Wednesday, 30 May 2012

The Bauhaus Movement

"Bauhaus" By dictonary definition is:
A school of design established in Weimar in 1919 by Walter Gropius, moved to Dessau in 1926, and closed in 1933 as a result of Nazi hostility.
 
The jist of the Bauhaus movement:
It was drove by thr public demand. The idea of having products made for fucntionality overid the decorational and design side. All we're also able for mass produce as a trend. So you can see the popularity in doing this, many of the followers aimed to create a 'universal aesthetic' or cominly known as an 'International style' which was then suitable for all countries, regardless of culture/tradition.
 
Images related to Bauhaus:




*The larger image above demonstrates how it moved from place to place across Germany

Wednesday, 18 January 2012

The History Of Pop Art

The strongest example of the pop art era would in my opinion be Andy Warhol, and along side him, the Beatniks including Jack Kerovac.

The definition of 'Pop Art' is : A form of art that depicts objects or scenes from everyday life and employs techniques of commercial art and popular illustration.

Andy Warhol's Background:

Jack Kerovac's Backgound:

Great Modern Contempary Designers

Oliver Jeffers is a great exampple of how to 'Make it' in the design area of contempary design. He was born in western autrallia bacjk in 1977. He started out wanting to be a musician, playing in pubs and bars all over the place of where he lived close and far. (This was asd beeing a teenager.)

Because after a while he realised that this carrer was a heading in the wrong direction, due to not being seen or spotted as having a flare and talent for what he was performing. So, because of this, he decided to move onto painting the bands that he saw perform. This is where his carrer started as a graphic designer.

You could say that he 'Made his name' as a young contemporary artist/designer with the selection of several small exhibitions over in Belfast between the period of 1995 up to 1998. During this time, he then also started to head into the direction of becoming an illustrator, and started this by illustrating 'Book jackets' for local publishing houses.

After a few years, his 'International success' grew further due to 'How to Catch a Star'. Oliver went on to produce the fantsic follow-up of this, which is named 'Lost and Found'. This of which generated huge sales and had such an impacting effect upon publication. This then went on to win the 'Gold Award' at Nestle Children's Book Prize in 2005.

Some of his work i have put togeter below;


Wednesday, 7 December 2011

The Birth Of Modern Horror

Edgar Allen-Poe

Edgar was hugely influential to the 'horror' genre, through not only his liturature but also his poems and short stories. Most of these were themed as 'classical' or 'gothic' tales.
You could say his whole life was a horror tale in itself due to his death, dating at 1849, was recorded as due to 'strange circumstances'. Ontop of this, all his wives ither died suspiciously young, or became seriously ill.
He had a re-noun phobia of being burried alive also, which concludes further that his mind was constantly intwined with his 'horror' themed tales. Suggesting it carried through to his lifestyle itself. His most famous peice is probably the poem "Raven".



H.P Lovecraft

Lovehearts' tales and stories involved very similar factors and themes as Edgars, yet he added a few other aspects into his, such as 'religion'. Many of his stories also incorpriated 'mythical beasts' and the theory that the 'bad' guys in a a story doesnt actually have to be somthing that already exist itself.



How did all this influence th 1980's films?

Many films had been, and were being based upon 'copied' from both Edgars' and Lovehearts' work, hence all the recreations occuring such as the short film created of the tale "Tell tale heart animatioon" which you can find easily on the net, for instance on youtube.com.
The greatest factor of all of these short films as such, are the newly discovered CGI (Computer generated imaging) effects. Which ended up giving the tales the finalised 'dramatic' and 'exhillerating' experience they wanted to create.

Wednesday, 16 November 2011

Saul Bass - Origional to remakes

Born in 1920, and passing away in 1996, Saul Bass was not only one of the greatest graphic designers of the mid-20th century but the natural master of film title design thanks to his work with Alfred Hitchcock. A great example of one of these films he directed along side Alfred Hitchcock was "Physco".

Because he is most known for his graphic design work im going to show you how i focused on his design methods and techniques such as block colour, hard outlines and geographic shapes.

Below are both posters, the first being the origional, and the second that I created to be of a similar style




Edward Hopper - Origionals to remakes

 Edward Hopper was renoun for very realist-style painter of twentieth-century America. His images have become part of the very style, moverment and texture of American experience.

 Even today, thirty years after his death, it is almost impossible to see America without some refrence to his work, through others after him today.

 One of his most famous peices is the scene from the American Diner. Below are two variations of this, the first being the origional, and second being a re-creation.


Origional



Remake

The comparisons that i have concluded myseelf are the following;
  1. The actual layout, such as the shop front being curved round to the right, and the flat tall building in the background.
  2. The idea of the actual scene of the painting and photograph remake having the only light source as the one coming from the actual shop lighting.
  3. Even the attention to detail of the sizes of the windows are the same layout and size.
  4. Also again, the attention to detail comes through again with the factor of having the door in the back right hand side of the shop floor.

This is just one example of where Edward Hoppers work has been copied, recreated and been of an influence of. There are hundreds of signs, from small to large details in our day to day life.

Wednesday, 2 November 2011

Art Deco and how its developed

Art deco was born out of France and spread worldwide very quickly due to a exhibition that exceeded numbers into the millions that came to view the experience. Many were entrepreneurs that came from various countries and continants to not steal, but view and develop the styles they saw and take them back to were they came from.

It was born in the early 1920's till the late 1930's. Many and almost every peice created in this style of Art Deco were many things out of the following;

Streamline
Organic "Look"
Geometric
Speedy and "Fast"

Many famous artist impressionist were also born from this period such as René Lalique who grew on to creat many great, iconic designs we see in todays lifestyle. So in many ways, although the period 'finished' in 1939, it in a way didn't due tho the way that many designs are still even nower days influenced by the styles.

Below are examples of an origional, and a re-interpritation of the "Art Deco" style.

Origional;
By francis jourdain



Re-interpritation;
By IKEA furnature designers today