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?