Spanish Illuminations: They's got purdy colors!

These I didn't like as much as the Celtic illuminations. I did like the use of diagonal lines, concentric circles, and color bands. The random border action with the fancy designs seems to not fit the rest of the page, but other than that I think the writing of apocalyptic texts is kind of interesting. I had trouble finding modern art influenced by Spanish illuminations, but I did find a Picasso painting that contains some of the elements found in the Beatus Manuscripts we discussed in class, which I also have pictures of for comparison.

 

 It has diagonal lines, color blocks in the background, and a strange-looking 2D figure. The colors used, at least in the background, are similar to those used in the Beatus manuscripts.

Hey look, color bands and unusually anatomically incorrect persons!

And again.

Irish Illumination: Then and Now

I'm generally liking the Celtic art. I love the long, curving, organic shapes, the big line spacing between lines of text, the use of earthy tones, and the interesting division of space in various pictures. I don't know how I feel about the excessive use of pattern, but that is something that a lot of people at the time seemed to do.

 

The shape that this makes is awesome, but it is extremely patterned as well.

 

This is a cool design, has shading, pretty wavy lines, and texture on the wing. Plus the line draws your eye to the bellybutton. Perfect.

This is cool, because it combines the use of line and pattern, but keeps it from getting cluttered by adding some negative space instead of stuffing more pattern in between.

Hmmm...

Realized that last statement in my last post didn't make a whole bunch of sense. Meh.

Cave Paintings and Modern Graphic Design

Ancient cave paintings have inspired many things in Graphic Design, and I think this is because we are innately drawn to the contours, simplicity, and shading that you find in many of the cave paintings. I think it is interesting that any design that has ever been created now has already been done in the past, to some extent. It gives graphic designers the ability to not only build off of things in the past, but to bring something new and interesting into our designs in the future.

A cave painting of unknown origin. You can see the simplicity of of the design, the bare minimum of the contours still gives the impression of a horse.

Another cave painting, this one has more coloration and shading.

This is an image of a shawl made by Giorgio di Sant Angelo that works off of cave painting like simplicity and design. It has a native American feel to it as well, which shows that the design has become its own since the old cave paintings.

This logo was designed for a London based literary agency. You can see the use of contour and simple design, both reminiscent of cave paintings.

Hello!

What's going on everyone?!