• Lascaux, France caving paintings 15,000-10,000 BCE
• Represents the dawn of visual communication b/c these early pictures were made for survival and for utilitarian and ritualistic purposes. 
• Random placement and shifting scale signifyprehistoric people's lack of structure and sequence in recording their experiences.
• The animals printed are pictographs-elementary pictures or sketches that represent the thing depicted.
• Spear marks in the sides of the animal images indicate that they were used in magical rituals designed to gain power of the animal and success in the hunt
• Functions: narration, decoration, ceremonies, and instructive text

• Ur III period (2039 BCE), Sumerian Cunieform tablet of balanced silve account
• Radically altered the nature of writing w/ characters now composed of a series of wedged-shaped strokes rather than continuous line drawings.
• Wriing speed increased as the shart-pointed triangular-tipped stylus was pushed into the clay rather than dragged thru it. 
• It became rebus writing, which is pictures and/or pictographs representing words and syllables with the same or similar sound
• Difficult to master even w/ simplyfied symbols

• Cylinder seal, 1650-1200 BCE, Mesopotamian
• Visual identification of ownership and specialization of trade or crafts
• Means of identifying the author of a clay tablet certifying commericial documents and contracts.
• Image on side for rolling a raised image on clay and an image on the bottom for stamping
• It was considered the trademark of the owner and since its raised impression could be reproduced, it was considered an early form of printing.

Rosetta Stone; Rosetta, Egypt, 197-196 BCE

• Unearthed by Napolean in 1799CE and translated by Jean Francois Champollion in 1822.
• Significant b/c it contained Egyptain hierglyphics, Egyptian demotic script, and Greek and was the key to translating Egyptian. It represents the fact their are diverse language systems going around in close proximity with one another.
• Contained signs that were alphabetic, syllablic, and determinatives.

Book of the Dead; Papyrus of Ani; 1420 BCE

• It represents the final judgement in which one's heart is weighted against a feather to determine purity in life.
• 3rd phase of the funerary text, and a 1st person narrative written by the deceased and placed in their tomb to help triump over the dangers in the Underworld.
• Men had darker skin than women, they were drawn in 2D schematic with body having arms and legs and a head in profile. The stylized eye was read both in profile and frontal image. 
• The direction the figures were facing tells which direction someone is suppose to read the text

Greek Unicials, 326 CE

• Greek could be written more quickly b/c its rounded letters were formed w/ fewer strokes.
• Unicials were significant b/c communications between cultures are increasing driven by trade and other business needs.

Trajan's forum in Rome, 114 CE Monumental capitals

• Documents to honor Trajan's victory of the war. First example of captalist monumentalist. 
• Captials became a sequence of linear geometrical forms adapted from the square, circle, and triangle. 
• Contain serifs whose reason for usage is unknown. Speculated that it was used to make it look fancy, was a chisel mark from a clean up stroke, or a short gesture made before the termination of a stroke. 

Goat and Sheep, 14th century, Zhao Meng-Fu China

• Chops were used to imprint the name of owners and viewers of a painting. 
• Contained two types of chops; white characters reversed from a solid red ground, and red characters surrouned by a white ground.
• Caligraphic characters were carved into a flat surface of gold, jade, ivory, or silver to create the chops
• It could be a form of printing

Book of Durrow, 680 CE, Ireland, Opening page of Gospel of St. Mark

• Linted into a ligature, an I and an N become an aesthetic form of interlaced threads and coiling spiral motifs. It creates a large monogram thrusting down the page.
• It contains diminuendo, a decreasing scale of graphic imformation which unites the initials with the text
• Book of Darrow 1st celtic manuscript. Filling spaces represents their beliefts of the fear of the unknown. 
• Parchment is its substrate. 

Book of Kells Chi-Ro page, 794-806 CE Ireland

• Considered a Masterpiece of celtic design. 
• The illuminator created a graphic explosion using the monogram XPI. This letter combination—used to write “Christ” in manuscripts—is called the Chi-Rho, after the first two letters of the Greek word for “Christ,” chi (X) and rho (P).
• Considered a carpet page because of its densely packed designs had the intricate patterning associated with oriental carpets
• Contained shimmering color and intricate, convoluted forms blossoming over the entire page

Book of Kells text page 794-806 CE Ireland

• Radical design innovation in celtic manuscripts with space btwn words to enable the reader to seperate words more quickly. Represents the pinnacle of insular illumination.
• Its half-uncials were redesigned into scriptura scottica-insular script-which was written w/ slightly angled pens. It became the national letterform and still used for special writing. 
• Shows suggestions of imaginative form with its six illustrated initials on its page

Coronation Gospel, 800 CE Court of Charlemange, Opening page of Saint Mark

• It celebrates Charlgemange as the ruler during the Holy Roman Empire
• Its facing pages are unified by their exact margins. Initials echo Roman monumental capitals, and the text contains Carolingian miniscules. Combined with Celtic innovations, including the use of four guidelines, ascenders, and descenders, and molded into an ordered uniform script
• The Carolingian style is associate with the court of Charlemagne who set out to revive book design and production. The illuminations were display a combination of two dimensional ornament and increased sense of three dimensions in the depiction of figures.

Douce Apocolypse, 1265 CE Gothic, Created in England or France

• One of many masterpieces of Gothic illumination. Each has a picture above its text in 2 columns. 
• Scribes wrote with textura lettering; a repetition of verticals capped w/ pointed serifs that resemebled a picket fence. Letters were condensed to save space. 
• Represents a new breed of picture book that estab. the page design of the 15th century woodblock book
• Characterized by elegated figures that rise upward in the page wearing elegant, fashionable costumes or flowing robes. 
• During the Gothic period books became smaller and more delicate, with increased integration between illustrations and text.

Hippocrates Medical Textbook, 13th century 

• Medical book, not use for church reason but teaching and training. Notes in the margins also for editing. 
• It revolutionized the pratice of medicine and he became the Father of Medicine.   

Ormesbly Psalter, early 1300s Gothic Style liturgical book

• It was a book of psalms. Its large height allowed historical captials to contain biblical scenes in gold leaf background that illustrated the story. 
• Decoration and text are joined into a single complex frame with red and blues prevailing as is so in manylate Gothic manuscripts.
• Its frame contains visual cues suggesting appropriate parables and stories the priest could tell his congregation.

Jack of Diamonds, 1400 Europe

• Popular even though it was outlawed by the zealous clergy. 
• Its flat, stylized design have changed little in over 500 years.
• Its 4 suits represents medieval society; Hearts (clergy), Spades (nobility), Clover (Peasantry), and Diamond (Burghers)
• Its the 1st printed piece to move into illiterate culture. B/c it was introduced to the masses the illiterate were able to learn symbol recognition, sequencing, and logical deduction. It became another step in teaching the illiterate a more complex and higher level of thinking skills.

The Very Rich Hours of The Duke du Bery, Limbourg Brothers, 1413-16.

• Pictorial book w/ images dominating the page layout. 
• Its the brothers masterpiece w/ the 1st 24 pages are illustrated calendars. Each month is a double spread w/ and image relating to season activities occuring and the right page is a calender of the saint's days
• Decorated initals spin off whirling foliage, which is sometimes accompanied with angels, animals, or flowers in the margin.
• They did not finish as all three brothers died in 1416, probably fell to the Bubonic plague that was flowing around at the time.
• Picturial and written info is presented w/ clarity retainning to a high level of observation and visual organization.

Gutenberg Bible, Johannes Gutenberg and Johann Fust, 1450-55 Mainz, Germany

• 1st typographic book, and the finest example of the printer's art. Also called the 42 column bible.
• Superb legibility and texture, generous margins, and excellent presswork make this book a canon of quality. It is the result of Gutenberg perfect printing process.
• Though it was created w/ a press it still want to keep the appearance of handwritten text.
• An illuminator added the red headings, text, initials and floral marginal decoration by hand, a process known as rubrication.

• Gutenberg selected his own style of type, a square textura lettering similar to what other scribes used in Germany
• He created type using a steel punch to stamp an impression of a letter into a copper or brass matrix. The matrix is slipped into a two-part mold where the mold is filled with molten lead to cast the type. After it cools the type mold is opened and the type is removed.
• He used a new ink made from boiled linseed oil colored w/ lambblack. It was a thick, tacky ink that could stick to the metal rather than the thinner ink used beforehand with woodblocks that could soak up the ink.
• He then created a sturdy press of capable force to press his type. It was influenced by others that were based on a large screw lowering and raising a plate.

Fust & Schoeffer colophon and trademark, 1457 Germany (Incunabula Era)

• This colophon was the 1st time a book published a printed trademark and imprint.
• It gave facts of it publication and procedure of Fust & Schoeffers Psalter in Latin.
• The double crest are thought to represent the two printers
• It also has their experimentation of two color printing.

Bible of the Poor, 1465 Europe (Incunabula Era)

• A compendium of the events in the lift of Christ, including the depiction of the cruxifition.
• In this typical layour, an architectural structure brings order the a complex page spread.
• Printed on less expensive paper for the poor to be able to purhase the book. Emphaszied heavily on pictures for the illiterate.

Ars Moriendi, 1466 Europe (Incunabula Era)

• Illustrations depict the temptation of the devil "to give ones possession to family" and the angels temptations "to give possession to the church." Evident by the 1st usage of scrolls as thought bubbles.
• It advices one on the preparation of death.
• Considered an early form of propagande b/c it urges the dying to give their earthly possessions to the church, and in doing so one could die gracefully.

Calendarium, Erhard Ratdolt 1476, Venice (Italian Renaissance 1400-early 1600s)

• 1st book w/ a complete title page and the 1st printed book in more than one color in one print run. This page is a 3 part mathematical wheel chart for calculating solor cycles as a result in his interest in math and astronomy. 
• Top circles are printed on heavy paper, cut out, and mounted over a large woodcut w/ tape and string. May be the 1st "die-cut" and manual tip-in graphic material in a printed book.

William Caxton's trademark, 1477 Bruge in the Low Countries (Italian Renaissance 1400-early 1600s)

• He was the 1st to translate a typogrphic book into English. He was also the 1st to estab. a printing press on England soil.
• His mark is significant b/c is can identify a manuscript in its own time. Other marks give evidence that more ppl were printing and printers wanted to identify their work by their own printers mark.

Elements of Geometry, Erhard Ratdolt 1482 Venice (Incunabula work)

• A 3-sided woodcut border used on a title page became his trademark. The format uses a largeouter margin about 1/2 as wide of the text column ans small geometric figures are placed in the margins adjacent to the text
• He also printed the 1st type specimen book, which shows his different type styles and sizes.

Nuremberg Chronicle, Anton Koberger 1493 Nuremberg, Germany (Incunabula Era)

• It is one the masterpieces of printed books of the Incunabula era, and one of the first to successfully integrate illustrations and text.
• It illustrated an ambitious history of the world from the biblical dawn of creation til 1493. The raised hand of God in the initial illustration is repeated over several pages to help retell the story.
• It has 1809 wood cut illustrations in its complex, carefully designed pages. However, most wood cuts were used repeatedly.

Numremberg Chronicle, Pre-1493

 Studio of Michael Wolgemut

• Latin exemplar; handmade model layouts and manuscript text used as guides for the woodcut illiustrations, typesetting, page design, and make up of the book; provide guidelines. However some liberties were taken in the final layout.
• In the final layout, it is ordered by the use of rules around the illustrations. They convert the silhouette images into rectangules, which can be tightly fitted w/ the rectangles of the type.

Dreams of Poliphilus, Aldus Manutius, 1499 Venice (Italian Renaissance 1400-early 1600s)

• Tells of a young Poliphilus's  wandering quest for his lover who swore a vow of chasity
• Considered a masterpiece of graphic design b/c of its achieved elegant harmony btwn type and images that were seldom equaled. The communative coordination of the illustrations w/ the text and the exceptional intergration of both indicate that printer, type designer, author, and artis worked in close collaboration. 
• The type is also famous for its quality and clarity in a roman typeface cut by Francesco Griffo, a revised version of one used before known as Bembo.
• The texture of the heading, set into capitals, text, and outline initials have a subtle yet beautiful contrast. The one line intervals of space seperating the information into 3 areas introducing light and order to the page.

Rhinoceros, Albrecht Durer, 1515 Germany

• It shows his mastery in the use of line as tone.
• His woodcut broadside illustration developed from a sketch and description sent from spain, after the 1st rhino in over 1000 years arrived in Europe.
• The text was editied to make the 5 lines of metal type form a perfect rectange of tone aligning w/ the woodcut border.
• Volume and depth, light and shadow, texture and surface are created by black ink on white paper

The 1st writing Manual of the Chancery Hand, Lodovico degli Arrighi, 1522 (Italian Renaissance 1400-early 1600s)

• 1st of many 16th century writing manuals that was a series of brief courses using excellent examples of teaching the cancellerasca script.
• His masterful writing was cut into woodblocks by engravers.
• The space btwn lines leave room for the plume-shaped ascenders waving to the right in elegant counterpoint to the descenders sweeping gracefully to the left.

Geoffroy Tory's Crible, 1526 France (Italian Renaissance 1400-early 1600s)

• Roman capitals are set into black squares that come alive w/ meticulous floral designs and crible,  small white dots in a background.
• Brought elegance and "color" to the page of books printed at Henri Estienne's press.

A course in the Art of Measurement with compass and ruler, Albrecht Durer, 1525 (Italian Renaissance 1400-early 1600s)

• Written b/c he thought Germans lacked the theoretical knowledge of the professionals in Italy.
• The fisrt two chapters are dicussions of linear geometry and 2d geometric construction. The 3rd chapter explains the application of geometry to architecture, decoration, engineering, and letterforms. His clear instructions for their composition contributed significantly to the evolution of alphabet design. The 4th chapter covers the construction of geometric solids, linear perspectives, and mechanical aids to drawing.
• He recognized the value of art and perception. He advised his readers to write their own ideas on how type should be created and how images should bre printed.

Champ Fleury, 1529 Geoffroy Tory France

(Italian Renaissance 1400-early 1600s)

• His most important influence work.
• 1st book attempts to establish and order French grammar by fixed rules of pronouciation and speech.
• 2nd book discusses the history of roman letters and compares their proportions to the ideal proportions of the human face and figure.
• 3rd and final book offers instructions in the geometric constructions of the 23 letters of the latin alphabet on background grids of 100 squares.

Whole book of Psalms, 1640 N.America Stephan and Mathew Daye

• 1st book printed in the N.American colonies. The word "Whole" and border of metal flowers demostrates the design and production of the volume but lack refinement.
• It has a rich variety that is achieved by combining 3 type sizes and using all capitals, lowercase, and italics to express the importance and meaning of words.

Universal Penman, 1750 England, George Bickham the Elder (Rococo 1720-1770)

• Example of copper plate engraving. Bickham was the most celebrated penman of his time.
• Engraving flourished in England during the 1700s b/c engravers had the liberty to construct free lines while engraving. Their floral curves express the fullness of rococo sensibility.

Commercial and Political Atlas, 1786 William Playfair (Rococo 1720-1770)

• He converted statistical data into symbolic graphics.
• His line, or fever, graph and bar graph were used to present complex imformation.
• The introduced his 1st pie chart in his 1805 English translation of the French book "The Statistical Account of the United States of America. It was cut into wedged shaped pieces that represents the area of ea. state and territory.

Daguerreotype of Paris Boulevard, 1839 Louis Jacque Daguerre (Industrial Revolution 1760-1840)

• The first commercial photographic process, introduced in Paris. Each daguerreotype consisted of a copper plate, coated with silver, which when sensitized with iodine vapor, produced silver iodide, the plate was then place in a camera to capture image. Favored over calotypes for their clarity.
• In this early daguerreotype, the wagons, carriages, and pedestrians were not recorded because the slow exposure could only record stationary objects. On the lower left street corner, a man stopped to have his boots polished. He and the polisher were the first people ever to be photographed.

Pencil of Nature, 1844 France, William Henry Fox (Victorian Era 1837-1901)

• It was a milestone in the history of books b/c it was the 1st volume illustrated completely with pictures.
• It included Fox's calotypes which were made by using the images negative and pressing it against another light sensitive paper and exposing it to light. However the papers filer made the images blurry and resemble charcoal drawings.
• Its title page demonstrates the eclectic confusion of the Victorian era. Medieval letterforms, baroque plant designs, and Celtic interlaces are combined into a dense symmetrical design

Grammar of Ornament, 1856 Great Britain, Owen Jones (Victorian Era 1837-1901)

• This plate shows patterns found in the arts and crafts of India. However it is meant to represent the Victorian Era handiwork b/c of the diversity of images from places all over the world combined.
• This catalog of design possibilties from eastern and western cultures, "salvage trives, and natural forms became the 19th century designers bible of ornaments.
• It fits with Victorian era work b/c it was a time of confusion which led to contradictory design approaches and philosphies that were mixed together in a scattered fashion. Their love of exorbant complexity and gothic work strongly influenced design.

Duncker Church and the Dead,  1862 American Civil War, Mathew Brady (Industrial Revolution 1760-1840)

• Brady received a pass by Abe Lincoln to travel along w/ soldiers to take phots of the American Civil War. It used photography as reportage and provided human history.
• It caused a great national trauma that was forever etched in the ppls collective memory and provided a profound impact upon the public's romantic ideals of war.
• Due to the limitation of the medium, Brady could only capture the aftermath of battles. Others began to speculate that the bodies were moved or "staged" or scenes altered to enhance the effectiveness of the image.

Absurd ABC, 1874 England, Walter Crane (Victorian Era 1837-1901)

• Early graphics for children insisted on moral purposes, whereas Crane only wanted to entertain instead of treated children as little adults.
• His animated figures were placed against a black background, large letterfoms are intergrated w/ the imagery. He designed many alphabet books including his Railroad Alphabet. Each one were unlike the other.
• He was significantly influenced by the Japanese Woodblock and drew inspiration from the flat color and flowing contours. He also plays a major role in the Arts and Crafts Movement as well as a major impact on art and design education.

Under the Window, 1879 England, Kate Greenaway (Victorian Era 1837-1901)

• The work of Kate Greenaway captured the imagination of the Victorian era. She was both a poet and an illustrator. Not only did she create a modest and small world of childhood happiness, she pushed her graceful sense of page layout to innovative levels. She brought great charm to her pages by using silhouetted figures and soft colors. The Victorian tendency for clutter was broken by her use of white space and asymmetrical balance.
• The clothes she designed for her characters had a major influence on children’s fashion design. childhood became an idealized fantasy world. The Victorian love for sentiment and idealization made Greenaway an internationally famous graphic artist.

Hey Diddle Diddle, 1880 England Randolph Caldecott (Victorian Era 1837-1901)

• He developed a passion for drawing and took evening lessons in painting, sketching, and modeling. He possed a unique sense of the absurd, with is ability to exaggerate movement and facial expressions of both ppl and animals brought life to his work.
• His work had dishes and plates that were personified, cats makeing music, children the center of society, and adults as servants.
• His humorous drawing style became the prototype for children's books and later animated films.

Cincinnati Industrial Expo, 1883, Krebs Lithography Company (Victorian Era 1837-1901)

• A buoyant optimism in industrial progress is conveyed.The Victorian passion for allegory and personification is seen in a Cincinnati Industrial Exposition poster. In a scene in front of the exhibition hall, an allegorical figure representing the Queen City, as Cincinnati called itself, accepts machinery, agricultural products, and manufactured goods from symbolic figures representing the various states participating in the exhibition.
• Keeps w/ the theme of the Victorian Era of having several different design elements included in the poster one of which is Gothic text. 

Valentine Card, 1883 N.America Louis Prang (Victorian Era 1837-1901)

• This sentimental card is a good example of the range of tones and colors that could be achieved w/ chromolithography.
• Romantic paintings of the Victorian Era were closely linked w/ such graphic illustrations.
• His exceptional quality was achieved by the slow building and heighteding of the image thru the use of many plates bearing subtle colors.
• His distribution of 20-30,000 business cards w/ floral designs at the 1833 Vienna International Expo popularized chromolithographic advertising cards.
• He also devoted time to art illustration books, and non-toxic supplies for children.

Horse in Motion, 1883 N. America, Eadweard Muybridge (Industrial Revolution 1760-1840)

• Witnesses a sequence of photographic images that proved the ability of graphic images to record time and space relationships. Moves became a possibility. It all came from a bet to see if whether a horse has all 4 feet off the ground at one time.
• Battery opereated 24 cameras were used to capture the horse. They were equiped w/ rapid drop shutters that slammed down by springs as the horse trotted, breaking the springs.
• Motion picture photography, the kinetic medium of changing light passing thru a series of still photos joined together by the human eye thru the persistance of vision was the logical extension of Muybridge's innovation.

Kodak Camera, 1888 N.America George Eastman (Industrial Revolution (1760-1840)

• Inventor of the box camera. He put the power of photography into the public's hands. As an invention w/o precendant, ordinart citizens now had the ability to create images and keep graphic records of thier everyday lives and experiences.
• It was simple enough to use, as easy as "winding a watch." It played a major role in making photography every person's art form.

The Century Guild Hobby Horse, 1884 England Selwyn Image (Arts and Crafts Movement 1860-1910)

• Selwyn Image, title page to the Century Guild Hobby Horse, 1884. Packing it with detail, Image designed a “page within a page” that reflects  the medieval preoccupation of the Arts and Crafts movement
• It sought to proclaim the philosophy and goals of the Century Guild, and was produced with painstaking care under the tutelage of Sir Emery Walker (1851–1933), the master printer and typographer at the Chiswick Press.
• Its careful layout and typesetting, handmade paper, and intricate woodblock illustrations made it the harbinger of the growing Arts and Crafts interest in typography, graphic design, and printing.

Walter Crane, Detail from a season ticket for The Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society, 1890.

• Walter Crane as its 1st president. Early exhibitions featured demonstrations and lectures. In 1888 these included William Morris on tapestry weaving, Walter Crane on design, and Emery Walker on book design and printing.
• Its suppose to emphasize painters of the arts and craftsmen coming together to work on making being high-quality work.

William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones, pages 114 and 115 from The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, 1896

•  A system of types, initials, borders, and illustrations were combined to create the dazzling Kelmscott style.
• During the final phase of his life Morris combined his love for medieval literature with his craftsman workshop ethic into the Kelmscott press, the first and most influential expression of the private press movement.
• Morris admired the 15th century letterforms of Nicholas Jenson. He photographed and enlarged Jenson's letters and used them as the basis for his own Jenson adaptation, Golden Type.
• Kelmscott books re-awakened the lost ideals of book design and inspired higher standards of production at a time when the printed page was at its poorest.

William Morris, Ministrel with Clarinet (stained glass), 1870.

• Morris designed this for the home of his friend Edward Burne-Jones. The style and colors emulate designs of work from the Medieval Era.

Rose, 1883 England, William Morris (Arts and Crafts Movement 1860-1910)

• Morris Rose fabric Design (1883) represents his interest in Victorian ornamental tapestries and botanical forms.
• “Rose,” demonstrates his close study of botany and drawing fluency; his willowy patterns wove decorative arabesques of natural forms.

Reclining Chair, 1866 England, William Morris (Arts and Crafts Movement 1860-1910)

Morris & Company first reclining chair which was widely copied. (1866)

Arthur Mackmurdo, Painted Back of Chair for the Century Guild, c. 1882.  (Arts and Crafts Movement 1860-1910)

• Considered the first manifestation of the Art Nouveau movement. The back of the chair does resemble some variety of aquatic plant, the swirling leaves as a kind of kelp.  From a simple, thick "root" at the base flow about a dozen vines, half of which curve in a backward 'S' towards five flowers at the top.

The Craftsman covers, February 1914. Gustav Stickley (Arts and Crafts Movement 1860-1910)

• An important vehicle for promoting Arts and Crafts philosophy as well as the products of his factory within the context of articles, reviews, and advertisements for a range of products of interest to the homemaker.
• He was trying to serve a burgeoning market of middle class consumers who wanted affordable, decent looking furniture. By using factory methods to produce basic components, and utilizing craftsmen to finish and assemble, he was able to produce sturdy, serviceable furniture which was sold in vast quantities, and still survives

Portrait of a Courtesan, late 1700s Japan, Kitagawa Utamaro (Ukiyo-e period)

• Heralded an unrivaled artist in portraying beautiful women
• Rather than repeating stereotypes of conventional beauty, Utamaro conveyed his subjects’ feelings, based on careful observation of their physical expressions, gestures, and emotional states.

Ando Hiroshige, Evening Squall at Great Bridge near Atake, c. 1856–59. Japan.(Ukiyo-e period)

• A  moment in time is preserved a a transient human events He not only observed and captured the poetic splendor of nature but related it to the lives of ordinary people as well.

Examples of Jules Cheret’s 1890’s illustrations. French. (Art Nouveau 1880-1910)

• His typical composition is a central figure or figures in animated gesture, surrounded by swirls of color, secondary figures or props, and bold lettering that often echoes the shapes and gestures of the figure.
• Chéret’s artistic influences included the idealized beauty and carefree lifestyle. His figures expressed energy and movement through twisting torsos and extended limbs.

Eugene Grasset, exhibition poster, c. 1894. (Art Nouveau 1880-1910)

• This is an example of his “coloring book style” of thick black contour drawing locking forms into flat areas of color in a manner similar to medieval stained glass windows.
• His figures wear medieval clothing and his stylized, flat cloud patterns reflect his knowledge of Japanese woodblocks.

Aubrey Beardsley, first cover for The Studio, 1893. (English Art Nouveau 1880-1910)

• he Studio was the first of many independent publications of the 1890s that displayed and discussed information about new styles in art and design.

Aubrey Beardsley, The Peacock Skirt, 1893. (English Art Nouveau 1880-1910)

• The enfant terrible of art nouveau, with his striking pen line, vibrant black-and-white work, and shockingly exotic imagery.
• A strong Kelmscott  influence with strange and imaginative distortions of the human figure and powerful black shapes. These images show Beardsley’s emerging ability to compose contour line, textured areas, and black-and-white shapes into powerful compositions. The contrast between geometric and organic shapes reflects the influence of the Japanese print.

Toulouse-Lautrec’s 1891 poster “La Goulue au Moulin Rouge” (French Art Nouveau)

•  A dynamic pattern of flat planes—black spectator’s silhouettes, yellow ovals for lamps, and the stark white undergarments of the notorious cancan dancer, who performed with transparent or slit underwear—move horizontally across the center of the poster. Its simplified symbolic shapes and dynamic spatial relationships form expressive and communicative images.
• he haunted Paris cabarets and bordellos, watching, drawing, and developing a journalistic, illustrative style that captured the nightlife of la belle époque (“the beautiful era”), a term used to describe glittering late-nineteenth-century Paris.

Theophile-Alexandre Steinlen, Mothu et Doria, 1896. (French Art Nouveau 1880-1910)

• The two figures are singers, but they suggest class differences in Parisian society.
• Steinlen was a prolific illustrator during the 1880s and 1890s, and his radical political views, socialist affiliations, and anticlerical stance led him toward a social realism depicting poverty, exploitation, and the working class.

Alphonse Mucha, poster for Job cigarette papers, 1898. (French Art Nouveau)

• Mucha delighted in filling the total space with animated form and ornament.His stylized hair patterns became a hallmark of the era in spite of detractors who dismissed this aspect of his work as “noodles and spaghetti.”
• His dominant theme was a central female figure surrounded by stylized forms derived from plants and flowers, Moravian folk art, Byzantine mosaics, and even magic and the occult.

Will Bradley, cover for the Inland Printer, 1895. (American Art Nouveau 1880-1910)

• Bradley’s graphic vocabulary ranged from delicate contour line for an overall light effect, to complex full-tone drawing, to reduction of the image to black-and-white silhouette masses.
• His cover designs for the Inland Printer changed monthly, an approach that Bradley would later claim was a first for an American magazine.

Henrii Van de Velde only poster was for a concentrated food product, Tropon, for which he created labeling and advertising in 1899. (Belgium Art Nouveau 1880-1910)

• Rather than communicating information about the product or depicting people using it, Van de Velde engaged the viewer with symbolic form and color. This swirling configuration may have been inspired by the seperation of egg yolks from egg whites.

Henri van de Velde, title pages for Also Sprach Zarathustra(Thus SpokeZarathustra), 1908.

• In this monumental art nouveau book design, bold graphic shapes fill the pages. Once again engaging viewers with symbolic form and color.

Henri van de Velde, Bloemenwerf Armchair, 1894-1895. (Belgium Art Nouveau 1880-1910)

• It Shows his calling for a new art that would be contemporary in concept and form but possess the vitality and ethical integrity of the great decorative and applied arts of the past.
• This shows his argument that machine-made objects should be true to their manufaturing process instead of trying, deceitfully to appear handmade.

Otto Eckmann, Jugend cover, 1897. Jugendstil (German Art Nouveau 1880-1910)

• Also widely known for his large, multicolor woodblock prints inspired by French art nouveau and Japanese prints.
• Example of the beginning phase of Jugendstil that is mainly floral in character rooted in English Art Nouveau and Japanese applied arts and prints.

Margaret and Frances Macdonald with J. Herbert McNair, poster for the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, 1895.

• This demonstrates the rising verticality and integration of flowing curves with rectangular structure that are hallmarks of their mature work.

Larkin Building chair, 1904. (Vienna Secession 1987-1910)

• It is a reference to Frank Lloyd Wright’s move from the art nouveau’s curvilinear style to a rectilinear approach. It references his repetition of rectangular zones, and the use of asymmetrical spatial organization.
• Wright saw space as the essence of design, and this emphasis was the wellspring of his profound influence upon all areas of twentieth-century design.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh, design for stenciled mural decoration for Miss Catherine Cranston’s Tea Rooms in Glasgow, 1896-1900.

• Mackintosh’s main design theme is rising vertical lines, often with subtle curves at the ends to temper their junction with the horizontals. Tall and thin rectangular shapes and the counterpoint of right angles against ovals, circles, and arcs characterize his work.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Side Chair for a Tearoom, 1896.

• In his furniture, simple structure is accented with delicate decorative ornaments. In the interior designs, every small detail was carefully designed to be visually compatible with the whole.
• Japanisme was admired by Mackintosh because of: its restraint and economy of means rather than ostentatious accumulation; its simple forms and natural materials rather than elaboration and artifice; the use of texture and light and shadow rather than pattern and ornament.

Josef Hoffmann, Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Workshops) poster, c. 1905.  (Vienna Secession 1987-1910)

• Created with offset lithography containing simplified shapes, geometric patterns, and minimal decoration characterizing the Wiener Werkstätte products

Josef Hoffmann, Sitzmaschine (Sitting Machine), c. 1905. (Vienna Secession 1897-1910)

• Gives example of Gesamtkunstwerk (total artwork) which is a work of art that makes use of all or many art forms or strives to do so.
• The Sitzmaschine makes clear reference to an adjustable-back English Arts and Crafts chair known as the Morris chair, designed by Philip Webb around 1866. It also stands as an allegorical celebration of the machine. This armchair, with its exposed structure, demonstrates a rational simplification of forms suited to machine production. Yet, at the same time, the grid of squares piercing the rectangular back splat, the bentwood loops that form the armrests and legs, and the rows of knobs on the adjustable back illustrate the fusion of decorative and structural elements typical of the Wiener Werkstätte style.

Koloman Moser, Ver Sacrum (Sacred Spring), 1898. (Vienna Secesson 1987-1910)

• A stencil-effect technique for creating images has an affinity, in its reduction of the subject to 2 color  planes, with high contrast photography.

Koloman Moser, poster for the thirteenth Vienna Secession exhibition, 1902. (Vienna Secession 1897-1910)

• Mathematical patterns of squares and rectangles contrast with the circular forms of the figures and letterforms. Its considered the masterpiece of the mature Vienna Seccession.
• He was always look to combine the predominantly geometric features with its surroundings in creating a rhythmical space of cubic forms and  constrasting colors.
• The Secessionist style was exhibited in a magazine that the group produced, called Ver Sacrum, which featured highly decorative works representative of the period

Alfred Roller, poster for the sixteenth Vienna Secession exhibition, 1902. (Vienna Secession 1987-1910)

• Letters were reduced to curved corner rectangles with slashing curved lines to define each character. it sacrificed legibility in order to achieve an unprecedented textural density.

Peter Behrens, poster for the Anchor Linoleum exhibition pavilion, 1906.

• Behrens’s application of Lauweriks’  theory of a circle circumscribed by a square that could be used to determine proportions, dimensions, and spatial divisions proved catalytic in pushing twentieth-century architecture and design toward using rational geometry as an underlying system for visual organization. His work from this period is part of the tentative beginnings of constructivism in graphic design, where realistic or even stylized depictions are replaced by architectural and geometric structure.

Peter Behrens, catalogue page for AEG teakettles, 1908.

• An innovative use of standardization is seen in the design of AEG teakettles with interchangeable parts.

• This rational approach announced the need for form to emerge from function rather than being an added embellishment.

• He designed the entire corporate identity (logotype, product design, publicity, etc.) and for that he is considered the first industrial designer in history. He is seen as an important aspect in the transition from Jugendstil, which is similar to Art Nouveau to industrial Classicism, which is incorporating ancient Greek or Roman style to a structure.

Peter Behrens (designer) and Karl Bernhard (structural engineer), AEG Turbine Hall, 1909.

• Except for the identifying logo and name on the end of the roof, there is neither ornament nor embellishment. The structure and proportions are designed to suggest its function—a massive industrial factory engineered for the assembly of giant steam turbines