Art Nouveau

The famous artistic Art Nouveau movement peaked in between 1890 and 1905, which at that time was popular in the fields of art, architecture and applied art. Art nouveau is the meaning in french for "new art", and there characteristics was inspired by organic and plant motifs and other stylised forms. It's organic forms often were very violent curves that others referred to them by the term whiplash. It's short success took reaction in the late 19th century at the arts academy and them was replaced by the 20th century upcoming modernists movement. 

The only relative there was in graphic design, was in book production and poster printing, although artists also used it for a other types of work including advertisements, magazines, labels and typography. their typography was so heavily ornate that was not desirable for text faces but great for display work

Art nouveau common typeface


Alphonse Marie Mucha was the first one to create work identifiably in this style. Art Nouveau was in fact called, “Mucha Style” when the movement was first starting to take a hold of Europe. This is an ad for Job Paper Cigarettes.




Art Nouveau’s flowing style and emphasis on curves lent it a distinctly feminine look.





Reference

Wolf Justin., 2013. Art Nouveau. [online] The Art Story Foundation. Available at: <http://www.theartstory.org/movement-art-nouveau.htm> [Accessed October 2013].

BBC Documentary The Allure of Art Nouveau. 2013. [video] Directed by Wild, A., Wink, P. Britain: BBC Documentaries. [Accessed October 2013].