The History
of Visual
Communication
In Limbo
Interbellum
The interwar period (or interbellum) lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – the end of the First World War to the beginning of the Second World War. The interwar period was relatively short, yet featured many significant social, political, and economic changes throughout the world. Petroleum-based energy production and associated mechanisation led to the prosperous Roaring Twenties, a time of both social and economic mobility for the middle class. Automobiles, electric lighting, radio, and more became common among populations in the developed world. The indulgences of the era subsequently were followed by the Great Depression, an unprecedented worldwide economic downturn that severely damaged many of the world's largest economies.
Politically, the era coincided with the rise of communism, starting in Russia with the October Revolution and Russian Civil War, at the end of World War I, and ended with the rise of fascism, particularly in Germany and Italy. China was in the midst of half-a-century of instability and the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party. The empires of Britain, France, and others faced challenges as imperialism was increasingly viewed negatively in Europe, and independence movements emerged in many colonies; for example most of Ireland became independent after much fighting.
From a design perspective the interwar years were marked by modernism, the main idea of which was innovation and progress. Unlike the prevailing styles of the late 19th-century Victorian era that looked to the past, Modernism embraced industry and new materials. At the core of Modernism lay the idea that the world had to be fundamentally rethought. The carnage of the First World War and the Russian Revolution led to widespread utopian fervor, a belief that the human condition could be healed by new approaches to art and design and that rejected traditional values and techniques, and emphasized the importance of individual experience.
Architecture of the first half of the 20th Century
In architecture modernism is a movement that emphasizes Louis Sullivan's idea of "form follows function." Modernist structures were characterized by streamlined appearance, lack of ornamentation, and open floor plans. The Modernist style in architecture began in Germany with the Bauhaus movement in the 1920s and the work of Walter Gropius and Mies Van Der Rohe. After the Bauhaus was shuttered by the Nazis in 1933, the architects brought their distinct and novel style to the U.S., where it would continue to flourish.
Early Modern architecture was built off an aesthetic of minimalism and industrial materials. While Art Deco itself was very much a style rooted in luxury, mostly designed with wealthy audiences in mind, Modernism, as an architectural period, was hatched in a movement that was very much about social equality and progressive politics. Modernism strove to be both minimal and accessible, as well as more globally universal in its appeal. For Modernists, industrialization not only created wealth but new opportunities for design and progress.
The International Style
The International Style was a movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that form should follow function (functionalism); an embrace of minimalism; and a rejection of ornament. It emerged in the first half of the 20th century and became dominant after World War II until the 1980s, when it was gradually replaced as the principal style for institutional and corporate buildings by postmodern architecture.
The Barcelona Pavilion, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, 1929.
Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was a movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that form should follow function (functionalism); an embrace of minimalism; and a rejection of ornament. It emerged in the first half of the 20th century and became dominant after World War II until the 1980s, when it was gradually replaced as the principal style for institutional and corporate buildings by postmodern architecture.
Rejecting ornament and embracing minimalism, Modernism became the single most important new style or philosophy of architecture and design of the 20th century. It was associated with an analytical approach to the function of buildings, a strictly rational use of (often new) materials, structural innovation and the elimination of ornament. It was also known as International Modernism or International Style, after an exhibition of modernist architecture in America in 1932 by the architect Philip Johnson. Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier were the pioneers of the movement, with the latter having a profound impact on the design of many public housing schemes in Britain.
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Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements of the twentieth century, influencing architects worldwide through his works and hundreds of apprentices in his Taliesin Fellowship. Wright believed in designing in harmony with humanity and the environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture. This philosophy was exemplified in Fallingwater (1935), which has been called "the best all-time work of American architecture".
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Eero Saarinen (August 20, 1910 – September 1, 1961) was a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer who created a wide array of innovative designs for buildings and monuments, including General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Michigan; the passenger terminal at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C.; the TWA Flight Center (now TWA Hotel) at John F. Kennedy International Airport; and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. Two periods in Eero Saarinen's career as an architect can be distinguished: In the first period, his designs were in the International Style. During the second period, his architecture may be described as neo-futurist.
Cubist Architecture
By 1912 Cubism's influence had extended to architecture, most notably in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Czechoslovakia. The architectural style reflected its fine art origins with a commitment to modernity. The common characteristics of the buildings of the Cubist movement were transparency, spatial ambiguity, form-faceting, and multiplicity. Architects also borrowed and played with concepts like abstraction, geometrization, symbolism, distortion, fragmentation, and illusion.
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Cubist architecture was not received well in its early days. People believed that it was a bizarre betrayal of modern architecture. Many cubist builings were made of bricks which were difficult to cut into geometric shapes making their construction costly and demanding. Concrete soon became a more ideal mode of construction as cubists could pour it into any flexible geometric form. The goal of cubist architects was to embrace ornaments, making the shape so dynamic that it could perform an ornamental function. People also made a mockery of the tendency of cubist architects to over-emphasis the beauty of exteriors and ignoring interior design completely. Finding furniture that could blend in well with the uniqeu interior of these houses was a difficult challenge. Cubist architects believed the style was meant to produce a complex work of art and challenged interior designers to be creative. Eventually, cubist furniture, lights, coffee sets, paintings, and other cubist decorations were available to answer the critical design question.
Art Deco Architecture
Just like in the many fields influenced by this style, Art Deco architecture combines modern design with traditional elements such as exquisite craftsmanship and luxurious materials including jade, lacquer, and ivory. As a successor to the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau movements, Art Deco was also influenced by the abstract and geometric forms of Cubism, the bright colors of Fauvism, and the exoticized crafts and styles of countries such as China, Japan, and Egypt. The decorative aspect and the compositional arrangements also derive from Beaux-Arts architecture, through symmetry, straight lines, hierarchy in the floor plan distribution, and facades divided into base, shaft, and capital (Classical tripartite division) - although this time with more rational volumes and the occasional use of ornaments. It was a lavish mixture of styles that was embraced by the wealthy post-war bourgeoisie.
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Some of the best examples of Art Deco architecture can be found in South Beach, Miami Florida
The fine line between the search for simplicity, especially when compared to previous movements, and the extravagance of its forms, was considered by many experts as a paradox. However, Art Deco architecture assumed an important role in history by representing the process of modernization of the urban landscape, balancing the elements of the past with new geometric configurations and ornamental references.
Art Deco
The Art Deco movement in the decorative arts and architecture that originated in the 1920s and developed into a major style in western Europe and the United States during the 1930s. Its name was derived from the "Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes", held in Paris in 1925, where the style was first exhibited. Art Deco design represented modernism turned into fashion. Its products included both individually crafted luxury items and mass-produced wares, but, in either case, the intention was to create a sleek and anti-traditional elegance that symbolized wealth and sophistication.
Among the formative influences on Art Deco were Art Nouveau, the Bauhaus, Cubism, and Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. Decorative ideas came from American Indian, Egyptian, and early classical sources as well as from nature. Characteristic motifs included nude female figures, animals, foliage, and sun rays, all in conventionalized forms.
The Art Deco buildings of New York City: The Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building and the Rockefeller Center.
Art Deco cigar labels.
Corresponding to these influences, Art Deco is characterized by use of materials such as aluminum, stainless steel, lacquer, inlaid wood, sharkskin, and zebraskin. The bold use of zigzag and stepped forms, and sweeping curves (unlike the sinuous curves of the Art nouveau), chevron patterns, and the sunburst motif are typical of Art Deco. Some of these motifs were ubiquitous — for example the sunburst motif was used in such varied contexts as a lady's shoe, a radiator grille, the auditorium of the Radio City Music Hall and the spire of the Chrysler Building. Art Deco was an opulent style and this lavishness is attributed to reaction of the forced austerity caused by World War I. Its rich, festive character fitted it for "modern" contexts including interiors of cinema theaters and ocean liners such as the Ile de France and Normandie.
Eventually the style was cut short by the austerities of World War II. In India, it became a gateway for Modernism and continued to be used well into the 1960s. A resurgence of interest in Art Deco came with graphic design in the 1980s, where its association with film noir and 1930s glamour led to its use in ads for jewelry and fashion.
Streamline Moderne
A parallel movement called Streamline Moderne or simply Streamline followed close behind. Streamline was influenced by manufacturing and streamlining techniques arising from science and the mass production shape of bullet, liners, etc., where aerodynamics are involved. Once the Chrysler Airflow design of 1933 was successful, "streamlined" forms began to be used even for objects such as pencil sharpeners and refrigerators.
Streamline Moderne was the industrial design motif that made its way absolutely everywhere. Mostly popular in the 1930s and 40s, it utilized low-cost and readily available materials. From shiny futuristic toasters to beautifully curved Bakelite pencil sharpeners, attractive designs were now becoming accessible to the masses.
As the Great Depression approached, styles began shifting once more. Opulence started to seem unnecessary and architects and designers looked toward function and efficiency. As the world was heading into the machine age, designs took an on industrial form that was seen in everything from cars to trains to commercial and residential buildings and even home appliances. The Streamline Moderne style emphasized horizontality and curved lines and was essentially “streamlined,” even in architecture, for a more aerodynamic aesthetic. The movement took cues from the Bauhaus and International Styles, focusing on stripping away the unnecessary.
A Diner is an informal, inexpensive restaurant unique to American culture, that has an extensive menu and that is often made from or designed to resemble a modified railroad dining car. As transportation networks evolved and spread, so did the popularity of the diner. By the 1920s, diners were becoming an increasingly popular destination for people looking for a quick, affordable meal. The traditional diner look and feel was based on the earliest lunch carts, but over time it came to include elements of art deco, neon lighting, and other design trends of the time.
The decade of the 1930s was home to some of the most beautiful design styling ever created. The products of that decade - automobiles, household items, clothing, architecture and more - can be traced back to their period of origin because of their distinctive appearance.
The streamlining influence that began to appear in vehicle styling in the early-mid 1930s - those cues that we generally characterize as Art Deco - was actually Streamline Moderne. Representing this aerodynamic efficiency and speed in design form were Streamline Moderne's smoothly curved aesthetics, spare, horizontal "speed lines" and careful symmetry. Grilles and windshields leaned back, fenders were crowned and valanced, and cars sat lower over wider, smaller-diameter wheels and balloon tires. Everything that Streamline Moderne touched looked as though it was designed to go at about a million miles an hour.
Car Advertisements from the 1930s
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The Sound of the 1940s
Big Bands
While swing bands could be found in most major cities during the 1930s–1940s, the most popular and famous were the bands of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, and Artie Shaw, which had national followings and sold huge numbers. World War II brought an end to big band swing as many musicians were conscripted into the armed forces and travel restrictions made it hard for bands to tour.
Glen Miller, Duke Ellington, Count Basie
Vocalists
In the 1940s, due to the wartime conscriptions the big bands started to break up, and many band singers like Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald went out on their own.
Jazz
In the early 1940s in jazz, bebop emerged, led by Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk and others. It helped to shift jazz from danceable popular music towards a more challenging "musician's music." Differing greatly from swing, early bebop divorced itself from dance music, establishing itself more as an art form but lessening its potential popular and commercial value.
These divergences from the jazz mainstream of the time initially met with a divided, sometimes hostile response among fans and fellow musicians, especially established swing players, who bristled at the new harmonic sounds. To hostile critics, bebop seemed to be filled with "racing, nervous phrases".[4] Despite the initial friction, by the 1950s bebop had become an accepted part of the jazz vocabulary. The most influential bebop musicians included saxophonist Charlie Parker, pianists Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Clifford Brown, and drummer Max Roach.
Fashion
The 1930s
As the 1920s turned into the 1930s, women’s fashion softly evolved from the boyish look of the previous decade into the feminine silhouette of the early thirties. With the stock market crash in 1929 and with the opening of the new decade, hemlines descended back to ankle length and waistlines moved back to their natural place. Paris became the seat of "haute couture" with fashion designers such as Balenciaga, Lanvin, Schiaparelli and Madeleine Vionnet whose original designs were replicated across the world, also as pret a porter items.
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In the 1930s, fashion saw a profound influence from films and specifically Hollywood. Men’s, women’s, and children’s styles were based on fashions seen on screen with stars like Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, and Shirley Temple among the many who directly influenced fashion. A return to conservatism after the Roaring Twenties also marked fashion during this period.
By the end of the decade, Europe had entered into the Second World War and the US still had not yet left the Great Depression behind. As the thirties closed, the popular style of broad, padded shoulders, nipped in waists and shorter A-line skirts that would dominate the early 1940s had already emerged.
The 1940s
The close of the 1930s had brought with it the start of World War II. As World War I had in the 1910s, WWII had a profound impact on fashion in the first half of the 1940s, and even after the war had ended. France, the United Kingdom, and the United States all had distinct fashion stories during the first half of the 1940s due to the impact of the war.
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Fashion during the war was dominated by rationing. Utility clothing and uniforms were the most ubiquitous forms of “fashion” during the war. Utility clothing could be bought with ration coupons. Both Utility dresses and uniforms adopted similar design elements: “The look was simple but stylish, with good proportion and line. It incorporated padded shoulders, a nipped-in waist, and hems to just below the knee,” writes James Laver in Costume and Fashion: A Concise History (253). By 1943, even non-Utility clothing, followed these same lines. The suits were quite boxy and had rounded collars, tweeds and plaids, popular in the 1930s, continued to be used in Utility clothing, as did bright colors and patterns which helped offset the – literally – utilitarian pieces.
Hollywood
Thousands of full-length films were produced during the decade of the 1940s. The great actor Humphrey Bogart made his most memorable films in this decade. Frank Capra's masterpiece It's a Wonderful Life and Orson Welles's masterpiece Citizen Kane were released. Citizen Kane made use of matte paintings, miniatures and optical printing techniques. The film noir genre was at its height. Alfred Hitchcock made his American debut with the film Rebecca, and made many classics throughout the 1940s.
Hollywood film production rebounded and reached its profitable peak of efficiency during the years 1943 to 1946 - a full decade and more after the rise of sound film production, now that the technical challenges of the early 30s sound era were far behind. Advances in film technology (sound recording, lighting, special effects, cinematography and use of color) meant that films were more watchable and 'modern'.
Film Noire
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylized Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American film noir. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key, black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography. Many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Great Depression.
The low-key lighting schemes of many classic films noir are associated with stark light/dark contrasts and dramatic shadow patterning—a style known as chiaroscuro (a term adopted from Renaissance painting). The shadows of Venetian blinds or banister rods, cast upon an actor, a wall, or an entire set, are an iconic visual in noir and had already become a cliché well before the neo-noir era. Characters' faces may be partially or wholly obscured by darkness—a relative rarity in conventional Hollywood filmmaking.
Black-and-white cinematography is considered by many to be one of the essential attributes of classic noir, although there are exceptions that break this rule. Film noir is also known for its use of low-angle, wide-angle, and skewed, or Dutch angle shots. Other devices of disorientation relatively common in film noir include shots of people reflected in one or more mirrors, shots through curved or frosted glass or other distorting objects, and special effects sequences of a sometimes bizarre nature. Night-for-night shooting, as opposed to the Hollywood norm of day-for-night, was often employed.
Screen Icons
The 1940s was a decade marked by historical events and social transformations, with World War II dominating the global stage. Despite the hardships and challenges, Hollywood managed to maintain its influence on fashion and style, creating iconic looks that still inspire us today.
Feature Length Animated Movies
Feature-length animated films evolved from the short subject cartoons that were popular from the early 1930s. The individual credited with introducing animations to the public is the renowned entertainment and media figure, Walt Disney. Disney Studios created the first ever animation feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It debuted in 1937 and the film was so groundbreaking that it received a special award from the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences in 1938. It was recognized as a significant screen innovation that created a new entertainment field for millions of viewers.
Walt Disney (December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film producer, he holds the record for most Academy Awards earned and nominations by an individual. He was presented with two Golden Globe Special Achievement Awards and an Emmy Award, among other honors. Several of his films are included in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress and have also been named as some of the greatest films ever by the American Film Institute.
Walt Disney has been accused racism, which in my view, as an avid early years Disney animated movies watcher, is not only utterly unfounded, but what can in fact be said is that if Disney was at all racist, his was a reverse racism that targeted the white upper classes, especially upper class Brits. It is true that he made plenty of usage of racial or cultural stereotypes. But how did he make them come across? Alongside highly intelligent, resourceful "black" characters, such as the crows that taught Dumbo to fly or the "black" panther Bagheera who is the "rational wise man" of the Jungle Book; when it comes to the villain Shere Khan of the same movie - to judge by his plummy accent - he is quite obviously a colonialist British aristocrat. And the utterly buffoonish Elephant Colonel of the Jungle Book is obviously a member of the British upper classes as well.
Note: While "Dumbo" was made in 1941, "The Jungle Book" is from a much later period in time, made in 1967, shortly before Disney died.
That said, Walt Disney was by no means a perfect individual, especially known for the ugly informant role that he played during the McCarthy years in the 1950s. He was also accused of being a union buster and of being a very hard boss to work for, expecting impossibly high standards from his big staff that he controlled with an iron grip. However, none of this should be confused with his genius, both as a visual artist and as a storyteller, and stop us from appreciating the romance and warmth of the early Disney animated movies.
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World War 2
Sadly, no amount of Hollywood glamor, romantic animations, beautiful architecture, music and fashions could stop what came next: Humanity, not having learned from the devastation of the first world war that had happened only a few decades ago, was led into one of the most horrifying catastrophes that the world had seen to date:
The Second World War was a global conflict that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries, including all the great powers, fought as part of two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. Many participating countries invested all available economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities into this total war, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role, enabling the strategic bombing of population centers and delivery by the USA of the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war, at the very end of the war - indeed when the war was, to all intents and purposes, already over. It was by far the deadliest conflict in history, resulting in 70–85 million fatalities.
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Millions died due to genocides, including the Holocaust, as well as starvation, massacres, and disease.
World War II changed the political alignment and social structure of the world, and set the foundation for the international order for the rest of the 20th century and into the 21st century. The United Nations was established with the victorious great powers—China, France, the Soviet Union, the UK, and the US—becoming the permanent members of its Security Council. The Soviet Union and the US emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War which will be the backdrop to the next chapter of this journey of the history of visual communication.