art deco graphic design featured image
Graphic Design

Art Deco Graphic Design

What is art-deco graphic design? Isn’t this the question you are asking yourself? If you are curious about art deco graphic design, you have come to the right place because I will explain everything you need to know here.

To get familiar with art deco design, we need to know what art deco design really is. We need to know about all the ins and outs of art deco design, how it came to existence, and where it was first used. Before forming a final idea about art deco graphic design, we must know about all these things.

When Did Art Deco Began?

Art deco design might look like it was invented yesterday, but no! The style has been around for a long time. The technique was first used in the 1920s and gained popularity post World War 1.

Art deco design rose in fame and took off when advertising was starting. It was becoming a vital tool in marketing. People loved advertising through art deco design, and everyone could see that art deco design was a significant hit.

Art deco design soon became a valuable tool for advertising. Companies at that time started using art deco design to boost their brand image. It also helped them get future customers.

top of chrysler building in black and white

One of the main reasons I believe art deco design became so popular is that there are no exact rules to follow for creating art deco design, which makes it very aesthetic. So, you can create an art deco design for almost anything. Style, simplicity, and flexibility made art deco so famous.

Examples Of Art Deco Designs

Art-deco design is a significant factor in advertising, and graphic design involves some unique art deco designs. These paved the way for them to be as trendy as they are now. Some of the designs are very famous and used to advertise essential things.

One of the best examples of art deco design is L’Atlantique by Adolphe Mouron (A.M.) Cassandre. Yeah, “The Titanic” is not the movie but the actual ship, and it was advertised using art deco design. Think about one of the most significant inventions designed with this style.

Maybe it was one of the reasons L’Atlantique was such a hit. Talk about advertising done right. This poster of L’Atlantique is now a classic example of art deco design. This poster is now sold in mass production as a home décor item.

A.M. Cassandre

Roman de Tirtoff, better known as Erte, was a Russian illustrator and designer. He was famous for his beautiful-looking images related to fashion. He made costumes for the Paris opera “The Folies Bergere,” a well-known cabaret-style music hall in Paris.

His illustrations related to fashion were featured on magazine covers at that time. He used to use more curved lines in his work than most art deco designers, but other art deco elements were present in his designs. Erte made the art deco design style more popular in his long and glorious career.

The Features Of Art Deco Design

We came to the part where we’ll closely examine Art Deco Graphic design features. Otherwise, how will you recognize an art deco design if you do not know what the style looks like?

The characteristics of art deco design are extensive. Each art deco design has features, but some general ones make it. Those features are mentioned below:

They have geometrical elements in shapes, and the art deco design depends a lot on using triangles. Let me rephrase it; triangles are essential for art deco design. If no trigonometric shapes are used in the design, you will see complex rectangular forms.

art deco design pattern

One of the easiest ways to recognize the art deco design style is to look for unused space. Another feature of the art deco design is sharp, bold lines drawn with thick strokes. Sometimes, those lines are even zigzags.

An essential feature of the art deco design is intensely bold and contrasting colors. So, when you see an art deco design, it will inevitably pop up in your face.

The typography used in an art deco design is heavily ornamented. The fonts are designed so that they carry a lot of visual weight. So, the typography in an art deco graphic design is bound to catch the viewer’s attention.

Common elements in art deco designs are chevron patterns, mosaic styles, stylized florals, and mostly flattened images but have more artistry than realism.

Where Should You Use Art Deco Graphic Design?

You might think, “Hey, this new Art Deco thing looks cool; why don’t I try it on the website I am designing?” I am going to stop you right there! Because art deco designs may look cool and trendy right now, choose the right subject for this style.

Designing a whole website using art deco might be overdoing it. People will get confused about the information they search for on the site. Suppose you want to have high retention for your website. In that case, the data must be presented in the simplest way possible, and the art deco design style might have the opposite effect.

art deco style flyer design for a jazz club

But on the flip side, if you are throwing a party and designing an invitation card for that party, the art deco design is the right style.

Different design types such as invitation cards, posters, some simple logos, and projects heavily based on typography would look great in the art deco design style. This style would also look great on one-off projects like posters for an art exhibition.

The Art Deco Trend

The art deco graphic design has a sort of attractiveness to it, and the way it is detailed and elegant looking at the same time. It has very bold elements that give a solid foundation for the design. That, in turn, helps the message of the design to stand out and fulfill its purpose.

Though art deco design may be a trend at the moment, it has been around for more than 100 years. Most design trends will be forgotten as soon as new trends arise, but art deco style design, we can say that it has survived the test of time.

Final Words

I love working with designs and projects to use art deco graphic design. They do not require much time, but they need quite a bit of skill and creativity. If you start a project with this design style, stick with the basics, which will help you a lot.

Because the basics give you a firm foundation on which you can build your project with the art deco graphic design style.

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