A Comparative Analysis of Art Nouveau and Art Deco Poster Design

Introduction

The poster has been one of the oldest advertising tools, and in the 19th century, it started to evolve into a way to visually communicate. It spread widely worldwide and became a staple in graphic design. The development of posters also had a big impact on typography. Since posters needed to be read from a distance, new and larger typefaces were created. Posters were used for many purposes: advertising political parties, recruiting, promoting products, and spreading ideas and knowledge to the public. The design of a poster is very deliberate. It's all done on purpose to convey the message or subject in the best way possible.

Over time, the style, techniques, and "rules" of poster design have changed. Styles never stay the same, but the medium—posters—has remained a key advertising tool. Even now, with the internet being the most efficient advertisement tool, posters are still being made and designed. I've always been fascinated by poster designs. They are such powerful communication tools and don't belong to just one style or period. Throughout time, poster designers have used contemporary visual methods to communicate effectively with the public.

In this paper, I'll compare posters from the Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements. I want to understand how these two movements differ and how these differences are evident in specific posters by Toulouse-Lautrec and Cassandre. I'll look at the ideas, styles, and techniques used in each poster and place them in the context of their time. I'll use semiotics to analyze the signs in each poster and refer to Feisner's 2006 book about color symbolism to understand the meaning and reasons behind color choices.

These two theoretical approaches will help me understand the artists' choices and the visual expressions of Art Nouveau vs. Art Deco. The paper will start with a formal analysis, describing the elements of the posters, like composition, color, lines, and movement. I'll also investigate the art movement and the period of the poster to understand the context in which they were designed.

Through this investigation, I hope to gain a broader understanding of the two art movements and their approach to poster design. I'll analyze the two poster styles and their use of visual means through formal and contextual analysis. My approach is based on semiotic theory, which helps me understand what the artists want to convey. I chose these two movements because they have been highly influential in the development of poster designs and advertising techniques we see today. Both movements emerged in response to the cultural and historical context of their times.

Art Nouveau emerged during the industrial revolution. Its visual expression is characterized by curves and flowiness. This style began around 1890, using organic and geometric forms. It was a two-dimensional decorative style that focused on line potential and the forms they described, rather than perspective and depth. Natural forms were used not to copy nature but to inspire imaginative worlds. Flora, animals, and insects—real and imagined—were widely represented. Geometry was also used but with curving rather than sharp edges. Art Nouveau is decorative, organic, and floral.

Art Deco, on the other hand, was sharp and based on straight lines and edges. Geometry was essential—perfect shapes, circles, and angles. It was minimalist and became more so over the years, becoming the first industrialized style. Between the two world wars, Art Deco designers could be divided into sybarites and revolutionaries. Sybarites covered every surface with stylized flowers and fruit, while revolutionaries sought pure lines free from decoration, drawing inspiration from machinery aesthetics. However, both concepts embraced total design, whether making your house look like "clockwork or an exotic jungle." Other favorite Art Deco motifs included fountains, leaping gazelles, sunbursts, and lightning ziggurats.

By the 1930s, geometric shapes of animals, flowers, and plants gained respect and became decorations themselves.

Formal Analysis

"La Goulue at the Moulin Rouge"

"La Goulue at the Moulin Rouge," created by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in 1891, is 189.99 x 116.51 cm and done in lithograph. This poster advertises one of the most popular clubs in France, Moulin Rouge. Toulouse-Lautrec was a French painter, illustrator, draughtsman, and printmaker. The poster has a foreground, middleground, and background. The background features silhouettes of people, the middleground shows dancing women, and the foreground has a man facing left. A linear perspective is created by the yellow/green lines on the floor.

The male silhouette in the foreground faces left with closed eyes, wearing a tall hat and having a long nose. One hand is lifted in a salute, and the other is straight down. The man is colored dark red, not used elsewhere in the poster. The top part of the poster contains all the text: "Moulin Rouge" repeated three times with a big "M" pulling it together, written in bright red with a tiny black outline. "La Goulue" is written in thin black font below. To the top right corner, "Concert Bal, tous les soirs" means "bal concert every night," written in three lines with "Bal" in the thickest black font.

The main focus is on the female dancer in the center, wearing a big white dress and a red top with white dots, standing with her back to the viewer. Her face turns right while lifting her right foot, half-covered by the man in the foreground. She has yellow hair and a pale yellow face. Her shoes are long red high heels. To the middle left is a yellow shape of three circles melted together, the same yellow as the female dancer's hair.

In the background, silhouettes probably represent men wearing high hats. Above some silhouettes on the right are yellow half-circle shapes merging into one long shape leaving the poster. The four main colors are red, yellow, black, and white. Lautrec uses a warm color palette with different hues of red and yellow, primary colors. He uses high and low saturation of reds and yellows, known for "flattened blocks of color," meaning the image is flat, not three-dimensional.

Balance is achieved through symmetry and asymmetry. Lautrec uses diagonal perspective, organizing elements based on a diagonal line, creating depth and dynamism. The yellow shape on the left, the female dancer's yellow hair, and yellow shapes in the background form a straight line of yellow. The same goes for the red text, red shirt, and red high heels, creating a balance of primary colors.

Asymmetry is created with the free placement of text but also brings harmony through repetition of the same handwritten font, color usage, and layering. This, combined with symmetrical color and composition use, creates an energetic and balanced composition. The lines can be described as painterliness, emphasizing light and dark play. Lautrec is known for expressive contour lines, evident in this poster.

Pivolo Apéritif Aux Vins De France (1924)

A.M. Cassandre, a major Art Deco poster artist and graphic designer, created this poster for the French liqueur Pivolo Aperitif in 1924. Cassandre is known for smooth and minimal advertising posters promoting travel, alcohol, and furniture, and is considered a founder of modern graphic design. The poster is 35.6 x 25.4 cm, done in lithograph.

The poster has three main elements: the title, the bird, and the liqueur glass. Each element is broken into basic shapes. The glass is placed in the center, creating harmony as it's the only object with a vibrant color, making it the focal point. The monochromatic bird is behind the glass, with the transparency emphasizing dynamic shapes, like the triangle in the glass and beak.

The bird faces sideways with its beak open, pointing at the glass. Its eye is a perfect white circle with a small blue circle, drawing the viewer's attention. Text is at the top and bottom, with minimalistic typography made of basic geometric shapes, integrating with the rest of the work. The top letters are black, blue, and grey shapes, with the "V" centered with the glass. The bottom text is in a grey rectangle, also geometric shapes in blue. The lines are solid, creating a linear and static composition without perspective or depth.

The poster uses blue and red hues, both primary colors, with high and low saturation. The liqueur glass has orange and red tones, contrasting with the cooler blue, grey, and black tones, creating a minimalist color palette. The static composition, due to geometric shapes and placement, creates a dynamic poster.

Conclusion

In summary, this paper aimed to identify differences and similarities between Art Deco and Art Nouveau through two posters. The analysis revealed a few similarities, like primary colors and playful text, but these aren't necessarily useful in understanding the movements. The posters have more visual differences. Lautrec uses perspective and depth for a dynamic composition, while Cassandre creates a flat, static composition with lines and geometric shapes. Typography differences are also significant, with Lautrec's organic style and Cassandre's geometric style. Lautrec's poster represents movement, flowiness, and natural elements, while Cassandre's uses geometric shapes and sharp lines for abstract representation. The posters' visual elements differ, but both movements emerged in response to major historical events, modernizing from previous movements.