1930’s USA

1930’s USA

Analysis of  3 key art deco posters looking at political or commercial context with references to illustration or typography

·         Inspired by cubism and art nouveau
·         Roots in commercial  art
·         New ways of printing, brighter and multi-layered
·         Huge amounts of artists training to be graphic illustrators
·         Heavily influenced by Les Fauves  (George Braque, Henri Matisse, Andre Derain


·         Le Champion du Monde, Poster for Bugatti, 1926
·         Austrian artist Ernst Deutsch
·         Pioneer of new techniques in poster design
·         Uses clean typeface, varied size & colour
·         Use of neutral background
·         Simplistic cubist palette

·         Wealth and status portrayed simply with an integral understated elegance lent by the typeface. 

·         Andrew Johnson
·         “The South Coast is the Sunny Coast”
·         Poster for southern railway, 1933
·         Pan European move towards healthier lifestyle
·         Health centres created
·         1929 King George V spent a holiday at Bognor, Sussex
·         South coast became fashionable
·         Poster encapsulates the fashion able vital ideal that the population aspired towards during this period.
·         Arms raised optimistically 
·         Simple palette   again  eye drawn around the image by use of hot and cold colours
·         Rise of the concept of the summer holiday and travel

• ·         Walter  Schnakenberg

·         Poster for Anne Ehmans , 1921
·         Illustrative style is in grey area between art deco and art nouveau movements
·         Uses two dimensional picture plane that was a used by commercial artists of paris
·         Theatrical
·         Uses forms inspired by Cheret and Lautrec
·         More fluid and lurid than the above posters
·         Hints at a debauched nightlife
·         Still restricted palette but this time using a secondary colour, a step back from cubist influence and reminiscent of lautrecs poster of the Moulin Rouge
·         Hand drawn lettering contrasts rigidity of the above, more organic, adds urgency to the temporary nature of the event.