Thursday, October 29, 2009

De Stijl Poster

Sketch

Process

Final

Alternate Posters Designs

De Stijl is a 20th-century Dutch art movement, which was founded in 1917 by Theo van Doesburg (1883–1931) and Piet Mondrian. The words in English mean “The Style” and is commonly known as Neo Plasticism. The artistic philosophy of the De Stijl movement was to espouse the ideal of spiritual harmony and order through pure abstraction and universality limiting itself to the essentials of form and colour. The movement aimed to distil art to a level of almost scientific precision and perfection. It featured simple visual compositions, concentrating on vertical and horizontal directions, mainly applying primary colours with black and white and using squares and rectangles. The style was asymmetrical and by the use of opposition achieved balance. In the styles three-dimensional works, lines are positioned in layers that do no not intersect so that each feature is independent and unobstructed by other features, for example, the “Red and Blue Chair”. The movement was heavily influenced by Cubist paintings and itself influenced the Bauhaus and Constructivist movements.

Piet Mondrian

Piet Mondrian (1872 – 1944) born in the Netherlands started off as a primary school teacher and painted on the side. He moved to Paris changed his name to Mondrian and disassociated himself from the Netherlands. His early works were influenced by Cubism but he wanted more. His work has become more dominated by geometric shapes and interlocking planes. He reconciled his paintings with his spiritual beliefs leading to his departure from representational painting. He wrote on his artistic theories in works called new plastic in painting. He excluded diagonal lines and the colour green from his works. He coined the new name Neo Plasticism and was a key contributor to the De Stijl movement.

Gerrit Rietveld

Gerrit Rietveld (1888 – 1964) was a furniture designer and architect. He was one of the primary members of the De Stijl movement. Some of the works that he is better known for is the Rietveld Schröder House, which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site and the Red and blue chair which he created in 1917 and later redesigned it in the De Stijl style in 1918. His works have been noted to be a three-dimensional application of Piet Mondrian’s work. Rietveld maintained part of the De Stijl movement until 1928 when he removed himself to become involved in a more functionalist style of architecture known as either Nieuwe Zakelijkheid or Nieuwe Bouwen.

Theo van Doesburg

Theo van Doesburg (1883-1941) his philosophy in painting was that there was a higher spiritual level in painting originating from the mind and not everyday life leading him to propound abstraction. He was influenced by Piet Mondrian’s works, he saw them as a complete abstraction of reality. Doesburg was a promoter of the De Stijl movement. Doesburg’s art, unlike Mondrians featured diagonals. His talents extended into architecture, houses, interior design.

Cesar Domela

Cesar Domela (1900 -1992) was a Dutch sculptor, painter, typographer and photographer. He was a self-taught artist who developed a constructivist style. He was heavily influenced by Cubism but moved onto paintings with horizontal and vertical coordinates of lines and planes. After meeting with Doesburg and Mondrian he became part of the De Stijl movement advocating its fundamental principals. Like Doesburg he used diagonal to generate the synthesis of plane, volume and movement. His work straddled several mediums. Many of his works involved three-dimensional reliefs and included pieces of Plexiglas, metal, photomontages and cut outs from advertisements. Later he worked as a graphic artist in advertising and used photography and photomontage. After 1929 he developed his own features and characteristic of the artistic philosophy behind his works.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Research Journal

Below are an assortment of images by different designers that I have found over the duration of the course. I found these images while looking for inspiration for my own work, the inclusion of these images is to help give a clear understanding of my artistic likes. I didn't include the sketches and processes from previous assignments in this area as they are viewable on other parts of my blog.

Home of the Future Posters

Poster 1 - Internal

Sketch

Process

5

Final

Poster 2 - External

Sketch

Process

Final

Home of the Future

Research

Earth 'will expire by 2050'

This article concludes that earth will need to colonize to further planets within 50years if today’s high consumption levels and exploitation of natural resources continue at the present rate. It warns, “The human race is plundering the planet at a pace that outstrips its capacity to support life.”

The article can read in full at http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2002/jul/07/research.waste

2057: City of the Future

2057 was aired in 2007; it was a three part documentary television series hosted by theoretical physicist Michio Kaku. The 3 parts consist of “The Body”, “The City” and “The World” and it gives us an insightful look into what the world could look like in 50 years. Parts of this series can also be viewed on Youtube. It also has its own website which contains additional information and videos and it can be visited by clicking the link below.

http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/2057/2057.html

Cradle to Cradle

Green-minded architect and designer William McDonough asks what our buildings and products would look like if designers took into account "all children, all species, for all time." He discusses future architectural technological techniques to help reduce the impact of the human footprint.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoRjz8iTVoo

As the majority of my research was Video based documentaries I felt it was not necessary to summarise them in full, but rather include my findings throughout the synopsis.

Synopsis

The articles and videos that I read and watched heavily influenced the main theme of my posters. My vision of the future is based upon the proposition that “the human race is plundering the planet at a pace that outstrips its capacity to support life.” The posters are designed on the assumption that the human race has had to search the universe for another suitable planet apart from earth that can sustain life. In the event of finding a suitable planet it will allow for the continuation of human life having learnt lessons from prior experience. Industry and Major cities have been built and exist solely on this new planet. The Earth as we know it remains but with big industry and cities no longer existent on it, the removal of these from Earth has allowed and supported the planet to enter a state of repair and rejuvenation. The cities and industry of old have been replaced with greenbelts and renewable and sustainable energy equivalents. The skyscrapers that reached for the sky are now home to the new housing complexes made from 100 recyclable parts. The earth will start to flourish with new plant life, and the dwindling species that are left will be able to return to nature as they once new it revitalizing the numbers and removing them from the endangered species list. Technology will have made a giant leap forward and things that once were only dreamed of will be part of everyday life.

Cars have been replaced by flying automobiles that do not require fossil fuels. These cars will not omit any green house gases or toxic byproducts that are in effect in today’s Cars. As these cars will be more efficient and capable of flight a trip from earth to the new planet will a quick and easy journey. On earth townships will be spacious although they will be in close proximity of each other, everyone will be within 5 minutes of the nearest public transport. As the human race is trying to minimize the footprint it leaves on earth businesses and the city will use less unnecessary devices. The Buildings will seem to be quite bare and sterile. Houses on the other hand will tend to be a little more luxurious within the layout still keeping in mind that we are trying to reduce the affect that we have on earth.

New housing arrangements on the new planet will not need to be as extensive on earth because of the reduced population. In the Future the death rate will be higher than the pregnancy rate because the population boom was sustainable to allow life at those numbers. There will be more deaths which of itself reduces the problems of housing, feeding and infrastructure. Employment opportunities will be more available because of the significant reduction of population and the emigration from earth to the new planet. Lessons would have been learnt on how to best co-exist with nature and humans.

Life on the new Planet will be similar to the experiences on earth, only that it is much further out in space. Planets and stars will be in a much closer proximity to this planet. The climate would be similar to earth but only slightly warmer. It is constantly covered by an orange glow due to the atmosphere surrounding the planet. Humans will be able to move about freely and without worry as the planet also contains oxygen and the key elements to support life. Surrounding the cities of the new planet will be forests and grasslands to help minimize the human’s impact.

The posters I have created depict life on the new planet. The External Poster shows a city of the future on the new planet and the internal photo depicts a futuristic building out looking towards some planets.