The Japanese Ukiyo-e influence was the greatest influences in Art Nouveau. Thanks to Art Nouveau, the simplistic but stylish approach to graphic design is still evolving in our media to this day. Art Nouveau was a pivotal factor in simplifying a good portion of graphic styles. Of course, this was being worked on before, but still: Art Nouveau made Victorian style look overly complex, hard-to-understand, and lavish in comparison. While Victorian was more about a focus on realism, Art Nouveau and everything after it represented the importance of being eye-catching. Without Art Nouveau, the fantastic place we are today in the looks of graphic design would be less exciting, with less instantly memorable logos, less flashy advertising, and so forth. After all, Art Nouveau brought us the General Elecctric logo, which still today survives.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is a great example of a figure who represented Art Nouveau, as he used simple colors and line qualities on his posters, but he never failed to deliver attractive graphics. To make things more interesting, his "regular paintings" were much more detailed, well-painted post-impressionist paintings. He made life look very theatrical, authentic and dramatic, without having to make it super-realistic.
One of my favorite works from Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is still "La Tournée du Chat Noir," due to it's being a well-shaped cat, mysticism in the grey lines on top of black, great use of shapes in general, fun letters, and so forth. My sister saw the original in Europe; I wish I was there.
- EBEN S.
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