How art made the World

The venus of Willendorf, first ever statue was a fertility symbol.
Dvd on Art through time, focusing on the development of art through painting then to sculpture and focused on the greek development of the statues of the gods.

Milton Glasser

An American Graphic Designer,

'I Love New York' Symbol

His style ranges experimenting with techniques from Avant Garde His work was very unique, simple and direct.

Throughout his career he has developed his own studio and broadened his horizons with New York Magazine designs and become an influence on contemporary artists.

Notes

Elizabeth Gilbert

She is a writer

Eat Pray Love – Memoir

Aren’t you afraid that you are never going to top that?  = Lots of pressure.

Yes she is.

Why are people afraid of doing the creative things they love?

Alcoholic manic-depressive.

Creative minds die young or become mad

“Each one of my books have killed me”

Creativeness leads to Anguish.

Anything she writes now will be compared to the world wide best seller.

Natural anxiety for the reaction to her writing

People believed that creative came from the gods from distance unknowable reason, called damens. The Romans called then geniuses

Like dobby the house elf they lived in the studio and invisibly helped you.

Pressure of expectations kills artists.

Why Not believe fairies make the works good by rubbing fairy juice on their works.

Ruth Stone, poet, out working in the fields and feel the poems coming to her and would run like hell to write the poems. And if she missed it, it went and to find another poet, if she caught it late she’d pull it by the tail and the poem would come out backwards from the last word to the first.

He looked up at the sky and said can’t you see that I’m driving right now??

Olay to you none the less for doing it anyway

Brains become inspired after being at it for days then doing something else like sleeping driving etc.

Lot of her speech was a metaphor, made light of an elusive subject.

The idea of play is huge, to get the creative juices flowing.

Stretch you creativity by getting out of your comfort zone J

Mycoated.com

Sir Ken Robinson

Second climate crisis not natural recourses but of human recourses that we make no real use of their talents

Simply go through their lives waiting for the weekend.

Others love what their lives and what they do.

Reform is simply redoing a broken model

We have to evolve into something else

Innovate; challenge what we take for granted.

Abe Lincoln – December 1862 the dogmas of acquired pants … we must rise with the occasion…act anew… disenthrall ourselves

Watches are a single function devise.

We are obsessed with getting people to collage.

Kindergarten starts at 3 …what

Human talent is diverse.

Tread softly for you are treading on my dreams J

Swiss/International

The style was developed in Switzerland which is give as per the name 'The International Typographic Style'

overlapped with Modernism from 1945-1985.

Often based on geometry, clarity and order

Produced socially useful, scientific and accessible art.

Sans Serif typefaces, a grid and an asymmetric layout.

Architectural design done by Mies van der Rohe.

Illustrates the styles focus on cleanliness and simple forms.

Influential designer of the time was Josef Muller-Brockman, he used contrast in size and scale for impacts aswell as bold typefaces, grids, collage and diagonal vectors to encourage movement.

This style influenced many artists and several major companies within society such as: Knoll International, signage and a map for the New York City subway system, both in Helvetica and socially useful and recognizable.

Alphonse Maria Mucha

Alphonse Maria Mucha born on the 24^th July 1860 and died on the 14^th July 1939 was a Czech Art Nouveau Artist and Decorator. He was one of the more well know Art Nouveau artists but best know for his depictions of women in most to all of his works. He has produced a huge body of work that included many paintings, drawings, ad campaigns and decorative designs.

Alphonse Maria Mucha was a man of many talents, his singing abilities paid his way through high school but drawing still held his heart as it had since his early childhood. He worked a few jobs; painting theatrical sets and general decorative painting jobs and in 1879 he moved to Vienna to work for a very prominent Viennese theatrical company. While being in Vienna he was able to further his artistic education immensely. In 1881 he moved back to Moravia the capital of Brno (where he had done his high school education) after a fire had destroyed his employers business in Vienna. While back in Moravia he continued his art doing freelance decorative and portrait painting. Karl Khuen the Count of Mikulov hired him to decorate the Hrusovany Emmanhof Castle and was impressed enough that he agreed to sponsor Mucha’s formal training at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts.

In 1887 Mucha moved to Paris to continue his studies at the Academie Julian and Academie Colarossi. While he studied he also work producing magazine and advertising illustrations. Late 1894, Mucha happened to drop into a print shop where there was an unexpected need for a new advertising poster for a play Mucha offered to produce a lithographed poster and in two weeks on the 1^st of January 1895 advertising for the Play Gismonda by Victorien Sardou starring Sarah Berhardt, at the Theatre de Renaissance on the Boulevard Saint-Martin, appeared on the streets of the city. It was an overnight success, started the new artistic style and made its creator to the citizens of Paris famous. Bernhardt was impressed with the success of this first poster that she entered into a 6-year contract with Mucha.

In the years to come Mucha produced many paintings, posters advertisements and book illustrations before branching out to design Jewellery, carpets and wallpaper. And what was originally dubbed ‘Mucha Style’ became more widely known as Art Nouveau.

Mucha considered Le Pater his finest printed masterpiece, and referred to it in the January 5, 1900 issue of New York’s Sun Newspaper as the thing he had "put his soul into". In it shows Mucha's occult examination of the themes of The Lord's Prayer and only 510 copies were produced.

Mucha’s Artistic style almost always featured beautiful and curvy young women in flowing dresses, surrounded by flowers and sometimes haloed. In contrast to other contemporary poster makers, his works used pastel colours. His work was featured in Naturalised French Belgian Samuel Bing’s Maison de l’Art Nouveau. In the first ever Art Nouveau Exhibition “1900 Exhibition Universelle”

“I think the Exposition Universelle made some contribution toward bringing the aesthetic values into arts and crafts”

He decorated the Bosnia and Herzegovina Pavilion and was asked to collaborate on the Austrian Pavilion. His style was often imitated however Mucha was always trying to distance himself from being labeled saying that his paintings came from within and traditional Czech Art. He declared art existed only to communicate a spiritual message, and was frustrated at the fame he gained through his commercial art. He wanted to concentrate more on his lofty projects that would bring attention to his birthplace and its traditional art.

In 1906 Mucha married Maruška Chytilová on June 10, in Prague. The couple had 2 children, Jaroslava and Jiri. Jiri, (born March 12, 1915 in Prague; died April 5, 1991 in Prague) later became a well-known journalist, writer, screenwriter, and author of autobiographical novels and studies of the works of his father.

In the U.S Mucha worked to ear money to fund his nationalistic projects so that the Czechs would know that he hadn’t "sold out". After finding a supported in Millionaire Charles R. Crane, Alphonse and his family returned to the Czech lands and to settle in Prague, where he decorated the Theater of Fine Arts, created the murals in the Mayor's Office at the Municipal House, as well as other landmarks around the city. When Czechoslovakia won its independence after WW1, Mucha designed new postage stamps, bank notes and other government documents for the new state.

Mucha spent many years working on what he considered one of his life's fine art masterpieces, The Slav Epic, a series of twenty huge paintings depicting the history of the Czech and the Slavic people, bestowed to the city of Prague in 1928. He had long dreamed of completing a series such as this. Since 1963 the series has been on display in the chateau in Moravsky Krumlov the South Moravian Region in the Czech Republic. The government found it preferable to keep the paintings in their existing location since then.

Fascism in the late 1930’s led to Mucha’s works being dubbed by the press as “reactionary”. When the German troops invaded Czechoslovakia in the spring of 1939, Mucha was one of the first arrested and while in the course of his interrogation he fell ill with pneumonia. Although eventually he was released he never fully recovered mentally from the strain of his captivity and his country being invaded. He died of a lung infection on the 14^th of July 1939 in Prague and was buried there in the Vysehrad cemetery

Mucha’s style was considered outdated when he died. His Son Jiri Mucha’s however devoted much of his life to writing about his father and his work. Mucha’s work style became popular again in the 1960 with a general interest in Art Nouveau. It is especially evident in the posters by Hapshash and the Coloured Goat, which was the collective name for two British artists, Michael English and Nigel Waymouth. They designed the posters for bands such as Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.

In his own country the authorities were not all that interested in Mucha or his work, his Slav Epic was rolled and stored for 25 years before being unearthed again and only recently has a Mucha Museum been opened in Prague, run by Mucha’s grandson, John Mucha. Mucha was also the restorer of Czech Freemasonry.

Mucha's work has continued to experience recurring revivals of interest for illustrators and artists. Some of these include:

·      Painter Paul Harve whose subjects have included Madonna.

·      The Japanese Manga artist Naoko Takeuchi famous for her Sailor Moon series released a series of posters depicting the sailor scout mimicking Mucha’s style.

·      Another Manga artist, Masakazu Katsura has also mimicked Mucha's style several times.

·      Comic book artist and current Marvel Comics Editor in Chief Joe Quesada also borrowed heavily from Mucha's techniques for a series of covers, posters, and prints.

·      Grindcore and sludge metal band Soilent Green used a picture by Mucha for the cover of their album Sewn Mouth Secrets. 

15/4/10

Late Modern Movement

Dogma – Philosopher

Design of the Queen Mary was of modernist design it was what it was and functioned well aesthetics was ignored.

Falling water House. Look up pictures for blog

It is a good example of function over form, Frank stuck to his own style.

Vesper’s became popular after ww2 where metal was in short supply, it was cheap to run and to make.

Ferdinand cars where known for simplistic design and engineering excellence.

Paul Rand was the first in New York to create a unique distinctive graphic language characterized by wit and simplicity.

Swiss International

The Grid is GOD.

Objective Clarity.

Chicago Swiss Design Inspired.

Helvetica

Helvetica is a sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 at the Haas Type Foundry of Switzerland, by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffman, formerly known as Die Neue Haas Grotesk. After the War designers wanted something new to give back a feeling of Idealism after the horrific event. Type designers were attempting to design a new neutral type of typeface that would be easy to use and could be used by a wide range of agencies and companies while staying fresh and Unique to each at the same time. 

The lettering was cut out of steel at actual size, so many typefaces did not have italics and bold themes.

They had to cut them out individually and create many to make production easier

Helvetica had an interesting 'Swiss-twist' where the letters seemed to have a negative shape that held the inside and outside together, a firm shape rather than having a letter that was commanded by the negative space around, instead it is controlled by the letter.

Miedinger was a graphic artist but only did deliveries as Haas foundry, yet came into the design when Helvetica was being manufactured in a way.

It was handed over to Stempal, Linotype in Germany where the final reworks and polishing were done.

Designers wanted something with clarity, a neutral typeface that was efficient and it's smoothness created a humanity about it.

The popularity of the typeface grew over the years and is still very much liked today.

Punch Magazine

• Punch magazine, a creation in the 1840's of a magazine full of humour and satire.
• It voiced the publics opinion
• Many of the illustrations depicted a politician or leader of the time in some sort of political satire.
• This has influenced some columns in newspapers today 

Fifties' American Kitsch

• Post World War II resulted in mass production, dominated by Ziet Giest
• a love of the future, optimism and technological advancements.
• bizarre product styling which they dubbed Kitsch,
• 'decorative junk'.
• The period lasted about 20 years, 1940-1960
• explored a futuristic style
• it was all about making it look modern, from cars to ornaments.
• Many cars of the time looked aerodynamic and futuristic
• After the war, T.V became popular as did advertisements telling the public what was essential for the 'good life'.
• The Jetsons was a very popular t.v show on what people believed was our future.

Art Movements

Scientific Revolution: 17^th century

Move away from religion to answer questions, and used scientific methods and experiments. Wealth came from birth and land, middle class exploited mass consumption and production. Consequent social and political power led to more and more revolutions. Search for enlightenment. Enlightenment gave way to revolutions in America and France. Inspired the Industrial Revolution.

Marxism: Replaced feudalism.

Contemporary: The Present state of Art.

Modern: Refers to the period after the industrial revolution

Zeitgeist: Something in the air, before a fad begins, something cool, that not many people are doing e.g. New fashions.

Bauhaus:  Created “rules for design” based on less is more, which led to reductionism which led to minimalism inspired by Zeitgeist.

Neoclassicism: The Renaissance inspired Art Movement started by the discovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum put Europeans in touch with their antique roots it incorporated experimentation and was a result of dissatisfaction of the past, and the need for “radical” changes in society in the future

Cubism: Changed the way society saw things

Plakostile: Simple images with large bold text, flat areas of colour, no modeling or gradations of tone

Futurism: Non linear composition, harmony is rejected in favour of noise in love with the possibilities of the future and mechanization

Dada: Nonsense Art Movement similar to graffiti inspired by futurism and consisted of “found” objects.

Russian constructivism: A mixture of cubism and futurism created a new movement which unifies communist ideologies with visual form

Art was heavily reduced to its elements, Technology would provide for society, Lines were known as rules, space was important to the modern designs, Used Red yellow black colours and San serif fonts.

Mondrian: Dividing the page into rectangles and simple geometric shapes.

John Heartfield

John Heartfield pioneered the photomontage technique and is one of the most well known users of photomontage in design. Heartfield was a German designer, painter and journalist. Through the use of the photomontage technique, Heartfield has created some very strong and clear imagery, that has been used to visually communicate his messages which was largely a reaction against The Nazis and WW2. His work included images of Adolf Hitler and Nazi symbols in a satirical and undermining way. His photomontages were often in the form of book covers and posters. Example of his work.

Arts and Crafts

The Arts and Crafts Movement was a Modernist / Victorian style period the united artists, architects, jewelry makers and Corresponded with the Art Nouveau movement. The main reason for the start of this movement was the Function over Aesthetics ideals of the Industrial Revolution.

Even today you can see the influence of the Arts and Crafts movement in many everyday objects.

William Morace was the figurehead of the Arts and Crafts movement. More like the Poster Boy, the one well known artist and was known to fight against ugliness in all its forms and influence artists and works, in the Arts and Crafts movement. His own house was heavily decorated, Medieval on the outside and warm Artsy and craftsy on the inside.

Arts and Crafts Movement had very distinctive characteristics such as Organic Shapes, Unity, some basis on oriental designs. The movement believed in the beauty of true forms, i.e. Wood would not be painted on but varnished to bring out its natural beauty.

Morace is one of the most influential architects in the world now. Caxton and Goudy Typefaces were also created by him.


This is an example of Arts and Crafts inspired wallpaper :)

Design History 101

First Class in Design History Requires the Creation of this blog.

Our first Class was on the beginning of design, and design began because of the Industrial revolution.

But before we get into the heavy stuff here are the notes of Designs History.

• The first Art was found on cave walls. Its simple purposes; to tell of good hunting or to warn of harmful predators or plants in a certain area.
• Native Americans used Pictograph type images that were carved into cave walls or rocks.
• It was used as a kind of language i.e. even before the writing language of ancient Egyptians.
• Rebus: a series of images made to convey a message.
• The greek Alphabet in stone was the start of serifs, the Alphabet was made to convey language better.
• Roman Alphabet latin from Greeks. This started the numeral system and grammar, it became the most widely used Alphabet because the Romans conquered most of the world at the time.
• China 1800 B.C Calligraphy was used where the layout and design was just as important as the message.
• Wood Block printing started in China was picked up and used around the world.
• Gothenburg bible was the first book
• Gothenburg typeface was based on the work of scribes
• Victorian era had the "Hand" that pointed people around a poster.
• Lithography - large posters, draw on slate with greasy pastel then the ink prints on everything but the greasy parts.
• Graphic Design was started in the Industrial Revolution because they had so much stuff they had to move they had to advertise to shift the stock.

Prior to the industrial revolution there was no “Graphic Design” just "Art". The Industrial revolution allowed for goods to be manufactured much faster but this in turn led to a back up of stock that needed to be advertised so as to not be wasted. This called for designers. Designers created posters that covered walls and to catch attention to induce sales. This need of advertising and design meant the advancement of technologies in the areas of print and design. The reproduction of works becoming easier on a large scale through innovations such as the print press and lithographs which came much later. Much of the early type design began with the reproduction of religious scripts. Design elements are repeated though the ages, with typical elements such as type on a curve and cloth banners reminiscent of the Renaissance  or Victorian period. Victorian designers included ornate borders, busy layouts, lack of white space, symmetrical designs and the use of many un-complementing fonts. On the whole I find that the Victorian Style hurts my brain with its too busy-ness. But as it is a key point in design history I'm glad it happened so that we have learned from it.