Tranforming the System

Art Nouveau was the beginning of the transformation to modernism. Design takes on a system for images and type. Examination of what the purpose of these elements are sparks a change in, what was before, a more sort of chaotic approach to design. This is when ornament becomes structure. Posters are still important to this time of advertisement and the blurring of sexual and provocative lines and limitations. Advertising obsorbs the transformation as most of the works were for product endorsements. Architecture and design merge to birth a new objectivity which distinguishes designers from fine artists. Geometric design begins to emerge which seems to make design more simple yet more complex. Sharp lines appear and linear patterns take shape. Mathematical patterns replace floral gestures. Then begins "new objectivity" where we see design reduced to it's simplest forms once again to create corporate identities and industrial symbols.
The most interesting observation here is how art, in general, keeps being redefined and seems to come full circle. We begin with simple cave drawings to communicate a story to the invention of simple symbols to represent large concepts. In a leap, art opens to new inventions that allow us to communicate on a much larger scale. Once this is established, the experimental stages fuel a disorderly style which is again narrowed back down to it's simplest forms with it's newly added maturity. I wonder if now design has begun to open back up again searching for new discoveries that will then be broken down to another more elegant simplicity. Or if design has plateaued to a more steady steam. In my opinion, with technological advancements, I tend to think it's more likely the former than the latter.