Looking at and researching various design styles.

Art Nouveau:

Art Nouveau - French for 'New Art' - is an international movement, which was very popular in the 1890s and applied to various aspects of design such as art and architecture.

Art Nouveau is characterized by plant-inspired motifs as well as stylized, flowing curvilinear forms. The movement has various different names in different countries.

Here are two examples of Art Nouveau designs. The first one shows off the curved, plant inspired lines that intertwine with each other. The second image on the left gives an insight to how Art Nouveau would have been integrated into architect designs.

As far as the designs go I very much like the elegant style of Art Nouveau and will consider this as a possible theme for my project.

Machine Age design:

During the 1920's general agreement emerged among American artists and crtitcs that art should be joined with industrial production or, at a minimum reflect the imagery and character of the Machine Age.

One artist who adopted this style was 'Louis Lozowick' a young Russian who applied the style to his artwork between the 1920s and 1930s.

Here is one example of Lozowick's work and as you can see Machinery is an extremely heavy feature in the design. Even though it's actually a series of shapes linked together rather than actually machinery itself, it is the way in which the shapes are put together and the colours used that make it appear machine like.

Personally, although I don't find this style particularly appealing I do find it somewhat interesting. I am not sure however, whether I would use this as a potential theme for my project.


Constructivism:

This was an artistic and architectural movement that originated in the early 1920's in Russia. Constructivism lasted for about 15 years until around 1935 when it died down but it did have a great deal of effect on other art movements and designs as well as influencing many designs.

'Alexander Rodchenko', who could be described as the founder of the movement, had designs that were described as 'Construction Art' (this appears to be how the movement started).

This piece is an example of Rodchenko's work (though not his most famous, which is the lady shouting).

I like the style quite a bit as I find it different (which of course it is) and interesting. I like the use of simple colours and simple shapes, that seem to make the messages he's trying to put across very clear. I've notcied that the text is always placed around the shapes or in them and are probably the most noticeable aspect of his designs, aside from the colours.

This design style is certainly a candidate for which I will base my project upon.

Postmodern design:

This is a term used to describe art movements rather than being a movement itself and appears to have been emerged/developed from modernism. Generally, movements such as Intermedia, Multimedia and Conceptual Art or designs that involve video would be referred to as Postmodern.

Here is an example of postmodern work. In this piece there appears to be a lot going on with various colours, though I'm not entirely sure what the message in the painting is.

After looking at various example of Postmodern art and design such as chairs pictures, buildings etc I am not too fond of it so this would most likely not be a choice for my project theme.


Bauhaus:

This is a name given for a school in Germany who was famous for combining both crafts and fine arts and ran from around 1919-1933.

It was founded by a man named 'Walter Gropius' - he was an architect - and the school existed in three different German cities, which are Weimar (1919-1925) Dessau (1925-1932) and Berlin (1932-1933). Although, despite Gropius being an architect, at the beginning of the school's time there was no department of architecture.

The image on the left shows a design in the Bauhaus style as you can see it used various different font styles and various different shapes to make up an image and of course used quite basic colours. This actually reminds me of the Constructivism style but a bit more modern.

The image to the right hand side shows Bauhaus style furniture and this also has a fairly stylish design. instead of straight legs like most chars they're curved and to me it gives of quite a modern feel.

Commencing a new project - Design Time Capsule

In this project I will be designing a time capsule box that will be based on either a designer, design movement. The box will include various objects, which when looked at by somebody, will hopefully provide an insight into either the designer or design movement (depending on whichever one is used).

The box - this will be completely hand made and be wrapped
in paper with our own designs - will consist of an essay, leaflet and poster.

For producing my print designs I will be using a variety of programs - two programs but potentially three). These programs are as follows:

Adobe Photoshop:

Adobe Illustrator:

Adobe InDesign: