Women in Advertising: Art Nouveau's Enduring Inspiration

The female form has been incorporated into nearly every major art movement, as either subject or inspiration. In art nouveau, the female form was especially celebrated and depicted because of its organic and elegant lines, and the popular posters created during that era prominently feature females. Much of advertising history features women as a central figure in the art and media, a practice that still continues. In some ways, popular artists of the art nouveau period, such as Jules Cheret and Alphonse Mucha, could be considered the fathers of modern advertising. Their work still remains popular and heavily copied, and the use of the female form as a central or decorative feature endures. The excitement and interest their work garnered may be a key reason why the faces and bodies of women are still a major element around which many advertisements are created.

Jules Cheret has been hailed as both the "father of the modern poster" and the "father of women's liberation" (Meggs, 2006, p 201-202). He was prolific in his creation of posters and advertisements, having created over a thousand posters, and his work led to his induction into the French government's Legion of Honor. But it was the subjects of his work as much as the quality that created his popularity. Cheret once said that an advertisement "need not show its product, as long as it evoked a feeling that conveyed amusement, enchantment, or enticement toward the product" (Edwards), and he accomplished this through heavy use of beautiful women as the central focus. The women of his work were dubbed "Cherettes" and were wildly popular. But some consider the Cherettes as "an unhealthy first step towards media promoting impossible body types for women" (Stock-Allen, 2011). Cherettes were heavily idealized - women who flouted the accepted norms and wore revealing clothing and indulged in risque behaviors for women of the time. This drove their popularity amongst both men and women and spurred the use of the figures in advertisements for many items, including "beverages and alcohol, perfumes, soaps, cosmetics and pharmaceutical products. Eventually he was promoting railway companies as well as a series of manufacturing businesses" (Collins, 2008).

Cheret poster. Source: InternationalPoster.com

Another major figure in the art nouveau movement was Czech artist Alphonse Mucha, who was also known for his use of the female figure. Mucha exploded on the art scene after taking on a commission to design a poster for actress Sarah Bernhardt's new play, Gismonda. Meggs describes Mucha's figures as "project[ing] an archetypical sense of unreality. Exotic and sensuous while retaining an aura of innocence, they express no specific age, nationality, or historic period" (2006). Also like Cheret, Mucha was very prolific in the world of advertising. He frequently designed posters for the theatre, as well as "a whole host of consumable products that remain some of his most recognizable work" (Walsh, 2014).

Cheret and Mucha were not the only artists of the movement to focus on female form. Most of the artists of the era incorporated it into their works either extensively or occasionally in their advertising work. The work ranged from innocent to somewhat erotic. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec had a much smaller body of work, producing only 31 posters, but his work depicting the Moulin Rouge and cabarets of the time are iconic. Belgian designer Privat-Livemont is cited as "an excellent example of female sensuality used in the service of commerce" (Stock-Allen, 2011). Theophile-Alexandre Steinlein heavily depicted felines in his works, but did occasionally utilize women as figures, often in a less erotic, though still romantic way.

Toulouse-Lautrec. Source: hoocher.com

Privat-Livemont. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Steinlein. Source: GreatVintageGraphics.com

Fast forward to the pin up art popular in the 1940s and 50s and it is easy to see the source of inspiration. Artists like Gil Elvgren, Bill Randall, and Alberto Vargas drew women who show the same idealized beauty and attractive energy as their predecessors. The Cherettes were supplanted by the Gibson girls, and while advertisements changed somewhat in artistic style, they are just a variation on a theme. Beautiful women in striking poses with elegant hair and risque clothing still dominate as the central selling figure. The figure in the Pepsi ad recalls Cheret's art seen earlier, while the woman in the Claussner Hosiery ad is drawn with much of same curvilinear organic lines seen in many art nouveau works, and the Kool cigarettes woman is just a modern Job cigarettes woman.

Source: PinUpCartoonGirls.com

Source: PinUpCartoonGirls.com

Source: PinUpCartoonGirls.com

In the present, women are still a central figure in advertising, although the advertisements often verge away from the elegant artistry of earlier works into a more aggressive sexuality and in the depiction of women. Still, some of those influences remain. It is easy to see how these works owe an allegiance to the advertisements created in the art nouveau period, and merely impress new styles and accepted cultural norms onto a framework created by the likes of Cheret and Mucha.

Source: Brewbarn.Ecrater.com

Source: research-methodology.net

Source: PETA

Sources:

Collins, N. (2008). Jules Charet (1836-1932). Retrieved from http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/famous-artists/jules-cheret.htm

Edwards, E. (2008). The development of posters. Retrieved from
http://www.erinedwardsdesigns.com/dev_post/f1_d1.html

Meggs, P.B., Purvis, A.W. (2006). Meggs' history of graphic design. Hoboken, N.J.: J. Wiley & Sons.

Stock-Allen, N. (2011). Paris & the belle epoque poster craze. Retrieved from http://www.designhistory.org/Poster_pages/LaBelleEpoque.html

Walsh, G. (2014). Masters of the poster: Cheret, Mucha, and the new art of advertising. Retrieved from http://mirappraisal.com/masters-of-the-poster-cheret-mucha-and-the-new-art-of-advertising/

Etsy and the Arts and Crafts Movement

When the Arts and Crafts movement began in the 19th century, the founding ideal was a desire to move away from a market glutted with mass-manufactured goods and promote artistry and handmade creation. John Ruskin, a celebrated writer and artist of the era, "pointed toward the union of art and labor in service to society," and believed that artistry didn't necessarily have to serve a specific purpose, as "beautiful things were valuable and useful precisely because they were beautiful" (Meggs, p177). Although the original movement ended approximately 100 years ago, it continues to have a lasting impact. Thanks to modern technology like the internet, the world is experiencing a return to some of the beliefs espoused by its founder William Morris and proponents like Ruskin.

William Morris' work in the pursuit of his beliefs that founded the Arts and Crafts movement led to a revival in the creation of a book as an artistic pursuit instead of just a commercial one. When he found himself dissatisfied with the output of printers and the decline of design, he followed an entrepreneurial instinct and struck out to make his own press to create and distribute works of quality. His efforts gave consumers choices beyond the mass-produced items that had supplanted works created with care. Today, it is even easier for an artist to reach an audience and distribute their work. Through sites like Etsy, which describes itself as "the world's most vibrant handmade marketplace," artists can post their creations online for anyone in the world to see and purchase. Before the advent of sites like these, handmade items could only be purchased at fairs and festivals, or small shops who chose to include the work of local artists. The majority of goods available for purchase at chain stores were of the mass-produced kind. Online merchandising allows people to connect to a wider range of goods and artists, and increases the possibility of buying handmade items at a fair rice with limited hassle.

Morris would likely approve of Etsy, a company that once declared that its "mission is to enable people to make a living making things, and to reconnect makers with buyers. Our vision is to build a new economy and present a better choice: buy, sell and live handmade" (McRae, 2010). Many people who have found themselves unemployed in a difficult economy have turned to selling handmade goods as a way to make ends meet when in financial difficulty (Bassett, 2010). This would have pleased Morris and Ruskin, who were also strong proponents of social justice, wanting to see fair labor conditions and greater benefits to workers (Harvey &Press, 1991; Meggs, 2012). Sites like Etsy enable anyone to have an entrepreneurial spirit and benefit from their creations. Mass-manufactured items will always be more easily available and often have cheaper prices, but the site can allow an artist to open a "shop" with little to no overhead and a wide potential audience. Although the leaders of the Arts and Crafts movement did not like the modern technology of their era (The Economist, 2014), artists of this era have harnessed it to expound on Morris' ideals and pursue a world with a greater appreciation and creation of handmade items.

Sources:

Bassett, L. (2010) Jobless turning to Etsy to make their hobbies lucrative. Retrieved from
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/06/etsy-online-craft-store-m_n_752791.html

Economist. (2014) The art and craft of business. Retrieved from
http://www.economist.com/news/business/21592656-etsy-starting-show-how-maker-movement-can-make-money-art-and-craft-business

Luckman, S. (2013). The aura of the analogue in a digital age: Women's crafts, creative markets and home-based labour after Etsy. Cultural Studies Review, 19(1). Retrieved from http://www.questia.com/library/journal/1P3-2984190971/the-aura-of-the-analogue-in-a-digital-age-women-s

McRae, P.S. (2010). Etsy: 21st century arts and crafts. Retrieved from
http://blackfishart.blogspot.com/2010/10/etsy-21st-century-arts-and-crafts.html

Meggs, P.B., Purvis, A.W. (2006). Meggs' history of graphic design. Hoboken, N.J.: J. Wiley &Sons.

Mathematics in Design

As we progress through chapters five through eight in Megg's History of Design, we start to see an increased discussion of the role of mathematics in the design process. The capitals in Griffo's Bembo type "used the one-to-ten (stroke weight to height) proportion advanced by leading mathematicians of the era." (Meggs, p104) The construction of the Romain du Roi typeface, the official typeface of King Louis XIV's Imprimerie Royale, was created by a team of scholars headed by mathematician Nicolas Jaugeon. Nineteenth century craftsman William Morris declared the development of this typeface "saw the calligrapher replaced by the engineer as the dominant typographic influence." (Meggs, p122) In the sixteenth century, mathematics professor Oronce Fine was a popular graphic designer for his "mathematical construction of ornaments" and the eighteenth century saw the development of information graphics to represent statistical data. (p113) Although people may choose to classify themselves as either right-brained or left-brained, dependent on their predisposition towards either more scientific or more artistic thinking and abilities, science and art are not mutually exclusive. Art and design can be enhanced and created through the fundamentals of science and math.

A fascinating contribution of mathematics to art and design is the golden ratio and the fibonacci sequence. The golden ratio, also known as the golden number or golden mean, is an irrational number roughly equal to 1.618. The Fibonacci sequence is a sequence of numbers, beginning with one, where each number is the sum of the two before. So the Fibonacci sequence begins with 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13..., etc. The further one travels down the sequence, the closer the ratio between the two numbers gets to the golden ratio. The sequence can be represented visually in the form of a spiral, shown below:

Source: Wikimedia Commons

The golden ratio and the Fibonacci sequence occur commonly in nature. The number and structure of seeds, petals, and spirals in sunflowers, pinecones, and pineapples are often a Fibonacci number, and the structure of a Nautilus shell shows the Fibonacci spiral.

Source: photoshoptutorialsandtips.com

These same concepts can be applied to art and design. Meggs' text discusses how mathematics was used in designing historical typefaces, and this is still an important part of typography. But typography is not just about the construction and design of the individual letterforms. Font size, line width, line height, and the proportions between them must all be considered when creating a new typeface and using them in documents to the best effect. Many sites offer modular scales and calculators to find the best proportions for font creation and placement. In the article "More Meaningful Typography," author Tim Brown (2011) offers an in-depth look at using the golden ratio in developing a modular scale. His article explores how this affects balance and appearance in web design and creates a stronger and more pleasing visual. Designer Nick Meccia (2013) also promotes the use of the modular scale in design, explaining that "its purpose is to introduce hierarchy and consistency into typography via mathematical relationships." He adds that incorporating the Fibonacci sequence and golden ratio into designs can "elevate [the] visual impact."

Golden Ratio equation - Source: mathisfun.com

But the use of mathematics and proportion is not limited to only typography. Fine's art is just one example of an artist whose work incorporates mathematical principles to great effect. Many of the works of artists like Leonardo daVanci, Georges Surat, Salvador Dali and others have been analyzed for proportions aligned to the golden ratio, although it is not known for certain whether this was intentional in every case. Artist Edward Burne Jones did use the ratio when composing his work. "The Golden Stairs," shown below.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

With all the modern advancements in technology, incorporating principles of math and science into design becomes easier than ever. One does not need great mathematical skill or a heavy education in these topics. Readily available online tools like the modular scales and calculators and instant connection and advice from others on posting boards and listservs can improve the accessibility and use of these tools for anyone interested. While early typography and design seemed to be limited to those with great education, innate talent, or the right connections, these days, anyone with drive can find what they need to create their own works and find an audience.

Sources:

Brown, T. (2011). More meaningful typography. Retrieved from http://alistapart.com/article/more-meaningful-typography 

Hamilton, L. D. (2014). The golden ratio and typography. Retrieved from http://www.lauradhamilton.com/the-golden-ratio-and-typography

Meccia, N. (2013). Designing irrationally. Retrieved from http://blog.8thlight.com/nick-meccia/2013/08/23/designing-irrationally.html

Meisner, G. (2014). Golden ratio in art composition and design. Retrieved from http://www.goldennumber.net/art-composition-design/

Meggs, P. B., Purvis, A. W. (2006). Meggs' history of graphic design. Hoboken, N.J.: J. Wiley & Sons.

Pearson, C. (2011). Secret symphony: The ultimate guide to readable web typography. Retrieved from http://www.pearsonified.com/2011/12/golden-ratio-typography.php

Writing/Reading Direction and Organization of Graphic Design

For this week's History of Graphic Design field journal, students were asked to research further into something that inspired them from the reading. Throughout the assigned chapters, something that stuck out to me was the direction of writing. Writing evolved not only in how it was designed (whether pictographs or alphabets), but also how it was displayed and intended to be read. Writing could be displayed vertically, horizontally, or even on a spiral, as shown on the Phaistos Disk of the Minoan civilization.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

The printed images or alphabets may be read from right-to-left or left-to-right, and different cultures adopted different methods for the display of their languages. At one point, the Greeks even adopted a method called "boustrophedon" which intends for the work to be read continuously. The first sentence can begin from left-to-right, but the next sentence will begin right-to-left to keep the eye from jumping back to the beginning,

Source: Wikimedia Commons

 Western cultures followed the lead of Greek civilization, which ultimately adopted a left-to-right horizontal direction of reading and writing. Arabic and Hebrew are examples of languages written and read in a right-to-left horizontal direction, and Chinese and Japanese may be written and read in either a right-to-left vertical direction, or a left-to-right horizontal direction, which the more modern writings have adopted.

I wanted to read a little more about reading direction and in doing so, discovered something interesting. Quite a few studies have been done on the effect reading direction may have on perceptual biases, spatial cognition, and even preference for image location.

A study by Ting Ting Chan and Benjamin Bergen (2005) found that English and Chinese speakers were more likely to remember images shown in the top left of a screen, while Taiwanese speakers were more likely to remember an image shown on the top right. (p. 3)

The abstract of a study by Austen Smith and Lorin Elias (2013) stated that their research found a difference in how reading direction influenced preference for left or right lit image, the direction in which circles were drawn, and the proximity to center a line is drawn when bisecting a circle.

All of this makes me wonder how reading direction can affect the reception and success of graphic designs. I have not yet located any studies into this specific topic from my perfunctory research, but I would hypothesize that the layout and construction of a design could benefit from taking into account how reading direction can impact the perception of design. It would seem reasonable to suspect that an advertisement created by a native left-to-right reader for an audience of the same could be less effective or visually appealing to an audience of right-to-left readers. It is something I am curious to look further into as we progress into more modern eras of study, and determine if I can spot a significant difference between design layouts by culture and reading direction.


Chan, T.T., & Bergen, B. (2005). Writing direction influences spatial
cognition. Retrieved from http://www2.hawaii.edu/~bergen/papers/f895-chan.pdf

Smith, A.K., & Elias, L.J. Native reading direction and corresponding preferences for left- or right-lit images. [Abstract]. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 116(2), 355-367. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24032316