Blog #5 - Jules Chéret

For the reading of these two chapters, there were a plethora of amazing artists describe. Somehow though, Jules Cheret was the one that caught my attention.

Jules Chéret was perhaps one of the most prominent forerunners of bringing and expanding the philosophy of Art Nouveau within French society. Born in May 1836, Chéret was often famed as the first official poster work designer, in a time where advertisements were mostly adorned with mainly just typography. His modern, lithographic posters were eye-catching and a visual breakthough, which proved popular amidst the public and potent advertisers. At first his revolutionary poster designs were not welcomed by a stringent cliche of artists who considered that only fine art, such as painting and sculptures, were what consisted of "fine art" while anything else, like cartoons or graphic poster works, were nothing more than amateur doodles. Nevertheless, many people also supported Jules and his work and paved the way for his success and legacy, along with the result of an inspired league of his followers of creating modern poster designs.

 Jules Chéret was born in Paris, France, to a moderate family, that wasn't wealthy enough though to send him to the most lavish of schools. Chéret actually ended up leaving Paris (but later returned) because he couldn't find enough opportunities for a career for his type of art style. Instead, he moved to London with expectations that the scene there was more liberal, experimental, and accepting. Cheret endured numerous hardships and not enough income, but was determined to succeed. He started off with small jobs, such as creating bookcovers for publishing firms, along with creating advertisement posters for entertainment industries such as the theater, circus, cabarets, music halls, singers, celebrities, etc. Eventually his work was more recognized as it colorfully lit the walls of buildings and bulletin boards. His style was applauded for revolutionalizing the use of color, along with his jubilant imagery that stirred people's senses. His designs were often eye-popping, and colored in a sort of color-book style, with soft pastel colors matched with vibrant positioning of text for the headlines.

 His most notable features in his posters may very well be the beautiful, joyful "Cherettes" (as they were popular called), women who seemed alive as they twisted, danced, and skipped on paper. They almost look alive and touchable, like they'll pop out at any moment and invite you to join them at the cinema or theater or whatever arena or event that they were advertising. His poster works and the women that he illustrated emulated an aura of happiness and joy which attracted the public. The women especially became a symbol for feminism, since the women seemed so liberated and freed from their social, gender restrictions as the typical calm and reserved woman.

 Below is a video clip showcasing a montage of his greatest works:

 

Besides creating a revolution of the Art Noveau movement, he also revolutionized and created a strong following for poster work, along with other types of art styles that was considered unconventional or not apart of the standard that is "fine art". Many art critics actually celebrated Cheret's posters, claiming that the posters littered outside the streets was far superior compared to the fine art "stuff" that was being hung in the museums. I believe that Cheret also (perhaps indirectly or unintentionally) fueled the revolution for feminism through his depiction of lavish, merry, gleeful women. 

Nowadays, in this modern time, the movie posters that we have don't have that certain "charm" that Cheret's posters displayed. Instead of having hand-drawn illustrations, most posters feature a photograph done in photoshop. I understand that times and technology have evolved, but I wish that the movie posters that we had today could still capture that certain aura. 

 

I feel like Cheret is a timeless inspiration to all graphic designers and aspiring ones (like myself). His invention of the modern poster has ignited a passion for making advertisements that are true pieces of artwork.

Works Cited:

http://www.cheret.info/index.html

http://www.jules-cheret.org/

 

Module 4: The Great Exhibition of 1851

This week's readings of Chapter 9 and Chapter 10 continued to pave the way forward towards graphic design history. Suddenly we are cast in the bustling era of the 19th century, a time of massive growth and technology advancement due to the historical Industrial Revolution. Civilians are no longer focusing on agricultural labor work, but rather, building innovations and mass-producing material objects in factories. This revolution brought a great leap of inventions and a dramatic transformation to peoples' former lifestyles. This revolution especially benefited the Victorian reign in England.

During the 1850s, there was a rise of innovation and high morale that could be represented by the term, "Victorian". This was the pride of the industrial era's spirit and cultural revival. Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband, proposed that there be a huge exhibition and collaborative effort of all the industrial inventions and aesthetic creations that had been put together during that time lapse. He quoted it as the "Great Exhibition of 1851", which worked as a summation of the Industrial Revolution's progress, and can be considered a point in time for future innovation.

This exhibition is often coined as the "Crystal Palace Exhibition", namely because of the impressive cast steel and glass architectural design that housed the event. The exhibition was a grandiose party of sorts, inviting the most celebrated of noteworthy figures, ranging from literary geniuses such as Lewis Carroll, to scientists such as Charles Darwin. This dream exhibition, considered by many as the first world fair, was an international meeting. England was economically booming during the Industrial Revolution, and during a time of peace, wanted to show off and display their success. People all over the world traveled to Britain for the event, with an estimated six million guests attending to get a glimpse of what was glamorously being exhibited.

The intention of the exhibition was to heighten the bar of industrial design. It was an opportune chance for other nations to share what they had created, and receive feedback and inspiration from the other nations. Also, it was to advertise products and create larger, more international, markets. Of course, there was always a leading nation (in this case, Britain, with their typographic printing presses), similarly to how Apple is a leader for technological gadgets, but every other company is watching and following up with products that are close to Apples' inventions.

Besides industrial inventions, there was a plethora of designs, ranging from illustration to mosaic, that were on display. There was an abundance of Victorian graphic design, which displayed and captured the morals and cultural values of that era. A noteworthy observation was that the majority of the mediums used for the graphic design works were through lithography.

Module 3: the life of Gutenberg

Johann Gesnfleich Zum Gutenberg is widely regarded as the "creator" of moveable-type printing press amongst Europe (although there is recent evidence that moveable-type originated centuries further in Asia). His legacy is still prominent to this day, with his famous 42-lined Bible probably able to fetch a staggering $100 million, and a mere leaf page at the value of $100,000. I thought that was insane, and really made me realize how rare and revered this man's work was and how his historical invention and passion for print really impacted all of us.

He was raised from a relatively wealthy background, but near the end of his life he was poor, having had dedicated his life to his work. As I was reading about his experiences and hard work in the textbook, I was suddenly shocked when I realized he was stripped away of his laborous efforts by his loaner/benefactor, Johann Fust. (Is it weird that their names are the same? I think so) Luckily, history has been able to credit Gutenberg as the original creator of the first book, but Fust, along with his accomplice, were the ones who happened to profit from the production of Gutenberg's work, while Gutenberg himself drifted off into poverty for a long time before given his rightful title/credit.

Perhaps it's just my opinion, but I really felt like Fust was the epitome of a loan shark. Unfortunately, sources mention that his family was able to thrive for many generations, so I'm not sure if karma was ever handed to this man. Nevertheless, I felt that Fust lended money to Gutenberg and sued him TOO coincidentally, right at the eve of Gutenberg's completion of the Bible. He probably had an ulterior motive, then, when he agreed to allowing Gutenberg to borrow money.

At a young age Gutenberg was able to have access to the latest manuscripts that were done with block-printing. Mesmerized by this style, Gutenberg set out to create and improve the style, along with a way to spread it to the masses. He worked diligently and created printing presses, improving the wood-block to a more metal-type substance and designing methods in typography and how the structure of each page would be perceived. Gutenberg was a very hard-working man, and his foundation and creation of the first book was a cultivation of work throughout many years, along with the investment of a lot of money and the sacrifice of his wealthy lifestyle.

Unfortunately, he was taken advantage of by Fust, who ended up finishing up what was left of his work and using it to propel mass profit. Optimistically-speaking, his work WAS able to get out, and became a monumental invention, and Gutenberg was eventually credited for his work by society. Today his legacy is still prominent in his city of Mainz. Museums have even been created in his honor. I suppose, similar to how great artists are only celebrated after their death, Gutenberg was a tragic artist of printing.

Sources:
Meggs, Phillip B., and Alsto W. Purvis. Meggs History of Graphic Design. 5th. New Jersy: John Wiley, 2012. 72-80. eBook.
http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/gutenberg.html
http://www.gutenberg-museum.de/index.php?id=29&L=1
http://www.mrdowling.com/704-gutenberg.html
http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/landprint/gutenberg/index.html

Module 2: Hieroglyphics

After being spoiled by only looking at pictures for the first field journal, this second assignment felt really overwhelming reading-wise, but I guess it catches us off guard and now we can anticipate how the workload will be for this class. Thank goodness, though, that the material isn't boring, and it's actually historical events and origins that are interesting to read up about.

The section that I was most keen about was the first chapter, (I feel like I'm a sucker for the Paleolithic age and early Egyptian civilization stories) especially the parts describing the Ancient Egyptians and their use of hieroglyphics as their form of formatted communication. It's interesting to compare our modern alphabet and writing system with the Egyptian's. We have 26 letters in our alphabet; the Egyptians had 2,000+ symbolic characters to express themselves with. In comparison, I guess it's easier to live in this modern world of not having to memorize so many characters, but I must admire in awe at how complicated their system was back then. Hieroglyphics translates to "sacred writings" which was exactly how the people perceived it as. The writings were reserved mainly for the elite, such as pharoahs and the higher class, to understand and utilize. I believe that hieroglyphics hold much more reverence and importance when used compared to how we write today. We simply use writing as a tool for communication, while hieroglyphics were respectfully used for glorifying.

Often times, most hieroglyphics were found inscripted on the walls of pyramids or covered on tombs. Using hieroglyphics was popular for "books of the dead", which were basically written to help aid the deceased please the realm of the gods and avoid damnation. Pharoahs often were regarded with expensive hieroglyphics that avidly illustrated their majestic life. Pictographs and phonographs were used to symbolize events that happened during an important person's lifetime. Most of the drawings were 2-dimensional and involved drawings of the revered gods, humans, and often animals were correlated into the picture, such as cats or owls. Anubis, the god of death, was included respectfully on hieroglyphic murals in order to appease to his bidding and help the deceased hopefully pass his test of virtue. 

For many centuries historians were unable to understand how hieroglyphics were used as a visual language, and it was for a long time a hidden, secret sort of use of communication. However, recently researchers have been able to decode the characters used, especially with the recent discovery of the Rosetta Stone, which also was translated in several other languages. 

Sources: 

http://www.greatscott.com/hiero/hiero_over.html

http://www.eyelid.co.uk/hiromenu.htm

Meggs History of Graphic Design, 5th edition

http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/Cyberia/VideoTestbed/Projects/Mummy/hieroglyphics.html