The Victorian, in reference to design, refers to an aesthetic born from a specific period (1837-1901)
during the reign of Queen Victoria. Victorian design is widely viewed as having indulged in a
regrettable excess of ornament. The Victorian era is known for its interpretation and eclectic revival
of historic styles mixed with the introduction of Middle East and Asian influences in furniture,
fittings, and Interior decoration.
The Hireling Shepherd by Holman Hunt (1851)
Isabella John Everett Millais (1849)
The Arts and Crafts Movement refers to an aesthetic born out of the Victorian design movement. It
served as an ideological counter-movement to the over industrialisation of art during the Victorian
era. It promotes the economic use of practical on hand materials as opposed to newer foreign
idolised materials.
Windrush William Morris (1881-83)
Varying Arts and Crafts interior decorative designs
Art Nouveau is a form of design born during the late 19th century and early 20th century. It is known
for its depiction of circular natural patterns and aesthetic uniformity. Additionally the Art Nouveau
movement or “New Art movement” is specifically anti historicism deriving its origins from a desire
for a new art style for a new century.
Arts Dance Alphonse Mucha (1898)
Gismonda Alfons Mucha (1894)
The Vienna Secession Also known as the “Union of Australian Artists” refers to a group/movement
formed in 1897. This style, unlike others, is not uniform; rather it attempts to unite the works of all
artists who took part in the movement. Secessionists aimed to explore the possibilities of art outside
the confines of tradition. They hoped to create a new style that was not derivative of historical
influence.
Secession Hall Joseph Maria Olbrich (Austria 1897)
Adele Bloch-Bauer I Gustav Klimt (1907)
Cubism was created by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso during 1907-1914 and divided into two
phases; “Analytical” 1909–1911 and “Synthetic” 1912–1914. The “Analytical” style involved an
analysis of objects into their compound elements and rearranging them on the canvas and featured
predominantly monochromatic greys or browns. Whilst in “Synthetic” style the image was built up
from pre-existing elements or objects, rather than being created through a process of fragmentation
and saw colour introduced into the style.
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon Pablo Picasso (1907)
Bottles and Fishes Georges Braque (1910)
The Futurist movement was formed in the early 20th century in Italy and founded by the poet Filippo
Tommaso Marinettit. The movement encompassed not only the visual arts but also architecture,
music, cinema, and photography. Its design style featured multiple viewing angles and faceted forms
combined to portray movement and speed.
Abstract Speed + Sound Giacomo Balla (1913–1914)
Cyclist Natalia Goncharova (1913)
Surrealist design began in the early 1920s and encompassed all facets of artistic expression.
Developing out of the Dada movement during World War 1 Surrealism was an attempt to interpret
the subconscious into an artistic representation. There are three primary strands to the Surrealist
style; Automatism which in which conscious control is supressed in favour of the subconscious,
hallucinatory which presented a form of hyper reality with scenes making little to no real sense and
the juxtaposition of unrelated objects to establish an “unreality”.
The Elephant Celebes Max Ernst (1921)
The Red Tower Giorgio de Chirico's (1913)
The Dada movement originated 1915-1922 and sought to ridicule traditional notions of form and
beauty. The style moved away from traditional techniques choosing to employ collage,
photomontage, assemblage and readymades. Dada focused on anti-war and anti-bourgeois politics
through by rejecting the prevailing standards in art through anti-art cultural works.
ABCD (Self-portrait) Raoul Hausmann (1923-24)
Fountain Marcel Duchamp (1917)
Constructivism originated in Russia in 1914 and dominated art there after 1917 revolution
eventually spreading to the west in 1920. Constructivism was a movement that influenced primary
art and architecture and was characterised by its abstract nature and use of industrial materials and
imagery.
Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893-1930)
Cover for Children and the Cinema Varvara Stepanova (1928)
De Stiji or “Neoplasticism” is a Dutch artistic movement founded in 1917. Its primary influence came
from Theo van Doesburg (1883–1931) and his associates, including the painter Piet Mondrian, the
architect Gerrit Rietveld, and the sculptor Georges Vantongerloo. The style attempted to express a
utopian ideal of spiritual harmony. It featured abstraction and universality by reducing the using
only the essentials of form, vertical and horizontal, and colour; only primaries along with black and
white.
Composition with Yellow, Blue, and Red Piet Mondrian(1937–42)
Red and Blue Chair Gerrit Rietveld (1917)
The Bauhaus School originated in Germany in the early 20th-century and focused on the fine,
applied arts and architecture. The original school founded by Walter Gropius and operated from
1919-1933. The style gave emphasis to a work shop style training as opposed to academic studio
education. Bauhaus originally adopted a generally expressionist aesthetic but later changed with
influence form the growing Functionalist movement.
Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe (1927)
Yellow-Red-Blue Wassily Kandinsky (1925)
Functionalism, in design, is the idea that ‘form ever follows function’. It was first iterated by the
architect Louis Sullivan at the beginning of the 20th. It heavily influenced design styles, most
prominently architecture, for many years to come. At its essence Functionalism promotes the idea
that design should be based on function rather than aesthetic.
Knarraros lighthouse Axel Sveinsson (1938-1939)
Villa Savoye Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret (1928-31)
The New Typography was a movement in the 1920s and 1930s. It chose to move away from
traditional typographic style of symmetrical columns; organizing the printed page as a blank field in
which blocks of lettering and images where arranged in matching asymmetrical compositions. This
style was most commonly used in political posters for its striking eye catching effect.
Jan Tschichold (1967)
The International Typographic Style or Swiss style is a graphic design style primarily focusing on text
that was developed in Switxerland in the 1950s. The style focuses on clean lines, readability and
objectivity. Hallmarks of the style are asymmetric layouts, use of a grid, sans-serif typefaces like
Akzidenz Grotesk, and flush left, ragged right text.
Akzidenz-Grotesk Berthold Type Foundry (1896)
New York School is a generalized term used to refer to the a group of artist, primarily abstract
expressionists, working in New York in the 1940s and 1950s. It is often claimed that this group was
responsible for New York replacing Paris as the major centre for avant-garde art during the time.
Included in this group of artist are Willem de Kooning, Arshile Gorky, Hans Hofmann, Franz Kline,
Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko.
Pop art is a term coined by the art critic Lawrence Alloway to describe a movement in modern art
which came into focus, primarily in the United States and Britain, from the 1950s to 1970s. Pop art
primarily drew its aesthetic from the consumerist and pop culture world. It claimed no there was no
difference between good and bad taste rejecting the perceived higher ideals of intellectual art.
Campbell's Soup I Andy Warhol (1968)
Drowning Girl Roy Lichtenstein's (1963)
The Swiss School is a typographic style developed by a teacher named Ernst Keller at the School of
Arts and Crafts in Zurich during the 1920s. The text design focused on a simplified layout that uses
negative space and imagery that emphasised the text primarily. It also utilised Constructivist
techniques such as geometric reduction, montage and a simplified colour palate.
Ernst Keller (1891-1968)
Post-modern is a term that refers to a movement in the 1970s as a reaction to the dominant
influence of Modernism. Within the visual arts category the defining factors of a Post-modernist
design are hard to pin down however it is generally described as featuring imbalance, disjunction,
and spatial ambiguity. Its best-known exponent is the American architect Robert Venturi.
Surreal Marcus A. Jansen (2009)
Talk Show Addicts Roger Brown (1993)