Jules Cheret & Eugene Grasset

What first caught my attention was the poster for "Orphee aux Enfers" by Jules Cheret. I just found this particular design visually appealing. Which is where I start my research, both Jules Cheret and Eugene Grasset played important roles in the transition from Victorian graphics to the Art Nouveau style. Cheret was assigned as an lithographic apprentice by his father, he spent most of his time lettering backwards on lithograph stones for 3 years. He ventured to London for work but had no luck, so returned to Paris. Cheret was certain that lithographic posters were the deman of the future and that they would replace typographic letterpress posters that filled the streets. That is when he produced the design to the right which did not really do him any justice. It was still of mostly Victorian design.

 Cheret traveled back to London and there is where he learned the more advanced English color lithography. He moved away from the complex designs of Victorian and simplified his designs making his figures and lettering larger. Cheret designed his new innovated drawings with bright colors consisting of blue, yellow, and red. He introduced a new type of role model for women, "Cherettes" this was a depiction of a self-assured women who were happy and living life to the fullest. Cheret opened up and almost liberated women to be what they want to be, the image to the left is an example of the Cherettes.

Now Eugene Grasset was Swiss-born and was Cheret's rival for public popularity. Grasset studied medieval art and he was also influenced by Asian art. This influence was reflected a lot in his designs, take for example his title page for "Histoire des quatre fils Aymon" above.

Not only was his design style different he also depiction of women was in opposition of Cheret's "Cherettes". Instead of being outspoken and self-assured, Grasset's exhibition poster (above) displays the women having a traditional attitude with flat or muted colors. The women above also appears to be quiet and maybe even contemplative. They are quite different yet still played important roles in the transition from Victorian to Art Nouveau. Although their designs contrasted each other they both were influenced either by the arts and crafts movement(Cheret) or the Ukiyo-e designs(Grasset).

Advertising Past & Present

After reading chapters 9 and 10 I found the rise of American editorial and advertising design quite interesting.
I'd imagine persuasive selling has been around for an extremely long time. But when it's in the Victorian Era in  the golden age for graphic design it must have been ingenious to use imagery to sell your product. I found a few images of old and new advertisements to compare.

This advertisement is attempting to sell cocaine toothache drops. It appears to be acceptable to give this to your children in the late 19th century.

Here is another advertisement for Coca Cola, I believe this one is from the 1900's Did you know they use to put cocaine in Coca-Cola? It was removed in 1903 but still makes you wonder.

Now as for recent advertisements, I'd say most of our advertisements come from television. Especially during the superbowl any body remember any ones that are stuck in your head? 

Advertisements are everywhere in our generation.

Buses

Billboards

Yes, magazines!

Now it seem's the message is clear, Buy our product! The difference I see immediately is simply quality, as well as the combination of photography and graphic design. Although the methods in creating these designs are different, and innovative. But the same message is still being portrayed. 

Compare the two coke advertisements, the woman in the first ad is being given what looks like a small glass of coca cola. And the present advertisement for coke is saying to share happiness. Although coca cola has already earned a name for themselves and might not need to display as much information as the first ad, they are still showing coca cola being shared.

Typography

This weeks reading was a bit boring and long. I did come across a few interesting topics. William Caslon was a big dog when it came to type design. Apparently his styles were used for 6 decades! Also his fonts were used in the printing of the Declaration of Independence. How cool! This was out of left field I didn't foresee the bridge between Europe and the American Colonies. Which brings me to a website I stumbled upon in my research. I found this really neat website that has a bunch of user created fonts, not typeface but it appears to be just another innovation of typography. These fonts are at a range of intricacy and even utter simplicity. After reading the chapters assigned, I was able to better connect with the history of typography with our present day typography and how it is used in graphic design for an endless amount of things. Like billboards, magazines, books, movie titles/covers, posters, websites, logos, etc. I am glad though that we don't have it as hard as they did, with making paper, and printing presses. It seems to be easily accessible for anyone in the 21st century.

Example of new age fonts.

From "http://www.dafont.com/just-like-that.font"

Learning Arabic...

Ok to start it off I like to express my initial feelings and emotions. I am again overwhelmed, but more intrigued. I was very interested in the evolution of language. I had never before thought about how it all started, but here I am typing the English alphabet to form words with my keyboard. It makes me think of the invention of the movable type. how it has progressed and innovated. From printing presses and typewriters.

Also on a different note I did my own research but my source is actually from a family friend who has converted to Islam and is currently learning Arabic while pursuing his PhD in African Studies. His name is Michael Fattah. I went with him to the east bay recently and I wanted to ask him questions about Islam and why he converted. He never really believed in religion although he was taken to church as a child. He was a boxer at one time in his life and one of the guys he trained with tossed him a copy of the Qur'an. At first he rejected it but his sparring buddy made a really persuasive argument. He began to do some reading and felt whole, I told him it was his faith. But to get to the put I asked him why he is learning Arabic and he told me it was to fully understand the religion. He expressed that it is difficult to write in Arabic, he is just not use to the formation of words and sentences. He told me he has a journal that he practices writing in, although he doesn't know or understand the language completely yet it inspired thought for me. Especially after reading the chapters for this week. I began to bring things together with the invention of writing and the alphabets. I wish I had a chance to peek at his journal he writes in so I may compare his strokes with the Nashki and Kufic styles of writing for Arabic. All of these ideas make me wonder how our languages will evolve from how they are now, or if they even will. As we keep reading it just strikes more and more questions within my mind.

First Reaction!

History of Graphic Design, (Philip Meggs & Alston Purvis)

Graphic Design huh? Sounds simple, just some pictures with words and stuff. Absolutely not, after my run through of the pages I was stunned, or amazed. Some unclear emotion but I was in fascination. I had not thought of the idea of alphabets and languages coming from pictures. I mean yeah caveman write picture on wall, right? Well this was like a time machine flipping through the pages. Seeing Egyptian scriptures and Greek manuscripts it was eye opening. I can definitely understand the importance of communication, I mean we do it everyday. But this inspired me to think deeper, if images were used to communicate it got me thinking that many of these pictures explained science, and religion. Things that many people value greatly. These gigantic aspects of life would never have spread as they have if not for the beginning of these visualizations. Also the progression of typography is insane, simple straight letters can be now manipulated to whatever the creator sees it to fit. Along with the combination of photography with typography to create signs and billboards. As time went on the great creative minds kept innovating and this has got me to an infinite conclusion. What I've learned from just looking at the pictures in the book. That there is no correct form of art. Noticing the twists and turns of the simplistic to the abstract. Of course there are foundations to learn and build from but in all aspects of art form there is a very wide spectrum which has no limit to its ends. Just because no one has created a form of art does not mean it will never exist, and this possibility inspires and amazes me. This gives me a feeling of opportunity, if I want to I can mold my future just as the great creative innovators of the past have molded their's.