Sagmeister and Burnett

Sagmeister and Burnett

Steven Sagmeister has be one of the coolest artists that I have heard about so far. He is daring, bold and not afraid to step across boundaries when it comes to his designs. On one of his most famous pieces, he physically carved words across his entire body, took a picture of it, and submitted it as a poster for AIGA. I can't imagine how painful that would be, but it is brilliant! Never been done before, and it certainly got him noticed. I really like how he takes a picture and digitally alters it so words are incorporated,... they look incredibly real and you have to question whether or not he found the image like that! His idea of using the inflatable monkeys was a great idea; dispersing them throughout the country, each with a specific message that can only be deciphered when put together. He is a great designer, and it's very difficult to pick just a few things about him that I really like.

Leo Burnett has a bunch of interesting characteristics that I'm trying to put together. He appears to be very simple in his work; basic colors, basic designs and etc. But the strange thing is that his simple images incorporate big meaning. Take for instance his hand and star logo. It's a very simple drawing resembling a wood cut, and it only two colors-black and white. Yet once you understand his idea behind it "When you reach for the stars you may not quite get one, but you won't get a handful of mud either," you realize that this man has done some thinking before he began drawing a hand surrounded by a couple stars. I was also surprised to see how complex his website is. It's completely interactive and has it's own unique personality to it. It was very fun to play around with, just to see the possibilities that can be done through website design.

Kalman, Carson and Carter

Tibor Kalman is an artist who isn't afraid to touch out of zone boundaries. He created an image that depicted the Queen as a black female, along with one of Arnold Swartenegger as a black male. I like how he addresses the racial issue in a nice and approving way. It could be much worse, but his perfection of it is beautiful. He incorporated typography frequently, and it was often like a 'sunburst' around the central image. Another thing he is known for is his idea of placing a dot within the center of an "O", which animates it and it then appears to be a face. Crazy!

David Carson is a graphic artist who was also inspired by music. He didn't have any schooling which was great because he then didn't follow any rules. That's what he is best known for; disobeying all rules of typography. His work is very intriguing and fun to look at, but questionable in his creditability simply because he isn't follow the rules. He wanted legibility, but at the same he wanted it to be bold, be loud and be noticed. Most of his typography has varied sizes, varied kerning 'issues', and varied colors. It's clearly a modern day use of graphic design, and I approve of it all 100 percent.

Up next is Matthew Carter, who was mainly a typeface designer. He created many different fonts that are still used frequently today. One typeface that stands out to me as very interesting is Walker. The user is able to apply serifs and other typographical designs in any place that they wish, simply by using various quick keys. This is something fun and allows designers to 'create' their own typefaces in a very unique way. Carter is also known for his multiple layering and overlapping of images/words. He also created a typeface that prints nicely on cheap newspapers by adjusting the crotches of various letter forms. This way, the ink wouldn't bleed into each other because space was given for bleeding. Genius idea!

Chantry and Thorgerson

Art Chantry is a graphic artist who was inspired by music throughout his design. He worked with clients such as Nirvana, Hole and the Sonics. His images appear to be very layered with a lot of color. They look flat and are illustrated nicely. He seems to play with bright yellows mixed with oranges and reds frequently. However, his designs are pushed along with their creative use of typography as it's loud and bold. He doesn't follow all rules of typography, which is clear in his uneven baselines and how he lines everything up.

As for Storm Thorgerson, he is a modern day graphic designer and film maker. His work reflects surrealism, and resembles Dali. His designs are very intriguing and fun to look at mainly because they don't seem real,...yet they look real. So I sit and stare for a very long time, looking for some sort of imperfection to signal fake, but I can't find any. He plays around with photography and making the images look real in a very strange composition, and they are always very fun to look at. One image that comes to mind is his garbage ball of junk, which is placed alongside a random man. It allows (gullible) people such as myself to actually believe it's real, or else it evolves into a serious debate. Storm Thorgerson's work has to be some of the best stuff I've seen so far because I enjoy the 3D aspect of it.

Greiman, Chwast and Glaser

April Greiman is a contemporary designer from the 80's. She's responsible for introducing the New Wave art movement to the United States and is well known for her knowledge in various mediums; computer graphics, hand graphics, architecture and video. One influential aspect of April is that when she first began her career in design, she did everything by hand due to the lack of technology in the early 80's. She then made a remarkable transition into the computer generated graphics and excelled in both. Her issue of the Design Quarterly entitled Does it Make Sense is considered to be a major turning point in the evolution of graphic design. She played around with photography and tried to make 2D images appear 3D.

Seymour Chwast is an American graphic designer with a bit of illustration and typographer mixed in. He designed posters, food packaging and magazine covers during the 50's. He is most widely known for co-establishing Push Pin Studios. His work was very illustrated and incorporated a bit of humor in it. The images were generally flat with multiple colors. His typography is has a very Art Deco feel to it.

Milton Glaser is very remarkable contemporary graphic designer who is also described as a modern renaissance man due to understandings, visual language, conceptual thinking and illustration skills. He is the other co-founder of Push Pin Studios with Chwast, and has had his own one person show at the Modern Museum of Art in New York. Some of his famous work includes the flat Bob Dylan poster, along with the I LOVE NY logo, which was the first time the heart symbol was recognized as love. He is one of the most famous designers in modern day. 

thesis statement regarding Neville Brody

two options:

1. Neville Brody was never inhibited by the edges of a page.

2. Neville Brody has positively changed the world of Graphic Design.

Chapter 21: Psychedelic Posters

This part of chapter 21 dealt with psychedelic posters and their affect on the United States. It first began in the 60's in reaction to the Vietnam War. There was also a huge civil rights movement as well as a civil rights movement that influenced this recognizable posters. Their purpose was to show viewpoints instead of your basic commercial messages and advertising. Most of the artists who created these posters were generally self-taught. They were part of the hippie subculture, and can be distinguished by their love of rock music, drugs and ideas of reestablishment. One of the main contributors to psychedelic posters was Wes Wilson, who created the infamous Grateful Dead posters.

I think this movement could be considered one of the most recognizable movements in our history. When you look at designs on a timeline, this one stands out the most because it's so different from surrounded styles that occurred at the same time. It's very bold, daring, unique and set apart from the norm. It shows that being the strange one gets you remembered in the design world. Never to follow another person's steps but make your own. Now I just have to find my own direction,...

I know this movement began in the 60's, but how long did it last?

Chapter 20: Corporate Identity and Visual Systems

This chapter focused  on the idea that businesses needed to create stellar logos for themselves in order to be recognized in a rapidly growing design world. They needed to unify their businesses through a solid identity system, and this began in the 50's. CBS (Colombia's Broadcasting System) was one of the first businesses to realize the importance of an identity system. William Golden was the designer who created the CBS Television trademark. Most people even today  can recognize the logo as the 'eye'. It hasn't changed much since it's creation, which is awesome. George Olden was one of the first designers to work with imagery for on-air graphics. Another notable person from this style is Paul Rand, who is known for his creation of IMB, ABC and Westinghouse logos. His creations are considered elementary, timeless, unique and simple. A few terms that I can relate to are- open and closed identity systems. An open system is where the logo changes with time due to the changes in design styles and important e events. A closed system is just the opposite; the identity systems generally don't change but remain constant throughout it's life. A good example for a closed system is the Chase Bank logo, which is also one of the first recognizable abstract logos.

I think it's crazy that some businesses keep the same, overall concept of their trademark after years and years in the business. Most of them tweek it slightly to fit within the modern day era, but it's generally nothing drastic.  I find this interesting because graphic design has changed tremendously within just a few years, let along 50+ years. I would have expected companies to change their logos to go parallel with a changing society, but that really isn't the case. It goes to show that new isn't always better.

The 1968 Olympics in Mexico was explained in this chapter because the designers wanted a universal system that can be recognized by people worldwide. This seems quite obvious, but I'm curious to know if previous Olympics didn't consider the fact that the entire viewing population wouldn't be able to understand the signs and labels.

Chpater 18: International Typographic Style, & Chapter 19: The New York School

Chapter 18 covers a 1950's design movement that originated from Germany and Switzerland.  This design was very mathematical and had a scientific approach to all aspects of design.  Even though it was mathematical, generally the designs were asymmetrical and constructed through a grid.  One very important aspect of this design movement was that it helped combine the world internationally with world-wide known pictographs and glyphs.  There was an increasing need for communicative clarity, especially when it came to signs and travel information.  This Swiss design helped push these needs further. During this time, sans serif because even more popular, and all forms of propaganda were disposed of.  It was time for corporate and product advertising.  One man who helped push the Swiss movement was Ernst Keller.  He was versatile and took interest in simple forms, symbolic imagery, contrasting color and expressive lettering.  Another man of interest is Max Huber, who used very bright hues in his photographs alongside complex organized compositions.  They are borderline chaotic, but his placement of images has purpose and a comfort value to it.  Design took on a new look during this style as Anton Stankowski created visual forms that possessed some sort of physical force to it. He played with illusions and made abstract images that played with eyesight.  During the International Typographic Style, many new fonts were created.  This included Univers, Helvetica, and Palatino.  Univers was a great font, and Emil Ruder realized its potential.  Due to the consistent baseline and and x-height, all 21 different typefaces could be used together in an appealing way.  

Chapter 19 focuses mainly on the American movement during the mid-1900's. A new form of advertising arose containing a comedic effect.  Most of the designs were influenced by European design because America wasn't at the top when it came to design during this era.  However, American designers added some of their own style, forms and concepts which certainly helped it out. Paul Rand can be attributed with the credit of pushing America towards modern design.  He created influential magazine covers which stepped past usual American design traditions. The playful, dynamic and the unexpected often came into Rand's work. Bradbury Thompson emerged as one of the most influential designers in America after WWII. His adventurous personality and knowledge of printing allowed him to bring symbolics to power. Saul Bass was mentioned in this chapter as well because he was the first person to unify both print and media graphics with his work in The Man With the Golden Arm.  He is considered to be the most influential film/graphic designer due to his success and amazing approach to it.  Something I didn't know what that Yale has a highly respected Graphic Design program, and many of the leading designers taught there at some point.  A woman, Cipe Pineles, became the first woman to be admitted into the New York Art Director's Club, which broke typical stereotypes.  Design is usually male-dominated, so it's great to have a monumental mark such as this. It's also important to note that the magazines, Print and Communication Arts, became widely known during this period and inspired artists everywhere.  They are a great art magazine today so it's great to know a bit about their history.   

I was surprised to read that it took Adrian Frutiger three years to create the font Univers.  The family was huge and containing 21 different sans serif fonts.  This would explain the huge length of time Frutiger put in to create it, but it's amazing that someone worked for three years looking at the same font!

In chapter 18, it mentions a design Zapf who is responsible for creating several fonts.  Did he create Zapf Chancery, or was this font simply named after him?

For my first image which was inspired by Modern Art, I decided to mimic a piece made by Kathe Schmidt Kollwitz.  This artist designed in expressionism, and one item of focus during this time was on the poor and unfortunate.  Suffering women and children were depicted in their struggles because of the artist's experience and insight of the poor.  I decided to create my own basic poster where a young boy was shown with Save Darfur was at the bottom to give it some sort of title.  I really like the pencil strokes that Kollwitz used, so I did the same sort of thing in my sketch.  One thing I was really inspired was how you could make out the face, but there's no way you could ever give the face a name because it's unrecognizable.  It pushes the meaning further because we don't need a specific name to know that poverty is out there and people are suffering.  

My next piece was also with help from the Modern Arts.  I was inspired from the futurist period through their use of text to convey a meaning... and text alone.  I took a quote from a great song and tried to quickly tell a story based on the location of the text.  It isn't much, but I played with the terms 'far away', 'mistakes', 'contained' and 'away'.  It was fun to do this because it's a little more challenging and you really have to think about how to write something.  
And now for this image, which was inspired by Peter Behrens in the Genesis of Twentieth Century Design.  I noticed in a lot of his work that he used many borders with geometric patterns.  I made up my own poster for snow cones (?).  Don't ask my why I chose snow cones, I think it's because I saw an ad on TV for a snow cone maker,...and I want it.  I used this particular design because of his work on page 239, where he created the magazine cover for Mitteliungen Der Berliner Elekricitaets Werke.  It's a very simple and flat design, basic colors and yet has a bit of an illusion to it.  I tried to mimic the uppercase letters that were all centered in the middle.

Chapter 17- The War Years and After

Chapter 17 discusses how the United States' design concepts were changed during World War II and post-war.  They were very diverse and made posters that were informative and comical.  This was because there were so many different types of artists that were hired from the U.S. Office of War Information.  Once the U.S. entered the war in 1941, the main goal was creating posters for propaganda and production.  We needed to have spirits soaring high with confidence in the Allies, as well as an increase in production so we could support our troops oversees.  One very famous poster relating to production is Jean Carlu's "America's Answer! Production."  Artists began to create more graphic and emotional posters due to the intense hate of Nazi's, Hitler and the attack on Pearl Harbor.  The achieved the greatest impact by using contrasts in color and scale.  Once the war ended -Go Allies!- the posters turned toward consumer markets, which would help the U.S. recover from such a brutal war.  It was at this time that copy lines first began to appear on all full-color paintings, followed by a logo.  To boost moral, once company began to design posters that showed liberty, justice, investors, prospective employees and human rights.  

I was quite surprised to read about Seventeen Magazine at this time.  For some reason I thought it was created much after World War II.  It makes me wonder about other magazines and when they were first published.  

I don't fully understand the concept behind image 17-42; Herbert Matters brochure covering chair.  Can you explain it?

Ad recreation, week 1

Above are the original advertisements that I have chosen to recreate in a different art period.   Both of them were found online.

* Sorry about the images scattered everywhere.  I'm not entirely sure on how to arrange photos on Blogger so they are all just smashed above.  Clearly, you can see which images are the real advertisement, and which ones are my sketches.

The advertisement with the cards is interesting, but I felt it could be pushed more.  The girls needed a little bit more sex appeal and the overall composition of the ad was bland.  I thought this would be a good one to recreate under art nouveau because I was immediately thinking about Mucha's concentration on women and how seductive he created them.   I also think that the art design on the Ace card has as little bit of art nouveau style to it, so it started from there.  Above, you will find my quick sketch of how I feel this advertisement would look with an art nouveau feel to it.  I first began with a border around the entire image because I saw that decorative, tile-like borders encompassed much of the art created during this period.  In the background, I added organic poles with vines wrapping around them because art nouveau pieces often had nature incorporated within their work.  I would also like to add a little bit more work to the background, such as more organic and leaf-like images into it.  This would add more depth and layering; more like the intended style I was going for.  On the women, I made them a little bit more sexy by adding the 'spaghetti hair' that Mucha made famous.  I also added a halo-like border around them because this too was also seen often in art nouveau.  As for the typography, it was a little bit more difficult because I didn't see much use of typography during art nouveau.  I did, however, see some in Mucha's "Job" and he had the tile border around each letter.  I gave an attempt at this, but decided to only do the first letter of each phrase due to the limited space I had.  If I were to recreate this, I would do each letter the same way. 

The next image with the car was effective, but a little to simple.  In order to get that rugged, urban feel, I thought it could be pushed farther and be designed similar to the style achieved during the Industrial Revolution.  It already has a lot of the qualities, such as the colors and the central image.  I added some harsh brush strokes at the bottom because that was often seen during the Industrial Revolution.  I would probably keep it all within grey/silver tones to match the car.  Maybe some black?  In order to make the punch line a little bit more effective, I decided to mimic the Industrial Revolution's style and add buildings.  Now it shows how much the car will have to go through in 'a few minutes', so it seems more unrealistic that the car will make it in time.  But!  Since this is an Audi, who are known for the speed and agility, it might be possible that the car will make it in time.  To add the final touch, I thought I should add a more industrial-like feel and add smoke and lightning rods/antennae's to the buildings.  Now it's a bit more realistic and harder looking.  Unfortunately, I can't read the small print underneath the car, so I redesigned according to what I could see.  After sketching this particular advertisement, I have realized that I should probably never work in a car-building/designing business because my sketches look awful...

Kitsch and WWII Posters

In short, Kitsch can be described is ugly.  The website given to us had little compliments for it, other than it's so bad, it's good.  The pleasantly distastefulness of it is often overdone, tacky and sometimes is intended to be funny.  Materials used were often bright shiny metals, so just think of a really ugly Christmas tree ornament that your grandma has,... and it's probably Kitsch.  

In Chapter 17, American graphics during WWII was discussed.  It first because in the early 40's before anybody ever believed the US would enter WWII.  The federal government wanted to increase production so they began producing posters.  This led to posters that depicted Hitler, Pearl Harbor because they were discussed frequently and had a huge impact on the US.  One painter, Ben Shahn, focused on Nazi brutality though very graphic forms in dynamic compositions.  Once WWII was finished, the next area of concentration was on consumer markets.  We were no longer creating war machinery and had to produce necessary items to improve the way of life.  What a better way to promote this than through advertising!  

I think it's interesting to think about how differently the US's history would have been different if it wasn't for graphic design and other forms of art.  Without it, as seen in this chapter, a lot of things wouldn't have been possible or worked as effectively if graphics weren't involved.  We were able to publicize our wants (such as focusing on consumer markets) that sped up the recovery process after the war.  I don't think many people give graphic design enough credit because this is rarely discussed in our general history books.  In these general books, our country just magically fixes itself with apparently no help from propaganda and other posters.  

How long did Kitsch last?  Or, is it still going today?

Art Deco

Part of Chapter 14 goes into detail about art deco, which took place in the early 1900's.  It is similar to art nouveau and was influenced by cubism, the Bauhaus and the Vienna Secession, along with random references such as Egyptian, Aztecs and De Stijl.  Art Deco can be described as very geometric, decorative, zigzag and slightly modern.  There is usually a lot of layers with bright, bold colors. A very popular font during this art period is Bifur, which is very blocky and heavy.  It contains no serifs and isn't the most attractive thing to look at.  Another font that emerged was Peignot, which was an attempt to 'revolutionize' the roman alphabet.  One thing that really stands out for me with this typeface is the ascenders and descenders because they stand out greatly and are unique in comparison to earlier fonts.  Jean Carlu realized that by adding expressed lines and angles, tension and alertness would come from it.  By creating curves, the feeling of comfort and relaxation arose.  For some reason, I feel this was already understood and experimented with, but Megg gives him some credit. 

I think it's interesting that our eye reads what isn't in front of us, but what we feel should be read.  On page 282, A.M. Cassandre's Bifur typeface is put into effect but half of the letters are missing.  Even though they are missing, we can still read them and understand their meanings.  

I'm curious.  What is the difference between the Art Institute of Chicago and the Institute of Design in Chicago?  According to later chapters, the Institute of Design wasn't formed until after the Bauhau crumbled, which was in 1933.  And the Art Institute was mentioned in this chapter when Edward Kauffer traveled to Chicago and studied there.  

After class 3-13

Yesterday in class, Sam gave her presentation on Chapter 15.  She described the Russian movements as follows:  Supremism- purely geometric, one of the two radical art movements, done by Russian Maleovich (who did the black square as art).  Constructivism- led by Vladimir Tatlin, abstract geometrics, PROUNS was created which showed depth and overlapping.  De Stijl:  Brought together by Doesburg, horizontal and vertical lines, flat primary colors.  This movement died when Doesburg died,... pretty sad.  De Stijl artists used sans serif typefaces, which became a popular font for the Soviets.  An important man was El Lissitsky, who designed posters regarding politics.  He used simple imagery to convey very important and big meanings.  One of his famous paintings incorporates a red triangle defeating white space, which signifies their love for communism and their revolution.

Yet again, I am surprised at how the Russians used color.  With El Lissitzky's red triangle poster, it shows that by using color, it can tell a story.  If I were to make the same painting in today's time, the message might not get across well because people wouldn't understand the red triangle. What is it?  What's it supposed to be doing?  However, everybody from all ages and classes understood this art because it was so basic, guided by simple rules that everyone could relate to.  For them, just a solid color stood as an emotion and as a signifier of their own country.

I want to know what a 'radical art movement' is, and what was the other one (besides supremism)?

Chapter 15: A New Language of Form

Chapter 15 describes the art movement in the mid 1900's within Russia.  It first began with Russian suprematism and constructivism.  Suprematism was a painting style that used basic forms and pure shapes.  It was was founded by Kasimir Malevich, who believed that the essence of the art experience was the perceptual effect of color and form.  Most of the art during this time was all fueled by the revolution.  Many people no longer wanted to move forward with art, while many other people knew the importance of it all.  Constructivism was based on industrial design, visual communications and serving the communist society.  They didn't want people to focus on useless paintings, but make them for the sake of the country.  Put them to use.  Texture, tectonics and construction were the three main principles of constructivism.  El Lissitsky was the leader of this movement, who refused to use Gutenberg's metal typesetting.  He developed a new style of painting called PROUNS which introduced three-dimensionality in the positive depth and naught depth.  He also designed a book that set new standards for organization and composition because he used grid structures.  Propaganda photomontage was led by Gustav Klutsis, who described the medium as 'the art construction for socialism.'  This guy was pretty intense because he believed that photomontage was the art of the future, and nothing else really compared to it.  After these movements came De Stijl, which occurred in the Netherlands from creator Theo van Doesburg.  De Stijl 'sought universal laws of equilibrium and harmony for art, which could then be a prototype for a new social order.'  This style was very geometric using only primary colors.  Curved lines and diagonals were removed and san serifs were favored.  

I think it's interesting that artists during these periods really focused on a reason for their color choices.  Most of the time artists choose colors based on popularity, their audience and just because.  But during De Stijl, they intentionally chose red and black because it was the colors of their revolution.  Color wasn't used as an afterthought, it was predetermined and a very important structural element.  I don't recall reading about past artist who focused on a color so much (besides in war propaganda/posters), so this is pretty fricken sweet.

Did the American's ever pick up on these Russian art movements?  

After class, 3-11

Today in class, Victoria gave her presentation on Pictorial Modernism.  According to her, pictorial modernism follows futurism and consists mainly of flat colors, flat images and a crap load of layers.  They followed futurism slightly because they played off  type and tried to create images and emotions based on the compositions of the type.  Lucian Bernhard was the 'father' of Plaknstil, which was a German design movement.  He was kicked out of his house after he painted his father's walls random colors after he was inspired by an art show.  After he left his house, he began to self teach himself and eventually received his fame and glory after winning a poster competition.  After WWI, there was a large emphasis in poster design.  Posters were used for propaganda, recruitment and for donations to the military services.  Usually the artists tried to express patriotic emotions in simple competitions with text being used only as a catchy title.  

I was surprised to hear that America was so far behind in graphic design/art trends.  They were one of the last countries to adapt the new styles versus the other countries that started the trends.  It makes complete sense, but I never really thought about it because I had expected it to travel to America faster because there were so many people who sought a new life in the U.S.  Maybe it just seems weird because today America seems to be on top of things when it comes to modern art.  OR!  Maybe I'm just assuming we are on top of things relating to modern art. 

So my question for today,... is the U.S. ahead of the game when it comes to new graphic styles?  Or do they still generally originate from Italy and France?

Chapter 14: Pictorial Modernism

Chapter 14 focused on the aspects of poster design in the early twentieth century.  These posters were influenced by many things, including war and post modern art.  Collage was first created during this time by the Beggarstaffs.  It's interesting because it wasn't popular when first designed, but it is a huge thing today.  A German style, Plakastil, emerged  in the twentieth century.  This style can be described as reductive and flat in color.  Lucian Bernhard was an influential man in this period, even though he didn't really know it.  He had submitted an art piece that was very simple and plain.  This moved graphic communications into a simpler form, not so noisy and cluttered.  This in turn led to a whole new style of posters and advertisements, where it was mainly the name of the product and a simple image depicting it.  Posters were also very important during WWI and WWII.  Radios and other forms of communication weren't quite advanced yet, so posters were the only way that the government could recruit soldiers and advertise for donations.  They were used as a significant source of recruitment and propaganda.  The Central Army had different styles compared to the Allies.  The Central Army focused on destruction of the Allies, where the Allies focused on the struggles of war and sticking with family.  This chapter also briefly mentioned art deco and how it correlates with art nouveau.  

It's hilarious that Lucian Bernhard was kicked out of his house/ran away after his parents yelled at him for painting everything inside of his house.  He painted walls, ceilings and even furniture in three days after being inspired by an interior design exhibition.  I think it's funny how different society is today.  Most kids leave or get kicked out for drug addictions, abuse or gangs.  Parents today might be upset if their kids got a little paint happy, but I doubt most would send them to fend for themselves at the age of fifteen.  

Since many people and artists wanted to adapt new styles, why did an American uproar occur with the first exposure to modern art?

After class, 3-9

Today in class Alexis gave her presentation on the Influence of Modern Art.  She went into detail about cubism, which was inspired by Pablo Picasso.  Cubism focused on geometric patterns in an abstract composition.  Futurism was inspired through revolt, courage and aggressiveness.  Harmony wasn't an option because these artists wanted speed and noise into their work.  Typography changed during futurism because it was no longer used in the horizontal, straight lines, but in unexpected locations where it was often in the shape/outline of a picture.  It was now being used as a shape.  Dadaism was led by Duchamp, and it was more of a rebellion instead of an art movement.  This was because of the destructive state of the world.  Surrealism was a new of thinking, a new way of feeling.  The artists usually focused on dreams and fantasy in a very realistic way.  Expressionism focused on the poor and social issues that were affecting the world at the time.

I was surprised to hear that Art Nouveau was the first art period that was internationally known.  I never really thought about it or took it into consideration because it seemed like whenever a new style of design began, it spread everywhere.  The more you know..

In class it was mentioned that Frank Pick was chosen to remove the clutter from cities and design a new sign/advertisements for the underground tunnel.  He wasn't an artist, and I want to know what he did, or how he was chosen to recreate these signs if he (possibly) didn't have any experience.

Chapter 13: The Influence of Modern Art

Chapter 13 covers several modern movements, including cubism, futurism, Dadaism, surrealism and expressionism.  Pablo Picasso was the first, and most influential man of cubism.  This new style of art demonstrates the new approach to handling space and and expressing human emotions.  All of the figures are generally abstracted into various geometric planes, including squares, rectangles and triangles.  This abstracted the image greatly, but after viewing the image, the image becomes recognizable.  The real subject of cubism is the use of shapes, colors, lines and textures versus the realistic subjects of previous art periods.  

Futurism followed cubism, and was first launched when the Italian poet Marinetti published his newspaper.  His newspaper consisted of images that were designed by simply using typography.  He called for a typographic revolution and wanted to place text in unexpected locations, and not in a straight horizontal line.  Another way to describe futurism is through noise and speed.  Marinetti wanted to step outside the boundaries created by Gutenbergs's printing press and express a dynamic, nonlinear composition.  Simply put, he created a mood based off the position of the text.  This was a great transition for graphic designers.

Dadaism was influenced by the 'carnage' of WWI.  These artists were designing as protests against the war and were concerned with shock, protest and nonsense.  They intended to mock a society gone wrong through their art, to inspire rebellion.  A famous artist during this time was French painter Marcel Duchamp, who created simple objects as an art form.  A good example is a urinal.  He is also known for his recreation of a manlier Mona Lisa in response to the public losing the humanistic spirit of the Renaissance.  

Next up is surrealism, where artists wanted to depict everything realistically, but in a dream-like fashion.  This was inspired by the scientific work of Freud, and people began to fantasize about  dreams, possessing faith in man and spirit.  It is more of a way of thinking versus a style of design.

This in turn led to Expressionism, where personal responses and emotions were depicted.  Color, drawing and proportions were often exaggerated or distorted, line and color were often pronounced.  Much of the work is based off of the poor because the social crisis that was occurring before WWI.  People felt sorry for the poor and wanted to depict their troubles in their art.

I was surprised to hear that Picasso used various elements from ancient Iberian and African tribal art.  I never would have expected that since I have seen a few popular pieces of his work.  I was also intrigued by Berlin artist John Heartfield and his revolts against the Nazi's.  It's quite brave of him to create and distribute propaganda against them, even when he knew he was being hunted.  Crazy man, but for all the right reasons. 

Where was futuristic artist Fortunado Depero from?  I could probably guess based of his name, but I want to know for sure.  I'm just curious because he is created with bringing futurism to America,... but I don't know where is from!

Frank Lloyd Wright

Throughout Chapter 12, The Genesis of Twentieth Century Design, Frank Lloyd Wright was mentioned for his architectural contributions to the Art Nouveau period.  I found the above image from www.flyawaycafe.com.  This amazing building was constructed in the 1930's as his former home in Scottsdale, Arizona.  Today it has become the international headquarters for the Frank Llyod Wright Foundation, which is museum that hosts public tours.  Some of the notable features within Talisesin West include:  a film theater, a performing arts theater, a drafting studio, gardens, terraces, outdoor pools and workshops for students and staff.  I am surprised it contains so much because the building doesn't appear to be very large.

I was attracted to this building because it goes along perfectly with its environment.  I could see the desert-like mountain in the distance and immediately made the connections with the pyramid-like stair structure.  The burnt orange and other various organic colors fit perfectly within the Arizonan atmosphere.  I also think that the organic building materials helped set the tone for this building because it coordinates with its location.  One of my favorite things about Talisesin West is the pool in the front yard.  It seems to be used mainly for decoration instead of actually for fitness.  It's small and a very awkward size to swim in.  I could see people lounging in it, but that's it.  I like the idea that you enter his property and you have to ask yourself, or Frank Lloyd Wright, if his pool is used for swimming.  Awkward conversation.