Online Themed Tour: How Art Started Merging With Type Design

This themed online tour will explore influences of the “Arts and Crafts” and “Art Nouveau” movements on typography.

Beginning in the 1800’s through the start of the 19th century, art experienced a transformation process that broke its bonds with academic standards. This era saw an increase in industrialization, mass production, the emergence of many different new techniques and machines, and an overall decline in handwork. These changes gave birth to a series of powerful art movements such as the Arts & Crafts, Art Nouveau, and Art Deco movements. These movements heavily influenced mediums such as painting, architecture, and jewelry, and became a breaking point for the graphic arts. But how did these movements influenced typography? In this tour we will go over these various movements, learn their distinct historical contexts, and dissect many of the most characteristic letterforms created during these periods.

The tour will focus on learning about how new technologies of the time changed type production, which new styles came from this new era that was all about innovating and returning to handwork, and how it ended with the rise of advertisement and modern-day graphic design.