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.