop and think about it. I can imagine that propaganda pieces like this during world war I caused the same effect if did when I first looked at some of these designs. It is effective in the way that it grabs your attention.

Sketches March 29th

This first design is a remake of the California sun dried Raisin logo that you see on their box. It was originally yellow writing on a red box but I decided to go back to the Victorian Era to recreate a new design that you might see on the box. Some aspects I wanted to include in this style is floral design as well as playing around with typeface and the alignment of the typeface throughout the design. The colors would also be really bright and bold.



This next design was based off of the same idea but created as if it was done in the Art Nouveau movement. I wanted to keep things really simple on it. I created just a rough sketch of the type and where it would be located and I wanted to incorporate a women that had flowing hair throughout the design. This was an important factor throughout art nouveau and if you look at the box that they have today for raisins, it has a woman on the cover of it.

History of GD Chapter 17 and Kitsch

As the world entered WWII America was producing propaganda posters as a reaction to Hitler and the war. The designs of these posters were simplistic, straightforward, and dramatic contrasts in colors. These posters included some imagery that spoke louder than words and focused mainly on getting a message across. These posters grab your attention through their simplistic nature and eat to read text. Even after the war, Bayer was producing posters that continued to grab his audience's attention through simplistic imagery. After exploring what the Kitsch art movement was, I realized it was an art movement that failed and did not make it through the rejection. It might have been intended to be a new art movement, but for some reason, people disliked this movement more than any other one. The styles were called 'tacky and poor quality'. Some work from the Kitsch movement seems to appear experimental as people began exploring different areas of art.

One poster that really stuck out to me was the poster for the U.S. Office of War Information produced by Ben Shahn (located on page 345 in the book). This poster is very powerful with the way the designer uses imagery. The way this poster speaks truth into people lives is quite different from posters today. This poster really tries to bring in your emotions and get you involved in the situation to support something. If imagery and posters were created today that grabbed your attention like this poster does, I bet more people would be supporting the war efforts.

One question that I pose and might be answered through presentation on Friday is why was the Kitsch movement rejected? It seems that every movement was initially rejected and people were outraged by them. This movement in specific caused people to reject it and never give it a chance based on what I discovered. What was so bad about some of the designs?

History of GD Pictorial Modernism

Pictorial Modernism was the period after world war 1 as America and Europe bounced back. The artwork throughout this era was mainly geometric that resembled art nouveau. Although America did not originally warm up to Pictorial Modernism, it eventually came around as two-dimensionality, contour lines, and simple planes of color were sown into it. Text became abstract as words and images became integrated within each other.

One person that I find interesting throughout this reading is Edward McKnight Kauffer. Aiding in the exposure of modern art to America, he traveled throughout America and ended up in Paris trying to find more exposure to design. Looking at his posters, you can really see abstract design. In one of his London Underground posters, he uses plain color to show a river. He does a good job at applying shadows and other geometric shapes in this poster so the viewer is able to understand what it is.

One question that I pose after this reading involves Cassandre's designed typeface. He created a typeface called Bifur that is unique in the fact that not all the strokes in a letter is present. Even though this text was unique, was it used at all in any other poster work? I feel it takes a longer time to read and understand what is being said would not really be used. What kind of design was it used for?

March 13 History of GD Chapter 15

In chapter 15 we learn about the new language of form, being the visual arts and the invention of pure form. Kasimir Malevich from Russia founded a new painting style called suprematism. he created a construction of concrete elements of color and shape. It wasn't until 1922 that the terms Tectonics, which represented the unification of communist ideology with visual form, and construction, which is the process and search for laws of visual organization. One other famous designer was El Lissitzky who developed a painting style called PROUNS, which was a new way of creating three dimensional illusions that receded and projected forward. This was a new way of creating designs and paintings. Some characteristics of this new form of design include asymmetrical balance, silhouette halftones, and white space. They also experimented with bold san-serif fonts. Other designers, such as Rodchenko and Vladimir Lebedev, produced designs with geometric shapes with large areas of pure color. The De Stijl movement of 1917 focused on equilibrium and harmony in artwork. They reduced their visual aid to red, blues, and yellows focusing on a mathematical structure. Curved lines were eliminated in fonts, which were often composed in tight rectangular blocks.

One aspect from this reading that I thought was really interesting was the architecture of Gerrit Rietveld who created the Schroeder House. Neighbors thought that this house was so radical and crazy that they would often throw rocks at the house. Not only that but they taunted the Schroeder children. This is an extreme act for someone who was creating art in architecture. I would have assumed that the people of this time would have been more open to these new ideas since so many other things were changing at the time too.

One thing that I would like to learn more about the reaction to Kasimir Malevich's "Black Square". Did people have a reaction to it? At first when I look at it I see nothing but a normal black square. Did the people react the same way?

March 12 History of GD response

Yesterday in class, we discussed the pictorial modernism movement that spread throughout world war I. The posters at that time period were very interesting to look at. Some of the characteristics of pictorial modernism include simplicity, simple imagery and text, and a lot of propaganda pieces. Playing the game in class helped emphasize how simple imagery could relate a word and a message.

One person that I found quite interesting was Lucian Bernhard. As the father of pictorial modernism, he evolved from designing a poster for a contest that was originally thrown out but brought back to be the winner. His style of design is so simple, yet very intriguing. The placement of his words and imagery on a page interesting. He placed pictures and imagery towards the bottom or the top and never centered it on the page to make it visually stimulating.

One thing that I would like to know more about is did this style emerge again during world war II or was it a completely new style during the war?

March 2 History of GD Chapter 14

Modern art movements affected the poster designs throughout the twentieth century. One major influence was the Beggarstaffs made up of James Pryde and William Nicholson. Opening an advertising studio these two would create poster designs that involved cutting pieces of paper and moving them around to paste onto a board. They ignored the trend that continued from art nouveau and created powerful colored shapes and silhouettes. Plakatstil, which is the reductive, flat color design school, affected Lucian Bernhard who created a poster with words and imagery working hand in hand. He used simplicity and reduction of naturalism to created such a simply design involving one word and two matches. The characteristics of his work include flat background color, large simple imagery, and the product name. During World War I, posters were important to advance communication since electronics were not yet advancing. Posters were created to use as a propaganda device, as well as honoring soldiers and creating a cult around the nation's leaders. One leading Plakatstil designer was Ludwig Hohlwein, who collaborated with the Nazi's during WWI as he created posters coinciding with Hitler. It was not until the 1920s that the term art deco evolved. It is used to identify popular geometric works. One major artist was Cassandre, who used bold, simple designs in two dimension that are composed of simple bold colors. As this time period went on, posters and other works were more simplified and unified. Space was brought back into design and bold type was used to display messages.

I find the Alfred Leete poster for military recruitment very interesting. It states that "Briton wants you" and has a military man pointing his finger at you. This is very interesting because we have the American version of this poster. Created by James Montgomery Flagg, this same poster was created except using Uncle Sam on the poster. This poster is known all over America and is still seen as a powerful tool for recruiting people to fight in war. But, I would never have known that this design was taken from some other country.

I feel that Bernhard made a good effort at simplifying imagery and really emphasized reduction. But as you look at the posters throughout the chapter you will see how they start very simple, but as you get farther along in the years, they simplicity begins to diminish again. This is more of an observation as to a question. I just thought that they were all for simplicity (example is figure 14-52).

March 9 History of GD response

During class today, we discussed the modern art and the differences between cubism, futurism, Dadaism, expressionism, and surrealism. To tell the difference between futurism and expressionism is quite hard since I feel like many examples can overlap into both categories. We also discussed what graphic design was. When I think about graphic design, it is hard to think about it without considering outside sources that aided in what graphic design is today. Architecture, and different forms of art has helped in the creation of graphic design. Looking at Pablo Picasso’s work around Chicago, I enjoy trying to understand the symbolism behind the artwork. Looking at this kind of architecture inspires me in a way to explore different means of designing and using symbolism and abstractness to send a specific message.


One aspect that I found very interesting was the electric company logo of AEG. If you look at the website you can see all of the different logos that were created over the years. From the beginning of the AEG design created by Behrens, you can see how their new logo evolved from the original one. One thing that I did notice was how the logo eventually became very simplified over the years. I have noticed that throughout history and graphic design today, I have noticed that less is more and clean designs are wanted.

One question that I have in regards to the presentation from today is why did people involved in Dadaism argue that it was not an art movement? You can visibly see the difference between this style and other styles at that time period. Why argue its not an art movement?

March 9 History of GD Chapter 13

Throughout the beginning of modern art era, transportation, technology, monarchy, and motion pictures were coming into play. Many styles such as cubism, futurism, dada, surrealism, expressionism, and photography affected this movement. Cubism was led by Pablo Picasso and characteristics include geometric shapes, fabrics, and the classical norms for the human figure are broken. It involves a strong relationship with the process of human vision. Collage began to appear during Cubism. Another movement was futurism, which was art that vocalized enthusiasm for war, machine age, speed, and modern life. Harmony was rejected as noise was brought into this art form. Another movement is the dada movement, which focused on the reaction against WWI and rebelled against the horrors of the war. Instead of claiming they were creating art, they claim they were mocking and defaming a society gone insane. This movement founded photomontage to create posters that were of political figures and cartoons. Surrealism was the next movement that began in Paris around 1924. It was a way of thinking, feeling, and a whole different way of life that focused completely on making images appear real. After that movement, the expressionism movement entered the realm. Color, drawing and proportions were exaggerated and distorted. The people felt empathy for the poor and social outcasts. It was a time when people expressed how they felt and addressed problems of the human condition and environment. Through photography in the modern art movement, solarization was developed and opened up a new window to photography that effected history.

One movement that I find very interesting is the dada movement. People were starting to act out by creating posters and designs that mocked important people and ideas. They thought that society had gone insane and they created posters to show how insane these people are. They even drew a mustache on Mona Lisa, which caused the public to be outraged. It was a time that aloud people to stand up and vocalize how they feel about the problems they were facing.

One question I have in regards to the dada movement is did the people who created these posters that mocked society at the time get in trouble? How did government officials deal with these people? Did they have freedom to speech however they wanted at the time?

March 6 History of GD Image 5

This image was found online at Feeds2ReadNet. This poster caught my eye because of the interesting layering and mosaic like imagery on the page. This poster is an advertisement for a specific event that is happening in San Francisco and they use interesting imagery and text to attract you to this piece.

First looking at the imagery, it reminds me of what we have been learning throughout the art nouveau and modern age style of design. There is a bunch of different layering involved to create the textured effect in the background. I enjoy the fact that the page is bordered off with a tan background. The placement of the woman is very grabbing and reminds me of art nouveau when many artists focused on using women in their pieces.

When looking at the text, I have to wonder if that is the best choice of font. I find it very hard to read the words and even looking at it now, I don't think I really know what this poster says. What attracted me to the piece was how abstract it was, but now looking at the text, I don't understand it very well. The choice of sans serif was good, but the stems and other lines interfere with the type and gets distracting. I think this poster would have been better with a different abstract text, just not this one.

March 5 History of GD response

During class, we discussed the significance of twentieth century design and the major people who influenced this style of design. One major person that we looked at was Frank Lloyd Wright. After looking at some of the architecture that he designed, I have come to really appreciate his work. Focusing on space, I feel like his work really portrays the saying "less is more". We also looked at "The Four" and studied some of their work. Their work seems so abstract and sometimes hard to understand. The imagery in class that was shown during the presentation was hard to interpret due to change of 'human form' and symbolism.

I think that exploring Frank Lloyd Wright's work is beneficial. Wright viewed design in a totally different manner. Instead of conforming to how design has been done in the past, mainly filling pages with ornaments, he created pages with spacing. This method really guides your eye to where the designer wants you to look. I would love to see more of his architectural work.

One thing that I would like to learn more about is the London Underground symbol. Once this went up, did street signs and symbols show up everywhere? Was this the beginning of street signs?

March 3 History of GD Chapter 12

A major designer that affected the twentieth century designing was Frank Lloyd Wright, who created organic architecture with dynamic interior spacing. Space was an essence of design that he loved to work with and is visible throughout his architecture and even designing. What was known as the The Four or the Glasgow School, including Mackintosh, McNair, and two sisters, worked in correlation with each other as designers. They created a geometric style with curvilinear lines and rectilinear structure. Around 1897, the Vienna Secession came to be where artists rebelled against floral art nouveau. This art was focuses on clean, simple, and sans serif lettering. They eventually moved into creating a magazine called Ver Sacrum and focused on white space, elegance and creating calendars and poetry through the magazine. One other major designer during this time period was Peter Behren who created manufactured products reflecting his design. He worked on perfecting the AEG trademark to appear on stationary, buildings, and products. He was also the fist to use sans-serif type for a book text and was very involved in this type of font and even created his own style fonts, Behrensschrift. A new design movement began called Gesamkultur which was a totally reformed man-made environment. This group pushed at eliminating ornaments in their style. As designing grew, it moved into designing underground subway signs and eventually more street signs.

A group of people that I find very interesting are The Four. Working together, they created so many beautiful pieces, but were able to create their own pieces on their own as well. Using symbolism, they created a beautiful design, The Scottish Musical Review, that takes studying the image to be able to interpret what is being said through the poster.

Going off from The Four that I found very interesting, I am not entirely sure why people were outraged over their work and why some loved it. What did people have to be outraged about? Symbolism was beginning to expand but people didn't seem to be open to the new ideas.

March 2 History of GD Questionaire Response

The question that I am to respond to was from Chris Varner.

Question:
The Victorian Era had very graphical imagery. Throughout the art and crafts movement, it seemed to focus more on text layout and ornaments. So why did they do such a drastic change from elegant imagery from the Victorian Era to ornaments and text, then back to focusing on vibrant imagery during Art Nouveau?

Throughout the art and crafts movement before art nouveau became popular, designers focused on creating beautiful art in different forms. These designers worked on stained glass, furniture, posters, carpet designs, and other materials. During this time, new type faces were being invented and the revival of books was brought back. One thing I did notice was that the colors are not as vibrant as they were during the Victorian Era and throughout the art nouveau era. The artists during the art and craft movement wanted to create text that was pleasurable. Art nouveau created artwork in response to what was going on during that time period. Women smoking, dancing, and drinking as well as censoring laws being lifted caused for this change of style.

March 2 History of GD Chapter 11

I don't have to write on chapter 11 since I am presenting on it.