IndexFORMAL ANALYSISPivolo Apéritif Aux Vins De France (1924)Semiotic analysisTypographyElementsCompositionConclusionThe poster was one of the first advertising tools and in the 19th century began to develop into a medium for display communication and subsequently spread widely to the rest of the world and became a stable graphic design business. The evolution of posters also strongly influenced the development of typography, since posters had to be read from afar, it was necessary to produce new and larger typefaces. Posters were used to advertise various political parties, new recruits, promote products and disseminate ideas and knowledge to the public. The way a poster is designed is no coincidence: it is designed to convey the message or topic in the best possible way. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Over time, the style, techniques, and “rules” of poster design have changed. Style is never constant, just as the medium is: posters have remained an important advertising tool. Even today, when the Internet is the most efficient advertising tool, posters are still produced and designed. This topic intrigues me because I have always loved poster designs. It is a very powerful communication tool and does not only belong to one style or time period: over time, poster designers have incorporated contemporary visual means to communicate to the public in the most efficient way. In this article, compare the posters of the Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements. My goal is to understand how these two movements differ from each other and how these differences can be revealed by analyzing specific posters made by Toulouse-Lautrec and Cassandre. In my comparative analysis, I will examine what ideas, style, and techniques were used in each poster, as well as place them in the context of their specific time period. The investigation will use the theory of semiotics to analyze the value and meanings of the signs represented in each poster, we will also use Feisner's 2006 book on color symbolism to further understand the meaning and reasons for the use of certain colors and interpret the their purpose. These two theoretical approaches will lead to a better understanding of the choices made by the artist and, more generally, of what characterizes the visual expression of Art Nouveau compared to Art Deco. This article will begin with a formal analysis, describing the posters' elements, composition, color, lines, movement, and so on. We will also investigate the art movement and time period of the posters to understand the context in which they were designed. Through this investigation I intend to gain a broader understanding of the two artistic movements and how they used and understood art. of the poster design. In this article I will analyze the two poster styles and the use of visual means by applying formal and contextual analysis. The approach I will use is based on semiotic theory which contributes to a further understanding of what artists want to convey. I chose these two movements as both were extremely influential in the development of the poster designs and advertising techniques we see today. Both movements emerged as a response to the cultural and historical context of their times. Art Nouveau emerged at the origins of the industrial revolution. The visual expression of Art Nouveau is characterized by its curves and fluidity. The Art Nouveau style began around 1890 and was characterized by the use of organic and geometric shapes and originally bya two-dimensional decorative style that explores the potential of line and the shapes they describe, rather than perspective and depth. The use of natural forms in decoration had been a long tradition in Western art, and so had been for the most part representative. The movement approaches this differently, it did not want to create copies of nature, but instead use it as inspiration for the world of imagination where nature was only the raw material. Flora is widely represented, even animals and insects - real and imaginary. . Fish decorated with bats, birds, dragons and dragonflies were widely used motifs. Geometry was also used in Art Nouveau, but mostly in shapes with curved 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 and more over the years, and is considered the first industrialized style. On the other hand, in the period between the two world wars, art deco designers could be divided into two categories: the sybarites and the revolutionaries. The sybarites covered virtually every available surface with their stylized flowers and fruits while the revolutionaries wanted the purity of line to be clear for decoration and looked to the aesthetics of machinery for inspiration. But the concept that unites them all is that of total design. Rather you wanted your house to look like a "clock or like an exotic jungle" (quote), every detail was worthy of the designer's attention. In addition to the flower, there were other favorite Art Deco concepts such as fountains, leaping gazelles, and as geometry became powerful, sunbursts and lightning bolt ziggurats also became used motifs. In the 1930s, geometric shapes of animals, flowers and plants gained respect and became decorations. in themselves.FORMAL ANALYSISThe Goulue at the Moulin Rouge created by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in 1891. It measures 189.99 x 116.51 cm and the support used is lithography. This artwork is an advertising poster for one of the most famous clubs in France, the Moulin Rouge. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was a French painter and illustrator but also a renewed designer and engraver. This poster contains a foreground, a center area and a background. The silhouettes of people in the background, the women dancing in the background, the man facing left in the foreground. A linear perspective is created by the yellow/green lines on the floor. The male silhouette in the foreground is facing left, his eyes are closed. He has a tall hat on his head and a relatively long nose. His right hand is raised in greeting. The other arm is lowered along the body, but the hand is positioned outside the body. The man is colored in a dark red color, not used elsewhere on the poster. All the text is positioned at the top of the poster; “Moulin Rouge” repeated 3 times with a large M joining it all together, written in bright red with a tiny black outline. The “M” is positioned on the left side and written large enough to line up with the underlined text “La Goulue”. Right below, it says “La Goulue” which means the greedy one, in a thin black font. On the right side of the top corner is "Concert Bal, tous les soirs" which means concert bal every evening. The text is positioned three lines below the other and centered. "Bal" is written in thicker black font, "concert" less often, and "tous les soirs" is written in small black font. The main focus is on the dancer in the center of the poster. She is wearing a large white dress and a red top with white polka dots on it, and is standing with her back to the viewer. His face is seen turnedtowards the right side of the poster as he lifts his right foot which is half covered by the man in the foreground. He has yellow hair and his face is also a pale yellow color. Her shoes are long and red with high heels. In the center of the left side you can see a yellow shape made up of three circles fused together - the same yellow color as the dancers' hair. In the background you see a group of silhouettes, probably all men like them wearing tall hats (common for this time period). Above some of the shapes on the right side you can see some yellow semi-circular shapes that closer to the right side merge together into one long shape that leaves the poster. The four main colors in this poster are red, yellow, black and white. Lautrec uses a warm color palette in this poster with different shades consisting of red and yellow. These are the primary colors. The artist uses a range of high and low saturation of red and yellow. As described in Christie's Art Nouveau, Fiona Gallagher is known for using “flattened color blocks,” meaning it is not three-dimensional but flat. Balance is achieved through symmetry and asymmetry. Lautrec uses diagonal perspective, which means that the elements in the poster are organized according to a diagonal line. This creates depth and dynamism in the poster. The yellow shape on the left side, the yellow hair of the dancers, and the yellow shapes in the background, together create a straight yellow line. Same with the red text in the top left corner, the red t-shirt and the red high heels: together they create a straight line that interferes with the yellow line, and together they create a balance of the primary colors. Asymmetry is created with the free arrangement of letters and text, but also contributes to harmony through the repetition of the same handwritten character, the use of color and the use of front, back and middle backgrounds. This asymmetry combined with the symmetrical use of colors and composition, creates an energetic and balanced composition. The use of lines can be described as painterly which refers to those who emphasize the play of light and dark. Lautrec is known for using expressive contour lines in his posters and this is also present in this poster.Pivolo Apéritif Aux Vins De France (1924)AM Cassandre, one of the most influential poster artists and graphic designers in the Art Deco style, created this poster for the French liqueur Pivolo Aperitif in 1924. Cassandre is well known for his unique, fluid and minimal advertising posters promoting travel, alcohol and furniture. He is also considered one of the founders of modern graphic design. The poster measures 35.6 x 25.4 cm and is made in lithograph. The poster is made up of three large elements: the title, the bird and the glass of liquor. Each element has been broken down into its basic shapes and forms, for example the bird is made up of basic shapes such as circles, triangles and so on. The glass was placed in the center, which creates harmony as it is the only object in the poster that contains a more vibrant color, as the rest is made up of different shades of blue that create a central point for the viewer. The monochromatic and simplified bird is placed behind the liqueur glass. The transparency of the glass emphasizes dynamic shapes, such as the triangle in the wine glass, the spout, and the negative space between the glass and the spout. The bird is facing sideways and has its open glass facing into the glass. The bird's eye consists of a perfect white circle with a small blue circle in the center where part of it has been removed: this eye attracts the viewer's attention. There is text at the top and bottom of the work. Cassandre's use of minimalist typography doesintegrates with the rest of the work as it is also composed of basic geometric shapes. Together, these shapes create letters. The upper letters consist of black tones, blue and gray color shapes. The letter “V” is perfectly positioned in the center aligning with the liquor glass. The lower text is inserted in a gray rectangle and is also made up of geometric shapes of the same blue color. The type of lines used here can be classified as linearity which refers to the emphasis of the line and linear contour. Cassandre uses solid, strong lines instead of lines split into many small lines. He works with geometric shapes and this creates a static composition instead of a dynamic and rhythmic one as seen in Lautrec's poster. It is a flat geometric poster composition that has no perspective or depth. This poster uses shades of blue and red which are both primary colors. Use high and low saturated blue and red colors along with saturated black and white colors. The shot glass has a range of orange and red tones that contrast the cooler colors of the poster: grey, black and blue tones which are used throughout the poster and create a minimalist color palette. This poster is very still and has been broken down into its original geometric shapes. The elements in the poster are composed very statically but, due to their placement and color choice, together they create a dynamic composition of the poster. Semiotic analysis Semiotics is the study of signs. In this article I will compare the elements of the two posters to understand the artists' choices and recognize the different types of signs used. Semiotics is a theoretical way of analyzing how understanding is created, transferred, received and interpreted and what reactions signs trigger. We see different elements in our world as signs and sign systems, which can be anything from words, images, and natural phenomena to objects. A sign should generally be understood as something that refers to something other than itself and to some extent as a meaning that should be understood or interpreted by someone. There are two ways of considering the meaning of a sign: denotation and connotation. Denotation indicates the literal dictionary description and connotation represents the emotional meaning. There is often a positive and negative connotation to anything. The two most important functions of colors are to provide visual and psychological information and to generate reactions in the viewer. With colors, the designer can predict and provoke different reactions and control how the viewer perceives an object. Our emotions influence our perception of colors. We use colors to describe different emotions and express our feelings; “I was so angry, I saw red” or “I was green with envy”. The meaning behind a color changes and is not constant; it is influenced by cultural context and time period. Using Edith Anderson Feisner's book "How to Use Color in Art and Design" as a reference, I investigated the reasons for the specific color choices and interpreted their meanings in both posters. The poster Pivolo Apéritif Aux Vins De France (1924) uses blue, black and red colors. The poster mainly uses blue and black tones, particularly in the text and the bird. The liquor in the glass has a saturated orange color scheme. The red-orange color was probably chosen because the real color of the liqueur is red-orange. The use of the red-orange color therefore probably does not have a deeper symbolic meaning. However, if it had a symbolic meaning, the color orange would have both positive and negative connotations such as warmth, autumn, brightness, danger and sass. Veryblue colors were probably used because they complement the orange color in the glass. This creates attention to the glass, which is an important element in the poster. Probably the symbolism of the color blue was not the main reason for the choice but rather its contrast with orange. It can also be argued that the reason for using blue tones is that the positive connotation of blue includes loyalty, reliability, security and stability. Because of these associations with blue, it is often used in banking, technology, and government because they want to be associated with these terms. The use of the color blue can therefore be interpreted in two ways: it is complementary to the color orange and/or its positive symbolic connotations. As mentioned, this poster advertises a French liqueur and is featured in the glass, so it makes sense that it would stand out. As quoted by Feisner, “Our bodies physically react to colors: warm colors will increase blood pressure and even body temperature; Cold colors depress both blood pressure and body temperature and slow down our metabolism." This is related to the idea that glass is the focal element and, therefore, should capture the viewer's attention. The poster La Goulue at the Moulin Rouge (1891) uses red, yellow, black, white and black. The use of yellow and red tones contrasts with the black silhouettes in the background and becomes the central element of the poster. In this poster, the color black has been used to contrast with bright colors, creating a more dynamic and balanced poster with respect to its symbolic meaning. It was also used to create layers in the poster: foreground, middle ground and background. The club title "Moulin Rouge" is the only text that uses a very bright red color and, therefore, becomes the first text you read as it contrasts deeply with the rest of the black text. This was done on purpose to highlight the club's identity. As mentioned above, the positive connotations of red colors are effective here too. The color yellow, especially combined with black, is the first color you see. It has the second highest brightness index after white. Its positive connotations include optimism, happiness, hope and cheerfulness. Therefore, it can be argued that orange was used to further highlight the club's identity. The combination of these colors creates a vibrant and energetic poster that piques the viewer's curiosity. Typography The text of the poster La Goulue at the Moulin Rouge (1891) is composed of an organic and rhythmic handwritten typography that is related to the Art Nouveau style. In comparison, the Pivolo Apéritif poster is a combination of several geometric shapes that together create the letters of the overall text. This is a clear feature of Art Deco inspiration from machinery. Elements The yellow ovals in the background can be interpreted as lamps. The black silhouette in the foreground is a representation of the dancer Valentine, also known as "the boneless one" for her impressive flexibility. The dancer in the center of the poster is the famous cancan dancer La Goulue. Cassandre chose the bird for her poster, as during its creation she realized that the name "Pivolo Apéritif" sounded like "pie vole haute", which is French for "high-flying magpie", and thus the symbol was born of the brand. The attraction to wordplay and playfulness with words is present in many Cassandre ads and is characteristic of the Art Deco style. The composition "La Goulue at the Moulin Rouge" contains a lot of movement, from the ballerina to the handwritten typography. The way in which the elements of the poster are placed in relation to each other creates a rhythmic and unified composition. This supports the purpose of the poster, which was to advertise a.