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Contextual Studies

                                         Graphic design

Graphic design is the art of visual communication; practice; projecting and problem-solving through the use of typography, photography and illustration. The visual communication can be physical or virtual which can include: images; words; signs or graphic forms. Physically the mind is an important graphic design tool since it requires judgment and creativity. Common uses of graphic design include corporate design, editorial design, advertising, web design and product packaging.It all started in 19th century where graphic design started to separate from fine arts.

Hieroglyphics was developed four thousand years before Christ and was very tough to do and learn only royalty, priests, scribes and government officials could use it.  Hieroglyphic symbols were called glyths the Egyptian writing system had about 700 to 800 glyths. The old fashioned Egyptians used the first ever form of paper papyrus to write their hieroglyphics they also used paints also they affected glyphic into walls.

Cuneiform is a type of writing that was warned in ancient Mesopotamia and Persia. In a museum, you might see artefacts such as stone tablets with cuneiform carved into them.

A cylinder seal is a small round cylinder, typically about one inch in length, engraved with written characters or figurative scenes or both, used in antique times to roll a consequence onto a two-dimensional surface, generally wet clay. Cylinder seals were invented around 3500 BC in the Near East, at the new sites of Susa in south-western Iran and Uruk in southern Mesopotamia. They are associated to the invention of the latter’s cuneiform writing on clay tablets. They were used as an administrative tool, a form of signature, also as jewellery and as magical amulets. Later versions would employ documentation with Mesopotamian cuneiform. In later periods, they were used to notarise or attest to multiple impressions of clay documents. Graves and other sites housing adored items such as gold, silver, beads, and gemstones often involved one or two cylinder seals, as honorific grave goods.The word paper comes from papyrus, which is the paper made from it. When the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans wanted to write something down, they used papyrus.

The cuneiform and hieroglyphics were slowly replaced by about 20 to 30 signs. The Minoan civilisation (form Crete), together with the Semitic countries enhanced the system. The Greeks involved these developments and initially wrote from right to left, suddenly in a ploughing field format and finally form left to right.  They also developed uncials, a rounded writing style (fewer stoke used for wood, clay or wax). After the death of Alexander the Great the Hellenistic Kingdom was split and this appears in the dissemination of the Greek traditions and alphabet.

Romans adopted the Greek art, literature, religion and alphabet but based their alphabet on the square, triangle and circle. For example the codex replaced the scrolls, roman serifs, Capitalis Monumentalis (sans, sans serif).

Xylography printing one block became popular because of the printing. It is used for religious purposes. By the renewal we see the information being printed.  Movable type is the system of printing and typography that uses movable components. Around 1450 Johannes Gutenberg introduced movable type in Europe.

Chromolithography is a method for making multi-colour prints. This type of colour printing arises from the process of lithography, and it includes all types of lithography that are printed in colour. When chromolithography is used to clone photographs, the term photo chrome is frequently used.

Lithography gave the artist freedom to print large solid areas of colours, giving them freedom to draw their own lettering. Artists had control over print, this means the birth of Graphic Design.

                           The arts and crafts movement

The arts and crafts was an international movement developed in England in the 19th and 20th century representing handcrafts and designs. It promoted handcrafts man ship over mass production. William Morris, was born on the 24 March 1834 and he died on the 3 October 1896. He was an English textile designer, poet, novelist, translator, and socialist activist.  Combined with the British Arts and Crafts Movement, he was a major contributor to the revival of traditional British textile arts and methods of production. Morris was inspired by the medieval art and architecture. Aubrey Beardsley, was born on the 21st of August 1972 and died on 16th March 1898 who was an English illustrator and author. He was known for the design of black and white ink drawings. His drawings were influenced by the style of Japanese art.

Japanese art covers a wide range of art styles and media, including ancient pottery, sculpture, ink painting and calligraphy on silk and paper, ukiyo-epaintings and woodblock prints, kiri-e, kirigami, origami, and more recently manga. Its emphasis on flat planes and strong linear outlines with the use of bright colours and tactile value. 

John Ruskin was born on 8 February 1819 and he died on 20 January 1900. He was the famous English art critic of the Victorian era, also as an art patron, draughtsman, water-colourist, an outstanding social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and political economy. In all of his writing, he emphasised on the truth of the nature, art and society. He also made accurate sketches and paintings of rocks, plants, birds, landscapes, and architectural structures and ornamentation. Ruskin aim was to re-unite the designer and craftsmen; the spiritual and the everyday. He believed that any building or object must be created with enjoyment to be of value. Ruskin together with William Morris founded the Arts and Crafts Movement (1860s -1910).

The aesthetic movement was a late nineteenth century movement that defended pure beauty in art and design over practical, moral or narrative considerations. Its main proponents were Beardley, Whistler and the writer Oscar Wilde.

Owen Jones was born on 15 February 1809 and he died on 19 April 1874. He was an English-born Welsh architect. A versatile architect and designer, he was also one of the most influential design theorists of the nineteenth century. He supported pioneer modern colour theory  and his approach on flat patterning and ornament still resonate with contemporary designers today. Owen Jones was involved in the setting up of the Great Exhibition. He also published manual called: The grammar of Ornament in 1856.

Art Nouveau (Spain casa) was a style of art given as opposed to previous styles which were most popular between 1890 and 1910. After Nouveau Rococo, Neoclassicism and Art deco came. Art Nouveau soon grew out of favour. Nothing escaped the influence of the style like: posters, furniture, jewellery and fashion. Seen in expensive luxurious objects as well as in the cheapest and ephemeral.

                            Gothic Revival Architecture

The word Gothic Revival also referred to Victorian Gothic, Neo-Gothic or Jigsaw Gothic usually refers to the age of mock-Gothic architecture practised in the second half of the 19th century. The Gothic style never really died in England after the end of the medieval period. Around the 17th and 18th centuries, when classical themes ruled the fashion certain world of architecture, Gothic style can be seen, if occasionally. This is because many architects were asked to rebuild medieval buildings in a way that combine in with the older styles. In the late 18th century there was a school of romanticised Gothic architecture, catch on by Batty Langley's pattern books of medieval details. This medieval style was most familiar in domestic building, where the classical style forcefully prevailed in public buildings.

One of the prime movers of a new interest in Gothic style was Horace Walpole, the english writer. Walpole's house was at Strawberry Hill, Twickenham in 1750. It was a forcefully romantic Gothic cottage. The style approved by Walpole, took many of the decorative elements of external medieval Gothic and lifted them to the interior of the house. Hence, Walpole's rooms are decorated - some might say over-decorated.

Little of Walpole's style is what you could call ‘authentic’. He hardly took decorative touches and scatters them about with abandon. The contentious result is very much open to criticism, you either love it or hate it, but few people are doubtful about it.

James Wyatt was the most outstanding 18th century architect employing Gothic style in many of his buildings. His Ashridge Park, begun in 1806, is the best extant example of his work. At Ashridge, Wyatt engaged a huge central hall, open to the roof, in certain imitation of a medieval great hall. In the beginning of the 19th century many architects dabbled in Gothic style, but as with Walpole, it was more the fancy touches that applied to them, little bits of dividing here, a dab of pointed arch there. Most paid insufficient heed to authentic proportion, which is one of the most capable moving forces of ‘real’ Gothic style. Even when the shapes used by builders were Gothic, the format was not. Columns and piers were made with iron cores coated over with plaster.

In the early 19th century Gothic was treated more suitable for church and university buildings, where classical style was believed to be more appropriate for public and commercial buildings.

It is absolutely only after 1840 the Gothic Revival begin to gather steam, and when it did the prime movers were not architects at all, but philosophers and social critics. This is absolutely interested aspect of the Victorian Gothic recovery, it is accomplished with deep moral and philosophical ideals in a way that may imply hard to appreciate in today's world. A.W. Pugin and writer John Ruskin that they first published The Seven Lamps of Architecture in 1849 naturally believed that the Middle Ages was a watershed in human attainment and that Gothic architecture defined the perfect marriage of spiritual and artistic values.

The Middle Pointed or brighten style common in the late 13th to mid-14th century was the only true Gothic. The Ecclesiologist the bible of the movement was monthly published from 1841-1868. The publication was in aspect a style-guide to proper Gothic architecture and design. The biggest example of authentic Gothic Revival is the Palace of Westminster. The Palace of Westminster was rebuilt by Sir Charles Barry and A.W. Pugin after a harmful fire destroyed the old buildings in 1834.

The age from 1855-1885 is known as High Victorian Gothic. In this period architects like William Butterfield and Sir George Gilbert Scott design a profusion of buildings in changing degrees of adherence to strict Gothic style. Absolutely the Victorian Gothic style is easy to select from the original medieval. One of the senses for this was a lack of trained craftsmen to carry out the necessary work. Original medieval building was time-consuming and labour-intensive. 

Victorian Gothic builders wanted that pool of skilled labourers to draw upon, so they were finally forced to expand methods of mass-producing decorative elements. These mass-produced touches, no matter how well made, were too polished, too perfect, and lacked the organic roughness of original medieval work.

                                                       Styles

Art Nouveau is an international style of art, architecture and applied art which was supported by Western Europe and the United States from 1880s until the First World War. Art Nouveau changed art and architecture exclusively in the applied arts, graphic work and illustration.  Art Nouveau aimed at modernising design and escape the historical styles that had been popular. The modernist reacted against the decline in the standards of craftsmanship. The more sophisticated style was preferred which reflected the 20th century.

The art Deco became popular in the 1920’s and 1930’s and influenced the design of building; furniture; jewellery; fashion;cars etc. Art Deco paved the way for the modernist movement in graphic design.

In the modernist graphic designs the decorations were eliminated; moved towards more bold geometric forms and moved to more asymmetric layouts. Various types of arts in modern graphic designs are: Futurism; Cubism; Constructivism; De Stijil; Dada; Surrealism and German Expressionism.

Futurism (1909) featured the technology and dynamic aspects of modern life. Reject harmony order and express speed; war and movement in their paintings. Marinetti published the first book in 1914 “Zang Tumb Dumb” to describe the battle of Tripoli in typography method of painting or conventions. Marinetti revolution stated that the futurist design should have: different types of different shapes and sizes on same page; with 3 or 4 colours of ink with the use of italics or standard type to reflect smooth or swift sensations as indicators of onomatopoeias.

Cubism does depend on subject matter, it is the art movement that opened the door to abstraction in the 20th century.  The futurism was inspired by Cubist collages.

Constructivism, the Russian revolution who combined political propaganda and commercial advertising in support of the new communist revolution.

De Stijl movement centred in basic visual elements such as primary colours.

Surrealism is modern culture and art movement that started in 1920’s, and is a revolutionary philosophical movement first using visual works, graphics and web designers. It was founded in Paris by Andre Breton and by french writers and poets. This emerged from Dada. Unlike Dada, Surrealism restored a faith in man and his spirit. Surrealism in graphic design has impacted in the liberation of the human spirit, created new techniques and combined fantasy and intuition expressed them visually.

Dada is the highest art and declared the first German Dada manifesto in 1918. Dada used a number of magazines as a means to spread satire and revolt. These were “Club Dada” and “Der Dada” published in 1918-29. They made use of explosive typography and photomontage. Dada was negative and destroyed belief in art and humanity.

German expressionism refers to a number of related creative movements beginning in Germany before the first world war. German painters distorted colour, scale and space to feel what they saw. However war has scared many of the these good artists. Hence this is based on emotions and feelings of events and responses instead of reality. George Grosz moved to form part of the German expressionism were he began as a satirical caricaturist and exposed oppression and expolitation of the poor of Berlin.

                                                Art Nouveau

The term Art Nouveau first came in the 1880s in the Belgian journal L’Art Moderne to describe the work of Les Vingt, twenty painters and sculptors seeking reform through art. Les Vingt, like much of the artistic community around Europe and America, acknowledge to leading nineteenth-century theoreticians such as French Gothic Revival architect Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc and British art critic John Ruskin, who defended the unity of all the arts, arguing against isolation between the fine arts of painting and sculpture. Art Nouveau designers aspire to achieve the synthesis of art and craft, and more the creation of the spiritually uplifting Gesamtkunstwerk enveloping a variety of media.

In December 1895, German-born Paris art trader Siegfried Bing opened a gallery called L’ Art Nouveau for the contemporary décor he exhibited and sold there. Art Nouveau style reached an international audience over the vibrant graphic arts printed in such periodicals as The Savoy, La Plume, Jugend, Dekorative Kunst, The Yellow Book and The Studio. The Studio advertised the bold, Symbolist inspired linear drawings of Aubrey Beardsley. Beardsley’s flamboyant black and white block print, with its bright incorporation of Japanese two dimensional composition, may be noticed as a highlight of the Aesthetic movement and an early manifestation of Art Nouveau taste in England.

Art Nouveau style was particularly combined with France, where it was called variously Style Jules Verne, Le Style Metro, Art Belle époque and Art fin de sie. In Paris, it caches the imagination of the public at large at the 1900 Exposition Universelle, the last and grandest of a series of fairs formed every eleven years from 1798. Different structures showcased the innovative style, including the Porte Monumentale entrance, a complicated polychromatic dome with electronic lights designed by Rene Binet. Art Nouveau Bing, a series of six domestic interiors which included Symbolist art and the pavilion of the Union Centrale des Arts Decoratifs. 

The French Rococo stylized motifs borrowed from nature, fantasy and Japanese art the furnishings exhibited were formed in the new taste and yet maintained an acclaimed tradition of French craftsmanship.

The Exposition Universelle was followed by two shows at which many luminaries of European Art Nouveau exhibited. They involved the Glasgow International Exhibition in 1901 that displayed the fantastical Russian pavilions of Fyodor Shektel and the Esposizione Internazionale d’ Arte Decorative Moderna at Truin in 1902 that advertised the work of furniture designer Carlo Bugatti of Milan.

In France the ‘new art’ was called by different names in the various style centres where it advanced throughout Europe. In Belgium, it was called Style nouille. In Germany it was called Jugendstil. In Italy, it was named Arte nuova. Other style centres included Austria and Hungary, where Art Nouveau was called Sezessionstil. In Russia Saint Petersburg and Moscow were the two centres of construction for Stil modern. Tiffany Style in the United States was named for the legendary Favrile glass designs of Louis Comfort Tiffany. 

Art Nouveau was short-lived movement shoes brief blaze was a precursor of modernism, which accentuate function over form and the elimination of superfluous ornament. Dramatic Art Nouveau inspired graphics became popular in the turbulent social and political milieu of the 1960s, among a new generation challenging conventional taste and ideas.

                                       Art Deco 1920-1939

The Art Deco was a popular design movement from the 1920’s to 1930’s, a movement between the two World Wars. This movement impressed all forms of art from architecture, interior design, sculpture, furniture, industrial design and visual arts such as fashion, clothing, jewellery, paintings, graphic arts and film. This movement  was inspired by many different styles and movements such as neoclassical, constructivism, cubism, Russian ballet companies, tribal art, popular culture, modernism, ancient Egyptian, art nouveau and futurism.

Art Deco was very attractive in Europe in the 1920’s, in appropriate Paris represented the hub of Art Deco style, and its popularity peaked in America in the 1930s. By the 1930’s, mass construction meant that everyone could live in the Art Deco style. Although Art Deco defined the design movements that incorporated political and philosophical intentions, the art was very fancy. Art Deco was also known as “Jazz Moderne” or “just Moderne”.

Art Deco style produces a style that is elegant, functional and modern. The Art Deco interior style is a streamlined and geometrical which regularly includes furniture pieces with curved fronts, mirrors, clean lines, chrome hardware, and glass. The design of Art Deco is based on mathematical geometric shapes. It is generally treated to be an eclectic form of elegant and stylish modernism, being changed by a variety of sources. Styles associated with leisures are: hotels; bars; luxurious ocean liners and cinemas.

It also drew on machine-age or streamline technology such as modern aviation, electric lighting, the radio, the ocean liner and the skyscraper for inspiration.

Art Deco was a deluxe style and its lavishness applied to reaction to the forced austerity imposed by World War One. Its rich festive character adapted for its modern contexts. Art Deco is defined by use of materials such as aluminium, stainless steel, lacquered and inlaid wood. The bold use of stepped forms and sweeping curves, chevron patterns and the sunburst motif are typical of Art Deco. Art Deco performs the Machine Age through explicit use of synthetic materials, symmetry and repetition, modified by Asian influences such as the uses of silk and Middle Eastern designs.

The comeback of interest in Art Deco came in the 1960’s and then again in the 1980’s with the expanding interest in graphic design, where its association with film noir and 1930’s glamour led to its use in advertising for jewellery and fashion.

Some of the finest extant examples of Art Deco art and architecture can be found in Cuba, especially in Havana. Another country with many examples of rich Art Deco architecture is Brazil, especially in Goiania and cities like Cipo, Irai and Rio de Janeiro, especially in Copacabana. South Beach in Miami Beach, Florida has the biggest collection of Art Deco architecture remaining in North America.


The distinctive style of Art Deco has been reflected in many similar movements since its early decline. Art Deco influenced later styles such as Memphis and the Pop Art movement. It also had an issue on postmodern architecture and styles, even through to the late 1970’s. Art Deco has also had a marked influence on contemporary design.

                              Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Charles Rennie Mackintosh was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on June 7, 1868. He achieved entry to the Glasgow School of Art where he studied basically architecture and design and was identified as a remarkable talent by the school's director, Fra Newbery. Mackintosh involved the architectural practice of Honeyman and Keppie in 1889 as a draftsman and won the competition to design and build a new School of Art for his mentor, Newbery. In 1896, this was his first huge building commission and was a revolutionary design quite unlike anything constructed in Europe to that date. The building settled Mackintosh from the outset as a radical architect decisive to find a new design language appropriate for the coming 20th century. It has been said that modern architecture started when Mackintosh built the Glasgow School of Art.

During generally associated with the art nouveau style, Mackintosh dropped such comparisons and did not feel part of the 19th-century art nouveau European style defined by Guimard, Horta, van der Velde, or Gaudi and little of their sinuous ‘whiplash’ curvilinear definition is to be seen in Mackintosh's work. He desired to unite natural forms, especially those deriving from plants and flowers, with a new architectural and design dictionary that set him well apart from the mainstream of architects who looked to Greece, Rome, and Egypt for inspiration from the antique. His marriage to a talented artist-designer, Margaret Macdonald, and the marriage of her sister, Frances, to Mackintosh's close friend Herbert McNair attend to the formation of a brilliantly creative group, clearly led by Mackintosh, known variously as ‘The Four’ or ‘The Spook School’.

Considerable attention was attracted on the work of Mackintosh and the ‘Glasgow Style’ artists and designers who had come from the School of Art. In 1900 Mackintosh and his friends were appeal to create a room complete with furnishings at the Vienna Seccession exhibition. This created huge interest, and the Mackintoshes were lionized when they went to Vienna. Their exhibition act had a direct influence on the development of the Wiener Werkstatte formed shortly thereafter by Josef Hoffmann. Hoffmann and Mackintosh were close friends, and Hoffmann frequent Glasgow twice to see Mackintosh's work.

In Glasgow Mackintosh's biggest public exposure was through the creation of a number of restaurants, the tea rooms of his most enduring patron, Kate Cranston. The tea rooms added a wonderful opportunity for Mackintosh to put into practice his confidence that the architect was responsible for every condition of the commissioned work. At The Willow Tea Room he transformed an existing interior into a remarkable dramatic and elegant series of conflicting interiors with furniture, carpet, wall decor, light fittings, menu, flower vases, cutlery, and waitresses' wear all designed by Mackintosh to build a harmonious whole, achieving the idea of totally unified art-architecture.

The Studio magazine dedicated to his work, he never became a dominant force in Glasgow architecture. He construct the private house Windyhill in 1901, a number of tea rooms, many works of decorative art and furniture, and other architectural conversions but never had the moment to create a second masterpiece after the School of Art and in the manner of Hoffmann's success with the Palais Stoclet in Brussels that owes so much to Mackintosh's influence. The dramatic designs for the huge International Exhibition in Glasgow in 1901 were rejected as too radical, and his entries for other competitions.

The Hill House of 1902 is the best object of Mackintosh's domestic architectural style and interior and has handled virtually intact. The Mackintoshes' own house, completes with its furnishings, has been brilliantly recreated at the Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow while his Glasgow School of Art has undergone extensive restoration of its interiors and collection.

Mackintosh left Glasgow in 1915 for reasons never exactly clear but combined with a notable lack of commissions and the general building crash occasioned by the onset of World War I. He moved to England and proceeded to France and created a sumptuous series of watercolors of the landscape and flowers. Opportunities for accorded series of flower forms to become widely-distributed printed textiles failed to materialise.

Mackintosh was a ambitious designer and architect who had a professional control on the development of the Modern movement. Although prolific during the height of his most creative years, between 1896 and 1916, much of his work has been lost and the remainder is actually confined to the city of Glasgow and surrounding region. His furniture and textile designs are being composed with notable success, and in 1979 a writing desk he designed in 1901 for his own use. Charles Rennie Mackintosh died in distressed circumstances in London in 1928 and his wife Margaret died in 1933.

                                                 The Bauhaus

The bauhaus was found in 1919 by a German architect called Walter Gropius (1883 - 1969). Bauhaus meaning is “building house”. Gropius has worked on the importance to reflect the unity of all the arts. He had developed a craft-based curriculum that would turn out artisans and designers capable of creating useful and beautiful objects for new system of living. He combined the elements of fine arts and design education. 

The Bauhaus theory created unity in arts, students entered specialised workshops which included: metal works; cabinet making; weaving; pottery and wall painting. It also exploited to new technology and were the social idealism joined the the commercial reality.

In 1923 there was the first Bauhaus public exhibition which was a results for the acceptance of modernist design into everyday life.Gropius employee assistants were: Johannes Itten; Laszlo Moholy-Nagy; Lyonel Feininger and Gerhard Marcks. Itten was responsible for the science and technology which were balanced by spirituality and mysticism. Hungarian designer Moholy replaced Itten at Bauhaus which his designs aimed to be functional. He aimed at using type according to its weight, used rules, dots, arrows and colours to emphasise separate and connect the information laid out on the page. He also designed the log made from pure geometric forms advocated by De Stijl. He was aware of other designers such as Kurt Switters; Hans Arp; El Lissitzky and Theo Van Doesburg. 

Nagy committed to photographic collage pictures; hand drawn photographs and letters; photo collage; experimented with composition ideas and viewpoints; made graphic design; worm eye view from below and bird eye view from above. He had influenced his designs with its: intense form; absolute clarity; distinctive visual identity and designed the bauhaus prospectus. Nagy moved to Amsterdam in 1934 fearing the Nazi occupation, then moved to London and was appointed the new bauhaus director in Chicago in 1937. He had also played an important part in the development of American design. German-American painter Lyonel and German sculptor Marcks along with Gropius comprised the faculty of the Bauhaus. 

Herbert Bayer was the head of printing at the bauhaus at 25 absorbed the principles of De Stijl and Constructivism. When he was a student he was asked to design the bank notes. His designs showed: direct and simple typography; non-decorative; strong horizontals and verticals and clarity. When Bayer was assigned to design the new letterhead of bauhaus he had removed the rules and logo, made it more functional, the address could be read from the envelope window and small readable text according to the importance. The expressionist artists who also formed part of the group were: Paul Klee; Oscar Schlemmer and Wassily Kandinsky. 

In 1925 Bauhaus moved from Weimar to Dessau where Gropius designed a new building for school. This building included modern architecture which included steel frame, glass curtain wall and symmetrical pinwheel plan. Gropius resigned from a director of Bauhaus in 1928 and was replaced by Hannes Meyer (1889 - 1954). He maintained the emphasis on mass design and stressed the social function of architecture and design. Under pressure Meyer resigned as well and was replaced by Ludwig Mies which he once again emphasised the curriculum with an increased emphasis on architecture. The unstable political in Germany caused Mies to relocate the school to Berlin where it operated at a slower scale. This unfortunately had to close down by the Nazis in 1933. 

                                                  Modernism

Is the movement and ideas which emerged in the first half of the 20th century. These influenced the development of art, architecture and design. Graphic design also played an important role in political aspect using posters designs to raise funds for the World War 1. The modernism had advocated reform through design. The modernism graphic arts as reacted to the declining stage of the 19th century and the decorative elements with regards to Art Nouveau.

The characteristics for modernism in graphic design are: bold geometric forms; elimination and decoration and asymmetric layouts. Modernism led to further development in the international typographic styles in Switzerland; led to corporate identity in America after the 50’s and led to eventually reaction in the 60’s to the discipline modernism which resulted into a more spontaneous design of post modernism.

In modernism graphic design combines the functionalism and rationalism which is further explained below. Rationalism in architecture was taken up in Renaissance and developed in Italy. The word rationalism is retroactively to a movement in architecture that came about during the enlightenment. One can embrace the rationalism of the museum modern art and abandoning the fine art. 

In functionalism in architecture the principle is that architects should design a building based on the purpose of that building. In functionalism shapes may process at the beginning of the design of every project, the rational message of audience and the objective structuring of the text. 

The leading practitioners in modern graphic designs are: Moholgy Nagy; El Lissitzky; Van Doesburg; Bauhaus re Herbert Bayer and Jan Tschichold. Jan Tschichold German designer which was born in 1902 and died on 1974, designed graphic designs during this period which were explained and demonstrated to printers through writings. He had defined the new typography, book and type face designer and writer on design. His methodology to printers, type setters, designer and printed in red & black; focused on contrast type sizes, widths, weights and used white space and spatial intervals as design elements to separate ad organise material. He included also elements that were essential to page contents and structure. He was not associated with Bauhaus project however he had still visited the Bauhaus exhibition done in 1923. He will apply in the development of the Bauhaus printers type setters and designers. Elementare Typographies is a twenty four page insert in a magazine called “Typogrpahische mitteilungen” . 

Jan moved to Switzerland in 1928 due to political pressure of Nazis and there he had published a book called the “New Typography”. It was a “Die Neu Typogrpahie”. In this book he had emphasised the importance of Asymmetry; Sans serif type; Reduction of form to basic geometry; preference for single case; use of photographs and illustrations and influenced the new typography.  

Modernism may be reemerging and a renewed minimalism that is calming down the visual outburst of the activity for the past years. Throughout these years of continual change and new possibilities what might be the next changes for our graphic art and design.

                                            Post Modernism

Post Modern Design is a late 20th century movement in arts; architecture and criticism that lead from the departure of modernism. It includes interpretations of culture; literature; art; philosophy; history; economics; architecture; fiction and criticism. The work post modernism has been applied to host movements in many in art, music and literature and that had reacted against tendencies in modernism that are typically marked by revival of historical elements and techniques. Very few original artists can be found during this time and previous works of modernist artists were copied.

In the case of modernism it tooked place in the late 19th century and early 20th century. It involved a reform in arts, music, literature and applied arts. While post modernism tooked placed after World war II. In Modernism advocated rational thinking and use of science and reason for the advancement man while in the post modernism believed in the irrationality of things.

The modernist era was aimed and characterised by the simple and original work of gifted artists while in the post modern era it is characterised by the advancement in technology and uses different medias. The modernist graphic designers believed in universal truth while post modernists did not.

In the case of post modernist they were very political while modernists were not political. The second most prominent feature of postmodernism is the erasing of the boundaries between culture. But probably the most contested feature is that of "theoretical discourse," where theory was no longer confined to philosophy, but incorporated history, social theory, political science, and many other areas of study, including design theory. Postmodernism is not a description of a style; it is the term for the era of late capitalism starting after the 1940's and realised in the 1960's with neo-colonialism, the green revolution, computerisation and electronic information.

Postmodernism didn't have much impact on graphic design until the middle of the 1980s. Initially, many designers thought it was just undisciplined self-indulgence. But in fact it was a new way of thinking about design, one that instigated a new way of designing. Designers began to realise that as mediators of culture, they could no longer hide behind the "problems" they were "solving." One could describe this shift as a younger generation of designers simply indulging their egos and refusing to be transparent. Or you could say they were acknowledging their unique position in the culture, one that could have any number of political or ideological agendas.

Although Jan Tschichold has been celebrated as an early proponent of modernist asymmetric typography, designers have increasingly come to respect his earlier calligraphic and latter classical work. Tschichold's body of work is an important precedent for today's postmodern typography in that it represents diversity in ideology and style. It was one that ranged from craft-based calligraphy and machine-age modernism to neoclassicism.

Another important precursor to postmodernism was W. A. Dwiggins, a designer who translated traditional values and aesthetics into a modern sensibility. He took inspiration for his work from eastern cultures, history, and new technology. Unlike Tschichold, Dwiggins never embraced the Modernist movement nor was he deified by it. However, he was absolutely committed to being a modern designer.

                                                   Fieldwork

Art Nouveau/Graffiti

For the work of our presentation we visited several places. We went to Sliema and Gzira to take some photos that we were going to use. We started from Cafe Jubilee at Gzira and we went inside and asked for permission to take photos.

Before we went inside we took some photos of posters that were outside. The first photo which I really liked is the one below.It shows a woman with beautiful hair.It has san-serif fonts.It has cool colours as well as leaf motifs. Tosca is an opera in three acts which premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14th January 1900.

This is an artwork of Carlino Gelfo in which he made us of warm colours. He depicted this woman with beautiful hair. He made use of floral style.

After visiting Cafe Jubilee we went to visit some buildings in Sliema such as the first two images below. These are very good example of the 1920s and 1930s Art Nouveau Style. The third image is an Art Deco Building in St Julians.

We went to white rocks as there are graffiti. First we started exploring the place to see what graffiti there was. It is a very dangerous place but we managed to take the photos. The colours that the artist used to draw the graffiti inspired us so we researched and combined the graffiti we found with some graffiti that we found on the internet. Some of them similar to Stefan Sagmeister designs.

                                                  References

http://www.theartstory.org/movement-art-nouveau.htm

https://www.britannica.com/art/Japanese-art

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arts_and_Crafts_movement

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphic_design

http://www.theartstory.org/artist-beardsley-aubrey.htm

                                                         Redd

                                                 Contextual Studies

Interactive Media refers to services or products on digital computer-based systems which respond to the user's commands by presenting content such as text, video and audio and video games. I chose the course of Bachelors of Art in Interactive Media because overall technology and innovation were always one of my interests. In fact, Computer Studies was one of my subjects that I chose to study in secondary school. I believe that this course that I am currently taking part in will help me in my future career. Although I am not certain about what exactly I would like to do in the future, I am sure that it will have something to do with the course I am doing now, but I would like to work in maybe a gaming company or a job in the interactive media sector. I personally believe that the argumentative discussions that are held in class and the assignments given to us to complete at home will give me a very good grip of the subject and the overall course which will help me to develop my knowledge further in this area of study. I find this course interesting because it shows you different ways of how you can use technology as means of animations and videos and video games in order to meet people’s interests. It also shows you the other uses of technology other than computers just being used in offices such as banks to store data. This course shows you what else you can do with a computer, such as editing pictures the way you want them to look like, by using editing programs such as photoshop, which in itself has various other features in how to edit graphics. The Bachelors of Art in Interactive Media also shows you how to use other programs such as the illustrator and indesign. I find this type of learning as intriguing because in my opinion, some of the material that we learn, apart from pursuing a career from it, you can also use them for your daily life in order to make is easier.This is the course that best suits me because it shows me how to efficiently use my devices and also prepare me for what I would like to do as a job in the future.

                                        Coca Cola twisted

Coca Cola was always well known around the world as one of the biggest companies in the drinking industry. Every year, they always come up with innovative and unique outreach campaigns. These outreach programs are done so that they will keep people in touch with one another. Although it might seem like it, these are not done as ways of advertisement for Coca Cola itself, but just for the good of it. This year, Coca Cola created a new campaign with a slight change. Basically, Coca Cola placed a fridge in the middle of a college so that the new students would have to interact with each other on the first day and get to know their peers better. Once a fresher went to the fridge for a bottle of coke, they would be able to open it normally. The only way to open the bottle was to pair up the cap of the bottle with someone else's cap. In this way, the fresher would be forced to interact with each other in order to open the bottles and drink from them. As time goes by, the awkwardness is no longer present and everyone starts interacting and exchanging numbers, all this because they needed each other's help to open the bottle of coke. What Coca Cola has done this time is what we also call an ice breaker. Coca Cola shifts the focus away from itself and focus solely on the students. The way we can see that Coca Cola didn't do this as a way to advertise for its company is because there were no camera crew running round, as this would embarrass the new students. In this ice breaker exercise, experiential marketing is used. This means that the company, in this case Coca Cola, invites the client on a journey and gives them an experience that they didn't prepare for. The teens involved in this ice breaker take away more than Coca Cola this for itself. The fresher’s take away a drink, a friend, a fun first day at college, whilst Coca Cola only takes visibility. Coca Cola did not need to do this as ways of advertising because it is already known for being the soda of the century, so it was simply just done as a way to help these teenagers in their first day of college. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9cmoT_wb0A

                      Steve Jobs/Steve Wozniak Breakout!

Steve Wozniak is an American computer programmer and inventor, well known for being the co-founder of Apple Computer along with Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne. He was born on the 11th August in 1950, San Jose, California, United States. His is nicknamed as Woz. He never thought about developing games. In sixth grade he built a machine with 100 little rules and every rule was a logic.

Steve Jobs wanted a one-player Pong game. He described how it had to have bricks and all that. Steve Jobs had actually thought up the design and sold it to Nolan Bushnell because Steve was very specific: The score had to be at the bottom. It was a real fun project. Steve Wozniak had already done Pong, so it was really just an extension of that game. Atari wanted Woz to design the Breakout game.He and Jobs also got mononucleosis, the sleeping sickness and they delivered a working Breakout game in four days. Breakout was definitely a big classic. In the game, a layer of bricks lines the top third of the screen. A ball travels across the screen, bouncing off the top and side walls of the screen. When a brick is hit, the ball bounces away and the brick is destroyed. The player loses a turn when the ball touches the bottom of the screen. To stop this from happening, the player has a movable paddle to bounce the ball upward, keeping it in play. The score was displayed at the top, next to the number of lives and the levels. The game was the basis and inspiration for certain aspects of the Apple II personal computer.

The reason why I chose this game is because is offered something different for that time. I even used to play different versions of it myself a few years ago and I actually was very addicted to it.