Design through the Ages

Unit 1 Outcome 3

• Our ancestors who drew on cave walls, often depicting hunting scenes.

• The first known use of graphic symbols for communication was by the Sumerians in Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq), around 3500 BC.

• early symbol - pictograph form, considered the origin of written language. The ancient Egyptians developed their own system of visual communication known as hieroglyphics - pictograph form.

• Map making/cartography is as old as civilisation. Early forms of maps were scratched into rocks. The ancient Greek civilisation developed mathematical ways of mapping the earth.

One significant attempt atarranging images for communication was thehandwritten copy of the bible, called the Book of Kells, which was created by Irish monks in 800#AD.It is a good example of how images were usedwith written words to convey messages and bible stories.

Printing technology was developed in thefourteenth century by Johannes Gutenberg. Heinvented the Gutenberg printing press, whichallowed individual letters and decorative imagesto be re-used. The Gutenberg press produced thefirst printed book.In the nineteenth century, the graphic designevolution was boosted through book publishingand the distinction between fine art and visualcommunication design evolved.The twentieth century produced many designstyles and eras that still influence moderndesign today. Many of today’s designers usecharacteristics and features from past eras intheir work. Understanding design history can helpdevelop skills in analysing visual communications,provide a research starting point for a design brief,influence the way we use elements and principlesin our own work and assist in creating our owndesign style, which may be influenced by afavourite design era or designer within that era.

Arts and Crafts 1850–1914

- a movement based on simple forms, patterns and textures. Designers focused on domestic items and used simple plant forms and organic shapes in their designs.

Key Design Eras

- It was heavily influenced by the writing of John Ruskin as a reaction to the mechanical style of the industrial revolution and also to the intricate and elaborate style of the Victorian era.

- decoration was based on plant forms, natural rhythm of organic shapes and

flowers. - Leaf motifs and heart shapes - Some Australian designers including

furniture makers embraced this style and used Australian timbers in their designs.- Key designers from this era include: William Morris

Charles Rennie MackintoshFrank Lloyd Wright

Aesthetic Movement – “purely beautiful”The Aesthetic movement was heavily inspiredby Japanese culture and the art form of Japanesewoodcuts. The movement was focused on thenatural, and the beautiful mixing of Anglo andJapanese style. Key designers from this era include:- Aubrey Beardsley- James Abbott McNeil Whistler

Art Nouveau c. 1890 – 1910

- The beginning of the twentieth century was a time of ‘new art for a new century’.- a style of decoration and architecture characterised by the flowing depictionof leaves and flowers. It started in Paris in the 1890s and continued through to World War I. Art Nouveau was inspired by natural forms and structures, notonly in flowers and plants, but also in curved lines.

- The flowery, ornate style developed overnightin 1894 by Alphonse Mucha who produced a posterfor the actress Sarah Bernhardt. - the original masterpiece of Art Nouveauposter design: with its decoration, swirls and ornatedesign, it was a reaction against Modernist ideals.- The poster art craze spread to America and aroundEurope, and although local in style the distinctcharacteristics of the era remained. Decorative motifs, formed by dynamic flowing lines, were the characteristics of this period. Art Nouveau was applied to architectural forms, painting, poster art, sculpture and other design forms.Key designers from this era include:- Charles Rennie Mackintosh- Victor Horta- Alphonse Mucha- Hector Guimard- Aubrey Beardsley- Bram Van der Velde

Modernism:

Modernism is a design aesthetic that developed in the early part of the 20th century. It reflected the “Zeitgeist” or ‘spirit of its age’. Rising from the bleakness of wars modernism was optimistically underpinned by the utopian social ideals. Modernists rejected decorative motifs in favour of clean, functional forms. Surface decoration was minimally used. Modernism was characterised by the use of modern materials such as steel and glass, the application of abstract forms, the manipulation of space and a conservative colour palette. Dominated by whites, greys and black.

“Less is More”

Futurism 1909 - 1930- an artistic and social movement originated in Italy in the early twentieth century.- It emphasised contemporary concepts of the future, including speed, technologicalprogress and youth, and objects such as the car, the aeroplane and theindustrial city.

- Inspired by Cubism- Used repetitive lines and angles in images

meant to capture a dimension of time within a frame

- Brilliant colour - Explored bold, complex,- Fragmented typography, shapes and icons.

Not unusual to use 20 typefaces on a page and up to 4 colours – demonstrated expressive power

Key Designers:Giacomo BellaCarlo CarraUmberto Boccioni

Dada 1916 - 23Dada, or Dadaism, is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War 1. The movement involved visual arts, literature, poetry, art manifestos, art theory, theatre and graphic design. Dada was intended to provoke an emotionalreaction from the viewer (typically, shock or outrage). The Dadaists influencedgraphic design by creating imagery that was unconventional in composition and included chance results or accident as a means of production and technique.Dada artists produced works that had a cynical attitude toward socialvalues and were, at the same time, irrational — absurd and playful, emotive and intuitive, and often cryptic.

De Stijl 1917 -1931De Stijl, which is Dutch for ‘TheStyle’, was a Dutch artistic movementfounded in 1917. - De Stijl sought to express a new ideal of harmony and order. - abstraction and minimised designto the essentials of form and colour;- simplified visual compositionsby using vertical and horizontaldirections, and used only primarycolours along with black and white.- Decoration and ornamental designwas rejected and the designers ofthis period focused on simplificationof forms. The fundamental principleof the geometry of the straight line,the square and the rectangle wascombined with strong asymmetrical composition

Piet Mondrian

Key designers: Theo van Doesburg, Gerrit Rietveld, Bart Van der Leck, Mondrian

Art Deco 1920 -1939-an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourishedInternationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. It is characterisedby streamlined geometric shapes.

Art Deco represented the style of the Machine Age, replacing Art Nouveau’s flowing floral motifs with streamlined geometric shapes and designs that represented power, speed and modern technology.Art Deco took its inspiration from a variety of art movements, including Cubism and Futurism.Simplification and abstraction were the hallmarks of Art Deco; its style was used in architecture, interior design, industrial design, fashion design and graphic arts.Themes to represent the emerging Machine Age included modern aviation, electrical lighting, the radio, the ocean liner, the car and the skyscraper. Art Deco ischaracterised by the use of materials such as aluminium, stainless steel, inlaid wood and lacquer.The use of bold stepped forms and the sunburst motif are typical Art Deco features. Geometric curves including zig zag design and fountain shapes were evident.Some of these motifs are so famous that they aresignificantly distinctive in skylines around the world.Geometric shapes and line as dominant design elements. The exaggeration of scale in both posters was a design principle employed to demonstrate the technology available at the time. Lightning flashes and bold line work were also employed in these posters to create a sense of power, glitz, glamour and wealth (The Great Gatsby).Opulent, lavish style, a reaction to the hardships of WW2Key Designers: Cassandre, Van Alen, Jean Carlu, Legrain, Fortuny, Proctor, Burley Griffin, Jardine

Bauhaus 1919 – 1933The Bauhaus movement was one of the most important design movements of thetwentieth century in Germany in the 1920sand early 1930s. Bauhaus means ‘Building School’, and it was the name of a Germaninstitution that combined crafts and fine arts, and was famous for publicising and teaching its approach to design. The style of the school was characterised by functional designs with no ornamentation. It pointed out the benefits of using basic materials with no decorations. Some of the most important artists and architects of the school were Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky and László Moholy-Nagy, who founded the Graphic Institute of Chicago and taught using the Bauhaus teaching methods.

The principles of Bauhaus design:- to provide everything in thecontemporary house, from the mostbasic household item to the completebuilding. - designers fascinated with metal, used it infurniture design to create a new typeof beauty that relied on non-exactforms and measurements. Steel was amaterial that was uniform and precise.One key aims of the Bauhausmovement was to unify art, craftand technology. The machine wasconsidered to be a positive influence onarchitectural design, furniture design,product design and industrial design.Key elements of Bauhaus- ALL caps or All lower case- Sans serif- Grid structure and geometric form- Bold and primary colours