When looking into Art Deco Design, the style is very structured and organised and I wanted to get an understanding of something that contrasts this in modern day design. I have always been interested in how tradition could be combined with contemporary design to create an interesting product.

Urban Typography

Urban Typography is everywhere, when walking up the High Street, there are hundreds of examples and thinking about the first blog post, I found a number of interesting Type examples around Lincoln which are different to that of the very structured and luxurious style of Art Deco. 

I found an interesting blog called ‘The Journal of Urban Typography’ which features a wide variety of urban Typefaces the world. The type in a number of the pictures features handwritten or stencil designs. 

 

I like the way that these are hand drawn and this design that is not structured, organised and is creative in it’s design. This contrasts that of the art deco style, yet both have been used in urban cities with the rise of the Art Deco in New York in the 1920’s. I think that this is very interesting in having two very contrasting designs that could work together in a city. 

I also looked at the way in which modern typographers have been using digital media to create visually interesting work. 

Rus Kasanov

 

Rus Kasanov is a Russian-born designer who has worked for clients such as Adobe, Bloomberg Markets, Computer Arts, HTC, GQ, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science and Wired. 

He has created typefaces using laptop screens, tasers, and soy sauce. One of his projects which I found particularly interesting is his work with the digital music video  “Crystallize” using Salycylic acid and sugar under a microscope. Even though the project is not strictly about Typography, there are still elements to his work which I find very interesting. 

 

What I like about this is the cross media use of Typography. The very visually interesting shapes of the type have been used in order to create a digital piece of work which could also be considered very creative in design. I would like to see how two medias could be used to create interesting Typography. 

I really like the idea of using both traditional and modern typographical styles and see how they could work together. I want to look at how Art Deco could be used with modern technologies to create a modern Art Deco design. 

The Art Deco Style

I looked further into the art deco design of the 1920’s and wanted to get a better understanding of the origins of this movement and how I could incorporate this into my design. It has many features which are similar to that of the nineteenth century Art Nouveau art movement which:

“Relied on floral motifs to pattern and ornament its building and other artefacts, whereas, Art Deco was thoroughly modern in turning away from the winding, sinuous qualities of Art Nouveau, looking instead to those of abstract design and colour for colour’s sake.”  (Art Deco, Grange Books.) 

This style that was very structured and organised was something that interested me and I wanted to see how I could experiment with this in my own way and see how this could be used to create an interesting and different style. I began with a simple drawing of a few letters as a simple Art Deco design. 

I decided to experiment with the use of lines and the structured detail of the letters which I think worked well with the original design and gave the letters a sense of modern typography design. However, this design is very simple and could have a lot more done to it in order to create a more visually interesting type face. 

Experimenting with Art Nouveau

In order to get a better understanding of the inspirations of Art Deco, I decided to create my own Art Nouveau inspired letter and to see how this could influence my typographical style. I liked the Art Nouveau poster design and particularly liked the design of this typeface and the floral aspect to it. 

The first image is my sketch of an example of an Art Nouveau style typeface and was particularly inspired by particularly the poster design. I really like the bold pattern of the letters and how this reflects the style of Art Nouveau in Paris. 

The second image shows the improvements I made to the original design in colour and detail. When looking at the Art Nouveau style, the colour and the pattern was something which was very bold and I wanted to reflect that in my design. I used Gold and Silver paint markers which have relevance to the Art Deco style, particularly in New York 1920’s/30’s and I liked how this made the letter stand out and reflect the luxurious style of the Art Deco Design. 

 

“There was going to be no more poverty, no more ignorance, no more disease. Art Deco reflected that confidence, vigour and optimism by using symbols, of progress, speed and power.” – Robert McGregor. 

When I have been thinking about where I find the most interesting type faces, I have been particularly looking into typefaces that have been iconic in history. I think that many commercial type has connections to the iconic styles of the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s. There are a few typefaces that stand out from these eras and I have found particular interest in these. 

1930’s Art Deco Design:

I have always been very interested in the art deco design movement throughout the 1920’s and 30’s, particularly in American Culture. So when I started to look at type faces throughout history, this was something which I really wanted to know more about. 

Art Deco Design has connections with the 1925 Paris Exhibition ‘Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs’ This exhibition showcased the new design movement of Art Deco, which portrayed ‘French Taste’ and ‘Luxury Goods’. French Design was very prominent in the world of Design throughout the 1920’s and 30’s. 

This is the poster for this exhibition and clearly portrays the Art deco design which was coming into from Paris. 

I really like the way in which the letters clearly represent a design movement which stands for the representation of Paris at the time after World War 1, showing luxurious imagery and experimental typography. 

This is something I would like to look further into and experiment with my own art deco type face, seeing the different ways in which Art Deco works in commercial type. 

1940’s Poster Typography:

I looked into the typefaces which where used throughout the 1940’s and found that military based type and also a very handwritten style where very common of this era. The type faces which where familiar of the 1940’s seemed to be very structured and very bold. I particularly looked at the famous posters which where around in the time. With Typography being a bold part of poster design throughout Wartime in Britain and America, I found a number of bold examples of type. 

The type that is used on these posters is very bold and stands out to serve a specific purpose throughout wartime. I like this bold and structured typeface and would like to experiment with different styles that could be used in different contexts. 

The 1940’s have a number of interesting typefaces which I would like to explore further to find inspirations for my typography design.