Travel Posters

I find this poster intriguing because it appeals to women.  Most posters asking you to join the forces are geared towards men and men only.  Most people would say that joining the service is risky business and should not be taken lightly, it is something that changes your entire life, you do not know where you are going next or if you will be alive the next day. 

This poster looks a lot like something you would see in a fashion magazine, something for a clothing add. Her hair is blowing in the wind with a smug smirk on her face when really she should be feeling anxious or proud! It also looks like she is modeling off Navy attire.  This add says nothing about the Navy.  This add could also appeal to men, she is posed in a bit of a sexual stance and the poster reads "I want you" I don't know what else could be more suggestive.  This poster is successful only because it has the potential to grab the attention of both sexes.  

This poster is successful because it grabs peoples attention from all over.  It makes them feel that they can be there too and that people from all over the world are going to be there.  It also makes traveling look exciting and new because at the time it was new and everyone likes new. Eastern airlines is using the world fair to their advantage in order to gain business and that is successful advertising.   

Cubism

Cubism was one of the most influential visual art styles of the early twentieth century. It was created by Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973) and Georges Braque (French, 1882–1963) in Paris between 1907 and 1914.  Cubist painters felt that art should not resemble nature or life in it's true form.  Cubism was no model of traditional techniques used for painting such as perspective and three dimensionality.  Cubist paintings often looked like something you would cut out of a magazine and place back together but in a non traditional sense to where you could hardly recognize what the image was originally. Cubism paved the way for geometric abstract art by putting a completely different emphasis on perspective, in renaissance art especially, perspective was what made a flat image look like real life. Cubists artists wanted nothing of the sort they made their images look completely dismembered.  

Homage to Picasso by John Nolan 

Fineartamerica.com

Pablo Picasso 1971 Getty Images

In the four decades from 1870-1910, western society witnessed more technological progress than in the previous four centuries. During this period, inventions such as photography, cinematography, sound recording, the telephone, the motor car and the airplane were the start of a new age. The problem for artists at this time was how to reflect the modernity of the era using previously trusted traditions that had served art for the last four centuries. Photography had begun to replace painting as the tool for documenting the age and for artists to sit illustrating cars, planes and images of the new technologies was not exactly inventive. Artists needed a more radical approach that expanded the possibilities of art in the same way that technology was extending the boundaries of communication and travel. Picasso and Braque were the ones to get people to look at art in a new way.

Braque, Photographed by Arnold Newman 1956

Purple tablecloth, Braque

The infamous Nike swoosh

It was nearly 40 years ago that Carolyn Davidson designed the infamous Nike logo.  Davidson was a college student at Portland State University where the co-founder of Nike was a track coach.  Her first paid "design" job was to pasint signs for an accounting professor in which she was paid $2 an hour.

As almost everyone knows Davidson was paid a measly $35 dollars for her design of the Nike logo which now has a value of $643,000 as of 2011. In an interview about her design she states that she was paid what she charged for her design and at the time it was quite a bit of money.  Spite the fact that the general population claims she was "ripped off" for receiving so little for her design, she worked with Nike for years after and received 500 shares of Nike stock.

Soon after the logo was designed the company started designing shoes with the name Nike after the Greek goddess of victory. Today Nike employs more the 30,000 people and has more than 19 billion sales every year.  The Nike logo is known worldwide recognized on hundreds of sports products.    

Ars and Crafts Movement

The arts and crafts movement was all about quality.  The leader of the English Arts and Crafts movement William Morris called for purpose and truth to the nature of the materials and methods of production and individual expression.
John Ruskin inspired the philosophy of Morris' movement.  According to Ruskin there was a severance of art and society caused by industrialization and the development of technology.  His claim is that creativity took a hit due to these factors, basically people just wanted to make products quickly in order to make money.  Ruskin believed that beautiful things were useful simply because they were beautiful.
Morris rested well to the beliefs of Ruskin and suggested that art and craft needed to be looked at a bit closer.  Mass produced goods lack this "honest" craftsmanship that needed to be applied when making all goods, from fabrics to buildings.

William Morris, Rose fabric design, 1883

Cabinet design for Morris and Company, 1861. Paintings by Ford Madox Brown, which illustrate the honeymoon of the fifteenth-century Italian King Rene of Anjou, grace this cabinet. Meggs' History of Graphic design 5th edition

Printmaking

In the early 1300’s pictorial designs were being printed on textiles in Europe. Card playing became popular and even though it was outlawed many people still played.  Since people were still playing cards, cards were still being designed which allowed block printing to still develop.  

Playing cards were the first printed pieces to be available to people that couldn’t necessarily read.  Laymen could now play card games that were originally only played by nobles.  Since almost everyone had access to cards that had all types of symbols on them, these symbols created a new way for people to communicate. 

Since these illustrations were typically quite simple they were used for religious instruction of illiterates.   

Woodblock print of Saint Christopher, 1423. The unknown illustrator depicted the legendary saint, a giant who carried travelers safely across a river, bearing the infant Christ. The inscription at the bottom reads, "In what so ever day thou seest the likeness of St. Christopher/in that same day thou wilt at least from death no evil blow incur. -Megg's History of Graphic Design 5th edition

Greek Alphabet History

The oldest known inscriptions date back to the 8^th century but the Greeks made major advancements in graphic communication when it came to their alphabet. 

            The story goes like this, Cadamus, King of Phoenicia set out to find his sister.  During his journey, he killed a dragon and planted its teeth like seeds and an army sprouted from them.  And in his return he brought the alphabet to Greece.  The stories main point is that Cadmus used the alphabet to bring his army to power.  He used the alphabet as a communication and information tool. 

ww.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Mythology/Cadmus.html

            The Greeks applied Geometry to the structure of letters to the Phoenician alphabet to make them into their own art form.  They first adopted the style of writing from right to left which soon turned into alternating every line so that one could read continuously.  Eventually it became the way that we read English today, left to right.     

            The Greek alphabet was adopted as Athens standard in 400BCE.  Around 700BCE the Greek alphabet became crucial because they developed a representative government.  When citizens voted they used tokens with inscriptions on them so they could vote in secret, instead of raising their hands.  They were also now able to authorize documents with a seal, which would typically be stamped into wax.  This also allowed for personal identification because you would be able to have your own seal.

http://athenianowlcoins.reidgold.com 

             The growth of oral communication to written began to grow in 350 BCE.  This led to the development of libraries.  These libraries contained papyrus scrolls, some of which we still have today.  Without the development of the Greek alphabet we would not have other languages like Latin, which also means English.