A Brief History of Art Deco
Welcome to my first dive into design history! I would call it a deep dive, but almost any amount of research feels like scratching the surface when compared to the tome that is my design history book. Graphic Design: A New History by Stephen J. Eskilson will be my guiding light for these historical adventures, with sprinklings and smatterings of details from a myriad of other sources, always listed at the end of the post.
One more quick note before we crack into it: if you’re looking for a poised, professional, and profound recounting of design history, I’m afraid you’ve come to the wrong place. I could try to sit here and write a couple of stiff paragraphs, but I’ve found this casual style more entertaining for writer and reader alike.
So, what is art deco? Maybe you’ve heard the phrase, but you’re not really sure what it means, or maybe you are familiar with the style but aren’t really sure what it’s called (give me ten seconds and we’ll put the pieces together). Maybe you know all about it and I’m about to make myself look like an uneducated fool. Either way, “art deco” always brings the same initial thought to my mind.
You remember the year that Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby came out and everyone’s baby shower, graduation party, and wedding invitations were printed with the fake gold geometric style? That’s art deco! Sort of.
It’s the art deco that I tried to infuse into, like, half my projects freshman and sophomore year at Edinboro. My deepest apologies to the professors who patiently beat that out of me. Let’s start at the very beginning (hello to the Julie Andrews that just entered your brain space).
The International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts was the Worlds Fair held in Paris in 1925. It was kind of a big deal. The World’s Fair was an opportunity for all the nations to get together and say, “Hey, look what I did.” It included architecture, furniture, decorative arts and much more. The sleek, geometric forms seen at the 1925 exhibition would soon be seen around the world and define the style of the late 1920s.
Art deco was basically a rejection of art nouveau, which unfortunately doesn’t come with a Leo DiCaprio film for me to reference. Art nouveau was highly decorative, ornamental, and oftentimes floral. Like art deco, this period produced beautiful artwork, architecture, and design.
So, while both styles were excessive and over the top in their own right, art deco took what had been happening in art nouveau and ran in the other direction. Where art nouveau had been flowing curves and floral ornamentation, art deco was sleek, geometric, and clean. It was, at times, excessively glamorous, oozing the idea of a rich lifestyle. This is why The Great Gatsby so often comes to mind in conjunction with Art Deco. Gatsby was living that excessive, rich, luxurious lifestyle that is so perfectly captured by art deco.
An example of art nouveau by Alphonse Mucha
Art deco also arrived as print advertising was continuing to expand. More consumers were seeing what was available to them, and with art deco they were seeing a modern, elegant lifestyle that could be mass produced at an affordable cost. Some of the poster design at this time was really, truly wonderful, and I’ll probably do a whole other post on that.
So it seems that design was becoming something less of a means of communicating a social idea and moving more towards a goal of selling a thing (that’s me thinking I know what I’m talking about but really just spitballing with the facts I have. I invite you to correct me in the comments).
So, art deco spread across Europe, and once it got a taste for travel it found it’s sea legs and made it’s way to America. Art deco got to America just in time for us to need inspiration for skyscrapers. Now we have the Chrysler Building! And thank goodness, isn’t she a beaut? I’ll also briefly mention the Empire State Building, RCA Victor Building, and my personal favorite, the American Radiator Building because it’s *chef kiss*.
American Radiator Building, chef’s kiss
Typography also made some big strides during this time, and the stylized type contributed largely to the movement as a whole. A.M. Cassandre created many typefaces during this time. Cassandre was a huge player in the design world at this time, but I will probably crack into his story another time. For now I’ll just mention Bifur, a classic deco typeface created by Cassandre in 1929 for Deberny & Peignot, and Peignot, also created by Cassandre in 1937. I’ve been a big fan of Peignot for the past few years. Cassandre was striving for readability combined with art deco stylings, and I think he hit the nail on the head. I’m sure he’d be thrilled to have my approval.
You would probably also recognize Broadway, created in 1928 by Morris Fuller Benton for American Type Founders. This one is a classic representation of art deco, and has unfortunately been used and abused with its inclusion as a standard font on most computers. I’m sure it was my font of choice on at least one, if not many elementary school projects on an irrelevant topic such as the tropical rainforest or endoplasmic reticulum.
A.M. Cassandre's Peignot
So, art deco was out there thriving, styling, and serving looks all across the nation. It was the epitome of glamour, sophistication, wealth. What could stop something so powerful? The Great Depression, that’s what. How is a style who’s goal is to convey a rich modernity thrive when suddenly no one can afford it, or anything, frankly? A new, sturdier style would soon swoop in to take its place. Mid-century modernism was born.
And we’ll talk about that too! In the next post? Of course not! Going in chronological order makes far too much sense! No, you get what tickles my fancy on any given day.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this terribly brief overview of art deco. I certainly plan to look further into many of these topics moving forward. If anything in particular quipped your interest, let me know in a comment and I’ll try to cover it in the future!
Sources
Graphic Design: A New History, Second Edition, Stephen J. Eskilson
Art Nouveau and Art Deco History, The History Channel - https://www.history.com/topics/art-history/history-of-art-noveau-and-art-deco
Stylepedia, Louise Fili and Steven Heller
A Brief History of the Art Deco Design Movement, Apartment Therapy - https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/art-deco-design-36708454
