One of the most memorable, or unforgettable techniques used by postmodernists would be LSD. It became popular in California for these drugs were legal until 1966 where it became known for artists to adapt to the “psychedelic trip” without taking anything. It was also a combination of type and pictures.

To be honest, I know when I create art, I want to not trip on highly dangerous drugs, but that’s just me.

The postmodernism serves as a response to Swiss style for it is the prime time that modernism ended, thus starting postmodernism. Like everything else in art, it was bound to happen. It had an influence of the time around it, with the access to drugs and the overall good vibes that was around and translated into the work of art. Like Swiss style and the revolution of type, we can see that in the 1960s. The type we see is that similar to Swiss as seen below:

Simple, easy to read and conveying a message.

The revolution of type! It was simple, easy to read, and objectivity. Not to mention it was a combination of photography and type as a form of communication. These are the few characteristics of International Style/ Swiss Design. I believe this style became popular at the time because it was an effective use of type. It conveyed a message in a simple and easy way but also an appealing way.

I believe it was inevitable to happen. We have seen art go through MANY changes in history so it was only a matter of time for the art of type to go through changes and like the different styles of art, this was for the better. In fact I do see this style of graphic design today. As seen below:

It’s simple and easy to read, not to mention it conveys a message like that of the 1950s.

The propaganda in World War I was more bright and vibrant. Showing all the joys enlisting in the war would entail, while World War II propaganda is more to the point and not as bright and happy. It cut straight to the point of things. Like below is from the Soviet Union for WWII:

While WWI propaganda from Russia is vastly different:

As you can see the propaganda from WWI is more realistic and has a lot more detail, making the posters more relatable. While the posters from WWII they are VERY more graphic and less recognizable as actually people.

On to the topic of the Nazis focus on propaganda resulting in their downfall of the war- I feel like it would’ve helped with getting more people in the war and more people to help. You can’t really relate to someone who looks like a block of shapes as much as you can to someone is VERY recognizable as an actual person. WWI posters were honestly more appealing to the eye and people actually wanted to look at them as opposed as ignore them.

The style characteristics that influenced Bauhaus would be Dada, Russian Constructivism, not to mention German Expressionism. A lot of photomontages and limited color palettes with abstract designs which all lead to the Bauhaus creation in 1919. The influence that Bauhaus had on design and education was it brought ALL forms of art together in one building. They were taught about color theory and psychology before being brought in with arts and crafts. The students were also set to the highest of standards, making it difficult but also providing the highest education for the determined students.

The influence Bauhaus had on design was craftsmanship vs mass production the relationship of usefulness and beauty, the practical purpose of formal beauty in a commonplace object, and whether or not a single proper form could exist.

I do believe their unique approach to education was the cause of their significant influence because they pushed students and made sure they produced their very best work.  As for the different directors it did affect the work. Each director had a different style of how things should be run and lost sight in the importance of the whole idea of the Bauhaus.

Overall, I believe the Nazis shut down the Bauhaus because they saw the true threat. Artists have power and overall that scared them so instead of waiting for them to see what they did, they shut the Bauhaus down.

It is in this time era that I feel like we are just now starting to see the basics of Graphic Design. With DeStijl there is very geometric shapes with very basic colors which then moves over to Russian Constructivism which was then replaced by Socialist Realism. In Russian Constructivism used their art to provide a social change by using a combination of bold typography that captured the viewer then photo images to keep them interested in what they were reading and or looking at. Like the image for example:

Overall to get a point across. To send a message to the viewer and that is still seen today. One of my favorite artists is Banksy. Not only does it convey a message but it provokes a strong emotion with the viewer. One of my favorite pieces by Banksy would be this image:

Which is also one of his most known pieces. But it’s hard to pick a favorite of his work. I love it all.  It is because of this that artists should be a part in effective change in the world. They always say a picture is worth a thousand words and art is one of those ways of communication. Meaning art is worth a thousand words and in turn means design will help in making change in the world.

For an example on global warming: Banksy’s piece:

Before moving on to the artist of Sheppard Fairey. Where he focuses a lot on politics. One of his example of:

Wanting there to be peace and calm among one another if we were just to listen…

Ah yes, so many styles to pick from and so hard to pick just ONE favorite. But after looking through the pictures and different styles I was very pleased with the style of Futurism. I LOVE the movement in the art and all the colors and it seems to evoke a lot of emotion in me. Like with every piece of Futurism I see I feel SOMETHING and I adore that. For art to me means feeling something along with like what you see. The one image I kept looking at when finding photos to use as an example would be this:

Which is Bursting Shell by Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson

The typical characteristics of the style would include  bright colors and violent brush strokes that include shapes close to Cubism but not separating the elements of the subject in the painting. (ie you can tell there’s a building or an animal instead of having everything blurred or altered to the point where you don’t recognize them)

The movement started in the early 20^th century in Italy- with corresponding movements happening in Russia and England. It did not include a lot of positive artistic elements in the work.

As compared to work from today’s Graphic Design art I can see some influence of similarities like in fashion and even in the auto industry with car design. But other than that it’s rare to see the style used today.

As we move on to which movement was more influential than any others I would say that each movement had their own way of being influential or even being expressive in their own way but I think the one movement that was the influential would be Art Deco. Made most impressive by the French painter Jean Carlu. To me that was like the beginning of Graphic Design from his posters. I love how simple his posters are and also how he included type with his designs like this image:

I feel like his posters were the most impactful to the audience as they showed the product and the brand name- making people make the connect and having a personal experience with them.

There are many methods to propaganda but probably one of the most powerful would be provoking emotions and next to that would be emasculating messages but also portray adventure. I feel like the methods are effective. Looking through the pictures made me think that the most effective ones would be the ones provoking emotions and making fun at the fact of the men aren’t man enough to go to war and also the ones provoking adventure and togetherness. Like the one shown:

As for today these methods would not fly. Simply because the media is so over EVERYTHING it would hard to lie to us about how great of an opportunity the war is and how great the  adventure is. The methods they would have to us to get people to go to the war would be very harsh? Provoke emotion at an extreme end of the spectrum. Almost violent to get people to step up and do what needs to get done, in my opinion.

For the propaganda for the Allies the images were more realistic figures and actually looked like people and were very warm and inviting as opposed to the Central Powers were more abstract figures and not a lot of color, which made them less welcoming and just confusing.

This week’s Art Nouveau pieces differed from last week’s in a couple different ways. One of them being the symmetry; everything was very balanced as we saw right away from Scotland. Next we have the color palettes for the pieces. They were very toned down colors and not a wide range like we saw from Mucha. Also, there was very simplified figures and overall simplified pieces as opposed from last week were there was tons of details in each piece.

On the left we have two pieces done by Alphonse Mucha and on the right we have two pieces done by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Already you can see a noticeable difference between the two of them. Let’s start with Mucha first. The first thing to come out at me with Mucha is the amount of colors there is; very nice balance between warm and cold tones along with shading and attention to detail on the females themselves. Next I noticed the borders surrounding the women to be just a pretty as they are along with the asymmetry of the piece as a whole. The women are centered in the middle but neither side of them is identical BUT that doesn’t mean the piece isn’t balanced- in fact it is very balanced.

Okay, let’s move on to Mackintosh. Right away the difference I notice is the colors. There is a small color palette for both pieces- only consisting of green, black, blue, brown, and white and a bit of pink- but other than that nothing. Next we see the borders surrounding the figures is VERY geometric and not as detailed as Mucha. Furthermore the whole piece of Mackintosh is very geometric. Symmetry is very obvious in these pieces and shows a more stiff and balanced piece as opposed to Mucha. The next thing I notice is there is not a lot of detail in the figures themselves. Very stylized and simplified women but yet- still just as beautiful. Also the figures anatomy seems to be longer; like someone stretched them out while Mucha’s figures are more on the anatomically correct.

Now that we have discussed how different the pieces are let’s point out the similarities they have. It is not much but it is still obvious that the two pieces by two artisits have some things in common being that they are both from the era of Art Nouveau. The big thing the pieces have in common is the connection to nature. Both pieces have flowers or some type of element connecting it with nature in some way. Obviously Mucha’s figures are surrounded AND holding flowers while Mackintosh’s figures are very subtle and have a few flowers surrounding them. Another thing the pieces have in common would be the fact that woman are the focus point; one is more detailed than the other but you can tell that it is still female. Both seem to have influences from similar things such as nature and women.

To pick which style I like more I would have to go with last week’s. Mucha’s style has always been one of my favorites and the amount of details not only Mucha had but the other artists make the pieces more pleasing to look at in my eyes. Not to mention all the colors and overwhelming influences from nature- I feel more connected with the Art Nouveau from England, France and the US more but I appreciate both styles very much so.

The piece that I have chosen is by Mucha. A lot of the pieces were beautiful and I found very interesting but this one stuck out to me for the fluidness throughout the piece as a whole as the amount of detail makes your eye constantly move around the piece. The powerful image of woman doing social things and being more a part of society is also another reason why I picked this piece.

The characteristics the piece has is the amount of details; the complicated border surrounding the figure along with the details in the woman to begin with and not to mention the colors! Bright colors that seem to pop out at you and the asymmetry of the piece as well would be giveaways as to the origin and since this is a piece by Alphonse Mucha it would be from Czech. As opposed to French or English Art Nouveau which have the same similarities but have a more distinct influence from nature, with lots of flowers or Japanese influences.

As we see the differences between France and England in the Art Nouveau wave it is obvious they all have similarities. LOTS of nature- flowers, flowers, and more flowers. Very geometric shapes along with flowy lines and just very beautiful figures doing more social things due to the Industrial Revolution.

Gutenberg was such an influential person in design history for he created a new way to produce books in a mass amount instead of waiting for writing books by hand. His invention was revolutionary and of course it was important!  Just imagine if his press was never invented and we still had to write EVERY book or piece of literature by hand? We would go mad. The amount of patient it took to write the Bible by hand must have been something I can’t imagine, I mean, my hand cramps from just taking notes for three hours in some classes, let alone writing a whole BOOK.

His press was extraordinary and without his invention think how long we would’ve had to wait for some of our favorite book series to get published? I know, I would be not be pleased having to wait so long for The Harry Potter series any longer than I had to or any other series for that matter. With his press- it was the start of new wave of getting books published. It was the building block to having presses that printed two pages at once then so on and so forth.

With the class activity I thoroughly enjoyed it. I had never been in the printing room but I had some experience with printing from back in high school. Seeing all the different letter types with different fonts and sizes was exciting. Art comes in all forms and printing is one of them. After getting over the fact at how small the room was and how crowded it was- I decided to step back and wait for the hive of students to disburse before I went over and went to looking for my letters. I knew I wanted all of the fonts to be the same and that was where I ran into the first problem. Trying to match all the letters up but eventually I did it.

My next process was finding out what to say. I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted but I wanted it to be in Gaelic and since I was having a pretty rough day I had choose to say 

Which translates to: “Kiss my ass!”

I also recorded my process but feel the picture is fine. Overall, I was glad I got to experience this. I wouldn’t have minded doing more but alas, time got away from me while waiting but I’m glad to make what I did and will probably make it into a valentine’s day card or décor in my room if I can find a frame.