Essay plan

Essay Plan.

• Architecture
• Locations
• Origins
• Specific designers
• Influences of the movement
• Inspiration
• Visual arts such as fashion, architecture, painting, graphic arts and film.
• Links to other areas of design.
•  The Chrysler building, designed by William Van Alen

For the past few weeks i have been looking at art and design movements and i have been surprised, by the amount that i have learnt and also the amount of information that has wanted me to research more into art and design movements.  I have found the past lectures on movements such as futurism, bauhaus and art deco fascinating.  I have found myself looking for ways to see each design movement in every day life, and it is these movements and elements of historical design that are inspiring me to get a greater knowledge to help me should a client ask me to help design a futuristic scene in the future for example.

I have found myself liking a lot of the design movements i have seen so far, however Art Deco really stood out to me.  I love the way that the designers used curves and an almost pyramid shape to create some of the worlds most famous landmarks such as the empire state building.  And it is Art Deco that i have chosen to write my historical design essay on.

When researching Art deco i realised that it was not only architecture that was influenced by the movement, but also jewellery, clothing and even interior design.  This is what i liked best about the movement, that it was not just in architecture, that it could be applied across the wide spectrum of design reaching objects like jewellery, another factor that i like is that objects in Art deco do not need to be nessicerally practical as long as the final outcome was aesthetically pleasing it didn't matter, it was appearance over functionality. Also looking back at my two mood boards that i created i really love the Art deco over the futurism image, i find the Art deco mood board to be pretty and aesthetically pleasing to the eyes like it should be where as the futurism image is still good but lacks flow and like the founder of futurism Filippo Tomasso Marinetti said, "futurism should embrace chaos." which is what my mood board looks like and that is not a theme that i would enjoy writing about, which is why futurism was ruled out as an essay at the beginning of the essay process.

I love the way that Art deco in its time was so simplistic with its ideas, the way that ideas only had to be pretty and not functional, and they fact that walking around any city today we see elements of Art deco everywhere and that is the reason i would love to write an essay on Art deco.

The midland hotel in Morecambe, one of Britons finest examples of Art deco architecture still open to date.

Art Deco essay

Andy Elliott

For the past few weeks I have been studying the art deco movement, I have chosen to look at it more in depth because of the way we still see influences of the movement to this day in cities all across the world.  The art deco movement fascinates me and has inspired me too look at the movement in detail.

The art deco movement was first founded in the early 1920's when a group of various artists and designers, from all different areas of design such as architecture, fashion and interior design combined to make create a society named  a Société des artistes décorateurs which basically translates as the society of decorating artists.  This is why the genre of art deco is so large and varied because there is so much influence from all areas art and design.  And this society was driven at the forefront by two French artists named Hector Guimard and Paul Bellot, who had the sole purpose of globalising the French arts and the evolution the country and their arts.  And in the year of 1925 they organised an international show to expose the French arts, the show was called "Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes" ,which translates as The International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts and this was a show that was noticed by designers and artists all over the globe.

One main focus that is at the core of the Art Deco design is the use of geometric shapes and lines.  Colour pallets and the use of bold and use of block colour in geometric shapes again makes the movement special, art deco design was a sign of wealth and well-being which resulted in the expansion and boost in the industry as people were willing to pay more and more money for these giant projects and these bold geometric shapes, to stand out.  The movement spread from just architecture to items such as jewellery and mass production of items such as auto mobiles and cars.  One design that was used the most was a shape named the ziggurat, a geometric design from which the Mayan civilisation had adopted in the construction of their pyramids.

Easily accessible travel that became available in the 1920's gave way to a new species of designers and archaeologists that were now able to travel the world, which in turn allowed us to become influenced with new designs, patters, civilisations and architecture being discovered such as hieroglyphics when excavating Tutankhamen’s grave and the city of Pompeii.  The term art deco was derived years later in a post-world war two world, with both Hector Guimard and Paul Bellot being the main designers held responsible for being influential to the movement. After the sudden boom of explorers in the 1920's it was inevitable that soon after new designs and blueprints for design were created.  In the early 1930's art deco became more mainstream and more available and more of a market for the art deco design.  There was an increase in consumer products being made with the art deco style such as cars, furniture, textiles and even telephones.  However this new design captured the thoughts of designers who had the capabilities to create monumental buildings, amusement parks and even ocean liners such as the "SS Ile de France".  This was a French built ship in a post-world war one world, it was the first ever ocean liner to fully incorporate the art deco designs throughout the ship.  The interior of the ship and especially the living quarters were specifically designed not to reproduce styles and designs of the past but to look to celebrate the styles of the present, which is why the interior was heavily influenced by art deco. As you can see from the image from the SS Ile de France the design in co-operated the simplistic and geometric shapes that was stereotypical of the art deco era.

However the movement was meant for bigger projects than ocean liners, and all across the world to this day we can see influences not in ships, fashion or jewellery but in architecture. To this day we see buildings all over the world however we can see many examples in north America, when looking at art deco architecture we can look at the Bullocks Wilshire building in Los Angeles.  The building was created in 1929 by a father and son architect team named John and Donald Parkinson, and was used as a luxury department store.  It was aimed at clientele in a higher class which is why i believe that it was important that the exterior was designed and built the way it was, at the time art deco design was a sign of luxury and wealth and for this department store to be made with this design in mind really did show the importance of the store.  To this day the building is still in use and is now a national historic landmark and has been used in many films from Aerosmith's love in an elevator music video and even the the final scene in Ghostbusters was filmed on top of the building. I feel that seeing that the fact that the building is being used for high budget and class films to this day is incredible and shows that art deco has stood the test of time as a great movement.

THE CHRYSLER BUILDING

The Chrysler building is one of the world’s most recognisable buildings not just for its stature and location but also for the design of the building.  It was designed and created by William Van Alen, who was born in New York in 1883. Building commenced on September the 19^th 1928, the construction of the building was fast and frantic as the designers were in a race to build the world’s tallest building, this was achieved at standing 1,047 feet above the New York streets it became the world’s tallest building, however this was only fact until 1931 when the empire state building was built also in New York leaving the Chrysler building the wold’s tallest for only 11 months.   What really stand out to me are the fact that it was built so fast and the design and beauty of the building was not compromised.  The top of the Chrysler building is the icing on the cake with seven floors of radiating arches each smaller than the one below it with triangle windows around the arches.  These types of windows, the odd shape and the design not for human use and living but for the overall design and aesthetic look of the building.  On the 61^st floor graced eagles are placed in each corner, these were made of steel and again shows the influence from other cultures, as this was around the time explorers were documenting their work from all around the world and I believe we see this influence with the eagles and sun shapes from the top of the building they have a very foreign look and design that could be linked to cultures such as Egyptian and Mayan civilisations.

There are links to other areas of design and art movements, such as the art nouveau movement.  Art deco was not the first art and design movement and there have been many since but what links these two is the style, the sleekness and the beauty of the designs.  The art nouveau movement was before the art deco movement and was pre-world war 1 and reigned the art and design world from 1890 to 1910 the term art nouveau literally means new art in French, and it was the group of French artists that defined the art deco movement  and created the society of decorating artists.  Art nouveau was most popular in Europe and especially France and one main designer was a man I have already mentioned he was called Hector Guimard, a main designer for art nouveau who lived and helped create the ideas through into the art deco era and helped spread the ideas and morals throughout the world.  And we see influences of this from all around the world such as the Chrysler building in New York to the Bullocks Wilshire building in Los Angeles and the Midland hotel in Morecambe, proof that the art deco movement really did spread like wild fire across the globe.

The Midland hotel

The midland hotel is based in Morecambe in England; I have chosen to look at this building in detail because of its history and the design.  It was built in 1933 right in the middle of the boom in art deco buildings being created and built; it was built as a take on the streamline modern design of art deco and emphasised curved lines and long horizontal lines which would stretch right around the building still keeping the forms and aesthetics of art deco true to its roots, and more often than not it would use nautical shapes and designs, which could explain as to why ships such as the SS Ile de France and other ships built around this time.  And we can see these generic themes running throughout the midland hotel, such as the large windows in the top of the building to bring in light which contrast with windows further down the building which are smaller and not ergonomically built for people to live with as minimal light will be drawn in through the window, a classic factor of the art deco industry.  In its prime it was a busy building and taken care of however in 1939 the building began too loose popularity and was handed over to the royal navy and then slowly run itself down to the ground.  However it was seen as a remarkable building both in design and meaning to the local community, and was re-opened again in 2008 but with a new splash of colour and re furbished furnishings.  Being true to the art deco era and design the hotel the designers kept true to the art deco roots.

When thinking about an art and design movement to study it was really easy when I see how the art deco movement has changed not only life and the way that we see the world but how it has stood the test of time and we still see influences of the movement still too this day.  Travelling through the city I can see the architecture that has been inspired by artists and designers over 100 years ago.  It was a movement that began in France and with French artists that wanted to showcase their skills to the world which in the end helped shape art and design as we know it.  It was a movement that not only shaped the architectural world but also other areas of art such as fashion, textiles, jewellery and even interior design and the creation of new and exciting auto mobiles.  It was also the interior design that also drew me too the movement just as much as the architecture did.  The bold colours and shapes and the symmetry of the interior design.  The multiple buildings that I have researched have shown me the specific style and beauty of the art deco era and also the simplicity of the design and with art the pieces that are created need to be desirable weather it be abstract, mainstream or post modernism art it always needs to be desirable.  Looking at art deco, the artists and designers surrounding it and the rise and history of the style has shown me that art deco, is desirable.

Bibliography

http://www.allpar.com/history/chrysler-building.html. (n.d.). Retrieved December 6th, 2012, from www.allpar.com.

http://www.arthistory.net/artstyles/artdeco/artdeco1.html. (n.d.). Retrieved December 6th, 2012, from Art history: www.arthistory.net

http://www.brynmawr.edu/cities/archx/05-600/proj/p2/npk/historydeco.htm. (n.d.). Retrieved December 6th, 2012, from www.brynmawr.edu.

http://www.urban75.org/blog/the-art-deco-splendour-of-the-stunning-chrysler-building-new-york-city/. (n.d.). Retrieved December 6th, 2012, from www.urban75.org.

Robinson, M. (2008). Art Deco: The Golden Age of Graphic Art and Illustration. Flame tree publishing.