Art Deco

A.M Cassandre

In 1901, Adolphe Jean Edouard Mouron was born in Charkov, Ukraine, and he later adopted the name of Adolphe Mouron Cassandre. 

Adolphe Cassandre was a Poster Designer, Painter, Typeface Designer, Artist and Stage Designer. Cassandre studied at Ecoles des Beaux Arts in Paris in 1915, where Cassandre briefly taught in 1934.

In 1936, Cassandre traveled to America, where he designed several surrealistic covers for Alexey Brodovitch at Harper's Bazaar. 1939 saw Cassandre's return to Paris where he remained untill his death in 1968.

Over his lifetime, Cassandre developed the four typefaces; Bifur, Acier, Acier noir, and Cassandre.

< This is one of the covers Casssandre designed for Harpers Bazaar. The colours used in this cover design work softly together and are not over-powering. The layering and positioning of the objects featured in the piece was well thought out and they look like something you would find on someones work desk. I believe his choice of typography was a good one, mixing a simple bold/block style font with a simple caligraphic style works because neither type over-powers the other, they are both on equil ground.

 

< This one uses colours that stand out against each other more and don't blend. Another point that lets this image down is the choice of typography. He has used a small simple font that has been shunned by a much larger and more extravagant font.

References:

http://www.drleslie.com/Contributors/cassandre.shtml 

Early Modern

Lucian Bernhard,
   Emil Kahn was born on the 15th of March in Stuttgart, Germany, and he Latter changed his name to Lucian Bernhard, as which he is known as to this day. 
   Bernhard studied at Akademie in Munich for a short period, but for the most part he taught himself.
   Bernhard moved to Berlin in 1901 where he worked as a poster designer and art director of magazines until 1920, when he became a professor at Akademie der Künste. this position was short lived because three years later he emigrated to New York City. In 1928 bernhard opened the Contempora Studio with Rockwell Kent, Paul Poiret, Bruno Paul, and Erich Mendelsohn where he worked as a graphic artist and an interior designer.
   Bernhard worked as a painter and a sculptor from 1930 until his passing on May 29, 1972.

   I know many people swear by Lucian Bernhard's work and i find it hard to say this but, I actually have yet to find any of his posters or advertisements that I have no issues with. Sure, I find some aspects of his work that I like but not the whole piece, I think most of my problems with his work are based on his choice and usage of colours.



< The background colour is to strong and there is too much for it to be able to work well with the blue text. and the text colour looks atrocious when combined with the colours in the picture. the only thing I like about this poster is the way he has done the picture, I like the way he has shown the light and tone, how he roughed up the edges of each shade so it looks like it is blending.

< I have mixed feelings about this piece, this is probably the one of his images I like the most, and even now I can see that that the combination of those bold colours; pink and yellow, are the downfall of this piece. Though I may not like the colour choices, the underlying image is superbly drawn, and I find that Bernhard is very good at depicting light sources. And I like the curvature of his text.

Information Reference: 

http://www.designishistory.com/1920/lucian-bernhard/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucian_Bernhard