Re-imagining Design Histories – Examining the Art Deco Movement

Art Deco was a revolutionary movement in the artistic world – born as a response to the Art Noveau movement, Art Deco sought to embrace modernity and commerce in the fast-changing world post-World War I. The movement originated in Paris in 1925, but quickly spread across Europe and even reached America during The Great Depression, serving as a promise for better times ahead – remaining a prominent movement until 1940.

The movement span across several mediums of visual arts, such as architecture, interior and furniture design, painting, sculpture and graphic design. Its purpose – to embrace the modernity and increasing commercialism in the world –  is reflected through often symmetrical and geometrical layouts, with simpler, angular strokes compared to the often complex, traditional flourishes of the Art Noveau movement prior. Notable works of architecture include New York’s Chrysler and Empire State buildings, but in the context of graphical communication we can examine the works of Adolphe Mouron Cassandre.

 

 

Cassandre incorporates all the core features of the movement within his poster designs, “L’Atlantique” (1931) and “Normandie” (1935). The posters are adverts for overseas trips, which instantly reflect the increasing focus on commerce and advertising that became prevalent in society following World War I. The layouts in both posters are symmetrical, following a simple grid system which creates an easy path of the eye – we’re drawn to the image first, then the titular typography followed by the subtext. Like all traditional Art Deco posters, Cassandre uses illustration over photographic image to convey the advert, featuring a small palette of colours which creates a minimalist effect. There’s not a lot of text used in either poster – something which I’ll need to consider when approaching my own design, as I need to incorporate three paragraphs without compromising the overall style of the poster – but the text used features a title with more information presented in the subtitles. The typography used here is all capitalised, and each letterform in a line of text have matching cap-heights, reflecting a majuscule typographical style. This technique creates a sense of grandeur when combined with the scale of the images, which conveys the overall message of the adverts perfectly – in the context of the era, a trip overseas would certainly be a grand ordeal.

Sources:

• Anonymous, 2011. Art Deco for a modern age. 1st ed. Cork, Ireland: Post Publications Ltd.
• The Art Story. 2018. Art Deco Movement, Artists and Major Works | The Art Story. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.theartstory.org/movement-art-deco.htm. [Accessed 8 October 2018].

 

Poster Design

Displayed above are two more traditional posters from the Art Deco movement – on the left, Sam Hyde Harris’ Southern Pacific Daylight (1937) and on the right, Willem F.ten Broek’s Holland-America Line (1936). These posters, like the work of Cassandre, are an example of advertisement for travel and reflect the increasing communication around the world in the 1930s, ushering in a new age of transport. They too incorporate many of the traditional Art Deco poster characteristics – such as bold, majuscule typography for titular text, a minimalist colour range and a dominating image that creates a strong visual hierarchy.

Marcello Nizzoli’s Cordial Campari (1926) and Roger Broders’ Vichy Ses Sources (1928) are advertisement posters that aren’t as focused on transport, but rather commerce and the sale of a particular product. Within Nizzoli’s poster, the designer creates a strong visual hierarchy through his image and text placement, drawing the eye first to the bold majuscule “Campari”, then the product itself – which is made aesthetically appealing through its simple yet vibrant contrast with the luxurious red background. Broders’ work is a little different than the other posters I’ve examined so far and doesn’t feature a piece of titular text towards the lower half of the image – instead, this titular piece is scaled slightly smaller and distributed across the two right thirds of the poster to create an interesting asymmetrical appearance, especially so when also considering the size and placement of the “Sports”, “Tourisme” and “Theatre” text pieces. Whilst this is not traditional of Art Deco advertisement posters, the overall weighting of the poster is balanced out through the image – the figure on the left dominates the space, immediately drawing the eye to what the designer is intending to sell – thus, it is a successful experimental piece.