Graphic Design History

Photo card This photo card was designed to be a functional advertisement I saw this at the I.D.E.A. Store on the sales floor. The quality of work in this era was pretty quality. It is mostly a photograph but the composition of the photograph was very formal, which is expected from this era. The type was symmetrical.  This piece is from the Arts and Crafts era. There are multiple kinds of type on this piece.  The thing that attracted me to this photo card was the poise of the man in the photo. He is not exactly smiling but it looks as if he is happy. That is not something you see in photos from this time because of the time frame they had to sit still for the photo to be taken. The photo is warm and progressive for its time. The type is formal and trendy. 

  Not much is to be known of this Soviet propaganda poster. I tried to look for some information online but could not find any. I found this at an estate sale. It was published by Aurora Art Publishers.  This image is very simple as it has three colors in it, red, white and black. It has three words that are very dominate and one man standing with a flag as he is gesturing in a specific direction. Since I have to guess, I would guess this was made in the early 1930's. It defiantly has an early modern feel to it.  The man's body is not very well defined except his head has a little more definition to it.  There is not real detail to this image.  These are somethings I noticed about Soviet propaganda: it is very male oriented  they use hands a lot the hand gestures are usually firmly guiding the viewer in a very specific direction. there is a lot of use of flags One strange thing I found about this poster is that usually Soviet propaganda is

Dieppe Packaging Found  This is a small package about 4x2 inches I am not sure of it's function as there is writing in French. I am assuming that it was some sort of tourist card pack that had images of popular tourist locations and told about them on the back. I found this at a consignment shop on Staley Road The quality of this art work is very detailed and small. It looks like something that was probably mass produced and was made to fit in your pocket.  This looks as if it is from the Art Nouveau era. The big thick all caps type that is rounded along with the organic delicate flowing lines and the gold lettering and accents in the image screams Art Nouveau to me.  The bold colors of the mixture of the bold and delicate lines are what attracted me to this piece. They are very distinctive. 

Art: Alphonse Mucha Found: The I.D.E.A. Store This is an ad for Job Rolling Papers By Alphonse Mucha The function of this work is to advertise. The target audience is younger women. It is meant to portray an elegance that is associated with quality and luxury.   I first saw this at The I.D.E.A. Store. I then bought it and brought it home.  This particular poster was mass reproduced in 1967. The artwork quality is very well crafted. Attention to flowing lines and color played a great part of this piece.  This piece is very much an Art Nouveau piece. The soft curvature of the lines along with the muted colors and use of flowers scream Art Nouveau. The work is organic with very little negative space. I am not sure what type family this serif font belongs to, but it looks like it could be Baylac. It is bold and looks like it is all caps. The quality of the work is what attracted me to the work. It is playful and feminine. It was trendy for it's t

https://archive.org/details/RuskinNatureOfGothic1892 This week I chose from the arts and crafts movement.  One of the most well known artist of the time was William Morris who's work was reinforced by the writings of John Ruskin. This is a page from the book The Nature of Gothic by John Ruskin. This image places a high importance on the quality of craftsmanship while emphasizing the importance of the arts. I saw this photo while browsing the online library last week and fell in love with it. The quality of this work is outstanding. It was hand carved into a block of wood then printed on the paper The thing that attracted me most to this piece was the art that surrounds the very beautiful serif font. I believe it is Garamond but could be very wrong.

https://archive.org/details/b24864389 This week I chose a victorian book cover I came across on Archive.org when searching their database. I did not have a hole lot of time to search out and about this week but I thought this was a perfect example of the Victorian age of Graphic Design and Typography. I am sure this process was a long, tedious process for this book to be made in 1862. It has a specular verity of different type families. The art on is very intricate and detailed. Almost cluttered, which seems to be a character trait for that time. I also think it is interesting to see how many different languages are included in this book. A nice piece of history, I would say.