Futurism
Futurism is a design moment that occurred in the between the years 1909 and 1916. It had one main focus, and that was not too look into the past for inspiration but into the future.
It was a social as well as an artistic movement and it all began in Italy, there were other attempts at futurism from countries such as Russia and England.
As it was looking to the future it was important that contemporary concepts were thought of and designed. Some of these concepts ranged from Speed, violence, industrial artefacts, and of course technology.
All of these factors add up and in the end created the foundations of Futurism.
The founder was a man named Filippo Tomasso Marinetti. An italian writer. When thinking of futurism he spoke about mens triumph over nature, which contrasted with concepts of popular art at the time. And we can see this triumph over nature in nearly all Science-fiction films to date.
 |
| Filippo Tomasso Marinetti |
Over the years that futurism was first starting out many different arts expanded and embraced Fillipo's ideas including design, architecture and even film.
Throughout the movement of futurism we see not only mans triumph over nature with films like total recall, to themes where originality was praised and chaos was embraced. We see this type of chaos in films like The day the earth stood still.
These ideas are still being used today to create futuristic films, films like Donnie Darko which embrace chaos this quote from frank to the main character says,
Twenty-eight days,
six hours,
42 minutes,
12 seconds.
That is when the world will end.
Time travel is also featured in this film showing it looking to the future.
In another quote from Donnie Darko Frank the rabbit says,
A storm is coming,
A storm that will swallow the children,
and I will deliver them from the kingdom of pain.
I will deliver the children to their doorsteps.
I will send the monsters back to the underground.
I will send them back to a place where no one can see them.
Except for me.
Because I am Donnie Darko.
Once again linking into the futurism's groups ideology, to embrace chaos!
 |
Donnie Darko
|
 |
| Total Recall |
Surrealism is an art and design movement that began its life in Paris in the early 1920's, it was founded by a small group of writers and artists who wanted to link into people unconscious minds and "unlock their imagination".
It was officially founded in 1924 when André Breton wrote Le Manifeste du Surréalisme. Within this manifesto he wrote that artists should seek ways of tapping into their unconcious mind to create new and inspired work.
He believed that the conscious mind suppressed the mind and its power to imagine and create new ideas. Psychologists such as Sigmund Freud influenced this small group of writers and artists who again believed that the mind was suppressed when conscious.
 |
| André Breton |
It was initially a literary movement, with writers creating stories and manifesto's, however the founder André Brenton later not only welcomed art but embraced it! Artists such as Joan Miró worked within the field of surrealism but he also helped shape future movements such as
abstract expressionism in the 1940's.
Joan Miró's work in the 1920's
Art Deco.
The art deco movement began again in the early 1920's when a group of various artists formed what they called a Société des artistes décorateurs which means, the society of decorating artists. And the group of artists that included people such as Hector Guimard and Paul Bellot had one main purpose and goal, and that was too demonstrate on a global scale the evolution of the French decorative arts.
And in 1925 these two artists along with the rest of the society of decorating arts, organised a global art show in Paris that was too show the world French art, and how it has evolved. This show was called theExposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes which translates as the "international Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Art"
The idea of art deco is to create art from geometrical shapes. This is most apparent in architecture from the early 1920's and 1930's. Most apparent was the use of the ziggurat
 |
| A few geometrical shape ideas used in the 1920's and to the present day |
What makes the art deco design movement a great one for me is the fact that we still see its influence today in everyday life, weather it be in buildings, paintings or even designs of furniture from IKEA. A ziggurat is a terraced pyramid, with each story smaller than the one below it. Art Deco skyscrapers may have many rectangles or trapezoids also included.
The Empire state building in New York was built in 1931 and may be the most iconic use of art deco shapes and ideas in the early years of art deco.
To this day we see art deco in architecture and furniture and even in games such as L.A Noire which is set in the 1940's and has all the early art deco architecture included in the surroundings.
 |
| L.A NOIRE |
 |
| Empire State building |
Typography
Typography is all around us, everything we see and read has been designed in a way to make us feel. The word typography literally means the art and technique of arranging type in order to make language visual. I think that this sentence sums up entirely what typography is, when we see words or a logo we feel certain emotions and can even pick up on why that specific text has been used.
These are just a couple of examples of the way that words sometimes gives us clues as to what to expect if playing that game, when we see the assassins creed logo the 'A and the S' are bigger than the rest of the text, this to me is a very old type of font, i remember seeing the beginning and end letters in story books when i was young. This shows not only that the game content may be set in the past rather than the future but it also shows that typography is subjective, this text may mean something different to me than it will too others because of personal experiences. I have also chosen to show the BioShock logo and this is because it has a very set design, and that is of the Art Deco era, we can see from the spacing (Kerning) of the letters and the length of the letters is a very stereotypical text from Art Deco, which could lead us to having certain expectations of playing BioShock.
However it is not just games that use typography to label themselves and create emotions with letters.
We can see the logo for the clothing/skating company Vans, this is a great example how type is used to make a company memorable we see two different types of fonts here, we have the brand name Vans in large bold lettering with the 'V' the full length of the word. Then just below the main type we see 'Since 1966' in an italic type of lettering, this not only gives a contrast of text to the word vans but it is also more personal it almost looks like someone has signed the logo, almost like a signature of approval.
Underneath is the FedEx logo, which to me is one of the best uses of text to tell people universally what your company is about. FedEx is a courier/delivery service which is recognised around the world, but we see the text is very professional, bold and the kerning of each letter is touching the next letter. But the subliminal message in this logo is the arrow, there is an arrow between the 'E and the X' which again shows the meaning and gives certain expectations should the consumer choose to use the company.
One of the original typographers was a man named Rudolf Koch, he published a book called The book of signs. It contained nearly 500 symbols from the earliest settlements and first drawing in the world such as symbols from the middle ages, early christianity and primitive symbols.
Another artist named Eric Gill also helped
typography to be what it is today, in 1925 he designed his very own typeface called Perpetua, as you can see from the image on the right the text is a lot more advanced than the text and symbols found in The book of signs.
Even though i appreciate the journey in which typography has been on what i really love is the modern day typefaces, i believe that now with the technology we have we are able to create texts and typefaces and are entering an age where text is more infuencial than it has been in the past. I have looked at an artist named Craig ward who creates these meaning through the words that he chooses to type and the typeface he used.
The words say you blow me away, it is hard to talk about the kerning and line spacing of this group of text as we see in the middle there is a bullet coming through the words, when shot and killed the person is said to have been 'blown away' which is why the text has been shown like this. This is the way that typography is heading and it has grown from what it used to be years and years ago. And this is the future of typography
Bauhaus
Bauhaus, unlike the other movmemts i have looked at is not actually an art and design movement. It was a school of art and design thats main focus was on looking to the future which combined arts and crafts along with the fine arts. It was built in 1919 and was finally closed in 1933, Bauhaus literally means the 'House of construction'.
The school was built just after the futurist movement and it was founded by a man named Walter Groupis, who had a huge influence on the world and culture of art and design. Over the 14 years the house of construction was occupied in three different locations one in Weimar, one in Dessau and finally in Berlin.
Although there was three different locations the aim for the students was always the same, however especially to the end of the Bauhaus era a lot of teachers fled to teach around the world. This was because the Nazi regime was growing and through fear teachers fled because of their beliefs, however this helped to spread the ideas and work of Bauhaus around the globe.
Weimar building.
The weimar building was built in 1919 with Walter Groupis being the head of the school, it was a merger between the Grand Ducal School of Arts and Crafts and the Weimar Academy of Fine Art.
Dessau building.
Walter Groupis designed the new Dessau building in 1925, however this new school came with a new director named Hannes Mayer. In 1929 the school turned its first profit by selling on the students work and ideas, however in the year 1930 Hannes Mayer was fired from his position at the school because of his communist views and ideas. These ideas would have been amplified by the growing increase of the Nazi regime at this time in Germany.
Berlin building.
The school moved to Berlin in 1932 which at the time was a safe heaven from political parties at the time such as the nazi's. The inside of the warehouse was painted white and it had skylights to let optimum light in, which is why they had white walls as the light reflects and bounces back around the room making for better working conditions. Unfortunately the school at the Berlin location did not stay open for long and was closed for the final time in 1933.
Annie Albers.
From a young age she was into her arts and in early life used to paint and take part in the fine arts, in 1922 she attended Bauhaus and began her studies in lessons such as architecture. In her second year she took up weaving. Who carried on to create works that are loved around the wold and became the most memorable weaver of all time.
Wassily Kandisnky.
Kandinsky was a teacher at Bauhaus in 1922 he not only taught basic design for beginners but he also taught special lessons on his colour theory with new elements of form psychology. He designed his works with new ways of designing and altering lines, forms and shapes and making them abstract.
Mood boards!
