GDES3003 – Major Brief – Research Part 1

GDES3003 – GREEN DESIGN – MAJOR BRIEF

Initial Research – Part 1 – All about that Cob!

Matthew Lloyd – The Fabulous Cob Oven Company

What is a Cob Oven?

A cob oven is a centuries-old way of baking. Perfect, then, for the 21st Century foodie.

Cob is a material with a clean conscience. Using the clay from under our feet, mixed with sand and straw, it has been a staple building material to millions across the globe for millennia.
In the Americas they call it adobe. No energy-hungry cement is used in the mix, and no machinery is required for construction. This is a truly accesible and sustainable method of building that connects us to our environment, and nourishes both our soul and our body.

Wood-fired ovens are becoming a foodie must-have. Your roasts will be succulent and your pizzas will cook in seconds. Nothing beats a cob oven for the centre of attention at a party. Everyone will want to try their hand at baking a pizza, and will gather around the oven long into the night.

Burning wood is a low carbon process. No fossil fuel here. This is sustainable cooking, and if you burn fruit woods you’ll be adding a very special accent to your dishes indeed.

A cob oven isn’t just about pizza. You’ll be baking bread, roasting vegetables, broiling meats – the only limit is your imagination. Learn to embrace this relaxed style of cooking, and you’ve got yourself an evening’s entertainment that will have you heading back to the larder in search of more ingredients to try out.

(Source – the Fabulous Cob Oven – 05/11/15)

COB refers to the mixture of clay, sand & straw that has been used for thousands of years. It uses all natural materials and is very easy to build.

Matthew talks passionately about his love of Cob Ovens and after successfully completing a build with a local Primary School, the values inherent in education.

…share the love of cob ovens and show how they have the potential to inform, educate and entertain children as part of their outdoor learning experience.

He even built his own ‘straw bail’ studio, which is an interesting subject that could tie into the overall social space build we are looking at.

I have given talks and workshops on straw bale construction. It’s an amazing system – I followed the simple recipe designedby Barbara Jones of Amazonails for a load bearing structure. It far surpassed my expectations, and I want to do it again, and make it my home.

Observations of the Fabulous Cob Oven website

I noticed a theme to the iconography and graphical style used throughout Matthews website – Earthy tones, hand prints (hands on, hand made, eco), floral & hand drawn style typography, warm, rustic/distressed

Other considerations (for our Cob Oven)

How is the cob oven housed/could it be covered for use in all weather?

How high does it stand/could it stand?

How will the space around it be used? Could we incorporate storage area’s or seating of some description. The area is intended to be a social hub, so it could be about more than ‘just’ the Cob Oven.

Think of ways that people interact, socialise, drink, eat & play together

Cob House Documentary

Channel 4 made a short film about our cob house and how we built it. Click here to watch it now on 4OD.

(Source – http://www.cobcourses.com/cob-houses/watch-cob-house-documentary/)

Photo’s of existing designs

I found a number of images online of cob ovens that people have already built. I selected a variety based on how they had creatively decorated the ovens, considered additional things like storage area’s/facilities, to weather covers and even seated areas. Lot’s of inspiration to choose from

GDES3003 – Green Design – Major Brief – Initial Research

GDES3003 – GREEN DESIGN – MAJOR BRIEF

My notes based on: The Brief

The University of Worcester’s on site student allotment is both a place of retreat – as well as providing a regular supply of fresh, home-grown, produce for student use. Interest in the allotment from students is on the rise and the University’s Sustainability team are looking to help transform part of it into more of a ‘social space’ as well as it’s food-growing role. The aim is to have some of this produce prepared and used in simply-prepared food dishes that are easy for students to achieve (such as pizzas and roasted dishes) some of which is possible next to the place it was grown. In order to achieve this, the Sustainability team have identified a suitable existing concrete floor space within the allotment to build an earthen (Cob) oven – and (ultimately) a small sheltered area surrounding it. The hope is that this will become an additional outdoor social space facility for sustainability students that helps transform local produce into simple, healthy and tasty meals to be enjoyed in a shared, social scenario.

Partnering this facility, your client requires a set of clear, easy to read, e-resources and physical assitive artifacts that can help explain best practices for oven use, maintenance and simple to prepare recipes.

Client

Katy Boom – The sustainability course team, University of Worcester.

http://www.susthingsout.com

Key objectives

Provide the clients with a set of informative e-resources, to include;
- 2 A4 content pages, suitable for individuals who both use and maintain their cob ovens.
- Should be colour and A4 in format (multi-page .pdf document).
- Appropriate for audience range :
  - Primary – Sustainability students.
  - Secondary – The Client & UW Sustainability team.
- Content should be generating from research & investigation.

Submission

Multipage .pdf e-document consisting of front & rear cover plus 2 pages of content from:
- Intro page
- About
- How to use your oven effectively
- How to prep and cook a simple small pizza
- 2 other simple (roasted) recipes for Cob Ovens
Front cover
Rear cover – Acknowledgments, logos etc.
3D Supporting artefact – fold up plate, multi use pizza box etc.
- Research – recycled board, sustainable packaging & materials (corn starch plastics, vegetable based inks/dyes), glue-less folds, packaging nets.
- Artefact must be supplied with artwork applied/mocked-up.
Separate imagery for final display boards.

Milestone Deadlines

5th Nov 15 – Roughs deadline (4x concept sketches & supporting notes).
26th Nov 15 – Prototypes dealdine (evidence of final digital artwork).
3rd, 4th Dec 15 – Cob oven build (good photo opportunity – Test firing on the 4th).
10th Dec 15 – Peer Assessment.
14th Jan 16 – Final submission (14.15 – 15.15).

GDES3003 – Green Design – Week 5 Blog task

GDES3003 – Green Design – Week 5 Blog task

Ref 1 – London Bio Packaging http://www.londonbiopackaging.com

Q – How many take away meals were consumed over the course of the 2012 Olympic Games?

A – 14 million

Q – How much waste to landfill were Olympics organisers expecting to have to go to landfill?

A – 8,500 tonnes

Q – How many pieces of packaging were needed for the games – and by supplying these what did LBF help the games achieve?

A – 120 million pieces, helped the 2012 games achieve zero waste to landfill by using their “closed loop” system. All packaging responsibly made and responsibly disposed of using recycling and compostable methods.

Q – How many stages are there in their closed loop system? – What happens at each stage? – Is this appropriate for this company? If yes then please explain why you think so.

A – 5 stages : 1 – Supply – Ensuring that all disposable packaging is recyclable or compostable. 2 – Dispose – Close loop composting process used to collect, recycle or compost waste. 3 – Collect – LBP arranges waste collection. 4 – Process – They ensure waste is taken to correct facility so that it can be composted or recycled. 5 – Re-use – The compost collected is then distributed and re-used for agriculture to help grow new crops.

Q – What are Bioplastics ?

A – These are plastics made from plants. The starch contained within the plant is processed to produce a polymer. Bio-plastics behave in a similar way to conventional plastics and are suitable for most packaging applications. However, unlike finite oil based plastics which take millions of years to form and hundreds of years to degrade, they are annually renewable and suitable for commercial compost (nature s way of recycling) within 12 weeks where facilities exist. The carbon footprint of Bio-plastic is therefore much lower than traditional petroleum based plastics.

Q – Look at the other materials LBP use. Could you order these in terms of most sustainable , explain why you ve ordered them like this on your post.

Plant Starch – Plant Starch Material (PSM) is a flexible bio based packaging material which has not been refined into a bio-plastic. It is made from renewable crops.
Bio Plastics – As with PSM these are made from plant starch, but require refinement and so whilst they reduce carbon footprint and greenhouse gasses when compared to traditional methods, they still require substantial energy to produce.
Recycled Plastic – Reduces plastic going into landfill.
Recycled Paper – As well as diverting waste from landfill, sustainable forest paper ensures that the forests from which the paper comes and managed so as not destroy the forest, to promote biodiversity and protect any indigenous peoples.
Forest Wood – Reliant on above.
Palm Leaf – I have put this towards the bottom as I don t believe it is as efficient or sustainable in volume as some of the above materials.
Sugar Bagasse – I have put this as least sustainable as there is currently not adequateinformation on associated carbon emissions, although this this is a waste product, so it will by definition be saving carbon.

Q – What is PSM and what are it s key properties? Why is this useful?

A – Plant Starch Material (PSM) – A flexible bio based packaging material which has not been refined into a bio-plastic. It is made from renewable crops like corn or potatoes. PSM is heat resistant making it particularly suitable for hot food applications and ideal for bio disposable cutlery.

Q – What is sugar bagasse and how might it be turned into packaging?

A – The waste material produced once sugar cane has been harvested for the sugar syrup is called bagasse. This fibrous material is a renewable resource. There is not currently adequate information on the associated carbon emissions, but as this is a waste product, it will by definition be saving carbon as it replaces what would otherwise be a requirement for some virgin material manufacture.

Sugar bagasse is turned into packaging products from its raw form using a process of heating, pulping and then pressurised moulding. These are heat resistant and microwaveable making them ideal as hot food containers and best of all, naturally compostable.

Q – Pick one other material listed and explain what it is and what it s key properties and considerations are.

A – Recycled Plastic (rPET) – rPET (recycled polyethylene terephthalate) is the most common plastic that is being recycled back into primary applications (i.e. bottles recycled back into bottles and not down-cycled into lesser products like park furniture). Recycled plastics reduce the amount of fossil fuel resources, have a lower carbon footprint than virgin plastics, divert material from landfill and can themselves be recycled.

Ref 2 – Wrap http://www.wrap.org.uk/

Q – Who are Wrap? Describe what they do in a paragraph.

A -Wrap are a charity and are effectively a middle man between governments, companies, communities & individuals who work to raise awareness and to bring about change with recycling and sustainable living practices for a brighter, cleaner future.

Q – What commercial sectors do they deal with and why ?

A -They work with hundreds of businesses and local authorities, trade associations and charities to deliver change. They claim to be experts in establishing the facts, getting the right people working collaboratively to agree common goals, then converting ideas into real action and delivery on the ground.

They drive change in the areas where they feel they can make the biggest difference:

Q -Do they deal with the idea of a circular economy? If yes how do they aim to tally with these ideas?

A – Yes they do. “A circular economy is an alternative to a traditional linear economy (make, use, dispose) in which we keep resources in use for as long as possible, extract the maximum value from them whilst in use, then recover and regenerate products and materials at the end of each service life.”

As well as creating new opportunities for growth, a more circular economy will:

reduce waste
drive greater resource productivity
deliver a more competitive UK economy.
position the UK to better address emerging resource security/scarcity issues in the future.
help reduce the environmental impacts of our production and consumption in both the UK and abroad.

Q – What are Wrap s 3x key priority areas and what do they aim to do in these?

A – WRAP s vision is a world in which resources are used sustainably.

Their mission is to accelerate the move to a sustainable resource-efficient economy through:

re-inventing how we design, produce and sell products,
re-thinking how we use and consume products, and
re-defining what is possible through re-use and recycling

Look at section 4 : Design for Re-Use, Recycling and Recovery.

Q – Describe 3 key considerations within design for re-use .

Ensure that the packaging is designed for and is robust enough for re-use.
Check that your business partners will also treat the packaging as re-usable and will return it as appropriate, or that collection arrangements are in place to enable private end-users to return it.
Could you re-use transport packaging in-house, for example, as trays in which consumers can take plants away from a garden centre?

Q – Describe 3 key considerations within design for recycling .

Try to design your packaging so that minimum product residues remain when the used packaging is collected for recycling.
Construct your packaging so that the end-user can easily separate any components that should not go into the recycling process ( design for disassembly ).
Try to avoid materials, combinations of materials or designs of packaging that might create problems in collecting, sorting or recycling.

Q – Describe how effective Metal, Glass, Paper and Board and Plastics are and which (in your eyes) of these may achieve the most effective award for recyclability.

A – I would say the most effective material is metal as it has a high recyclable content and can be re-used with no adverse affect on functional performance. Glass also has a high recyclable value, but as it is often coloured it can limit it s re-use. Paper and card often has to be thicker when recycled as it has less strength than virgin fibres. Plastics seldom contain recyclable materials due to safety, although this is slowly changing as technology improves.

FURTHER INFORMATION

I have contained links to the videos suggested by my lecturer to keep all research together in one place for convenience.

Coke and packaging

Packaging used to provide exact measures, retain freshness/quality and ensure that the product is as good when it reaches you as it was when it left the factory.
5.5 million dumpster trucks worth or waste goes to landfill in the UK every year.
Coke using over 30% less metal and plastic in the cans/bottles than 10 years ago.
Glass bottle is now lighter and stronger than ever thanks to new technologies.
Cuts in Co2 emissions equivalent to taking 1,000 cars a year off the roads.
Thermostat detects people walking by vending machines to regulate busy times & when more or less energy is needed.
Within 2-3 years Coca-Cola will be a zero waste to landfill company.

UPS Courier – Sustainable Packaging

Plastic wine container

Coke Plant Bottle

Local sustainable packager

http://www.biopac.co.uk/

GDES3003 – Green Design – Shoe Box design

GDES3003 – GREEN DESIGN

Shoe Box task – Research

Last week we were asked to find a video, coincidentally I found the Puma “Clever little bag” promotional video. I say coincidentally because at the end of the lecture we were given the following weeks task, which is to research and design a theoretical prototype multi use shoe/trainer/boot box. It must also best use ‘recycled’ or ‘natural’ materials only.

So, as always, I start with research.

Existing shoebox designs :

For the most part, existing shoe box designs are fairly similar. Usually a rectangular box with a lid, sometimes the lid is hinged or the box slides out like a matchbox which is sealed at one end. There is obviously a reason that most boxes were designed this way – they are easy to store, stack, transport & offer good protection to the shoes inside. They are however usually oversized and so waste a lot of material, they also have additional packaging inside (tissue paper etc) and they are not always made from recycled or sustainable materials.

I found a number of solutions that use a combination of recycled goods in their construction –or- natural materials in some way. I used Pinterest to collect my findings, not only of sustainable shoe packaging but also packaging that caught my eye because it was either clever, creative, used sustainable/recycled materials, was multi-use, stackable or just down right cool.

Scott’s Sustainable Packaging Pinterest board

Eco-Packaging Design

I found a few links to pages of cool eco packaging ideas, so I’ve linked them below:

35 Eco Friendly Packaging Designs

50+ Eco Packaging – Blog

Origami & Folding methods

As my design should be easy to assemble and use NO glue, I thought it wise to look at Origami for a few ideas of box shapes that could potentially be suitable. Below are a few images I found that I like or can envisage as part of my design :

Interesting card/bag design. This time for wetsuit boots

Glue-less design. Nice cutouts add to design aesthetic whilst reducing material

Similar to the previous pic, but I like the way this can fold flat but hold form when constructed

I like this design

Clueless box net

Packaging Net ideas

Materials & Use :

My research identified a number of different ‘sustainable’ materials that are used in packaging design.

Recycled paper & cardboard
Rye (& other) grass
Corn seed (plastic substitute)
Wood (from sustainable sources)

Green Products – Where are they now?

I also found this article (see link above) which lists a number of the most promising sustainable materials from recent years and shows whether they took off or not.

Coca-Cola – Sustainable Packaging

With green issues being at the fore-front of everyone’s agenda right now, It’s interesting to see how many of the big companies are approaching things. The above link talks about some of the measures Coca-Cola now have in place.

Considerations for my design :

Now that I have a better understanding of what is already out there in terms of design and materials, I can start to consider my own solution. Below are a few of my considerations to act as a reminder when I am sketching down ideas.

These boxes will need to both easy to transport and stack together.
They must protect the shoes
Provide a suitable secondary use for the packaging after transportation to the purchaser’s home/it’s primary use.
Keep it simple
No glue should be used in the construction
Consider origami & folding methods

GDES3003 – Green Design – Sustainable Packaging

Week 2 Task – Sustainable Design

This week we were asked to source a video that deals with sustainability based on one of a number of core topics.

I decided to look into sustainable packaging, and found a video based on an initiative by Puma to reduce shoebox wastage.

We then had to note down a number of points (based on the Eco-Design Manifesto, from the Eco-Design Handbook by Alistair Faud-Luke) that the video relates to.

For the purposes of this exercise I will use the Puma shoe-box packaging video.

Ecological footprint.

Put shoeboxes to a better use by not using them, introducing the clever little bag.

Reduced the amount of cardboard used by 65%
No assembly required, so cost savings in manufacture meaning savings in energy.
Removed need for tissue, thus reducing materials and potential waste.
Canvas bag used, which encourages re-use (multi unction design).
Energy savings – 8,500 tonnes of paper, 20 million mega-joules of electricity & 1 million litres of water. Thus reducing carbon dioxide by 10,000 tonnes.

The company who partnered with Puma to come up with this innovative product is, FuseProject.

Further information can be found here : FuseProject

I also found this video, which is based on an initiative to use rye grass to create bio-degradable food packaging. It’s interesting to see how well they were able to refine the packaging from the initial prototypes to the final product.

GDES2014 – Children’s Book Design – Main brief – Part 6

GDES2014 – Children’s Book Design

Main Brief – Roughs and concepts

This post shows the contents of my sketchbook for this brief. Here you can see my creative process, from mind mapping to character development, layout to cover design.

Mind Mapping

Mind mapping

Character Development

Initial ideas for character/avatar

Evacuee theme – Testing character types

The ‘V’ for victory concept on this page formed part of my finalised cover idea

Looking at page folds, cover ideas & further characters

I thought to use a pigeon as my character as they were used to carry messages during WW1

Private Pigeon – I worked this one up dgitally and used him in my final designs

Layout & Further Cover Ideas

Layout research

Initial layout thumbnails

Further refinement

Research

Layout ideas – WW1 related artefacts

Exploring design movements of the early 20th century – In this case De Stijl

Cover ideas

Cover ideas – Further V for Victory inspiration

Cover ideas

Mind mapping

GDES2014 – London Book Fair 2015

GDES2014 – Children’s Book Design

London Book fair – 2015

As part of this module we were offered a trip to London to see visit the book fair. This was an opportunity not to be missed, particularly as this task represents children’s literature which was well represented at the show.

The show was massive, with an overwhelming number of exhibitors, but I took along my camera to take snaps of some of the more interesting or innovative developments within the industry as a whole as well as in children’s book design.

We were set the task of finding 3 innovations in children’s book design, which was easy as there was so much to choose from. I will talk a little about some of the things I found below:

The first innovation that caught my eye was this series of “shine a light” books. The books are designed so that when certain pages are held up to the light, they allow light to shine through in various areas, revealing an otherwise hidden image. You can see this demonstrated below, and how it works on the following page.

Shine a light books

When the light is behind the page the worms show through

This is the opposite pages and demonstrates how the high contrast print determines where the light passes and what is visible on the other side

Another innovation I was drawn to (partly due to my love of all things Star Wars) was these books and more specifically the special editions that came with really cool cases/displays. There are 3 books in the series so far – Jedi, Sith & Bounty Hunter, each with it’s own display case. They are motorised and with sound effects. They do however make the books rather expensive and so would only really appeal to serious collectors, cool none the less.

The display case is motorised and with light and sound effects. When it’s closed you press the button and it opens to reveal the book.

Other popular franchises, such as Transformers were also included.

Make your own Tie Fighter

These pictures show another two books I found interesting. The first features glow in the dark print so that the illustrations and words glow when the lights are turned down. Being black an white, it’s very high contrast and so is easily read in the light too… very effective. The second book features tabs throughout the book that you can lift to get a glimpse into the past, both informative and fun.

Glow in the dark children’s book

Lift the flap to reveal how things looked in tester-year compared to now

I got talking to a guy who ran a publishing print company. After explaining to him that I was studying graphic design and had a real passion for all things print, he went on to show me all manner of wonderful printing methods. The opportunities to create something wonderful are endless, although unfortunately only possible on large print jobs due to the cost involved in setting up the machinery.

Die cut cover

Heated embossing on textured vinyl cover

Software is used to create colour and texture on the edges of each page to create the image whhen the pages are together

Soft touch matt cover with spot uv

Foiled and embossed cover

Clear dust jacket adds layered text/image

The Imperial War Museum were there and had a nice little display of some of their books relating to World War 1 & 2. I got chatting with the lady who was able to show me the prototype of a Churchill recipe book that is in development, very interesting to see. There were also a few books there that were beautiful, not to mention the old style typewriter.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Simple but effective patterned cover. Iconic poppies

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The cover is based on a famous WW1 poster

It features beautiful typography throughput

The bi-plane from the cover art was used to create the pattern on the end papers

Pre-ress mockup of a recipe book

There was so much to see and so much to take inspiration from. A great day out and a good opportunity to get a little insight into the industry and see all of the top publishers under one roof.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Clear dust jacket adds layered text/image

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

GDES2014 – Children’s book design – Main brief part 5

GDES2014 – Children’s book design

WW1 recipe book – Researching children activity sheets

Part of the brief is to produce an activity sheet for children to complete, that ties into the theme of the spread and the book covers.

Puffin Books have a whole section of their website dedicated to children activity sheets, often based on the most well know characters like Willy Wonka or Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Some of the activities include:

Plan a birthday party, with invites and create your own Willy Wonka top hat.
Wimpy kid – follow the lines to connect 2 items, spot the difference, suduko, colour in a kids shirt, how many words can you make from the phrase “Summer-Holiday”?
Charlie & Lola – Design Lolas dress, colour in silly hats, snap.
Others include colouring sheets, mazes, stickers, certificates, hidden objects etc.

http://www.puffin.co.uk

I like the idea of a certificate or award that the child can personalise. I think an activity sheet with multiple things to do would be fun.

Pull the pin from the egg grenade
Make words from “Victory in the Kitchen”
Something to do with carrots or vegetables
Decorate your own egg etc
Recognise the different nations by plane markings
A mix of interesting facts and activities?

I found a number of examples of activity sheets that I like or could use in the creation of my own.

GDES2014 – Children’s Book Design – Main brief part 4

GDES2014 – Children’s Book Design

WW1 Recipe book brief – Further research

Existing Books

I looked at a number of children books as well as cookery books, Design books and historical references to the First World War.

The Cheeky Monkey book shows a good example of added features with the glove puppet plush toy that goes through the centre of the book.

The Roald Dahl books show very bold colours in the background and type elements, with Quentin Blakes simple illustrations over the top. This creates a strong divide between the left and right of the cover but is then joined by the book title at the bottom that reads more traditionally (horizontally).

The David Walliams books feature Tony Ross’s amazing illustrations. Each cover is similarr in that the top banner area is taken up by the authors name and then a large illustration below it. Again strong colours are used for the backgrounds, but also feature some pattern elements such as stars. The rosette is a nice touch too, which I may apply to my own design in the form of a medal.

I picked up the other books as they all feature some design elements that I feel may inspire my own cover design. The Fateful year cover for example, features a lot of semiology to the time period from the type, to the illustration style, washed out colours and patriotic theme (flags, English Rose, Poppies etc). I like the idea of using silhouettes as featured on “stories of the first world war”, perhaps in the form of a farmer digging, soldiers marching to war, standing over a grave etc.

The Line of Fire book is an illustrated diary and features a really nice, rough illustration style, which captures the gritty/dark nature of the time period.

Stuffed toy puppet poking through the book. Unique and fun

Tony Ross illustrations, simple compositional tools used to create balance

Simple imagery, again patriotic and iconic

Semitics used effectively to suggest England and the great war

Infographics based on WW1 data

Haynes Great War Tommy manual. Fun twist

Beautiful yet simple illustration style

Silhouette and iconic images used to represent WW1

Fun cover illustration

Roald Dahl books, shows unity across all titles and how effective they are together on the shelf. Interest type treatments

WW1 poster found in the Hive, Worcester

WW1 found in the Hive, Worcester

Really like the way the title wraps from the cover, across the spine to the rear cover

Nice use of old typewriter style font, bold title, faded photography

GDE2014 – Children’s Book Design – Main brief Part 3

GDE2014 – Childrens Book Design

WW1 recipe book brief – Further research

20th Century Design Movements – Timeline

1850-1914: Arts & Crafts Movement

1880-1910: Art Nouveau

1897-1905: Vienna Secession

Modernism

1907-1935: Deutscher Werkbund

1909-1930: Futurism

1916-1923: Dada

1917-1935: Constructivism

1917-1931: De Stijl

1919-1933: Bauhaus

Economic and Political Influences

The beginning of the twentieth century was fraught with radical political, social, cultural and economic changes. It was a revolutionary time. It was a time of major scientific and technological advances. Life was being forever changed by the invention of the automobile, aeroplane, motion pictures, radio and weapons (tanks, machine guns, chemical and biological warfare). Art Deco was a reaction to the rigours of World War I and was an attempt to develop a more positive and contemporary society.

Indeed the subject matter of a lot of Art Deco posters were designed to celebrate society’s progress in technology. The world wars had a significant impact on graphic design. Poster design during

World War 1 was highly influenced by political views and national pride. Propaganda was used to spread a message to the audience, as the war was the main focus of society.

The poster design sample in Figure 3.29 demonstrates the designer’s attempt to influence the audience by draping a woman in a flag and using provocative language to send a message to the viewers. The period between the world wars saw a society in disarray and economies in ruin.

Source – https://visscom.wordpress.com/2013/04/07/20th-century-design-movements/

I then further researched each of these movements individually to see if I could incorporate the design style into my design. The movements that are of most interest to me from an aesthetic viewpoint are Modernism in general, Dada and Constructivism. Constructivism lends itself particularly well to the time period as it featured heavily in propaganda of the time, most notable Russian.

Modernism

With the advances of technology Modernism began to break through at the end of the 19th century into the beginning to the 20th century. Western society began to develop new ways to shape human culture and improve the constructed environment.

Modernism covered many creative disciplines from design and art to influencing architecture, music and literature. The power of machines forced artists to strategically re-think their practice, the results were revolutionary and still influences designers to this very day. This new technology provided the opportunity for mass production, and the machine itself became a theme in modernism.

Influential designers of this period range from Walter Gropius from the Bauhaus to the modern architect Le Corbusier, both men were fascinated with all disciplines of design and it reflected greatly in their work.

Modernism is arguably being the most influential movement of the 20th century.

A beautiful poster celebrating the use of sans-serif typography and white space

Graphic Design and Typefaces

Modernism especially changed the thinking process for communications, graphic design and typography, the style of design shifted drastically from the prior 19th century approach. Before the concept of Modernism, graphic design and typography was ‘overly decorated’ and elaborate, every possible inch of a typical poster would be filled with imagery and type.

Designers of the era of Modernism abided to strict, structured grid system with emphasis on negative space, just as important was the use of clean sans-serif type. The idea was to create strong graphics that were against commercialism, greed and cheapness.

Typical typefaces used in the Modernism era include:

Franklin Gothic,

Monotype Grotesque, (cannot find free version)

Futura,

Helvetica Neue.

Dutch artist Theo van Doesburg practiced painting, architecture and poetry – he also influenced graphic design and is considered the ‘ambassador’ of the movement De Stijl. He described Modernism times as: “Art should not deal with the ‘useful’ or the ‘nice’, but with the ‘spiritual’ and the ‘sublime’. The purest art forms do not cause the decorative change of some detail from life, but the inner metamorphosis of life, the revaluation of all values.”

Source – http://www.creativebloq.com/graphic-design/easy-guide-design-movements-modernism-10134971

Jan Tschichold (1902 – 1974 ) was born in Leipzig, Germany. Tschichold moved to the center stage of graphic design as a major champion of the modern typographic style during its infancy. But it is his later work—which had moved on from the exclusive use of asymmetrical design and sans serif typefaces, to a classical approach—that caught the eye of Penguin founder Allen Lane during the late 1940s, leading to three years of Tschichold holding the creative reins of the infamous publishing house.

When Jan Tschichold designed his posters he widely expresses the avant-garde ideas of the or New Typography, which were strongly influenced by the Bauhaus.

Source – http://guity-novin.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/history-of-type-face.html#Eleven

Dada

The collage artists, Max Ernst, Man Ray and others taking the clue from Cubism were instrumental to the development of the movement called Dada. Dada was an early 20th-century international movement in art, literature, music, and film, repudiating and mocking artistic and social conventions and emphasizing the illogical and absurd. Dada was launched in Zurich in 1916 by Tristan Tzara and others, soon merging with a similar group in New York. It favored montage, collage, and the ready-made. Leading figures: Jean Arp, André Breton, Max Ernst, Man Ray, and Marcel Duchamp.

Constructivism

A movement with origins in Russia, Constructivism was primarily an art and architectural movement. It rejected the idea of art for arts’ sake and the traditional bourgeois class of society to which previous art had been catered. Instead it favored art as a practise directed towards social change or that would serve a social purpose. Developing after World War I, the movement sought to push people to rebuild society in a Utopian model rather than the one that had led to the war.

The term construction art was first coined by Kasmir Malevich in reference to the work of Aleksander Rodchenko. Graphic Design in the constructivism movement ranged from the production of product packaging to logos, posters, book covers and advertisements. Rodchenko’s graphic design works became an inspiration to many people in the western world including Jan Tschichold and the design motif of the constructivists is still borrowed, and stolen, from in much of graphic design today.

Source – http://www.designishistory.com/1920/constructivism/

De Stijl

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Dutch for The Style, Die Stijl was founded in 1917. The artists most recognized with the movement were the painters Theo van Doesburg, who was also a writer and a critic, and Piet Mondrian, along with the architect Gerrit Reitveld. The movement proposed ultimate simplicity and abstraction through which they could express a Utopian idea of harmony and order.

The harmony and order was established through a reduction of elements to pure geometric forms and primary colors. Die Stijl was also the name of a publication discussing the groups theories which was published by van Doesburg. The publication Die Stijl represents the most significant work of graphic design from the movement, but the ideas of reduction of form and color are major influences on the development of graphic design as well.

Source – http://www.designishistory.com/1920/de-stijl/

Futurism

Futurism was not only an art movement but also a social movement that developed in Italy in the early 20th century. 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.

The painters of Futurism were particularly successful but much of the ideas of the movement were generated through writing and several manifestos of futurism were published. They often broke light and color down into a series of dots or geometric forms through a process called divisionism. Futurism influenced many modern art movements of the 20th century which in turn influenced the development of graphic design. The writings, philosophies and aesthetic characteristics of futurism have been particularly influential to designers.

Source – http://www.designishistory.com/1850/futurism/

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