No matter the artist I’m drawn to hand lettering anything. I have always loved the art of hand lettering. But the artist who have caught my eye are Tom Lane and Ryan Hamrick, among many others

Tom Lane, otherwise known as Ginger Monkey is an independent graphic designer, lettering artist, and illustrator with 11 years of experience in the industry. He has worked for an eclectic range of clients, from global commercial corporations to design studios and advertising agencies to small start-ups and individuals. His impressive client includes Coco-Cola, Nike Air Jordan, Bloomsbury, Sony Ericson, BMW, Mercedes Benz, and Heston Blumenthal. He works closely with clients to produce high quality crafted artwork, packaging designs and branding. Tom currently lives and works in Liverpool, UK.

Ryan Hamrick, multi-faceted and newly relocated to Austin, Texas, Hamrick is a letterer, illustrator, designer, writer and an occasional speaker. His impressive client list includes Samsung, Blackberry, Capital One, Evernote, Sutter Home, Foodspotting, and CreativeMornings.com. Aside from designing and crafting letters, he also accepts speaking engagements and workshops about hand lettering and calligraphy. He takes great pride in his extremely varied experience, and applies it to every new project he takes on, giving him a unique and very knowledgable view on how to best solve problems with beautiful, effective design. Ryan is currently taking on new projects and scheduling speaking engagements & workshops.

The term postmodernism has been applied to a host of movements, mainly in art, music, and literature, that reacted against tendencies in modernism, and are typically marked by revival of historical elements and techniques.In general, refers to the period of time that follows Modernism. Postmodernists borrowed indiscriminately from past styles without adopting the ideology or full aesthetic principles of any given historical movement. Also, postmodernists often mixed together historical references that did not necessarily fit with one another. Postmodernism is in some way against the principles of modernism, made possibly by the rapidly changing technology. Designers had the opportunity to do things with type that would have been too difficult to experiment with in the past. Postmodernism had a largely reaction to the assumed certainty of scientific, or objective, efforts to explain reality. One of the most interesting aspects of Postmodernism is the concept of deconstruction. The breaking down of something (an idea, a precept, a word, a value) in order to “decode” its parts in such a way that these act as “informers” on thing, or on any assumptions or convictions regarding it”. Simply taking things apart in the hope of “reinventing” form and “revitalizing print media.”

The Swiss design is often referred to as the International Typographic Style or the International Style. The style of design that originated in Switzerland in the 1940s and 50s was the basis of much of the development of graphic design during the mid 20th century. The style favored simplicity, legibility and objectivity.  Many of the early International Typographic Style works featured typography as a primary design element in addition to its use in text. Led by designers Josef Müller-Brockmann at the Zurich School of Arts and Krafts and Armin Hofmann at the Basel School of Design. Of the many contributions to develop were the use of sans-serif typography, grids, and asymmetrical layouts. Stressed was the combination of typography and photography as a means of visual communication. The primary influential works were developed as posters, which were seen to be the most effective means of communication.

Emerging from the modernist and constructionist ideals, the Swiss Style can be defined as an authentic pursue for simplicity – the beauty in the underlines of a purpose, not beauty as a purpose in itself. The principle “form follows function” became a battle-cry of Modernist architects after the 1930s. As a consequence of this principle, most of the Swiss Style craft is devoted to the minimal elements of style such as typography and content layout rather than on textures and illustrations.

The art deco style was characterized by smooth lines, geometric shapes, streamlined forms and bright, sometimes garish colors. Initially a luxury style (a reaction against the austerity imposed by World War I) employing costly materials like silver, crystal, ivory, jade and lacquer, after the Depression it also used cheaper and mass-produced materials like chrome, plastics, and other industrial items catering to the growing middle class taste for a design style that was elegant, glamorous and functional.

Although sparse examples of Art Deco was created following World War II in cities, but the International Exposition and the war’s ghastly costs led America into a toned down post war architecture where ornamentation was abandoned in favor of simplicity and regimented design.

In many ways a response to the misery of the Great Depression, pulp fiction flourished in the United States during this period, offering people an escape through stories of mystery, adventure, and sexuality. Most pulp magazines trod very close to the edge of contemporary, decency codes, and some featured explicit themes of sexual violence that were taboo for the respectable mainstream. In fact, pulp covers served those artists as a foil, exemplary of everything that modern design rejected, including realism and expressionist displays of emotion.

The Bauhaus school was founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar. It’s a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught and it operated from 1919 to 1933. The school was founded with the idea of creating a ‘total’ work of art in which all arts, including architecture would eventually be brought together. Bauhaus became one of the most influential currents in Modernist architecture and modern design. Among the subjects covered were the theory of color and vision, and the psychology of form.

The impressive caliber of these lecturers made the desired high standards of quality, beauty, and originality more achievable. Each artist was entrusted with the task of passing on his or her own personal aesthetic vision, teaching in a clear and lucid manner, in order to build up the school’s collective experience of skill and experimentation. Profound influence upon subsequent developments in art, architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design, and typography.  Thus the Bauhaus style, also known as the International Style, was marked by the absence of ornamentation and by harmony between the function of an object or a building and its design. The majority of the students at the school were men, and Gropius actively sought to exclude women from most media and especially the exalted practice of architecture, generally restricting them to the weaving, pottery, and bookbinding workshops. Aimed to achieve a synthesis of art. Craftsmanship, and industry that would satisfy society’s needs, creating mass-market products of high aesthetic value.

The changes of venue and leadership resulted in a constant shifting of focus, technique, instructors, and politics. Gropius proclaimed his goal as being “to create a new guild of craftsmen, without the class distinctions which raise an arrogant barrier between craftsman and artist.” Meyer favored measurements and calculations in his presentations to clients, along with the use of off-the-shelf architectural components to reduce costs, and this approach proved attractive to potential clients. As an educator, Moholy-Nagy evolved a widely accepted curriculum developing natural visual gifts instead of specialized skills in the student.

This week we talked about many different styles. I really didn’t for care for any of the styles we went over, but the two that stood out the most were Guillucme Apollinaire who created calligrammes and the other style would have to be futurism.

Calligrammes come from the Greek words beautiful writing. They are a form of concrete poetry. The overall structure and the typography are designed to complement the meaning of the text. The shapes, rhythm and flow of the words all work together to add a visual dimension to poems. Guillucme Apollinaire was influenced by cubist painting also created experimental poetry that would later have a significant impact on graphic design.

Futurism was an artistic and social movement in the early 20^th century starting in Italy. It was mainly in Italy but similar movements in Russia, England and elsewhere and practices in every medium of art. Painters for futurism were slow to develop a distinctive style and subject matter. Also committed to use a universal dynamism which was to be directly represented in painting. Painters often painted modern urban scenes and objects in reality were not separated from one another or from their surroundings.

Many of the styles talked about this week can be found in other pieces of work today. Each style mentioned in this week’s class could stand on its own but there were elements that carried over to the next style.

Propaganda was used to get men to enlist, for people to buy bonds and for general support for the war. Propaganda techniques varied by country. Many methods included emasculating message to weaken a man virility, trying to shame into going. Many tried romance and adventure, approaches also patriotic duty and a direct appeal. I think all the different methods were very effective. Some poster played the family card with the wife and child trying to get the father to go to war, gilt them in to enlisting.

The Canadian war posters had a Britain feel to then due to Britain having political and military control over Canada. They often used the union jack, were published in English and French and the posters addressed specific audiences. The United States before entering the war in 1917, a poster was created by James Montgomery Flag to get men enlisted for war. The famous poster was Uncle Sam “I want YOU for the U.S. Army.” The French poster tended to aim towards higher level of aesthetic. Were often designed by art school students and used traditional allegorical imagery towards the end promised war would end to reassure the public.

German posters didn’t turn away from modern abstract style. Weren’t really able to convey emotion impact through abstraction. The poster didn’t set well with the majority of Germans. They felt they would have won the war if they had done better with propaganda.

This week in class we looked at art nouveau in Germany, Scotland and Austria. The art nouveau from this week had a darker color and more symmetrical. Compared to last week’s art nouveau where the colors were a little more vibrant and the shapes and forms where organic and had a variety of curved lines. Where this week’s art nouveau has a more muted plate and more geometric shapes. Last week art nouveau had more of a Japanese feel. Germany, Scotland and Austria focused on creating new styles with no historical influences. Art nouveau styles in Germany and Austria were more avant garde where in Austrian, expressionism focused on the artist’s emotions more than anything else.

A liked last week’s art nouveau compared to this weeks. With France the British and the United States, all played with Japanese elements and parts of nature with were big parts for the art nouveau. To me last week art nouveau was more pleasing to look at then the German Scotland and Austria’s art nouveau. I loved the flower elements and how the France and English styles played with the idea of beauty women, the flowing gowns, and the hair in the wind aspect where they were surrounded by nature.