GRAPHIC DESIGN

Preface & Introcution

 

 

This section is about names. Many people know the names of architects, artists and fashion designers, but not many know the names of graphic designers. It is strange to me, since graphic designers create so much of our everyday world, books, magazines, websites, logos, posters, packaging, infographics, wayfinding signs, mobile apps, as well as film and television graphics.

 

The list of influential 20th century graphic designers is not, and cannot be definitive. There are a plethora of other designers to include and eventually I will likely go back and fill in those holes. These were admittedly the ones that we among the simplest and quickest to research, that have works available for online viewing already so making galleries of their work contained within this website was not only possible, it was practical as well.

 

 

Introduction

Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau: Industrialization, Shapes and Visual Culture

 

As the twentieth century approached, the world has already experienced huge changes. The Industrial Revolution, which begain in the mid-1700s in England and continued through the 1800s in Europe and the United States, created new ways of doing almost everything — manufacturing, traveling and communicating. The rise of the machine enabled mass production, making goods more accessible and inexpensive. It also created jobs in growing, centralized urban areas. People left farms in the country for work in the city.

 

Population shifts, industrialization, mass communication: All of these forces would shape visual culture — and the artists and designers who created it — across the world for decades to come.

 

As cities grew, street posters became the most efficient way to reach consumers. Steam-powered printing presses cold produce posters, books, newspapers and magazines faster and in greater quantity than manual presses. Printed materials were no longer precious, handmade items available only to the wealthy; they were accessible to working classes, as well. As education became more and more widely available, literacy rates rose — which furthered the development of printed communication.

 

Not everyone embraced mass production and efficiency, however. William Morris rejected the machine aesthetic and founded the Arts and Crafts movement in England around 1880. Its goal? To unite aesthetic excellence and traditional craftsmanship. Morris wasn't against just the machine; he was against the mediocre; Most mass-produced goods were low-quality and clichéd. Morris founded the Kelmscott Press and published his own books, using detailed woodcut borders and decorations as well as typefaces inspired by type from the 15th century. However, running a publishing house at that time without mechanization was unsustainable; Kelmscott's labor-intensive books were very expensive, putting them out of reach for the general population. The movement's influence carried on though, as decorative forms vased on nature and plants continued, becoming a big part of Art Nouveau.

 

In Paris, poster art thrived — not just for advertisers but also for collectors. Artists found opportunities creating work that promoted products and entertainment. Joules Cheret, often called the father of the modern poster, married art and utility; He didn't just paint the posters, he also developed a method for reproducing them. Cheret's overprinting technique lent texture, splashes, and scratches to his brightly colored designs. Cheret and other European artists were influenced by the asymmetrical simplicity and flat color of Japanese woodblock prints, an art form that reached the continent after Japan began trading with western countries again in the 1800s. (They had been closed off to trading for over 400 years.) Cheret developed a distinct style with his use of female figures and hand lettering. The women in his posters were usually animated and enjoying life — dancing, drinking and smoking — an unusual depiction at the time. Artists, such as his fellow Frenchmen Henri Toulouse-Lautrec and Italy's Leonetto Cappiello, followed suit. (So Cheret was the first to put women in advertising for the sole purpose of selling goods and services - he is the one who also used unrealistic proportions on his females, a trademark of the advertising industry that is still used today despite recent movements toward photo realism and "imperfect" bodies on women.)

 

Czech-born Alphonse Mucha worked in Paris and exemplified the decorative Art Nouveau ("New Art") movement: flat color, creative lettering and stylized organic forms. He added detailed mosaic background, and often gave his female subjects long, flowing curves of hair. The acress Sarah Bernhardt, convinced that Mucha captured her as no other artist had, signed him to an exclusive contract under which he designed her posters, theater sets, and costumes.

 

In England, Aubrey Beardsley simplified forms from nature and became well-known for his black-and-white images, heavy outlines, and distorted bodies. While Breadsley separated image and lettering (usually in different boxes), painters James Pryde and William Nicholson, brothers-in-law who were knows as the Beggarstaffs, integrated lettering into their compositions Their illustration, made of flat shapes of colored paper, were often incomplete, inviting viewers to mentally finished the picture. The Beggarstaff's partnership was short-lived: although their work was admired in art circles, they didn't make any money.

 

Will Bradley introduced Art Nouveau to the United States, reflecting the influence of Aubrey Beardsley and William Morris in the design of his posters, books and journals, many of which he published through his Wayside Press in Springfield, Massachusetts. The look that he developed,  as he worked at unifying the visuals with the text was distinctly his own.

 

In Germany, Art Nouveau was known as Jugendstil ("Young Style"); German artists and designers experimented with the style before moving on to something new. Peter Behrends was initially inspired by French Art Nouveau, but started stripping his work of ornament around the turn of the century. Behrends and other designers became more objective, moving away from the floral motifs toward a more geometric logic and order. The shift to more geometric designs was also taking place with the members of the Vienna Secession in Austria, like Gustav Klimt and Koloman Moser.

 

Printed materials — posters, books, periodicals — became increasingly simple and structured in their design as modernism spread throughout Europe after the turn of the century. Soon, the artists and craftsmen who created them would have new titles: graphic designers.