Design Movements Test Flashcards
(48 cards)
Dadaism
Reaction to World War 2, dadaists rebelled against the horrors of war, decadence of society, blind faith in technology, inadequacy of religious/moral codes in favour of complete freedom. Works often based on chance/nonsense and social change.
Notable figures: Hugo Ball (Cabaret Voltaire); Kirk Schwitters; John Heartfield (photomontage technique)
Recognizable from: Shock, protest, nonsense, destruction, negative tone, and surprise.
Term “Dada” comes from a random choosing from the dictionary
Hugo Ball
German artist, notable from the dadaist movement.
Known for establishing the Cabaret Voltaire in Switzerland, a coffee shop that would hold experimental poetry, weird dances, and was the centre of the dadaist movement.
Pictorial Modernism
Visual richness of art nouveau simplified for advertising. Poster designers strive for symbolic imagery while maintaining pictorial (true to life) reference.
Notable figures: Lucian Bernhard (Plakastil poster style) and AM Cassandre.
Plakastil poster style - flat colour. This was an innovation by accident, he kept painting black over the portions of the poster design he did not like until the poster was all black. It later won first prize in a competition (Priester matches)
Isotype Movement
Aimed to develop a “world language without words” by using elementary pictograms to convey information. (Use internationally, no language barriers) Notable figure: Otto Neurath (sociologist from Vienna, influenced by Egyptian hieroglyphics/art and communication with symbols, wanted to depict statistics through symbols) International System Of TYpographic Picture Info
New Typography
Die Neue Typographie took modern typographic style of the Bauhaus and modern art (constructivism in particular) to the mainstream.
Notable figures: Jan Tischold
Recognizable from: white space, rules, bars, colour space, asymmetrical, dynamic force (angled), movement, sans serif.
This movement is about the shortest and most efficient form of communication. Uses sans serif typeface, is machine compiled with rational design. Functionalist. Limited colour.
Jan Tschichold
Notable figure from the New Typography movement.
Was all about the shortest and most efficient form of communication. His works were machine composed with rational design. Functionalist with limited colour.
He was arrested by the Nazis for being a communist and released 6 weeks later. At that time he left for Switzerland and he ended up designing more traditional books.
Arts & Crafts Movement
Late 19th century.
Response to mass-produced “cheap goods’ led to desire to return to artistically produced handicrafts.
Notable figures: William Morris (textile and wallpaper design) & Kelmscott Press. Wanted to recapture the beauty of the incunabulum (early books), thus bringing back the artistry to book design. Most famous produced work was that of Chaucer.
Artists wanted to make something higher end using materials true to nature. This movement was about the individual expression of the artist in the final piece, it is not done by assembly line, it is soulful.
John Ruskin, an english philosopher stated it was not about the factory, but about the art.
Defining Characteristic: decorative; careful & considerate handcrafted work; artist, not factory.
Audrey Beardsley
Prominent figure of the transition to Art Nouveau. His work is distinctive to black and white, raunchy figures, nudity, and inappropriate situations for the time period. In fact, William Morris of the Arts & Crafts Movement considered legal action against him.
Eugene Grasset
Prominent figure of the transition to Art Nouveau. He was a Swiss artist, who’s work is notable based on colour, strong graphic lines, with a colouring book or stained glass style.
Jules Cheret
Prominent figure of the art nouveau poster era and seen as the father of the modern poster. His technique used lithographic stones, making over 1000 posters.
Known for his depictions of cheret girls, a cabaret style, use of black ink and vibrant primary colours.
Filippo Marinetti
Notable figure of the Futurism movement.
Part of the typographic revolution
Cut off letters from print.
Seen as aggressive and destructive
Gill Sans
Created by Eric Gill, this is the Keep Calm and Carry on font. (Sans serif)
Gill was a sculpter, inspired by Ed Johnson.
Designed the original typeface for the London Underground.
Worked for the monotype corporation
Gill was a traditionalist who liked the arts and crafts movement.
Advocated raged right alignment (ie not justified)
Futura
Created by Paul Renner (German)
Typeface based on geometric proportions and comes in 15 weights and styles.
This was revolutionary and radically transformed design.
Lucian Bernhard
Notable from the pictorial modernism era.
Plakastil poster style - flat colour. This was an innovation by accident, he kept painting black over the portions of the poster design he did not like until the poster was all black. It later won first prize in a competition (Priester matches)
Kasimir Malevich
Notable figure of the Russian suprematist movement.
Walter Gropius
First director of the Bauhaus.
Architect who built the Bauhaus itself, the building was the climax of the arts.
Moves to North America in 1933, designs much of Chicago.
Bauhaus
School that redefined design education.
School in Germany that merged applied art education with fine arts. Sought to unite artists to build a better future using mass production.
Uniting craftsmen and artists.
First director was Walter Gropius, and architect who built the school itself. The building was the climax of arts.
Taught sculpture, film, theatre, design, architecture.
Herbert Bayer was the typography instructor who advocated for the sans serif fonts (those with clean lines, no feet)
Includes hands on craft work along with mass market products
School closes in 1993 by the faculty due to fear the Nazis would come to get them for their “weird commie experiments” and the fact they would not make propaganda. The majority of the faculty more to North America.
Cubism
Abstraction of the human form/subject matter into geometric shapes/planes/spatial relationships.
Notable figure: Pablo Picasso, the “father of cubism”
El Lissitzky
Notable figure of the Russian constructivist movement.
Suprematism
During the Russian Revolution Lenin said that art had to serve the proletariat for communism. Two artistic camps emerged, Suprematism being the camp that felt art is pure form and geometry and does not serve politics.
Notable figure: Kasimir Malevich (Black Square)
Transition to Art Nouveau
An international decorative style that encompasses all the arts. Emphasized organic, plant-like fluid lines/forms.
Notable figures: Audrey Beardsly and Eugene Grasset.
Sometimes dismissed for it’s decorative style it was a modern experimentation of the time, a rise of a new style and a form of rethinking.
Art Nouveau
In 1881 French freedom of press law lifts censorship restrictions and sparks the poster era. Victorian Typographic letterpress posters replaced by Art Nouveau.
Notable figures: Jules Cheret (father of the modern poster), Alphonse Mucha, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
Posters were allowed everywhere.
Defining characteristic of fluid lines, plantlike, and feminine.
Surrealism
Work centred on unconscious, intuition and dreams that is interested in automatic thought and the psyche.
Notable figures: Salvadore Dali and Joan Miro (Stream of consciousness painting)
These artists were interested in how things just happen.
Focuses on dreams, nightmares, and unknown subconscious.
Otto Neurath
Notable figure from the isotope movement.
Sociologist from Vienna, influenced by Egyptian hieroglyphics/art and communication with symbols, wanted to depict statistics through symbols
