Elizabeth Friedländer was a 20th-century German designer who specialized in calligraphy, typography, and bookwork. Upon studying typography at the Berlin Academy, Friedländer managed to create her own font and typeface, which was known to be called Friedlander-Antiqua and was changed afterward to Elisabeth-Antiqua. The reason for this change was a result of Hitler and the Nazi’s rise […]
Shigeo Fukuda was an influential, critically acclaimed 20th-century Japanese sculptor, graphic designer and poster designer, who specialized in efficacious optical illusions, also known for his acerbic and revolutionary anti-war and political art. His artworks tend to display illusions and deception. One example of this is his Lunch With a Helmet On, a sculpture made entirely […]
In Germany, during the 1930s there existed a lifestyle magazine called die neue linie that every young German girl wanted to have. One of the first fashion and lifestyle outlets to ever exist and a revolutionary and sensationalist magazine, designed by various notable designers of that time, including the Bauhaus designer Söre Popitz. Graduate of […]
Almost everyone in the English-speaking world can say that they have heard the phrase “never judge a book by its cover” at one point or another. But looking through the history of book covers and the art of book design, this phrase falls short and renders itself as false. For hundreds of years, the book […]
Looking at Andy Warhol’s work over the years, one must realize his play with both still and living subjects for his art, and his vehement contribution to nature morte and still life. The former portrays the essentiality of a given moment, since it takes organic objects (such as fruits), that would otherwise decay, and immortalizes […]
Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer is one of the most famous and celebrated artists of the Baroque period. Vermeer is known for his depictions of domestic scenes and imagery of the middle class in the Netherlands, which was a country of great influence and inspiration for him, both in the typical Dutch domestic subjects of his […]
Flemish artist Clara Peeters was a pioneer for female still life painters in the 17th century, despite restrictions on women’s access to artistic training and membership in guilds. She was known for her meticulous brushwork and her ability to capture the precise textures of objects. She worked both in the Spanish Netherlands and the Dutch […]
Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin was a French painter from the 18th century. He is considered the polymath of still life (nature morte), and is also greatly regarded for his paintings which depict mundane domestic lives and activities. His work is characterized by his balanced compositions, granular impasto, and an artistic chiaroscuro. The fulcrum of his was interior […]
Influenced by Constructivism and Dadaism, Cohen Lustig became one of very few mid-century women designers who are celebrated at the same caliber as their contemporary male designers. She was also one of the few women at the time to run an independent design business. She never ceased to create artwork alongside her designs, and after […]
Alvin Lustig found all sorts of ways to pull out rabbits from hats and show us an alternate reality. His was a visionary mind, drawn to disrupting the normative patterns of seeing and thinking, because, as he put it, “the incomplete relationship between society and form” troubled him. For Lustig, social needs are inseparable from […]