Here I am again, writing a bit of design history one more time. So, let's look for the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 2oth. That is the period of the Industrial Revolution. When man started to fast a bit in his daily routine. The advances in technology were responsible for changes in society organization. The cities got an increase of population, and with that, a big number of new consumers willing to pay for industrialized products and social events. The market was in expansion, so the seek of consumers! The consumers' attention was needed to be caught!
In print industry, new tecnologies allowed large scale of prints. And with that, the use of colors in the art works. The designers had a new tool in their hands. At that time, is good to mention, the design as a profession didn't exist, what was at that time was called "comercial artists", that were people hired to do the artwork of something, like posters, that were the main product of the artists in this period. Latelly, the print of magazines and books got the attention of the artists, so as the society.
Fist style that appears was the Victorian Style. It was full of ornaments with historical themes as the gothic and medieval era. The name Victorian was because of the queen of England of that time, that was a big fan of arts. The cities were floated by this kind of posters with the help of the new print technology.
Against to the Victorian Style, the moviment named as art and crafts emerged to protect the the attention that was given to manufactered work. It's main figure, William Morris, was going agains the Industrial Revolution.
Inspired by this idea, a new style emerged: the Art Nouveau. This moviment denies the historicism and search for inspiration in the nature. Art Nouveau is known by the use of curve lines, nature tons and a more simple drawing style.
More attention in fonts was given and new ones were created by this time. Letters, decoration and illustrations worked together in the artworks, giving every little attention to every detail.
In the end of 19th century, Art Nouveau was an international style.
Progressivelly, the curves of Art Nouveau become more simple and the use of non-impress spaces started to be use as an important part of the art. New technology were still emerging, giving more tools and a big inthusiasm to designers!
At this time, it can be seen an attention growth to the creation of visual communication by the big companies. And following that, the attention to those new professionals responsible for graphic design artworks.
Below I'll put a list of some of the more expressive artists (click on the names to see some of their works)
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William Morris-
Charles Rennie Mackintosh
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Gustav Klimt-
Peter Behrens-
Beggarstaffs-
Aubrey Beardsley-
Lucian Bernhard-
Ludwig HohlweinAnd bellow is a slideshow of Art Nouveau by Flickr:
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Art Noveau
