Monday 24 September 2012

Banksy Art 1992


Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, film director, and painter
Banksy began as a freehand graffiti artist in 1990–1994 as one of Bristol's DryBreadZ Crew (DBZ), with Kato and Tes. He was inspired by local artists and his work was part of the larger Bristol underground scene withNick WalkerInkie and 3D. From the start he used stencils as elements of his freehand pieces, too. By 2000 he had turned to the art of stencilling after realising how much less time it took to complete a piece. He claims he changed to stencilling while he was hiding from the police under a rubbish lorry, when he noticed the stencilled serial number and by employing this technique, he soon became more widely noticed for his art around Bristol and London. He played football with the Easton Cowboys and Cowgirls in the 1990s and toured with the club to Mexico in 2001.
Banksy's stencils feature striking and humorous images occasionally combined with slogans. The message is usually anti-war, anti-capitalist or anti-establishment. Subjects often include rats, apes, policemen, soldiers, children, and the elderly.

Mainly:
Banksy is a name which has become synonymous with graffiti art in the UK. His dark humoured work is inspired by modern politics, always carrying some form of ethical message. Combining a unique stencilling technique with his views as a political activist, his reputation has escalated over the years to a point where he is now regarded as a common household name.

Working on all manor of public surfaces, he voices his defiant attitude towards the "vandalism" label that is given to graffiti artwork and actively promotes the style of street art upon which he has founded his career.

Banksy's first artwork appeared in urban areas of Bristol throughout the 1990s. After making the transition from spray cans to stencils, his reputation grew, with his work starting to appear in areas of London. By 2001 he had released his first book, "Banksy, Pictures of Walls".

Since then, he has traveled the globe, leaving his mark in major cities worldwide.

The 1990s Changed Animation

MTV relaunched Beavis and Butthead, one of the iconic cartoons of the 1990s.  Looking back at that decade, it revolutionized animation, especially on television.

Here's a list of the pivotal cartoon shows from 1990 through 1999.  The Simpsons technically started in 1989, but it's definitely a trendsetter of the 90s.  The greatest of them all was Batman: The Animated Series, a show for all ages.  Some of these were really little gems, like Eddie Murphy's The PJs and the hilarious The Critic.

Aeon Flux
Animaniacs
Batman: The Animated Series
Beavis and Butt-head
Bobby's World
The Critic
Daria
Darkwing Duck
Doug
Family Guy
Futurama
King of the Hill
Pinky and the Brain
The PJs
The Ren and Stimpy Show
Rugrats
The Simpsons
Space Ghost Coast to Coast
South Park
Spawn
Spongebob Squarepants
Superman: The Animated Series
The Tick
Tiny Toon Adventures

Even in big screen movies, the selection was pretty decent:

Aladdin
Antz
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Beauty and the Beast
Beavis and Butthead Do America
A Bug's Life
Ghost in the Shell
The Iron Giant
James and the Giant Peach
The Lion King
The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Prince of Egypt
Princess Mononoke
South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut
Space Jam
Toy Story
Toy Story 2

Typography in the 1990s

Typography Now Two: Implosion, edited by Rick Poynor in 1996

Typography Now has become a fascinating piece of history, showing us what ambitious, forward-reaching design looked like at a time when the web was just finding its legs, print was digging in its heels, and digital tools had revolutionized our work flow.
Although some of the material in Typography Now Two reeks of grunge mannerisms and digital-effects mania, much of it still looks totally alive. This work was striving to define what was new for its time, and for many pieces, the freshness stamp has yet to expire. The early ’90s was an extraordinarily fertile period. 
Most of the designers featured in Poynor’s book are still active today, and some remain among the field’s most prominent figures. Yet the fervent search for new forms no longer seems to energize the larger profession. Typeface designers are focused on creating useful, solidly researched fonts for general communications rather than high-concept faces addressing questions of chance, decay, and technological breakdown. New modes of experimentation have emerged in areas such as system design, code-driven graphics, and data visualization. Although these areas can yield astonishing visual results, a sense of order and sobriety prevails.

------------------------------------------------------------------------



As the 1990s began,graphic designers reacted to the
International Style and sought to break away from the
constraints of the grid patterns in favour of experimentation,
playful use of type and a more handmade approach.Type
use became more subtle and expressive – to be part of the
message rather than just its conveyor.

http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/graphic-design/9782940439973/a-brief-history/1990s


Sunday 23 September 2012

Fashion in the 1990


1990

  • Hot pants and mini skirts are back; tent dresses and pants suits are in.
  • New car brands Infiniti, Saturn, and Lexus are introduced.
  • Clothing fads include pre-ripped jeans, Ninja Turtle stuff, wide head bands, and sneakers ranging in price from $125 to $175 a pair. The Reebok pump is a new item.
  • In February, men's bolo ties are popular items. Designer Ralph Lauren shows them with his Polo line, while rock star Bruce Springsteen is photographed sporting one. These Western-influenced string-thin ties are fastened at the neck with decorative clasps that come in everything from silver to stone, with costs ranging from ten dollars to three hundred dollars.
  • In March, Vogue declares: "Pretty Makes A Comeback." Designers show softer suits, jackets with softer shoulders, curvy tailoring, and fluid skirts and pants for women. The "power dressing" of the 1980s, with its sharply tailored suits...

Tuesday 18 September 2012

Fashion design


Model Nadja Auermann and Fashion Designer Karl Lagerfeld (December 13, 1997)
Since the 1990s, German models have been increasingly successful in establishing themselves on the international fashion scene. Nadja Auermann, shown here with German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, is one of several German supermodels who made an international career for herself – the list also includes Claudia Schiffer, Tatjana Patitz, and more recently Heidi Klum. Lagerfeld, who has lived in France since the 1950s, has been Chanel’s chief designer since 1984 and is one of the most famous fashion designers in the world. He did much to promote the careers of both Auermann and Schiffer. Photo: Oliver Berg.



Sunday 16 September 2012

The Computer in the Design Studio

The atmosphere of doubt and uncertainty that characterized the early 1990s was not really surprising; one of the stated aims of the theoretical work of the previous decade had been to destabilize the certainties of received knowledge. Once young practitioner-teachers got access to computers and started thinking creatively about the new possibilities of digital design work, advanced design culture coalesced around a specific project. The new design work and associated theory benefited from, and actively incorporated, aspects of the theoretical discourse of the previous decades while at the same time reacting against the linguistic basis and literary metaphors of that same intellectual framework. 

In 1990 computers were largely unknown in the design studio in most architecture schools, relegated instead to basement computer labs. Computer-aided design programs were widely used in offices by this time and there was awareness in the educational community that computer skills needed to be taught. But machines were slow and cumbersome, output was unreliable, and there was little consensus about the computer’s viability as a design tool, as opposed to an aid to efficient production of working drawings in the professional setting. Drawing in schools was still almost exclusively by hand. 

 Young designers followed closely behind, and by the mid '90s a new virtuosity emerged as architects borrowed software and digital techniques from the film and aviation industries. The computer made the generation of complex form easy, and designers were fascinated by the new plasticity enabled by fluid modeling. In these early stages, the effect of digital technology was primarily formal, and characterized by an interest in continuous surfaces and complex biomorphic forms.


massive technology-driven change

The 1990s in particular were characterized in part by the rejection of history and the announcement of massive, technology-driven change; these claims need to be examined and placed in context. The introduction of the computer has indeed made the design studio a very different place than it was in 1990s. A new generation of teachers and practitioners has emerged, schooled in the creative use of these advanced technologies, but also marked by the theoretical debates of the 1980s and ’90s. The speed of information exchange, accelerated by digital technology, has made a discipline already international in its scope fully global.

The year 1990 is also significant for the development and implementation of digital technology. The underlying architecture of the World Wide Web was proposed in 1989, tested in 1990-91, and released to the public in 1992. The first digital cellular phone call was made in 1990, and the introduction of the 2G system that same year made possible the development of the small, user-friendly devices that are so ubiquitous today. However, actual Internet and cell-phone use were minimal in those early years. Only a fraction of a percent of the population had access to these technologies, and all of the social and cultural effects of “being digital” were still in formation. [5] In 1990, the fax machine, Sony Walkman and telephone answering machine were icons of advanced technology. Kodak still made projectors, and 35-millimeter slides were the norm in architecture lectures. The Mac Classic, hailed as one of the first widely affordable, easy-to-use desktop computers, was released in October 1990. Its 40-megabyte hard drive is dwarfed by contemporary smart phones with as much as 80 times the memory capacity and countless functions unimaginable in 1990.


Top trends in the 1990's


Top trends in the 1990s:
  • Pine furniture
  • Shabby Chic
  • Oversized slipcovered sofas
  • Corian countertops
  • Apron sinks
  • Arts & Crafts furniture
  • White kitchens with ivy trellis wallpaper
  • Huge prints of a pears
  • “Bringing the outside in” with architectural ornamentation
Mauve…carpet, curtains, countertops, etc. Clunky, chunky, country, wooden decorations made with blocks of wood, twine, & wire with cutsie sayings, quilt racks hanging on the walls, pastels, dark green, the STILL IN USE Apple kitchen decor. haha.





A century of chairs

W. W. Stool, 1990
Varnished sand-cast aluminium
Design: Philippe Starck
As one of the most dynamic furniture designers of the 1980s and 1990s, Philippe Starck (1949-) developed dozens of chairs to be put into volume production by different manufacturers, yet he also executed experimental projects by designing conceptual pieces. Starck described them as “surrealist or Dada objects” intended to liberate the user “from the humdrum reality of everyday life". Among them was the W.W. stool, which was originally designed by Starck as part of a fantasy workspace for the German film director Wim Wenders and named after him. The only object in the room to go into production, this stool seems to ignore all functional constraints by barely providing a surface to be sat on.






For more information:
http://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/online/a-century-of-chairs/1990s

Interior design facts

No single look defined interior design in the 1990s. Styles were influenced by every-thing from minimalism to the Arts-and-Crafts movement; professional interior designers and American consumers alike drew on regional styles, historical trends, and personal tastes to create dwellings that were highly individualistic. Minimalism, as the name suggests, highlighted the absence of decoration. Walls and doors were white, windows were bare, and furnishings were spare. A passion for antiques balanced minimalism.

Designers also focused on the environment when choosing materials; they looked for wood that came from renewable sources, such as plantations or natural forests certified as sustainable. Restorers reconstructed antiques without using toxic chemicals. Some manufacturers used recycled plastics or wood to create new home and office items. Still, there was no shortage of materials found in showcase interiors: homes and offices featured every-thing from stainless steel and glass to granite and woods of all sorts.

Prominent designers and big-time magazines were not the only influences on how people and interiors looked in the 1990s. Feng shui shaped design as well.Feng shui is the ancient Chinese art of placement that mixes metaphysics, superstition, astrology, and philosophy. Practitioners believed that good fortune and balance depended on factors such as the direction of a building and furnishings in a room. The idea was that by using certain colors and placements, one could create balance and harmony, and in turn affect mood and outcome.

 Designers also updated clean, classic looks—oversized upholstered club chairs, leather sofas, traditional chandeliers—for the American families of the 1990s. To give a home a personal and familiar feel, designers showcased items collected by those dwelling inside. Some termed this combination of design styles—the mix of earthy materials and traditional furnishings—"rustic elegance."




Tuesday 11 September 2012

1990's important events

The 1990s marked the end not only of a century but also a millennium. The decade leading up to the year 2000 saw a lot of change and excitement, with many important events that shaped not only the 1990s but our lives since then. That change happened in every way you can imagine – politically, technologically, and culturally. With the Cold War over, Nelson Mandela free, and the Internet changing the way we work and live, the events of the 1990s provided the perfect bridge between the outrageous 80s and the dawn of the new century. We have put together all the 1990s events and timelines you need to understand this amazing decade. The events and timelines are broken down by year. You can make your way through the 90s sequentially or jump straight to a year of interest. We cover history and politics, music, TV, movies, sports, and important people who died and were born in each year of the 90s.


Sunday 9 September 2012

First day in GD1

On my first day in Graphic Design course I arrived late carrying my sugar doughnut and my coffee and this wont happen again. Apparently we got our first assignment's description and now I am trying out this blog and browsing the web for images and stuff that are related to the subject I chose for the assignment. This is something that really reminds me of the 1990's.