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Movement: Memphis

Designer: Ettore Sottsass

Description:

Originating in 1981 Milan Italy, the design movement Memphis was introduced to change the design in this period and move on from the past creations and create something new. In the 1950’s and 60’s mid-century through to the 1970’s focussed around structure and straight lines. In recreating a new design, Memphis movement introduced unique characteristics such as radical, funny and outrageous. This was all inspired by the figure of shapes in Art Decoration, the colour palette of pop art and the 1950’s kitsch. The Memphis design was in early aughts seemed ridiculous however to this day is now back in style and among influencers and tastemakers.

The movement debuted in 1981 at the Salone Del Mobile of Milan and found art designers and fans alike. Examples include Karl Lagerfield and David Bowie who consequently collected more than 400 pieces. Due the unique style of Memphis it never entered in the mainstream of society however did appear in popular culture films such as “Back to the Future”. Throughout the period, designers and artists would continue to be inspired by Memphis and although it was a big movement at the time it didn't get the attention it deserved. However, to this day, it continues to encourage young artists and designers. (Wandsworth, 2022)

An artist that flourished, let alone founded the Memphis movement was Italian, Ettore Sottsass. Scottass was an architecture designer that produced an immense amount of work that ranged from, furniture, jewellery, glass, lighting, and office design. (Artsy, 2022) Sottsass was insatiably curious man and due to that he eventually created Memphis. He drew inspiration from various different parts of design, including literature, anthropology, ethnology, geography and archaeology. Through the creation of Memphis, Sottsass was an avid photographer that would take photos of everything that he would see that would spark interest. This could be a door, walls and even beds he slept on. From that he also travelled as he believed in a certain sense that you redesign yourself when travelling. During that he found a sort of dimension of sacrality. Where every object could become something that related to your life. It becomes part of your vision.

Throughout his work, colour was an important role to any design. He didn’t approach it with scientific meaning but instead the means of how colour can bring memories and emotions from people. From his work you can see that in each piece he uses colour very distinctively to bring an emotion from the viewer to make his work that much more dynamic.

To this day, Sottsass plays an important role to Memphis and designs alike. He gets mentions from famous celebrities like Steve Jobs, creator of apple. Steve had stated that the design of his computers are so good you’ll want to lick them. These designs alike imply the Memphis style of uniqueness and Sottsass’s design aesthetic.  (Alexa, 2017)

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Movement: Deconstructivism

Designer: Frank Gehry

Description:

In the late 1980’s is when Deconstructivism movement appeared and this movement started to grow in the 1990’s. Deconstructivism is a movement that was developed and used primarily in the modern times in architecture. It was developed to oppose the ordered rationality of modernism. The characteristics that were utilised in the movement had fuelled inspiration to the creation of buildings and created a unique visual appearance. These include the non-linear style and defiance in symmetrical shapes.

When it came to the beginning of the movement, the designers at the time had refused to mark their work as a style or movement as they sought to believe it contradicted that of modern architecture. Due to those beliefs, it stripped away from history, society, places and technological advances and traditions. The principle of the movement was to invent the impossible. Within the post-modern era it breaks from the structural normality of classic buildings and deforms/moves away from the fundamental architecture principles. By doing so it would include non-linear design processed into the buildings and favouring fragmentation and deconstructivism. Which would express a form of chaos. When created, the buildings would appear out of the ordinary, draw the eye in immediately and sometimes create a feeling of strangeness.  (Canevet, 2022)

One of the most leading figures in the time of Deconstructivism is Frank Gehry. Frank who was from Canada, and born in 1929 became one of the most prominent architectural figures since the second half of the 20th Century. He was often brutal but always sophisticated and precise when it came to his style in the movement of which came from experimenting in different forms. Frank was influenced but the modernist matrix and was on a constant search for transforming imposed canons in order to reach new levels of construction. His way of collaging, decomposing and remodelling is very significant in engaging the disruption of forms. This would become his main feature in his work and later made him one of the leading figures of Deconstructivism.  (K, 2013)

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Movement: Adobe Technology
Designer: Thomas Knoll

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From the late 90's to now, technology has been growing and began to be introduced in design. Although there were leaps and bounds or progress in the 70's, 80's and 90's the improvements don't compare to the expansion and revolution of graphic design in the 2000's. For instance, Microsoft was first launched in 1975 by Bill Gates then a year later apple was launched in 1976 by Steve Jobs. In todays technology, those technologies are now updating themselves on software and programs.  That In comparison, print methods were relatively similar and the technology was similar however it never exceeded its capabilities and wasn't ground breaking until later on. In the 2000's with the rapid improvement of technology, designers were designing for print or digital media. Designers had to make sure their work was appropriate and successful enough to go on something from as large as a billboard to something as small that can fit in your pocket. With new software being introduced and technology rising, it allowed designers to create three-dimensional objects and manipulate typography. One of the most iconic designs in this decade was Obama Hope poster.  In this era, the most influential software that was introduced was Adobe Creative Suit of which was founded in 2003. This program introduces software such as illustrator, indesign, and photoshop all of which are utilised to create brochures, posters and logos. (Communications, 2021) Thomas Knoll with help from brothers Glen and John created the first program of photoshop in 1987 and released Illustrator in 1986. Over the years had created improvements such as the title of it which used to be called Image Pro. Throughout the years until 2003 Photoshop has now had 8 versions and was the first edition of Photoshop CS or known as Creative Suite which was the beginning of making Photoshop an integrated part of its product lineup.(Yegulalp, 2010) Thomas Knoll, being the founder of Photoshop has created one the most influential technologies to ever be created. (Staff, 2022)

Through his creation, it has influenced many designers to use his software. One of which is Flóra Borsi. Borsi is an award winning, fine art photographer from Budapest, Hungary. All of which she was self taught photo-editing at only 11 years of age. She is a photography artist who has been collaborating with brands like Hasselblad and Photoshop. Borsi uses exquisite photo manipulation to create surreal images that are focussed on identity, relationships, emotions and dreams. Borsi's style is using digital makeup, surreal patterns and colours. (Kedves, 2022) In 2008 she had been award the National Photography Award by NFU and from there became to be one of the most influential artists today in Photography and photoshop alike. (Lanoue Gallery, 2022) (Kedves, 2022)

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Movement: Technology & The Minimalism Movement
Designer: Yayoi Kusami

Description:
As time progresses over the years, design has had the most changes as technology continues to improve and revolutionize designers and the skills they can harness. In 2010 the digital world had countless new technology devices, software’s and programs that tested every graphics designers’ ability to adapt. In 2007 the first-generation iPhone had been released and not long after, its android competitors showed up in 2010 ensuring their smart phones place in the market. From there, the smart phones have been improving and updating significantly. Making not only designers use their technology but enabling more people to join the community as their smart phones has given that ability. For example, it’s given them opportunities in photography, designing logos, brochures, posters and more from a push of a button. The smart phones and the apps that were followed introduced a new frontier for design, making app designers and web responsive web designs essential around the world. Due to the popularity of the smart phones, which kept rising, designers had to focus on easy readability and sparse interfaces, paving the way for minimalist trends. From the smart phones came more advanced technology which was later introduced, such as iPads, tablets etc… (Levanier, 2020) In regard to the minimal trends, the movement that it associated with was the Minimalist Movement, also known as ABC Art or Minimal Art. It was labelled that due to the movement focussing on basic elements. (Przybylek, 2022) The movement originated in the late 1960’s. The movement was introduced by a Russian painter Kasimir Malevich, of which had a painting of a black square on a white background in 1913. Minimalism was founded from Donald Judd, Carl Andre, Dan Flavin and others along with hard edge painters. The intention became clear when they outgrew action painting. Action painting at the time was an abstract expressionism based on intuitive, spontaneous gestures that made a significant imprint in the 1950’s. (Tikkanen, 2022) Minimalism art focused on and had characteristics such as geometry, line and colour. One of the most common however is repetition or creating multiple images of the same shape, especially simple geometric forms like lines and squares. (Przybylek, 2022) From there, even though the Minimalism movement was founded and introduced decades before, it’s evident the movement continues and is implemented in new technology and artists alike. One of whom is Yayoi Kusama.

Yayoi Kusama is an artist from Japan 1929. The movement style she used was minimalism and pop art. She was known as an obsessional artist for her use of polka dots and her unlimited use of them in every piece she has worked in. She also did painting, sculpture and performance art. (Cole, 2022) In 2010 she had released one of her notable pieces, “Kusama with Pumpkin”. Her pumpkins had been well known and become a part of popular culture and modern art. This has certainly made her one of the world’s most expensive living female artists. (Nagaraj, 2021) From Kusama, she had then influenced Andy Warhol and others alike of which came to make more artists alike in the years.

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Movement: Technology & Post Modern Design

Designer: Michael Cronan

Description:

As technology was becoming more popular and being a trend. A movement that is still popular in today’s society is the Post-Modern Design. Post Modernism is an electric, colourful style of Architecture and the decorative arts that appeared from the late 1970’s yet still has an influence in 2020. The movement was introduced as a reaction to Modernism and the modern movement, and the views associated with it. (Riba Architecture, 2022) The movement has been one of the most controversial movements in art and design history. For the past 2 decades, its shattered established ideas about art and design bringing a new awareness about style itself. The characteristics of the art ranges from the ludicrous to the luxurious, essentially a visually thrilling, multifaceted style. The movement was an evolutionary step from modernism which had been based upon clarity and simplicity. The new generation of modernists wanted to create a new world in design with the principles of having some complexity and contradiction and move on from the modernism of that time. The movement had begun as a movement in the 1970’s however became the look of 1980’s, the “designer decade”. (Hyams, 2022)

One of the founders of Post-Modern Design was San Francisco, Michael Patrick Cronan, was an active graphic designer, figure painter and created product brand names. He is most known for his work on branding TiVo, Verio, the Indigo, Onyx and Crimson computer lines for Silicon Graphics (SGI) and naming one of the most used technologies today, Kindle. From naming TiVo, a digital video recorder where once was very popular to now naming Kindle, which is a new advanced piece of technology. His work is used all over the world and the name of these devices is well known by everyone. Kindle is a portable wireless electronic device that is used for reading material and was produced and owned by the American company Amazon.com. (Goldstein, 2022) Kindle became the most popular e-readers and Amazons e-books were estimated to constitute two thirds of the electronic book market. Kindle used a display technology called electronic paper which produces sharp screen image that resembles text printed on paper. Kindle is roughly the size and weight of trade paperback book with a 15.2cm (6 inch) monochromatic screen. The original kindle had a capacity to store more than 200 e-Books and could be loaded with new material from Amazon.com through a free wireless connection. From Kindle, other companies such as the Japanese Sony Corporation, had previously produced their own e-readers. However, what made Kindle different to other competitors is that it had the power of the Amazon market. Kindle was met with some scepticism and doubts due to the initial capital of $399 for its initial release. Nevertheless, Amazon sold out its entire inventory and became a sell out as soon as the product went on sale. To this day, it still continues to be very popular and is now on its 10th generation of kindle and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2022) (Goldstein, 2013)