Art Nouveau
The success of a marketing piece depends in part on the design. This encompasses not only the correct placement of information (which is what marketers typically worry about) but also the overall aesthetic of the piece.
Good design demands good ideas whether they come from the designer, the marketer or the CEO. Good ideas don’t appear out of nowhere: they come from things we’ve read and seen, new and old; they’re the product of research and reflection; and when they’re ready, they’re eventually shared and revised.
With that first step in mind — what we see and read — I decided to continue writing about design and art in this blog. Art Nouveau is an obvious place to start as one of its big successes was with an ad.
In 1894 an artist called Alphonse Mucha was commissioned to produce a poster to advertise the play Gismonda, starring the famous actress Sarah Bernhardt. Mucha produced an Art Nouveau poster with subtle, pastel colors, an elongated figure, and ornate decoration. The poster was a huge success and demand for it soared. It helped to launch Mucha's career and led to a profitable working relationship between Mucha and Bernhardt. I’ve included an image of the Gismonda poster; other works by Mucha can be found at ArtMagick.
While Art Nouveau was current from the late 1800s to the early 1900s, its popularity has held on. It came into being at a time when mass-produced, and often ugly, consumer goods first began to fill marketplaces. The Art Nouveau style can be read as the artists’ reaction to these goods. The idea was that even purely functional items should be influenced by the decorative arts and made to be beautiful.
The style was characterized by organic, flowing lines and often incorporated plant-inspired motifs from nature. Figures are generally elongated and the female form and face are frequently represented. Examples of the Art Nouveau style can be found here, and there are additional links under More Information below.
While Art Nouveau is extremely attractive, I am not suggesting that all marketing materials should use Art Nouveau-inspired design. However, if you’re trying to come up with new marketing ideas for a product that Art Nouveau would lend itself to, it might be worth looking up some old images for fresh inspiration.
Final Words
In previous posts I wrote about the elements and principals of design, which are the building blocks of design. This is useful information for marketers because it helps explain why designers make the choices that they do. It also produces much better results when you can say to a designer something like “The balance is off; it’s too heavily weighted to the right” rather than “This looks wrong.” The first gives the designer something to work with; the second will get a blank look.
If you’re interested in a quick refresher about this basic information, the posts can be found by following the links:
A Vocabulary Lesson: Design Elements
More Information
An Introduction to the Work of Alphonse Mucha and Art Nouveau
art nouveau to art deco: Article with photographs of art nouveau pieces
ArtMagick: Alfons Mucha (Czech, 1860-1939): Images of Alfons Mucha works