Victorian 1837-1901 Decorative, Elaborate, and Highly Ornate
"Extravagant embellishment was applied to architecture, furniture, clothing, and appeared as elaborate borders and lettering in graphic design. Sentimentality, nostalgia, and idealized beauty were expressed through printed images of young women, flowers, children, and puppies and kittens."
"The term 'Victorian' (technically 1837-1901) designates an era when many designers and artisans were intensely interested in ornament. It was a time of global exploration, and when the art and design of distant cultures made headway into the mass culture of Europe, England, and the United States for the first time."
Arts & Crafts 1880-1910 Simple, Textured
"The movement’s figurehead was William Morris (1834–1896), designer, typographer, printer, and publisher."
"Have nothing in your house you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful," William Morris said. No detail of interior design was overlooked by the pioneer of the Arts and Crafts movement.
Art Nouveau 1890-1920 Linear, Female Form Emphasis
"Art Nouveau is an international style of art, architecture, and design that peaked in popularity during the last decade of the 19th century through the beginning of the First World War. It was characterized by an elaborate ornamental style based on asymmetrical lines, frequently depicting flowers, leaves or tendrils, or in the flowing hair of a female."
"Art Nouveau, ornamental style of art that flourished between about 1890 and 1910 throughout Europe and the United States. Art Nouveau is characterized by its use of a long, sinuous, organic line and was employed most often in architecture, interior design, jewelry and glass design, posters, and illustration."
"The advent of Art Nouveau - literally "New Art" - can be traced to two distinct influences: the first was the introduction, around 1880, of the British Arts and Crafts movement, which, much like Art Nouveau, was a reaction against the cluttered designs and compositions of Victorian-era decorative art. The second was the current vogue for Japanese art, particularly wood-block prints, that swept up many European artists in the 1880s and 90s..."
Futurism 1900-1930 Eclectic, Offset Text, Cubist Influence
"This movement can be traced back to a particular man and location. Filippo Tommaso Marinetti founded this design trend back in 1909 in Milan... Described for the first time in his Futurist Manifesto, Futurism was envisioned by Marinetti as a stalwart rejection of everything that made up the past."
"Futurists were well versed and practiced in nearly every field of art including painting, ceramics, sculpture, graphic design, interior design, theater, film, literature, music and architecture. It was a movement that particularly despised not just certain aspects of classical antiquity, but everything that was not totally new."
Early Modern 1910-1935 Geometric, Minimalist
"De Stijl was anti-emotion, concerned only with formal aesthetic problems. The most widely know painters of the period are Piet Mondran and Theo van Doesburg. Their style is the epitome of de Stijl, with straight black lines set at right angles to one another and a careful asymmetrical balancing of primary colors. The reduced components of line, plane, and color strongly influenced graphic design."
"Bauhaus was an influential art and design movement that began in 1919 in Weimar, Germany. The Bauhaus school, founded by Walter Gropius, launched a new way of thinking. Six months after the end of World War I, the school encouraged artists and designers to use their talents to help rebuild the broken society. The Bauhaus grammar — a triangle, a square, and a circle — evoked this back-to-the-basics mentality."
Heroic Realism 1910-1940 Realistic, Ideal Focus
"Defining Features: (1) Frequently associated with propaganda; message-driven (2) Human figures are often types or symbols related to image’s message, often in demonstrative positions in extreme foreground (3) Bold, primary color palette; lots of red (4) Realistic – albeit idealized – imagery (5) Themes of strength, service, honor industriousness"
"Seen especially during World Wars I and II and with the rise of various totalitarian regimes in the 20th century, propaganda graphic design is usually political in nature and depicts people, concepts, and goals as heavily idealized. From a pure design perspective, propaganda art can be overwhelming, as it idealizes and stylizes the ordinary into something much more grandiose to rally support for causes or gin up national fervor against something."
Art Deco 1920-1940 Geometric, High Contrast
"Symbolized by geometric skyscrapers and lavish lines, the Art Deco era was one of the most iconic, design movements from the 1920s to the 1940s. The term art deco derived from the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs Industriels et Modernes. While this term is well known today, the coined phrase didn’t become popularized until 1968."
"Art Deco is a form of design, visual arts and architecture which came to prominence as a symbol of luxury, wealth and sophistication in challenge to the austere influence of World War I. A diminutive of Arts Décoratifs, the name was taken from the 1925 Parisian exhibition titled ‘Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes’ which was the first to feature works of this style."
"This movement was inspired by European Avant-Garde early modern approaches and from this the Americans developed a unique and personal style which was very simplistic. Artists and designers merged organic shapes with simple geometry. The look of graphic design was changed through advancements in photography, typesetting and printing techniques and designers started to cut up type and images to glue down onto mechanical boards."
"Also known as International Style, the Swiss Style does not simply describe a style of graphic design made in Switzerland. It became famous through the art of very talented Swiss graphic designers, but it emerged in Russia, Germany and Netherlands in the 1920’s. This style in art, architecture and culture became an ‘international’ style after 1950’s and it was produced by artists all around the globe. Despite that, people still refer to it as the Swiss Style or the Swiss Legacy."
" (1) Pop Art is one of the most “popular” art movements of the Modern Era. The pop art movement started as a rebellion against the Abstract Expressionists, which were considered to be pretentious and over-intense. (2)Pop Art is an art form that reflected a return to material realities of peoples’ everyday life. It actually means the return to popular culture, thus the name “pop.” This art derives its style from the visual activities and pleasures of people: television, magazines and comics"
"The term “Kitsch” is a German word meaning “in bad taste.” In the arts, kitsch is used to describe art that is pretentious, vulgar and displays a complete lack of sophistication. On the other hand, camp—the idea that something is so bad that it’s good— is an accurate description of 1950s American Kitsch."
"The psychedelic movement began in the mid 1960’s and had an effect, not just on music, but also on many aspects of popular culture. This included style of dress, language and the way people spoke, art, literature and philosophy."
"Post-Modern design had began in the late 1960’s, it was formed and had gained popularity in America and the US. The movement was a reaction of a newer generation of open minded people who were free thinking and creating completely new radical ideas that was against modernism which they found to be a boring, simplistic approach to design. They also wanted to ridicule ideas of anything political in a sense like the dadaist approach but with less of a shock factor in my opinion."
"The label “digital” is an attempt to label the graphic style which emerged in the 1990s as a result of the revolutionary changes in computer technology. Digital style is not a historical movement since it is happening right now. The term “digital” will be replaced once this trend has ended and historians can view it in perspective."
"The term “Grunge” was first coined to stand for a specific type of music, influenced by punk, rock and heavy metal. The design itself takes on the rawness of punk and rock, and incorporates real life imagery inspired by the urban and industrial scene – it’s very stylistic, less uniform, and is easily recognizable. When you hear the term ‘Grunge Design’ you probably associate it with something that is disorganized, dark, gritty and a bit radical."
"It might sound audacious to think that Microsoft, the arbiter of uncool, was at the forefront of design a few years ago. But it was. It turns out the company’s decision to focus on “flat design,” a type of visual scheme where everything has a smooth and even look, was a few years ahead of the rest of the technology and user interface industry."