Transcripts
1. Course Intro. : As the saying goes,
history repeats itself. Trends are often coming in
and out in a cyclical manner, but have you ever wondered when or where some of
these trends start? History, my creative friends, design eras of the past
often influence the work, and yes, even the trends
that we see today. In my personal opinion, as
a designer and an educator, I really believe
that understanding design history will make
you a better designer. I also find that this kind of knowledge often
sparks inspiration. Whenever I'm feeling
creative block or having trouble
starting a project, I'll often hit the
book, so to speak, to research to get some
visual motivation. A fantastic start to this for me is looking into design eras. This month, we'll
be doing just that. I wanted to share a
mini style course for those of you looking
for inspiration to get those creative juices flowing and get some visual
inspiration in front of you. We're going to be
exploring ten design eras in just about 10
minutes, and in the end, you'll be tasked with
designing a postcard in any program of your choice in the style of
your favorite era, keeping in mind the defining
characteristics of that era. This course is catered
to learners of all levels and for anyone
interested in design history. It's also created for those
looking for insight and inspiration from design eras that influence
modern work today. I'm looking forward
to getting inspired with you today.
Let's get started.
2. Bauhaus Era: The first design era
that we're going to look at is the Bauhaus design era. It's a German artistic
movement which lasted from about 19:19 through 1933. Is goal was to merge all artistic mediums into
one unified approach, combining an
individual's artistry with mass production
and function. When it comes to the
defining characteristics, Bauhaus design is
often abstract, angular and geometric with
little ornamentation. Bauhaus designs prioritize
the functionality of the design over its style. Bau House designs
are often simple, rational, and functional
with very clean lines. When it comes to
the color stories, often Bauhaus designs use a limited color palette and with a focus on primary colors
like red, yellow, and blue. When it comes to the fonts, you'll see Sanserafonts used. Bauhaus typographers
created Sanserafonts that were easy to
read and reproduce. The influence of the
Bauhaus movements include the arts and
crafts movement, and it was essentially a response to the
need to make everyday objects functional
and aesthetically pleasing in the age
of mass production.
3. Art Nouveau Era: Vaux style is a style of decorative art architecture
and design that was prominent in Western Europe
and the United States from about 18 90 till 1920. It was characterized by
intricate linear designs and flowing curves based on natural forms and an
earthy color palette. When we look at the
defining characteristics, it includes things like hand drawn and natural
lines and shapes. And this was in huge contrast to the highly geometric shapes that define the art deco
style before it. In addition to that earthy
color palette you'll often see natural neutral tones and simple two or three
tone color stories. When it comes to fonts,
they're typically elegant, decorative and
inspired by nature. They're also embellished with strikes and filigrees
and overall, art nouveau is known for
its kind of undulating flowing lines that are often inspired by natural
forms like flowers, vines, and insect wings. Finally, art nouveau
artists were often influenced by
nature and organic forms, and they believed that
all art should be united.
4. Early Modern Era: Next era we're
going to look at is the early modern
graphic design style. Early modernism was a time when artists and designers
broke from tradition to create a new style
of design that would influence all artists and
designers around the world. Early modern artists were described as new
or experimental, and they kind of changed the way others saw
design and art. When we look at the defining
characteristics of this era, a geometric style was a defining shape of early
modern graphic design. Also, early modern
graphic design style is seen as more of a
minimalistic approach. There was more photos
and less illustrations, and there were very simple
color stories black, white and red were very popular, and primary colors were
also used for contrast. Look at the font, early
modern graphic design often use clean, simple types. And finally, when we explore
the influences of this era, modernist graphic design
was often inspired by artistic movements like cubism and futurism and surrealism.
5. American Kitsch Era: Era we're going
to look at is the American Kitch
graphic design style. This was very prominent
during the 1950s. Kitch is a German word meaning in bad taste,
and in design, Kitch has been used
to describe art or design that is kind
of like over the top, vulgar and displays
what one would consider a complete
lack of sophistication. On the other hand,
though, the idea that something is so bad that
it's actually good is how Kitch became such a
ironically embraced term by American designers that often use that style
during the 1950s. Within American Kitch design, shapes often took
futuristic styles, even further with
dramatic curves and space age forms and informal
When we look at the colors, there are often bold,
vibrant colors used. When we look at fonts, Kitch design was also
characterized by its use of bold and zany fonts
as well as script fonts, and you'll often
see contrasting, imagery, and cartoon
like illustrations. When we look at some of the
influences of this era, you'll often see
some ideas pulled in from the art deco
time period as well.
6. Late Modern: Late modernism, which was
a graphic design era that you often saw between
1945 through 1960, encompasses the
overall production of the most recent art made between the aftermath
of World War two and the early years
of the 21st century. When we explore some of the
defining characteristics, if we look at shape, it's often known for
distorted geometric shapes and informal layouts. Within the color arena, you'll often see bold, bright, primary colors contrasted with black and if we look at the fonts that are often
used throughout this period, the only aspect of this style that isn't informal is the type. Often the fonts used were devoid of any
kind of decoration. They were bold,
plain, very simple, non decorative type that contrasted with the
very informal layout. This time period is known for
very innovative techniques. You saw advancements
in photography and typesetting and
printing techniques, Gale. Often seen a lot of influence pulled from
popular culture. There was this fascination with the graphic simplicity and directness of things
like comic books. And we also saw a bit of that sophisticated
understanding of modern
7. Swiss International: Next up, we're going to explore the Swiss international
graphic design style. This was very prominent from
the 1940s to the 1980s, and this style of design originated in Switzerland
in the 1940s, and it was the basis for
much of the development of graphic design during the
mid to late 20th century. It was led by designers at the Zurich School of Arts and Crafts and the Basil
School of Design. This style pretty much
favored simplicity, legibility, and objectivity. Of the many contributions
to develop from those two schools were the
use of San serif typography, grids, and asymmetrical layouts. This design era also
stressed a combination of typography and photography as a means of visual communication. The primary influential
works that were developed during this time
included things like posters. Grids were very prominent
and designs were often set asymmetrically
within the grid. When we look at color, the style uses modest but bold
color palettes, and it often used white space to create visual attraction to
draw your eye into the piece. And overall, this
period was influenced and inspired by modernist
trends from other countries.
8. Psychedelic: Next up, we have the psychedelic graphic design style
era of the 1960s. The name psychedelic in the design movement often
refers to the use of mind altering
recreational substances that were popular with the
youth culture of the time. Posters for rock
concerts try to visually express this idea of feeling
like you're tripping out. And the visual motifs of the psychedelic art period also include Art Nova, inspired
curvilinear shapes, ideas of legible,
hand drawn type and really intense optical
vibrational colors that were inspired by
the pop art movement. We also see abstract
swirls, intricate patterns, and psychedelic art often
featured this kind of, like, kaleidoscope fractal or
Paisley pattern motif. When it comes to
typography and fonts, psychedelic art often featured innovative typefaces
and hand lettering. There is often a lot of surreal and metaphysical
subject matter throughout this time
period, as well.
9. Post Modern: Next, we're going to look at
post Modern graphic design. So this is around 1970
throughout the 1980s. This design era features
a combination of styles. There's no unifying ideals or formal directives
throughout this time period. Essentially, it was a new way
of thinking about design, and it featured a
mix up of styles, characterized by tilted axis and collage like illustrations. There were overlying figures. It just included these kind of impulsive decoration throughout
the design movements. And it brought about
this kind of, like, radical freedom to art and design through
utilizing concepts and gestures that were often
funny and sometimes confrontational and
occasionally absurd. So if we look at shape, you'll often see impulsive
and playful shapes that tilted axis. A lot of geometric shapes are
included in this as well. And in terms of color, there's a lot of exuberant
and bright color stories in terms of fonts and type. So they often use a wide range of typefaces and fonts throughout the design
during this era. Postmodernism, it
rapidly went on to influence a lot of different
areas of pop culture, including art, film, music,
graphics, and fashion.
10. Grunge: So next, we're going to look at the grunge graphic design era. So you'll see this from the 90s throughout the early 2000s, I would even say this kind
of even plays back into the 1980s as well when it comes to kind of like that
punk rock that kind of, like, paved the way into
what I see as grunge. But when we look at the origins of grunge and graphic design, it can be traced back
to those early 90s alongside the rise
of grunge music. The music genre emerged
in Seattle, Washington, and it quickly gained such
popularity because of its raw alternative style and its very non
conformist ethos. Designers began to adopt this
aesthetic into their work. Grunge design was
characterized by its gritty, weathered and distressed look, I had a bit of a
vintage touch to it, and often mimicked this kind of, like, worn out appearance of band posters and
album covers, and essentially, the design
throughout this era really rejected the clean
polished design vibe. When it comes to shape,
you'll often see organic shapes and
distressed textures, things like torn paper,
crumpled services, ink splatters and scratches. When it came to colors, typically grunge designs employ a muted and moody color
palette with shades of browns, grays, and deep earthy tones. Fonts used in grunge
design often have kind of a hand drawn
irregular quality to them. You see a lot of influence
from kind of like this creative DIY style, kind of like the self
made garage band.
11. Flat Design: And finally, the last design era we are going to explore is the flat style
graphic design era of the 2002 thousand tens. So this is a very
minimalist design era that emphasized clean two
dimensional elements with really bright colors, and it prioritized
simplicity and usability. And essentially it removed
any kind of, like, three D effects or
shadows and textures. Also known for having clean
lines and crisp edges. You also see a lot
of grid layout use. It uses very symmetrical
grid based layouts. And when it comes to the colors, often flat design uses bright, high contrast colors and a
lot of white space to kind of draw the viewer in and create this contrast between
the bright colors. And in terms of fonts, it's very much focused
on legible texts. Flat design uses
legible body texts and contrasting font sizes and weights to kind of give
a sense of hierarchy. Type faces like Ariel
and Helvetica are really great examples of
options that you could use. It's primarily influenced by the international
typographic style, also known as the Swiss style. Text user interfaces, modernism, and all of these styles kind
of emerged from Bau House.
12. Course Outro: Thank you so much for exploring these ten design
eras with me today. I hope this class has helped
you gain some insight on the history of design as well as inspire you for your
next creative project. I also hope that it
has inspired you to experiment with your
design process overall. Remember to make
sure to check out the class resources
for the class workbook and a project example. And also, if you feel inspired, make sure to share your project in the class project gallery. Or if you feel up for it, you can also share it
on social media and tag me at Bella Sophia Creative. I'd love to see
what you created or even offer some helpful
tips if you need them. For your class project, you'll
be tasked with designing a postcard and any program of your choice in the style
of your favorite era, keeping in mind the
defining characteristics of that era that we explored. Since I won't be walking you through a software
tutorial here, I want you to create
your project in any software that you
feel excited to use. I opted to use
Affinity Designer, but you are free to use
whatever is available to you. In addition to the recaps
of the eras in this class, feel free to tap into
additional research, as well as utilize
the class workbook. You can access that along with my work samples in
the class resources. Finally, please consider
leaving a class review. These reviews are so helpful in ensuring teachers
get engagement, which in turn helps our
classes overall in search. Thank you so much for
learning with me today. I will see you in
the next one. Bye.
Jenny Veguilla-Lezan, Latinx Designer & Illustrator
