Michelle Do
Visual Art – Graphic Design
Written Task (Tertiary)
Teacher – Richard Baldwin

Graphic Design Essay (T)

Graphic Design during the 20th century has been influenced by four artistic, some also being cultural and philosophical, movements called Futurism, Dada, Surrealism and Modernism. These movements have played a large role in shaping the graphic design industry by bringing different meanings into the art as well as inspiring many artworks today. Out of the four movements, Futurism and Surrealism really stood out to me, and the two designers who were influenced by these movements are Fortunato Depero and A.M. Cassandre. Fortunato Depero (1892 – 1960) was an Italian graphic designer and he was inspired by the Futurism movement. Futurism was an artistic and social movement originated in Italy and it emphasized speed, technology and objects such as cars, planes and the industrial city. Since Fortunato was young, he was introduced and taught to develop different art techniques. He discovered a futurist paper called “Lacerba” in 1913 and was greatly inspired by it, this led to his approach to futurism. His career began as a fine artist, then developed into commercial art and later on in life he became the most successful graphic designer. His works include costume designs for stage productions, different advertising illustrations and as well as artworks he created to promote futurism and himself. He was also known for his cover designs for magazines such as Vanity Fair, MovieMaker and The New Yorker. Out of all of his works, the one that I found was the most interesting was one of his covers for Vogue he designed in 1930.
The 1930 Vogue cover was a very good example of the Futurism movement. It was a simple artwork that spelt the word “VOGUE”, at the top and like a tower in the middle of the canvas along with what seems like two purple walls or curtains on the side. It also possessed a contrasting colour scheme and cubic letters with minimal shading. Since this was a cover for a fashion magazine, Depero designed it to look quite stylish and modern. The colours are vibrant along with a strong contrast because of the colour black in the background. The colour palette is also aesthetically pleasing as Fortunato used complementary colours, and these elements represent Futurism well, as opposed to other types of medieval or ancient arts which were mostly painted with muted colours in a slight monotone manner. The letters were my personal favourite in this artwork. They were designed to look cubic which, in my opinion, are never going to go out of style as they are simplistic and you can still see fonts like this being used in artworks today. Cubic art also happens to belong to an art movement called Cubism, created by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in the early 20th century, and was the movement that Futurism was created in response to, this was also why a lot of futurist artists and designers tend to be inspired by Cubism. What I have also noticed with futuristic artworks is that they have either minimal to no shading, and when shading is included it looks very clean and sharp, unlike other forms of art where the shadows are often blurry to create a dark-to-light gradient. I think Depero painted the “VOGUE” logo as a tower (or if seen differently, the logo can be perceived as an award) with the purpose of drawing attention to it, the yellow colour was meant to give the impression of a gold covering, and this acts as a visual metaphor, saying that Vogue displays a lot of expensive and fashionable pieces on their pages. In my opinion, the overall cover would look better if there were some soft shadows added to create a sense of balance between it and the clean edges of everything else on the print, but since that is not considered a part of the futuristic elements, it can be understandable. The second designer that I have chosen is A. M. Cassandre and he was inspired by the Surrealism movement. Surrealism was a Europe-originated artistic and cultural movement stemmed from Dada, and was also inspired by Cubism. Surrealist artworks tend to be three-dimensional and composed of objects that don’t behave like they are supposed to realistically (for example, Salvador Dali painted giant melting clocks), transformations, symbolisms and so on. Canssandre was a Ukrainian-French painter and graphic designer. He was known for his first work, a poster called Au Bucheron in 1923, which was printed as a large-format poster and was displayed throughout Paris. This impressed Parisians and got numerous of positive feedbacks and he became famous very quickly. Over time, he made a name for himself with projects such as posters like Etoile du Nord, Dubo Dubon Dubonnet, Nord Express, his typeface designs as well as the well-known Yves Saint Laurent logo. One that I found was the most appealing was his cover design for Harper’s Bazaar in 1939, also a famous fashion magazine. The cover design for Harper’s Bazaar is good representation of Surrealism. Cassandre painted a woman wearing a large plaid coat with a matching dress and there are two branches that are growing around the shape of her coat and in the background there is a thick layer of snow that she is sitting on. Since Surrealism is all about making the subjects look realistic, you can see soft shadows being added to the side of her face, making her look more three-dimensional and real as well as helping you to identify where the light source is. The three-dimensional effect is also added with the way Cassandre painted the clouds and created the folds in her clothing, preventing the whole picture from looking flat and cartoon-like. Unlike Futurism, surrealist artists tend to spend more time on intricate details, and you can see it in the branches as well as the coat and dress. Cassandre painted the objects carefully, like how he created tiny brush strokes to add a variety of sizes to the twigs growing away from the actual branch, and the way that the plaid pattern was painted on the woman’s clothing, how it flows very naturally as the folds appear and realistically as it goes down. For colour, if we were to compare this cover to the Vogue cover, the colours are a lot less saturated, but at the same time the colour palette has a wider range. By including more shades and tones of the same colour family, Cassandre successfully designed a print that looks real and 3D. However, the vibrant colour was still added with the purpose to make a certain area pop (for example, the woman’s red lipstick). He also formed a great contrasting look to this cover, by painting a light background and have the woman’s clothes very dark to create emphasis. I think the branches are what made the cover quite surrealistic. They are growing around the woman’s figure, which isn’t how natural branches behave and in my opinion, he painted the branches like this with the intention to glorify the woman and the fashion pieces that she is wearing. Also, as mentioned above, one of the other elements of Surrealism is transformation, and here you can see it by paying attention to the way the clouds on the sky is blending in with the snow on the ground, creating no obvious horizon. This gives the cover an overall chilly feel for the magazine’s winter issue, while the red lipstick gives off a glamorous impression, perfect for the high fashion look. I think the meaning of this print is that you can still look good even with the harsh weather, this can help to promote the clothes in the magazine, but from another perspective, this can be seen as mocking people who doll up despite the climate. What I would do differently is add more branches in the background to emphasize the wintery background, but I think Cassandre didn’t do that because the branches will blend in with her coat and give it a funny look, also because that can take away the cleanness and make it look less high fashion. Fortunato Depero and A. M. Cassandre’s works have been inspired greatly by the two art movements and it was interesting to learn the difference between the elements and techniques that each movement uses. Artistic movements from the 20th century have been a big influence on arts generally and graphic design specifically and I think they will continue to inspire more and more artists in the future.

Bibliography

• http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/art_movements/cubism.htm ”Cubism”, date unknown.
• http://legomenon.com/time-and-motion-in-art-futurist-paintings-of-movement.html K Shabi, “Time and Motion in Art: Futurist Paintings of Movement”, June 2013.
• http://imodern.com/cubism_and_futurism_art.html “Cubism and Futurism Abstract Art”, date unknown.
• http://designhistorymashup.blogspot.com.au/2008/04/fortunato-deperos-role-in-typographic.html Kelsey, “Fortunato Depero’s role in Typography Expansion”, April 2008.
• http://www.quotes-famous-artists.org/futurism-in-art-quotes “Futurism, the Italian modern art movement, explained in meaning, art characteristics and artists ideas”, date unknown.
• https://drehergraphicdesign.wordpress.com/fortunato-depero/ “Fortunato Depero: Biography”, date unknown.
• https://drehergraphicdesign.wordpress.com/amcassandre/ “A. M. Cassandre: Biography”, date unknown. • http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/surrealism/Origins-of-Surrealism.html “The Origins of Surrealism”, date unknown. • http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/surrealism.htm “Surrealism”, date unknown.