1940s and 50s Fashion

Roy Lichtenstein

Roy Lichtenstein was the first American Pop artists who managed to be known on a widespread level. He was born as Roy Fox Lichtenstein in New York City. He grew up in Manhattan with his mother and father, his father was a real - estate broker and his mother was a home maker. Roy spent a lot of his time listening to science fiction radio, visiting the American Museum Of Natural History and building model air planes and drawing, this took over his childhood. However he artistic flares came through as a teenage, when he took watercolour classes at the Parsons School of Design.


He began painting classes at the Arts Student League in 1940, he was producing work which was in the style of Reginald Marsh which in this case was a realist style. Roy then decided to enrol at Ohio State University just a year later, when he studied drawing and design. He created many sculptures of animals and still life, these where inspired by Picasso and Braque. The next few years his work had spread in gallery shows, including a group exhibition at the Ten Thirty Gallery in Cleveland. This happened to be where he met his future wife Isabel Wilson. He work included all walks of life including street workers, musicians and race care drivers. He also produced works of art which included birds, insects, knights and dragons in a surrealist style.


John Heller Gallery in New York began showing his work in 1952. By 1957 he started producing abstract imagery using thick textured paint, unlike other artists at the time he started to show figures into his artwork. Some even featured characters such as Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse. In 1960 Roy was a assistant professor, it was at this point where he met Allan Kaprow where he was introduced to other artists that were producing cartoon images and this inspired Lichtenstein greatly.

Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol was born as Andy Warhola on August 6 in 1928 in Pittsburgh which is in Pennsylvania. Andy's father worked in construction and sadly died when Andy was 13. The collected his commercial art degree from the Carnegie Institute Of Technology and from there he moved to New York. He worked in New York as an artist, he had his first fame in 1949, this was when he was hired by Glamour Magazine to do illustrations for a section. The title of this section was "Success is a Job in New York". His last name was spelt wrong on the credits, as Warhol, this is the reason why he dropped the letter a from his last name.

Andy had his first solo exhibition was at the Hugo Gallery in 1952, however he also had a group exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1956. After this he was hired to draw more advertisements and he was the most successful artist in New York by 1955. Many magazines including Vogue and Harpar's Bazzaar was hiring him to design art for their articles. Andy found a way of transferring large images onto silk screens, these were placed on canvas. This is the same technique to create Campbell's Soup, this began 1962.

By 1962, he founded an art studio called The factory, this was a studio which could be hired by any artists to mass produce their artwork. A woman called Valerie Solanis came into the studio and shot Warhol in the chest three times. She had worked within the studio on a rare occasion. Solanis had founded a organisation called "SCUM", a society for cutting up men. Andy was rushed to hospital and he was pronounced dead, however doctors was able to massage his heart back into life. Valerie was put into a mental hospital and was also put into prison for three years.

After he recovered from his ordeal, he began a magazine called inter/view in 1969, over that time he continued to paint and also published a book on philosophy. In the 70s, he made a lot of money by doing portraits of celebrities and the upper class. His nightclub was also one of the hot spots in New York at the same time. 

On the February 22 1987 Andy died whilst having a gall bladder operation at the New York Hospital. More than two thousand people arrived at his funeral and also a memorial museum was opened in Pittsburgh in his honour. He is remember as a revolutionary artist and began the pop art movement.

More Research On Brut

I have decided to look at the adverts which Brut have produced throughout the years. As I need my own caption, I thought that this would be a good basis for my research. Brut's captions in my opinion are outdated, I believe that this may be the downfall of the companies advertisement scheme. I feel that I will need to produce a simple yet effective. I may be using either be a real man or you aren't a real man until Brut. I do feel that the second caption is too long. As you have to think of all  printed advertising such as billboards, the caption has to short enough to read a short amount of time this is why I will be using "Be a real man". This statement will be able to be read quickly and its straight to the point. I feel that it also relates to the aftershave that Brut was already trying to convey. 

This adverts both use serif fonts, which have be placed on a black backgrounds. The typography is white so this stands out nicely against the contrasting colour. The adverts still show models which is still in fashion today along other fragrance companies. The bottle isn't always needed in an advert which is shown in these examples. I will take this into consideration when designing my own. Brut have also used a range of celebrities which is show in one of my examples. This advert shows two very small bottles in which two celebrities are holding. The main focus point is the celebrities that are present, which helps to sell the product. This is the only example that has a range of colours. This was unlikely as it cost so much to print colour on a large scale. I will be taking all of this factors into consideration whilst developing my own personal ideas. 

Typefaces

After looking at a range of different magazines adverts, I have decided to design a typography based advert. Whilst looking at other examples, I have noticed that most companies either use photography or typography. As I felt that a photography styled advert wasn't were I wanted to take my own ideas. I have decided to research more into typefaces. As I feel that this could be a option for my own advert itself.

I have decided to look into three other aftershave companies to look at including Paul Smith, Ralph Lauren and Lacoste, in particular the logo themselves. The main focus point I have noticed within these logos is the white space that surrounds them. This draws to your eye, especially the Paul Smith logo. I plan to experiment with this white space and see how it works on my own typography. Lacoste have opted to use a simple sans serif typeface, big and bold I feel is what Lacoste are trying to portray. The crocodile is  also a focus point, the red of the mouth gives the logo that little splash of colour which pleases the eye. I personally like the simplicity of the crocodile, this would work well if the logo was to be sized big and small. This is a factor to consider. However Ralph Lauren have opted to use a serif font which in my opinion makes the brand seem more expensive. This is called semiotics. Again we notice that Ralph Lauren also have a logo, which in case is a horse with a man playing polo. This aims at the sport interested public, which also was the same as Brut. This relates beautifully. Reverting back to the typography, I feel the Paul Smith logo is less successful typography logo out of the three, as I don't feel the font is bold or clear enough. I looked at this logo with colour situated in the background, the logo was completely lost. This was a shame as I do like the styling of this serif, it has a lovely hand written feel. Some of my experiments show this style, however I hadn't had much luck, I found a bold font to be more successful.

Other Successful Aftershaves Continued..

Diesel 


The brand Diesel was born 20 years ago and today its a international design company which make jeans and casual clothing as well as accessories. It is present in 80 countries and has almost 50 company owned stores. Renzo Rosso founded the company in 1978, he wanted to be a leader. He found many creative and talented people who were innovators like himself. He wanted to come up with a more imaginative line of clothing that was already available in other stores. He gave his new designers stylistic freedom, in which he was hoping that they would produce clothing that was perfect for people who follow their own independent path in life. Basically people who show their individually through the way they dress.

Diesel's most historical moment include the mine stones like 1978 which was the creation of the brand name and 1991 which was the beginning of the marketing strategy and the 1996 which was the opening of Diesels first flagship store on New York Lexington Avenue. Since the beginning, Renzo Rosso believed in addressing the world with one product and one language, and one of his first steps was building a solid platform across all 5 continents. The production of denim jeans is based exclusively in Italy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5KHHuJgc90

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYi7ZScqsPc&feature=related


This are examples of the adverts which have been produced by Diesel. I particular like the first one that just shows the just the bottle of itself that is surrounded by white space, this is a style which I would like to experiment with, I will be trying some different type faces to see if I can make my slogan more visually attractive as I feel at the moment my slogan is too basic. My slogan is be a real man. I feel that this could be improved greatly by the use of a nice typography. The second advert is similar too others that I have looked at. This seems to be the main style for most fragrances.I feel that this causes the advertisement to lose its originality. I don't want this for my own advert. So I will be shying away from this idea. But I do like the colours of this advert as it does look retro, as this is where I want to take my advertisement I will be experimenting with this colours to see if it works for me.

Other Successful Aftershaves Continued..

Paco Rabanne


Franciso Rabaneda Cuervo is more commonly known as Paco Rabanne. He was born on the 18th February 1934. His a Spanish fashion designer. He fled Spain to France with his mother when the Spanish Civil War began. He had a architect's education but became a l'enfant terrible of the French fashion world in the 1960's.

His career started in fashion making jewellery  for Givenchy, Dior and Balenciaga. He started his own fashion company in 1966. He used strange materials such as metal, paper and plastic for his flamboyant designs. He was also known for this costume designs for such films as Barbarella. Francoise Hardy is also a huge fan of Paco Rabannes designs. Rabanne also has a interest in paranormal phenomena. He became infamous for his false prediction of the Russian space station mir falling on Paris 1999.

In 2005, Paco Rabanne opened a first exhibition of his drawings which was in Moscow. His reason for showing this was because he was 72 years old and he wanted to present my drawings this year before disappearing from this world. He had not shown them to anyone apart from Salvador Dali which was 30 years ago, which was a black and white painting of a child letting go of a white balloon and a dove into the sky. This scene was inspired by the ceremony for the Beslan attack, in which 139 hostages were killed, including 186 children and 12 servicemen.

In 1966 he created 12 unwearable dresses in contemporary materials which included rhodoid and metal clips. The following year he created his first collection of molded clothing, this gave a fresh new look of the body. By the end of the decade he launched his first fragrance in a bottle which was encased in metal called Calandre. This was the start of his fragrance releases which included Paco Rabanne pour Homme, Spot, Paco, XS and Ultraviolet. It was not until the 1990s that he created his first women's ready to wear line.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpj2U8G1gDc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXW1KrBrRZA&feature=related

These adverts for Paco Rabanne mainly with male models in a black and white photograph. I feel that this works nicely, it draws to your eye because of the white space. The only colour within these are only on the name and fragrance in the particular adverts. This again draws your eye. I will take this into consideration when designing my own magazine advert. This may be very helpful for me. The men are clean cut and well groomed. This I believe is to show that this is the type of man you could be if you use this fragrance. There is different styles within each different fragrance as it has a different selling points as some are aimed at sporting people etc.

I'm impressed with the execution of these adverts, I would like to produce a advert which is this well polished. I may experiment with  photography and see if I can produce an advert in this style.