week 4

Fifties' American Kitsch

Post World War II resulted in mass production and was dominated by Ziet Giest at the time, a love of the future, of optimism and an excitement of technological advancements. This eventuating into a bizarre product styling which they dubbed Kitsch, a type of sentimentality in styling, also thought to be any sorts of 'decorative junk'. The period extended over 20 years, from 1940-1960 and explored design in a futuristic style of what was to come and what possibilities were held in the dream of space-travel, this style extended from cars to ornaments. There was a superficiality to it all, the styling wasn't about how it functions but about making it look 'modern'. Many cars of the time looked aerodynamic and felt from the future, yet the size was ridiculous as well as the amount of petrol it ran on, today it would be all in all a hassle to own if it wasn't for collection purposes. The optimism of the time is evident in the Cadillac car design, there was no reasoning that environmental resources would runout, it was appealing to the materialistic side of the human being, not the practical side. After the war, America experienced a changing economy, shifts occurred in the workplace where more service workers were seen to the popularity of the television set, people of all ages were exposed to many advancing advertisements for products that were said to be essential for the 'good life'.

The sci-fi genre and cartoon animation became very popular depicting tales of the future. The 'Jetsons' was a cartoon view of what people from the fifties' believed to be and their perspective was thought to be the truth of what the future held, once we got into space...

The major influence of this period was the aircraft, many products styling were encouraged by the roundness of the nose and it's aerodynamic body, this inspired all types of industrial products. The curves were seen throughout the 1950's in a broad range of industries and products. It was highly popular and seen in aero-style buildings, architecture, machinery e.g. the car, casual script was popular at the time e.g. 'Las Vegas' signage and even the Barbie doll, that was brought in around the 1950's and is still extremely popular today along with the exaggerated curves from that time.

The love of geometric shapes from Bauhaus was not lost, it was only advanced. the shapes were still there just turned into kitsch, where the shape is wonky and more organic (flower-like). Anything atomic was considered 'sexy' and the 'kidney' shape of an artists palette was popular amongst designers for posters and promotions.

Modern art influenced everything in a superficial way. The stackable chair, for example was designed for function but the sensual shape, curve and pastel colours intent was to appeal to the public and their craze for the best, the new. Even the electric guitar was made in the same way the curves are sexy and sensuous but serve no purpose at all, it isn't a wind instrument so the curves do not help the sound or anything the shape is only for the eyes pleasure. The classic jukebox's roundness appealed to the people and helped make the music 'jazz'.

Illustrators of the time explored American Gothic style evident in 'Uncle Sam's Poster' it is a parody of war and conscription. Others like Rockwell exaggerated facial expressions and used dramatic poses of cartoon characters in an attempt to idealise small-town America. From this technique came the classic 'Superhero' comic books, which further explored the dramatic values within different characters and situations. Pop art also had a major influence on this as it was peaking around the same time. Along with comics, detective novels were also very popular and incorporated the dramatic poses and exaggerated facial expressions aswel.

This style of over exaggeration flowed into other aspects of society with paperback novel covers with caricatured artworks and Hollywood movie posters that were dramatised. Typical of the period was exaggerated provocative poses rendered realistically coexisting with informal hand drawn type.

The caricatured drawings, comic book style and bright and loud colours were beginning to form on packaging and posters for advertisement because of these influences, space travel became possible and bizarre. People saw James Dean and his 'creative radical' style of cloths, plain shirts and jeans supporting the first youth movement. Also Elvis Presley was huge with his dramatic, romantic style and poses shown on many posters.

Many trademarks that were born in this period with simple, informal script have survived the 20th century and are still around to day, with none to little alterations to the original. Hallmark and Ray Ban are just two of the many that are still around and popular today.

Example of 1950's advertisements

more at: http://www.101010.it/storiagrafica/1950.html

1st Image---http://www.plan59.com/images/JPGs/bu59cvt01.jpg

2nd image---http://www.comicbookradioshow.com/trapped/superman2.gif

3rd Image---http://beaut.ie/blog/?tag=fantasy-friday