Week Three: Style

Following the idea of the Animal farm post, where it shows numerous styles can be used to show one concept, where they can change the context or perspective of the concept, I thought that it would be beneficial to research some types of graphic design styles and how they are useful in design to communicate a certain point or address a certain target audience. This process advanced me in my project by enabling me to see what different styles represent and what effect they have when communicating a point or concept, so therefore I can ensure that I am choosing the correct style for the point/argument/concept that I want to portray in my poster design.

The following list is compiled from the major design movements that make up what most designers know today to be the various styles of design or approaches to design.

Victorian – characterized by symmetrical layouts, heavy ornamentation and decoration. This approach has seen a revival as of late with its heavily ornamented type, and detailed illustrations.

Art Nouveau – best known for its flat, outlined illustrations and hand-drawn typefaces. Often, this style is confused with Art Deco, but there is a clear distinction between the two. Art Nouveau looks hand drawn and lacks the highly geometric shapes that define the Art Deco style.








Early Modern – geometrically based, with a minimalistic approach, this style is dominated by clean type and photos rather than illustrations.

Art Deco – employed aero-dynamic shapes, Egyptian zigzags, motion lines and an airbrushed or grainy look. Think original comic books and old car show posters. This style has, once again, become increasingly popular over the last year or so and will most likely continue to do so. Unlike the Early Modern style, Art Deco highly exercises its use of illustrations and graphic representations of everything from everyday objects to cars and cruise ships.

Late Modern – mostly known for, distorted geometric shapes, and informal layouts. The only aspect of this style that isn’t informal is the type, which was devoid of decoration.

Swiss/International – best recognized for its complete lack of embellishment, this style employs the use of negative space, or areas lacking content, in layouts and could appropriately be labeled as very “clean.”

Contemporary – exemplifies simplicity and structure. Often, with the Contemporary style, visual metaphors and conceptual imagery are used.

Post-Modern – this miss-mash style is best characterized by a tilted axis, collage-like illustrations, overlying figures, and impulsive decoration. This style has been used in varying degrees since its first uses and, if used correctly, can give projects a unique expression.

Digital/Grunge – the most recent step in the design evolutionary process, this style emerged only within the last decade and is easily recognized by its extensive use of distressed textures, unrefined edges, and a seemingly nonsensical approach to layout.

Psychedelic – promoted the use of abstracted curvilinear shapes, clashing colors, and hard-to-read fonts. Rarely used in today’s designs, the trippy posters of the 60s are the most easily recognisable contribution of the Psychedelic style.

Sachplakat –  The term Sachplakat, or Object Poster, was coined in Germany to describe a new type of poster which featured a realistic depiction of the product and little else.

After looking into the major styles above I have come to the decision that the best design styles/ the one's I believe are most effective are Early Modern, Late Modern, Swiss International, Contemporary and Sachplaket.

From here I will then apply some of the styles to my concepts to see what effect they have.