January 23, 2014

Art Nouveau

Diozz's Dage The Evil Art Nouveau Print Is Coming!

UPDATE: The poster is now for sale on HEROMART.COM

Have you seen this yet? 

By now, you know that I don't work on AQW anymore. For the past 8 months I've been working full time on Battle Gems, but I don't often get a chance to talk about something this exciting so I hopped back onto the AQW Design Notes. Sorry. 

The image above is the finished version of Diozz's completely breathtaking Dage The Evil poster done in the Art Nouveau style coming very soon to HEROMART! 

I know from Twitter that a lot of you are already excited about this poster but a few of you have asked what Art Nouveau means so I want to tell you a bit about the style. 

What Is Art Nouveau?

Art Nouveau is an art style that began in France in the late 1800's and quickly spread around Europe. It was a very brief period in art history but it left such a lasting impression that a lot of people are still in love with the style today. 

The style is usually characterized by flowing organic forms, both in artistic elements and typography. Usually you'll see a symmetrical form in the background laying the stage for an asymmetrical centerpiece up front. 

Art Nouveau wasn't just a fine art style. The style was found in everything from the silverware of the time to entire buildings, like the designs of the Paris Metro kiosks designed by Hector Guimard which you can still see today around Paris. 

When talking about the Art Nouveau, most people think of the art and prints of Alphonse Mucha. Mucha was a Czech artist living in Paris and became well known for his prints advertising the plays of Ms. Sarah Bernhardt who was a superstar at the time. Mucha is also my all-time favorite artist. 

Here is one of his prints called "Dance", advertising one of Bernhardt's plays. 

The style, and particularly the works of Mucha, have always been appreciated but recently pop culture has seen an explosion of art in the style, some even referencing Mucha's works. 

Take, for example, Bill Mudron's Dr. Who themed Art Nouveau style works (notice any similarities?)...

... or Mr. Mudron's Art Nouveau style Minecraft poster (hanging in my living room)...

You can find examples of Art Nouveau all over geekdom, like in the Firefly themed Art Nouveau prints of Megan Lara... 

...Or Ms. Lane's Sherlock themed Art Nouveau shirt design (Wearing it today. Took this in the mirror)...

So, now you know a little bit about Art Nouveau (New Art, in French) and maybe you will be able to more greatly appreciate how freaking amazing Diozz's poster really is. As you can tell, I'm a big fan of the style and I'm almost as excited about this poster as I am about the upcoming release of Battle Gems. 

If you want to talk more about the poster, Battle gems or art history, you can always hit my Twitter. 

If you're excited about the poster, feel free to spam HeroMart's Twitter, or Faith's Twitter (she runs HeroMart). 

If you are as blown away by this design as I am, show Diozz some love in his Twitter. 

UPDATE: The poster is now for sale on HEROMART.COM