Frank Lloyd Wright

While reading up on the transition from Victorian graphics to art nouveau I became became very interested in the change from Victorian embelishments to functional minimalism.  This led me to the further look into the works of Frank Lloyd Wright. 

As an architect Frank Lloyd Wright had an interesting idea about "organic architecture" and everything having a purpose.  Meggs History of Graphic Design states Wrights concept as: "He rejected historicism in favor of a philosophy of “organic architecture,” with “the reality of the building” existing not in the design of the facade but in dynamic interior spaces where people lived and worked. Wright defined organic design as having entity, “something in which the part is to the whole as the whole is to the part, and which is all devoted to a purpose."  When I looked up more information on Wright I came across two different styles of acritecture; organic arcitecture and Usonian.  The concept of organic arcitecture was to achive a feeling of getting back to nature and natural surroundings while the concept of Usonian arcitecture was to be smaller and have more open space.  This concept leads to more functionality in the home.  These homes had many built-in amenities including seating and fireplaces.  The idea was to have a space that could be taken care of with ease.  This concept was not unlike that of the Vienna Secession which also favored harmony and funcion with little decoration.  This idea led to the art being focused in geometric design.  Simplicity rather than decoration was the thing to strive for.  Making something function to the best of its abuility rather than cover it with decoration was a way of proving an individual designers abuility over the mass produced, machine built objects. 

Looking back at the Wrights architecture and ideas I see similar ideas in today's society.  There seems to be a continual back and forth in society and art between functional minimalism and decoration.  I see this especially with technology.  The new minimal and functional designed with technological devices along with the "useless decoration" of apps that most people don't use.  Will one of these ideas become dominant or will there always be a odd balance between the two?  Do we need both ideas in order to appreciate the other?  Art is open to so many different interpretations and all of them are equally as important. 

Simplicity Vs. Overwhelming

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The mid 1800s brought about new typography and fonts which in turn increased demand for advertisement posters. Often times when new inventions and choices come about people tend to go a little overboard with options. I feel this happened with vaudeville and circus posters in the mid 1800s.

A few years ago I worked in a business card design center. I asked a co-worker for advice on a business card I designed and he said that mixing serif and sans-serif font does not look right. The round fonts vs. the fonts with feet. When I look at vaudeville posters I see an overwhelming mix of fonts styles.

The above poster used several different styles of font as well as sizes.  It also has color and images.  Meggs History of Graphic Design states; "

-->access to a nearly infinite range of typographic sizes, styles, weights, and novel ornamental effects, and the design philosophy was to use it."  This idea is shown in most vaudeville and circus poster of this era.  Another example is shown below. 

Today the idea is to use fonts to capture the  attention of the viewer but not to overwhelm them.  Type styles can be very aesthetic if used in the right way.  The design above also shows the use of text forming various paths across the poster.  The posters in the mid 1800s used many different type styles to capture the viewers attention as well and emphasis certain points over others.  Below is a current example of a circus poster.  

The above modern poster uses all sans-serif style fonts and the visual layout is much more aesthetically pleasing to the eye.  The text is centered and lined up straight on the page.  The use of color is appropriate and not overwhelming.  The image at the top catches attention but also does not take away from the rest of the page.

Graphic design has come along way since the 1800s but both styles are fun in their own way.  I still think the the modern carnival poster design still shows some essence of the 1800s style while also being cleaner and less visually overwhelming than the others.  I look forward to seeing how graphic design changes in the future!