Edited Vacuum Text:
Art Deco was an art movement that came about around 1915 just after World War 1, it spanned the roaring 1920s and the after years of the Great Depression up and till the later years of World War 2. The movement had evolved out of the end period of the Art Nouveau movement, which went on between the 1890 -1910. The Art Deco movement affected all forms of design throughout the time period, from fine art to interior architecture, from film to product design. France was the country of origin before it spread world wide as it flourished internationally in other countries such as America, England and India. This art movement came about in a time of rapid urbanization and industrialization. Art Deco artists hoped to encompass this new surge of technology and create wonderful pieces that had lots of aesthetic pleasures to them. Amongst designers such as Lee Lawrie, Louis Lcart, Cassandre and other Art Deco artists a distinctive style was created that captured the use of bright colours, large bold geometric shapes/patterns and lavish ornamentation which adds pleasurable aesthetics. Compared to the organic nature of pieces from the Art Nouveau, this new style was completely different as it moved away from organic curves and into using bold angles. This style of design tried to made items look extravagant, it gave them the fantasy feel; this gave people who brought into the Art Deco movement the feeling they were living the Hollywood lifestyle of glamour and luxury.
However at the beginning of the 1930s a new design movement came about that ranged from the beginning of the great depression up until a few years after the war in the 1950s. This new design movement would come to be known as Streamline ‘Moderne’ which evolved out of the Art Deco Movement. The new design movement has similarities to that of the Art Deco movement and it can be seen that Streamline Moderne designers have taken inspiration from those of the Art Deco. The similarities that both movements share range further than them both just sharing a similar time period, new technology pushed designers from both movements to experiment and produce new, modern pieces. Both movements also had impacts on a range of different arts such as film, photography, architecture and even transport design. But this is where the similarities end because the designers who preferred Streamline ‘Moderne’ movement wanted to strip back art deco and take off all the extravagant features of the objects created by these designers as they felt the features were just added for aesthetics and where not there for a purpose. American Industrial designers set up there own new movement because certain designers saw art deco as “effete and falsely modern art movement”. Where as Art Deco designers were inspired by angular shapes and geometric patters, Streamline ‘Moderne’ designers were inspired by curving forms, organic shapes and long horizontal lines. This was because the designers were interested in aerodynamics and giving items more speed, the main focus on the movement was making vehicles more streamlined so that they would go faster. This feeling of going fast was associated with the future and more modern times that would be ahead. The difference between how an Art Deco designer would design a clock and a Streamline ‘Moderne’ designer would design one can be seen by looking at photographs of the Art Deco clock on the left and the Streamline ‘Moderne’ clock on the right. The Art Deco designer has used large angular shapes placing them next to one another to create a brightly colored clock with a geometric pattern on it, which is seen in the photo on the left. Where as the clock on the right shows long horizontal lines stretch round curved sides, this clock was designed by Streamline ‘Moderne’ designer as it looks more aerodynamic.
(I do have two images with captions here but they won’t show in WordPress)
During the Great American depression as people were out of work and had no money, companies needed their products to stand out compared to their competitors. This meant companies had to start working with designers, who started to place Streamline ‘Moderne’ characteristics on everyday items because these characteristics where associated with the future and better times that laid ahead. This started to get people to buy items, as they wanted pieces of design that would give them a taste of the future now. As Streamline ‘Moderne’ designers wanted to stand out compared to Art Deco designers they used investigate new and innovative production processes such as stamping and molding which were created; along with developments being made into new materials at the time such as aluminum, steel, vinyl, plywood and Bakelite designers had new materials to use and play with. This sudden development into new materials meant designers had lots of new options to play around with and experiment with.
(Ben)
Streamline 