contextual influences

CONTEXTUAL INFLUENCES

Ashley Bibby

1850-1918

Industrialization and the beginnings of Modernism

The main happenings in the 18th century was the industrial revolution and the huge move forward in the ability to mass produce mechanical items. The industrial revolution changed agricultural, textile, transportation and the manufacturing markets hugely meaning a massive shift in the economy and also up lifting peoples spirits because of the new found wealth and the ability to access luxury goods unlike before. Europe soon changed from large open and agricultural areas turning into urban and city living and the United Kingdom was at the forefront of this movement. The invention of the steam train was huge and shifted the world into the modern era. It was the age of enlightenment, finally man realized the capabilities of what they could do. In the following years man saw the first photographs, first films and then in the 1910’s they learnt to fly.

The Great Exhibition at The Crystal Palace changed the face of design around the world. Before the 1950’s people had no concept of design and people were just artisans and craftsman. The aim of the exhibition was for Great Britain to show off to the world their new technical and mechanical engineering talent in different expos. It was a chance to say ‘look what we can design and make efficiently’ and this soon spread to other countries hosting their own exhibitions to show off their talents, creating a huge competition between different countries about their mechanical prowess.

However one thing that struck me was the fact that the numerous different mechanical inventions had no aesthetics they were just produced for substance and a purpose not necessarily looking at how the items looked. They were just made so that they could be easily produced 100 times over.

Contextual Influences 1850-1918

Ashley Bibby

Against all of the mass production culture there was an arts and crafts movement which began in 1960 and rebelled against the new mass produced terrible quality and aesthetically ugly products that were being produced at the time. They movement wanted more care over what was being produced, more well made hand crafted goods. The mass produced items were accessible to anyone unlike the hand crafted items which were only available to the upper classes due to the time care that was taken in producing them. The main pioneer of this movement was William Morris and was inspired by the writings of John Ruskin and was a social reform against the industrial industry. William Morris was quoted saying “It is the allowing f machines to be our masters, and not our servants, that so injures the beauty of life nowadays”. This sums up the whole idealism of the movement.

Contextual Influences 1850-1918

Ashley Bibby

1915-1945

Contextual Influences

Ashley Bibby

Modernism At It’s Best

This time was plagued with wars with the first and second world wars. This meant one thing, that the world was in tatters. People had no money, cities were broken and people wanted to turn this around.

Dada came along around this time and it was sparked by a negative reaction to the first world war. It questioned the purpose of art and was all about humour, wit and nonsense.

One of the famous pieces from this movement was Marcel Duchamp Fountain. This was influential to 20th century design because of the way it changed peoples perception of art and that it was more how the view perceived it rather than how the artist wanted you to see it. It also influenced many artists to use everyday objects in their art. Simple to create by the rotation of a urinal but clever in meaning as by rotating the urinal it hides its identity of a urinal and turns it into something different, something which the viewer gets to choose.

This was a huge time for modernism too and one of the most influential modernist movements was Bauhaus.

The movement started by a School in Germany pioneered by Walter Gropius. The style was uncluttered and had a clean slick look about it. It was simple to look at by using geometric shapes and when the style was applied to product design the style meant it was easy to reproduce because of the minimal components and the easy to make geometric shapes. ‘Form follows Function’ is the motto of Bauhaus, meaning the main part of designing a product or building should be how it worked and functioned rather than how it looked.

1945-1960


Ashley Bibby

Rebuilding After The War

This era was all about getting out of the awful times of the past wars and the lack of money and resources around at the time. One way the did this was the Britain can make it exhibition in 1946, it was a way to showcase what we have to offer in consumer goods. The exhibits were wacky and something which people hadn’t seen before but things which would be accessible to the general public.

A few years later the hosted the Festival of Britain again 100 years after in 1951, it was a way for the government to show the population that they are recovering from the war and times ahead will be better. They were promoting how Britain has contributed to science, design and arts and how forward thinking they were. The design of the poster by Abram Games is clever and well thought out as he portrays the words ‘festival’ and ‘Britain’ in his imagery. Firstly by using the bunting it gives off a festival vibe and the use of the British colours red, white and blue instantly gives the look of Britain and finally the use of the compass hands it shows that the festival is widespread and travels from the very north to the very south of Britain.

Pop Art was the main movement during this period. The way that it embraced popular culture meant it was a instant hit with most. It referenced media, advertising and everyday life products meaning people could relate to it and the techniques used and the use of bright colours was a breath of fresh air to art and a was to lift people from the grief of World War 2.

Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe is a great example of pop art. The way he featured an iconic star of the time meant it captured a wide audience and people had an itrest in the piece. He also used vibrant colours giving it a positive energy.

Graphic Designers


Ashley Bibby

Nevile Broady

His work is influential because of the way he bushed the boundaries of visual communication at that time. He would use different type styles and colours. Plus the way he juxtaposed his type and images was something new. For example on the right for each character he has used two sometimes three colours which you think it would look awful but he managed to pull it off and because of the bright colours and the different style it is eye catching as people haven’t seen this before. Further more the we he has aligned the type to the right is unusual and he also has the type on the far right of the page with no border. It is something which designers were not doing at that time and meant his works were instantly recognisable.

David Carson

His approach to typography and design is different is much more jumbled up and cluttered and had a grugey look to it. On the right you have the use of multiple layers of type and images creating a confusing and unorganised look to the cover of the magazine. It look as though the magazine has been dragged on the floor and thrown around for a while with the scratch marks and fading parts of the images. There is no real layout to the magazine but one thing that does stand out is the name of the magazine ray gun. Again the typography of the title follows the same jumbled up look as the cover with some parts of the letters with Negative kerning (U,N) kerning and others with positive kerning (A,Y) .

Jamie Reid

Josef Müller-Brockmann


Ashley Bibby

Jamie Reid

Very much associated with the punk era and it shows in his work. By defacing an image of the queen automatically sends out a rebellious message. And the use of cut out words from a newspaper makes it look like a ransom note and he plays on that with the words ‘God save the queen’ it echoes the idea that they have captured the queen and this is some sort of ransom note.

Josef Müller-Brockmann

Born in Switzerland and part of the Swiss style movement. Firstly you look at this piece of work and you instantly notice the angle which the type is on. It makes the type less legible meaning you take more care on reading what it says. It also very organised with the grid system and also the use of geometric shapes it makes it look rigid and also eye catching at the same time.

Modernism and Post Modernism


Ashley Bibby

About Modernism

Started in the 1880s

Forward thinking modern ideas - this all stemmed from the industrial revolution and the great exhibition in 1851. People had a new found belief that they could achieve anything and they strived to be bigger and better than the past.

Didn’t reference past styles - many modernists believed that by rejecting old traditions they could discover new ways of designing.

Form follows function - Explains its self, there was no decor in design it was all about how the product worked rather than how it looked. It was all about geometric shapes instead of decoration.

Cubism

Started in the early 1990s by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque

They created a new way of seeing using geometric shapes and different perspectives to represent the modern age they were in.

The movement rejected the idea that art should copy nature or traditional techniques which was a very modernist ideology.

It was revolutionary as it was the first abstract style of modern art.


Ashley Bibby

Pablo Picasso les demoiselles d’avignonThis is probably the most famous piece of artwork from cubism. It took a whole nine months to make and by looking at the far left womans face it shows what cubism is about. With the sharp geo metric face and the differing perspective from the eye to the nose.


Ashley Bibby

Pablo PicassoWeeping WomanAgain shows what cubism is about with geometric shapes and the perspective making the face look abstract.

Bauhaus

Started in the 1920’s till the end of modernism in the 1940’s - Although it is late on in modernism it is a good example of modernism in practice.

Bauhaus translates to construction house

They took a lot of inspiration from the cubism movement and how the broken objects down to geometric shapes. They wanted to view objects the same way they did.

They had a vision of an uncluttered and simplistic living environment which would match the technological age

By using geometric shapes and taking objects down to their essential components it meat that they could be mass produced and make them ‘consumer goods’

This teapot is a good example of the minimalist product which could be easily mass produced because of its geometric shapes and only the essential parts

The bauhaus graphic design follows the same principles, using predominately circles and squares. The colour style follows the same idea of only the red and the black.

Modernists were always wanting to improve the way humans lived and often didn’t listen to what the popular taste was. One example of this was social housing flats. Although it seemed a good idea of people living closely together in a small space people soon became fed up of it. This and other things such as the misuse of science is how Post modernism broke out.

About Post Modernism

If you can get your head around modernism you can understand Post modernism as it is the complete opposite. It is a reaction and people rebelling against the modernist regime.

It doesn’t actually have a start date and some people argued that it co existed with modernism but went unrecognized. But it started in the around the 50‘s and the term was first used in the 70’s

Post modernists believe that the way you look and interpret something and how you feel about something is key

Unlike Modernism they wanted to take reference from previous eras and styles to make their design and art look better

Less is more, Less is a bore is a term which come from Robert Venturi in response to the modernist term less is more.

Designers were allowed to add decoration and parts which were not necessary to the function of the product

“open art” meaning anything goes, there were no where near as many restrictions as the modernist era.

Jackson PollockThese are some of Jackson Pollocks works simply created by chucking paint around on a brush. As you can see their is no real method behind his madness, he doesn’t use any geometric shapes which were often used during the Modernist period and less is bore really applies to his pieces.

Pop ArtPop art created its name by the way it referenced popular symbols and icons of that time making it accessible to popular culture. Andy warhol did this fantastically and made him and his art known by millions.

AlessiAlessi are an excellent example of post modernist product design. They constantly use ornament and decoration throughout their product range. The phrase form follows function is thrown out of the window when designing their products.


Ashley Bibby

Philippe StarckIf you look at this Philippe Starck kettle you can see that the aesthetics were the main priority when designing the kettle and that it is more of a piece of art than a kettle.

Debate -Against Censorship


Ashley Bibby

My Main Reasons On Why There Should Be No Censorship

• People should watch what they want to watch and see what they want to see. People should have the choice not any third parties.• It can be a way of education children about things such a sex and drugs because it is on the tv they are more likely to learn and remember.• Freedom of Speech• Makes people ignore certain issues which should be talked about and resolved. This such as sex racism and violence.• The more you hide something from someone the more they want to see it.• People have varied ideas on what should be censored and what shouldn’t and how bad it should be. Meaning the viewing experience is compromised• Most of the time censorship doesn’t work. Films and games which are 18+ end up getting seen by people younger than that age because of the need to see something they are hidden from.• Artists should be able to express themselves however they want without it being altered.• Banned films always end up getting leaked and because they were banned it makes people want to see them even more.• By blanking and blurring parts out means people want to see them even more.