Graphic Design History- Part 1

Arts and Crafts Movement

The arts and crafts movement was a British design movement that took place during the period 1860- 1910, inspired by the socialist ideas of John Ruskin. The term 'Arts and Crafts' was given in 1887 at a meeting of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society.
William Morris was one of the key designers of this movement. The movement was a reaction against the industrialisation of the time and it saw a return to traditional handicrafts and processes. It was inspired by the notion of wanting to live in the rural days again, before the times of industrialisation and hence featured a lot of natural forms and muted colours. 
William Morris looked back with admiration at the art and architecture of the middle ages.  He learned and mastered  many  different  crafts, including printing and glass blowing in order to understand the qualities of his materials. For him the pleasure of creation was as important as the beauty of the object created. He believed the artist should not copy nature, but recreate it, without losing its freshness. Morris wanted his work to be available to all,  however the traditional processes used to produce his work meant that in reality, it was mainly the wealthy that could afford his work. The arts and crafts movement also spread to America (1890-1916) where it was even more successful than in Britain, because they were able to industrialize the manufacturing process.
Arts and Crafts practitioners such as William Morris also wanted the education system of art to change and focus more on teaching of craft rather than design in the abstract.  As a result of this, inn 1884, a Royal Commission recommended that more attention should be given to the suitability of design to the material it would be made.

Art Nouveau

In 1895 a gallery opened in Paris called L’Art Nouveau, where the owner Samuel Bing wanted to show case some new works.  A visitor would have difficulty in recognising a coherent style which we now call Art Nouveau. 

Art Nouveau was influenced by Japanese, Celtic, Gothic and Rococo art. It looked towards the future  and it influenced many areas of design including print design, jewelry design and architecture.

The aim of the movement was to avoid repetition of earlier styles and also to create a style which would shape the environment.  Something that distinguishes Art Nouveau from other art movements is that is uses decorative elements for pure visual appeal without necessarily having any meaning.  In almost every example of the style there are decorative elements or motifs, e.g, the popular 'Whiplash' line.

The art nouveau style first emerged in England but its influence on architecture was not as much as on the continent in places like Spain and France, where it reached a greater level of exuberance. On the continent, some designers such as Henry van de Valde, shared Morris’ socialist views, but they were not opposed to industrialisation meaning that beautiful objects could be reproduced inexpensively by industry.  However the majority were in pursuit of individualism which could only be afforded by the wealthy.  The Art Nouveau movement also took inspiration from natural forms like the previous Arts and Crafts Movement, but took a less literal form. Nature was reduced to essential lines and then twisted, elongated and curved according to the artists requirements. It was luxurious, inspirational and sensual. It often featured nude women with long flowing hair. Beardsley, Mackintosh, Klimt and Lautrec were key designers in the art Nouveau movement.

Art Nouveau was replaced by 20th-century modernist styles but it is now considered as an important transition between the historic revival styles of the 19th-century and Modernism. The style was the first major artistic stylistic movement in which mass-produced graphics played a key role.

Malibu Inspiration

Inspiration for Malibu packaging

I really love this packaging and would love to do something similar for my Malibu packaging.

I will look into creating some colourful patterns, perhaps of tropical flowers, shells, fruits, etc
to decorate my Malibu bottle.

Malibu Packaging

For my Alcohol Packaging Project I have decided to design for the product 'Malibu' because I found that the brand has really broken away from the traditional run packaging to appeal to a younger audience. Typically, Malibu appeals to women and cocktail drinkers, but not exclusively. The brand promotes itself as 'seriously easy going' and is made in Barbados.  Here are some of the special edition packaging that Malibu has launched. I would also like to create something bold, eye-catching, vibrant, youthful and fun. 

Juxtaposition

Juxtaposition

In our lesson today we looked at how designers use juxtaposition to create controversial and memorable designs. We were given a brief to design exhibition posters using this principle.

For the first poster, the exhibition was based on the how peoples' concept of beauty has changed through history. I chose this striking image of a woman with piercings all over her face. Piercings are controversial because some people find them beautiful while some people find them ugly. I like this particular image because the woman has heavy make-up on which also creates an impact because in our culture make-up is associated with enhancing beauty. 

For the exhibition about love being blind, I decided to use imagery of a snake because some people ready love snakes, while other people really hate them. This particular image is striking because the snake is in the shape of a heart which ties in with the theme of love. On another level I like the imagery of a snake because snakes can be associated with evil and temptation, with the idea being that sometimes people end up in bad relationships with the wrong people, because they are blind when they fall in love. 

Coca Cola Group Presentation

We were put into groups for a research and presentation project. Our group decided to look at Coca Cola because it is one of the most successful brands in the world. We wanted to look at whether Coca Cola's success over Pepsi is due to the taste of the product or because of their brand. We suspected it was due to their brand and advertising. In our group we decided that there were three areas we should research.

1) Primary research - Surveying to find people's views and blind taste testing

2) Logo and packaging through the ages

3) Advertising campaigns and social media.

We divided the work out among ourselves. During our 2nd lesson, myself and John organised the blind taste testing to find out people's preferences. We also did a general survey to ask people whether they preferred Coke

or Pepsi. Interestingly the research revealed that although 85% of people claimed to prefer Coca Cola, in blind taste testing only 50% of people preferred the taste of Coca Cola over Pepsi.

I also did some research online to find out whether any similar research has been one on a larger scale. I found some interesting research done by a neuro-scientist suggesting that people respond differently in taste tests when they see the brand name Coca Cola. I put the information together in a Powerpoint presentation.
We agreed to continue working on it at home and I would put together the presentation.

Unfortunately on the day when we were to give our presentation, my group members were absent and I didn't have their research, so I just presented the parts that I worked on. For this reason, I feel that our research was a bit limited and not as thorough as I would have liked it to have been.  I enjoyed giving the presentation to the class and felt it went quite well in spite of having to do it on my own.

Logo design for a friend

A friend asked me to help her to design a logo and facebook banner for her new company 'Personal Shop and Ship- UK to Malta'. These were some of my initial design ideas.

I was asked to develop the logo further. These were the stages in the process.

Until finally we came up with a logo that my friend was happy with. (Below)

I was given the following photograph to use for the facebook banner that required some editing.

This is the edited facebook banner with a vintage, art deco feel.



 

Leaflet Design

 

Using the technique we learnt the other day I made this leaflet for a men's event at my church.

I erased some of the text to give the illusion that it was positioned behind the rock.

I also used the eraser tool to removes some parts of the title to make it look like the waves
were splashing on it. I also created a second design with different imagery and fonts.