Tuesday, November 23, 2010

A Look at Art Deco.




The Art Deco era heavily influenced by designer A.M Cassandre whose large posters helped define this movement usually include the use of geometric shapes, curves Egyptian works, zg zags, sunbursts, lightning bolts, ray bans and motion lines. This era heavily represented speed, luxury, glamour and glory that helped define the Art Deco era.

Some Art Deco Artworks:





Some Retro Art Deco Artworks:




A Look at Early Modernism.


Early Modernism was the era of experimentation with its artists called 'Avant Guardes' Early Modernism inspired the movements of art such as Bauhaus, Constructivism, Dada, De Stijl, Expressionism, Futurism, Heroic, Realism, The New Typography, Plakastil, Surrealism and Vorticism. Also this era was heavily inspired by geometry and cubic art steering very clear of anything ornate.


Some Early Modernism Artworks:



Some Retro Early Modernism Artworks:





A really creative video found on YouTube made entirely with post it notes.


Monday, November 22, 2010

A Look at Art Nouveau.

Being a direct descendant of the Arts & Crafts movement, Art Nouveau was also a rebellion against the Victorian era. However Art Nouveau was the first style of art that focused on enhancing the beauty of products for advertising. Inspired by oriental artworks, Art Nouveau was very organic and abstract.

Some Artworks of Art Nouveau:




Some Retro Artworks of Art Nouveau:






Just a few artworks I found interesting.









Some really interesting videos I found on YouTube made by RhettandLink, the first is a T-Shirt War which is a stop motion video and the second is a music video where it was replayed backwards. You can check out their channel and view all of their other videos here.



A Look at The Arts & Crafts Movement.


The Arts and Crafts Movement was a reaction against the poor aesthetic qualities that the Victorian Age brought with it and fought to destroy the ugliness of the era. The Arts and Crafts movement was much more unified and was heavily influenced by plants and more natural things. Also book design made a breakthrough in this era and became very popular.

Some Arts & Crafts Designs:





Some Retro Arts & Crafts Designs:








Inspirational.



I love vector art and have found my favourite are abstract types with little creatures. I love the fact that someone can draw up an entire illustration on Illustrator and make it look amazing. Also Vector artists use lots of colour and toning which I absoultely love.








A Look at The Victorian Design Era

The Victorian Design era was one known for its very ornate romantic designs that usually covered the entire page. Also symmetrical layout ans cloth banners proved to be a popular favourite amongst the Victorian era featuring in many advertisements and designs.

Works from the Victorian Age:




Some Retro Victorian Inspired Works:








Bobsmade

Bobsmade are a small design business located in Germany, who I also found on Deviantart.com that paint custom designs on various products such as shoes, hats, watches, headphones and glasses. I love Bobsmades works and all of their cute characters that are featured on theory products. Check out their entire website here, or deviantart account here.

Inspiredology


Inspiredology is a Graphic Design blog created and run by Chad Mueller a freelance designer who constantly posts inspiring works as well as pointing follower in the direction of great tutorials and freebies. Inspiredology even has ‘Friday Fix’, which is a weekly recap of all inspiring artworks of the week.
I found this blog to be very resourceful and inspiring, as well as interesting. Being honest its header is what drew me in, I am a sucker for interesting graphics and the fact that the entire blog was full of different graphics and other resources further my love of this blog. You can view the entire blog or even become a follower here.

Cetrobo








Cetrobo is a french photographer that I found browsing on Deviantart.com. I really loved all of their photos as they are all really unique and so unlike all other photographers that I have seen before. Look at their entire gallery here.

The Creative Company



The Creative Company are a design studio based in Sydney that work for clients such as Peabody Clothing, Baseline and even Sony Music for designs such as Branding, Logos, Web, Packaging and E-News. The Creative Company features a team of ten; Dan, Bec, Celine, Jessica, Tracy, Tiger, Mitch,Mark, Peta and Luke who all work together with the same attitude of "Quite simply, we are passionate about creativity. As a collective we strive to push creative boundaries and deliver outstanding work for our clients."

Personally I think The Creative Company are an interesting Graphic Design team, and I have found the majority of their artworks to be quite professional and aesthetic. Also the fact that no two works are the same is very refreshing and you don't find yourself looking at the same work over and over. Their entire collective is all very unique and proficient which separates them from other designers and after viewing through many different Design Studios, I found the Creative Company to be the one that appealed to me the most. Check out their entire website here.



Sydney Biennale.



For this year the 17th Sydney Biennale held on Cockatoo Island played host to over 400 artworks all drawing on the theme of “The Beauty of Distance Songs of Survival in a Precarious Age”.
On July 29th Newcastle TAFE Graphic Design students including myself attended the well-known Biennale exploring the island and viewing the various artworks. I personally found many of the artworks to be unusual or quite confusing nevertheless very interesting.

These two artworks were my personal favourite due to the intense detail and ability to build such a large sculpture. I also found Daniel Crook’s Static No. 12 video very mesmerising and interesting to look at.






Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Poster-Art Innovation in Poster Design





Poster-Art written by Charlotte Rivers is an ideal page turner for those poster junkies out there containing the very many elements in poster design.

This thickly bound book first captures your attention with its well said quotes each leading you into a new direction, wether it simply be about art or typography. “Posters are ‘time capsules’, a social artifact documenting a specific place and event,” stated by Robynne Raye is simply sprawled acr
oss a page in large lettering highlighted by the pastel pink design behind, immediately directing us further.
Poster-Art doesn’t only bore those who hate to read with quotes and pages of too much text, but harmoniously demonstrates the beautiful works of many designers as well as providing small snippets of information for those who can look beyond the picture.
Some of the work contained within Poster-Art are works by Eduardo Recife and Andy Mueller who each individually explore different elements of graphic design and poster art in aesthetic and memorable ways. These art works are carefully layered across the page each containing their own description about their works and the inspiration the received in the making process.
Poster-Art is a good read or flick through in the picture lovers cases, exploring the world of posters and the ideas of which they originated. So if you are up for a good read assuming posters are your tidbit I would nominate Poster-Art to be number one on that forever growing christmas list of yours.





What is Graphic Design?

To many, Graphic Design is one of the grey areas of the work industry where you find yourself describing your profession to a new companion and receiving a blank stare in return soon followed by the question “what is Graphic Design?”
Graphic Design is a profession that entails many different qualities that are vital to having a successful career in the design world. Graphic Design is cultural, satisfactory, passionate, aesthetic, unique and in some cases even frustrating.
Many can claim they are designers without having studied the area but their works are usually pumped full of rainbows and comic sans and to the professional designer eye is just down right cliché and uncreative.
Graphic Design contains many elements to this creative workspace including illustration, vector drawing, typography, photography, printmaking and even the world of colour and all of its uses. However more then just a particular subject, Graphic Design is powerful, beautiful, sometimes terrible but most of all it is everything and everywhere.