Graphic Design Styles and Influences in Cities and Cultures

[Stephen@StaffsUni]

Hi,

I'm researching graphic designstyles and influences and for thefollowing cities / countries(London/Manchester/Britain, Los Angeles/New York/USA and Tokyo/Japan) would like to get some facts and peoples opinions on what they think are the predominant graphic stylesof these citiesand their associated countries over the last 15-20 years or even going back to the1920s and 1930s when professional graphic design started to emerge in Europe, North America and Asia.

Any replies would be greatly appreciated.

Stephen

[PrintDriver]

Whew, writing a paper or an encylcopedia?
Can you narrow it down some?
My opinion? You will have a hard time describing the entity generically called 'New York' within a single style. You could write a book just on one burrough. The same is true for London. You might want to narrow your span to a single decade rather than the last 90 years and pick a single city, one you like or know well.

Specialization is for insects...

R.H.

[Gavin Joule]

Phew too!

Maybe try picking some Design practices from each city whom you think embody the style of the city and do some case studies about them. I think Design practices often are more influential on a City, rather than vice versa but thats my theory. It's going to be a tough paper unless you narrow your criteria as PD suggests, the time scale will be difficult too as there is not a massive amount of information about early last century.

Off the top of my head I would suggest for the UK
Farrow Design Manchester
Peter Saville London
as they work in similar fields but with different approaches, but maybe overworked as subject matter.

tough project!
G

http://www.gavinjouledesign.com/www-docs/resourses/whattoput.gif

[Stephen@StaffsUni]

Thanks guys,

You're right. It is tough. Everything I've found so far in terms of from books has been contemporary (The last 10 years or so but nothing really beyond that). I think you're right with regards narrowing the timescale down. That's one reason why I've put the question up on the forum to see if anyone knows because so far I've drawn a blank on the early stuff.

Thanks Gavin for suggesting studios / designers. I should be going to the Peter Saville show at Urbis in Manchester in the next week or so. Have you been?

Thanks again

Stephen

[style]

does anyone know the farrow design website url? (interested in checking it out)
stephen, would love to help you but seriously dont know any answer.... i presume you've done some web research! what about encarta? (don't laugh they have a whole load of stuff on design - may have something your looking for!)
good luck!!

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/instyle/sigi.jpg

[Stephen@StaffsUni]

Hi,

Thanks Style, I've got this feeling I'm in way over my head with this one!

Yeah I've spent hours and hours searching the web and even more time searching through library books. I must admit I've not looked at Encarta though. I'll give anything a shot. Thanks again.

Stephen.

PS: I'd like to have a look at the Farrow Design site but there doesn't seem to be one. www.farrowdesign.com (http://www.farrowdesign.com) just has contact details.

[vectorgfxqueen]

Howdy...too big a subject. If you want to see some of the past, research retro graphic posters from the 20's, 30's and '40's. Or look for Art Deco posters...that was the style of the 20's and 30's and early 40s. Then the fifties led to rocket space age stuff.....specifically to a city might be hard, although there are graphic artists that did posters you might be able to locate for each city.

Maybe even pick a poster artist from that period and research him. There was even a style, Bauhaus, which is German, but influenced graphics big time at that period.

Have fun! This is a paper and get to choose the subject?
Peace

http://www.betaimages.com/ws.gif
"I've got a Rock N' Roll heart" - Eric Clapton

[Eraser Nubbin]

Have you thought of taking one designer / studio from each of the cities that you mentioned and following them / analyzing each one and then comparing the styles of your subject from each city with your other city's designers?
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Match in the gas tank, boom boom.

[kapitänsmütze]

any usefull information yet? any book, nothing?
let me know when you find something

[REDeye]

Um...I do know a little about Tokyo Pop culture. It first hit the beginning of the 1980s when Japanese anime began to be translated into English. Examples include: Robotech, Voltron, Transformers, etc. It set a whole new standard in animation, especially to the American culture. It all broke down from there—advertising, merchadising, graphic novels...

Now, if you look at television—especially in children's television programs—you'll find lots of influence in the presentation, style, and overall physics (leaping forty feet into the air) in lots of today's programs.

A little known fact: The japanese were influenced in animation by the americans first. The big eyes, multicolored hair, and camera angles—are all influenced by american art and animation. The thing is, the japanese took it to whole other level and exaggerated it. Now we're behind, except in 3D animation. Do we see a pattern here...?