book covers – Retroavangarda

Nov 24 2016

Henri Matisse vs Paul Rand – what the famous fauvist has to do with the author of IBM logo

24-November-2016 / Graphic design, History of Art, Painting / book covers, Fauvism, Henri Matisse, Paul Rand, poster / 2 Comments / By Anna Kłos

Graphic design and painting might seem to some as distant fields of art but the truth is that artists from both sides face the same artistic problems, for instance: balanced composition, colour, scale, dominant etc. In history of art, there are instances of artists who practice completely different art styles and yet create very similar […]

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Sep 8 2016

Polish designer for Penguin Books – the green crime series by Romek Marber

8-September-2016 / Graphic design, History of Art / book covers, Penguin Books, Romek Marber / By Anna Kłos

Classical covers of the British publishing house Penguin has for good settled in the history of graphic design. Romek Marber has a significant part in this great achievement, a Polish designer who in 1960s created for Penguin one of the most popular crime book series. Marber was born in 1925 and after the War he migrated

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Jul 7 2016

The meaning of line directions in art – horizontals, verticals, diagonals

7-July-2016 / Graphic design, History of Art, Painting / book covers, composition in art, dynamic composition, Jan Tschichold, Piet Mondrian, poster, rules of composition, Saul Bass, Stenberg brothers, William Blake / 1 Comment / By Anna Kłos

When painting or composing any project one should consider that different compositional layouts evoke different effects on the viewer and might evoke different connotations. The dominance of horizontal lines in a painting or a graphic design project symbolizes peace, stagnation, melancholy or even sadness. This results from subconscious association of horizontal position with sleeping, retirement

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Apr 24 2016

Michal Batory’s exhibition in Warsaw – book covers

24-April-2016 / Exhibitions, Graphic design / book covers, Michal Batory, Paulo Coelho, poster / By Anna Kłos

Michał Batory is one of the most appreciated poster artists in the world. He studied at Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź, but for many years now he has been living and working in Paris. His art was even exhibited in Louvre, making him the second Pole in history presented in that gallery. Not everyone knows, however,

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Mar 8 2016

Retro-elegance: the return to Art Déco

8-March-2016 / Graphic design, History of Art / art deco, book covers, poster, retro style, vintage / By Karolina

In my last post I mentioned that ‘Wiener Werkstätte’ had a direct influence on the development of art déco. This style flourished between 1919-1939 and involved painting, architecture, sculpture, graphics and also small items of everyday use about which I would like to expand on today. The ‘art déco’ term derives from French art décoratif

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