| History |
Graphic
Design in History |
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| Quote |
| 'You look
in your history-books to
see who built Westminster
abbey, who built St. Sophia
at Constantinople, and they
tell you Henry VIII, Justinian
the emperor. did they? or,
rather, men like you and
me, handicraftsmen, who
have left no names behind
them, nothing but their
work?' |
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| Source
By William Morris, originally
published in London: Ellis
and White, The Decorative
Arts, Their Relation To
Modern Life And Progress,
(Dec. 4, 1877) [b] |
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| The
Arts And Crafts Movement,
1870's, led by William
Morris
[1834-1896],
together with the Industrial Revolution
set some basic guides and rules
outlining the importance of good
quality design and hand made objects
for mass-production. This movement
was the first united front by
artists, architects, designers,
craft workers and writers. |
| The new style that
developed during this period was
a strong use of line, elongation
(stretched in height), round flowing
movement and very organic - round
shapes used in all designs, paintings,
posters, furniture and architecture. |
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Morris's
first book was printed at the Kelmscott
Press in 1891 and all of
Morris's works
from this period were accounted as British
graphic work, admired in Continental
Europe. |
| Source:
Typography For The
Kelmscott Press designed by William
Morris, 1897, William Morris Society
[b] |
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Another
very good example from this early period
of time is "Shell"
Transport and Trading Company, Limited,
which history goes far back and is still
in operation today with their original
image 'scallop' as a logo, first redesigned
in 1904. |
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In
1971 the 'Shell' company goes through
change, where their identity and logo
was redesign by Raymond Loewy. Loewy
design was 50% philosophy and 50% of
design skills to present the company
in the best light |
| Source:
Shell Corporation
....
more |
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| During Modernism,
artists actively took part in explaining their
art psychology and often had personally contributed
in expressing their views at exhibitions and
in public places. This modern aesthetics movement
led the art world in to more complicated discipline
by - deconstruction and analysis
with a point of view as to say -'The
ways of seeing and looking'. Together artists,
graphic designers, writers, film makers and
other professionals produced enormous quantities
of works, to which we refer today for inspiration. |
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| Part of Modernism was
Futurism with the Motto of
'Form Follow
Function' which
was strictly adapted by artists, designers
and craft people of this time and used to
benefit commercial and consumers alike products.
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| The artisans put
art forms in everyday life objects incorporating
creative art,
craft
and graphic
design techniques in their works. This
in sequence influenced or rather narrowed
the gap between art, crafts and graphic design
where the 'artist', 'craft person' and 'graphic
designer' often meant - one person - by
education, personal work in professional practice.
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One very
good examples of combining creative
talents was early cover illustrations
and typography for Vogue magazine between
1909-1940. |
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| <
left:
Vogue Cover, 4 February 1909, showing
the influenced of William Morris style. |
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| See
other Vogue Covers .... more |
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| Source:
The Art of Vogue
Covers 1909-1940 [b] |
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| This period of
time is well recognized for massive production
of posters,
illustrations and cooperate identity as many
new business started to flourish and the free
liberal approach had been taken in to mass
production, employment and marketing. |
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| Through all Modern
Art Movements many different techniques, styles
and methods were used, exploring new as well
as, reuse old media/materials and we can say
that - the design process was taken a little
bit further in theories and principles exploring
design along technical possibilities. |
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| The modern functional
theory and style of simple designs in all
creative disciplines was adopted combining
well defined typography and photorealism as
it can be seen in this early advert of 1925
from Cartier. |
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Cartier
(founded in 1847) existing for 160 years
is Internationally recognized for 'objects
d'art', successful, creative retailer
and design house sometimes also referred
to as 'The Jeweller's Art' |
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| <
Cartier modernist design advert
of 1925 advertising 'The Very New Trinity
Bracelet and Rings' in Vogue. |
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| Source:
Musee Cartier at
Goldmith Hall, London Exhibition, 1988
[b]
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| Quote |
| 'Functionalism
- the notion that objects
made to be used should be
simple; honest; and direct;
well adapted to their purpose;
bare of ornament; standardized,
machine-made, and reasonably
priced; and expressive of
their structure and materials
- has defined the course
of progressive design for
most of this century' |
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| Source
By George
H. Marcus, Functionalist
Design, An Ongoing History
(Architecture & Design)
Introduction [b] |
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| Most
productive Modern Arts Movements
related closely to graphic design
and which legacy are well defined
in their theories and style were:
Art Nouveau 1880-1914, Russian
Constructivism 1913-1920, Futurism
1909-1914, Dada 1916-1920, De
Stijl 1920s, Bauhaus (The International
Style) 1919-1933, Functionalism
1930-1960, Minimalism 1950's,
Pop-Art (including Optical Art
- Op/Psychedelic art) 1950s-1960s
and TechnoVideo Art since 1965. |
| Changes in attitude
along side of popular culture
during the Pop-Art (popular art)
movement dictated fashionable,
high impact visual expressions
in design and in the art world,
embracing the environment of everyday
life. |
| Pop Art significance
was of dismantling the idea of
abstract representation and by
challenging the idea of individual
justice, artists arranged multiple,
or mirror images together as Andy
Warhol
(1930-1987) 'Campbell's
Soup can' of 1962. |
| There are many
more very good examples of significant
graphic design works but as we
are coming into the 'computer
age' it would be impossible to
list them all. |
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| Quote |
| 'Pop generated
energy in the exchanges
between 'High' art and 'Low'
art, fine and commercial
artists fuelled one another
and many designers tapped
deliberately into the rich
vain of this overlap in
search of colours, motifs,
and above all attitude' |
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| Source:
By Philippe Garner, Sixties
Design, Chapter - Pop Culture-Pop
Style, page 54 [b] |
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| Quote |
| 'Without
the meditative background
that is criticism,
works become isolated
gestures, a historical
accidents, soon forgotten.' |
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| Source
By Milan Kundera (1929-),
Czech author, critic. |
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| Today
GD
profession is complicated
and the revised 'new graphic
design' practice is not
just connected with the
use of typography or page
layout but also psychological
analysis and knowledge of
interactivity in communication
composed of many layers
that is accessible to all
of us in many different
media |
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| THE
END |
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> 1|
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| written
for BA Honor's Thesis, 2002 - 'Graphic Design is
it Art?' .... Link
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