Art Deco is widely used in many areas as a decoration style, such as architecture, interiors, furnishing, fine arts, handmade crafts, posters, and industrial design. If one is looking for an appropriate word to describe overall Art Deco as a design style, 'Speed' would be the best word for it. "During the Great Depression, a second Art Deco period, buildings usually have very little ornamentation and have a very flat, machine-like look "(Klunk.2). In fact, Art Deco was influenced by the modern art movements of Cubism, Futurism, and Constructivism; however, it also took some ideas from the ancient geometrical design styles, such as Egypt, Assyria and Persia. Art Deco designers use stepped forms, rounded corners, triple- striped decorative elements and black decoration quite a lot. The most important thing is that they are all in geometrical order, and simple formats. With the increasing of machine power, Art Deco also used machine- like materials.

In fact, Art Deco as a decorative design style is mainly seen on the buildings, architecture, interiors, and furnishings. "Thus, it became a popular style for theaters, restaurants, hotels, ocean liners, and World's Fair exhibitions" (Pile.21). Although Art Deco was originally started in Europe, it had greater achievement in architecture and interior design in the United States. From 1918 to the Second World War, there were numbers of 'skyscraper' built up in New York City, and the RCMH building is one of the important examples. For interior design, "New materials such as glass block, neon, chrome, terrazzo, peach or cobalt mirrors, and opaque colored glass panels" became common (Zaid.2).

Art Deco also had a great achievement in fine arts and industrial designs. Art Deco in fine arts, like sculptures, paintings, handmade crafts, and glass, were based on simple format, clean lines, and vivid colors. "Important practitioners of the style have included Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann and Louis Sue in France, and Donald Deskey and Gilbert Rohde in the United States"(Pile.21). The improvement of technology also influenced Art Deco. Industrial products, such as automobiles, ships, TV sets, are now made in large numbers by machines.

According to the resource, "In poster art, precursors of this style were the German Plakatstill, the Viennese Secession, the Deutscher Werkbund, and the Parisian fashion design revolution which commenced in 1908" (International Poster Gallery, 1). In 1936, the 'Cassandra style' had become popular with its sleek design including towering ships, and speeding trains. According to The Art Deco Style by Brunhammer, Yvonne, "For Legrain ¡¥a binding has no apparent meaning; the cover of a book is merely a frontispiece which summarizes its spirit and prepares for a reading of the text through the choice of a nuance or sign" (Brunhammer.163). He made experiments with several new materials for covers, such as sharkskin, exotic wood and mother of pearl; he was also the first person who took letters and put on geometrical rhythm as decoration. Yet, color seems to be more important than design for Robert Bonfils. About typography, Art Deco typeface was still based on simple and geometrical formats, such as Futura (1927-1931, Paul Renner), and Broadway (1928, M.F. Bentin).