The Arts and Craft Movement.

The Arts and Craft Movement was a period that reacted against poor aesthetics of Industrial Design. They wanted to fight against ugliness in all forms and were about quantity not quality. They designed with natural forms, usually taken from nature, plants in particular. Thus creating balance and harmony.





Above is a book cover promoting the Arts and Craft Movement. As you can see it has been designed with natural forms and there is unity and balance in the composition. The border around the image is simple and aesthetically pleasing. (google images)



This is a page was designed by William Morris the " Father" of the Arts and Craft Movement.
It uses the Caxton font and has a feeling of an Illuminated Manuscript of earlier times.

(google images)

The Victorian Age 1840-1900

Victorian decorative arts refers to the style of decorative arts during the Victorian era. The Victorian era is known for its eclectic revival and interpretation of historic styles and the introduction of cross-cultural influences from the middle east and Asia in furniture, fittings, and Interior decoration. The era produced images that where romantic, decorative and nostalgic for objects of the past.
Poster art of the time filled every corner of the page with both images and type. They usually had decorative boarders, a symmetrical layout and idealised beauty. The type was usually curved and fitted into a banner.


Typical ad poster from the Victorian Era. ( google images)



Posters from the Victorian Era. Type and images fill the whole poster. (google images)

Art Deco

Art deco. A typical building from the era. Miami Beach Florida.

crabbycrewblog.blogspot.com/ 2004_03_01_crabby...

Stained Glass Ceiling - Buffalo City Hall America

www.art-deco-style.com/ art-deco-history.html

An art movement involving a mixture of modern decorative art styles, largely from the 1920s and 1930s, whose main characteristics were derived from various avant-garde painting styles of the early 20th Century. Art deco works exhibit aspects of Cubism, Russian Constructivism and Italian Futurism. Celebrating the rise of commerce, technology and speed the artists would use abstraction, distortion and simplification, particularly geometric shapes and highly intense colours.— celebrating the rise of commerce, technology, and speed.

The growing impact of the machine can be seen in repeating and overlapping images from 1925; and in the 1930s, in streamlined forms derived from the principles of aerodynamics.
The name came from the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs Industriels et Modernes, held in Paris, which celebrated living in the modern world.
It was popularly considered to be an elegant style of cool sophistication in architecture and applied arts which range from luxurious objects made from exotic material to mass produced, streamlined items available to a growing middle class.

George Barbier (1882-1932) La Fontaine de coquillages, da Gazette du Bon Ton, marzo 1914

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(google images 2010)

examples of posters created during the art deco period.

The Streamlined Style" of the '20s and '30s expressed the speed, power and scale of the modern age.