Friday, March 23, 2012

Chupa Chups brand

Nowdays everyone is writing about Salvador Dalí, as a branding genius and his famous logotype of Chupa Chups lollipops. Simple, recognizable, placed in the right spot of the candy wrapper and designed by the master back in 1969.



Since that time the logotype developed slightly, but the main shapes still remain the same.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Impression of Impressionism

Recently I have started to read a book by John Rewald Historyof Impressionism (1946), which became the reason to write this post. 

Impressionism is an art movement which was formed in 19th century by a group of Paris-based artist, who were trying to change established by that time standards and techniques of painting.
 
In mid 1800s French art was ruled by Académie des Beaux-Arts. The Académie was a preserver of traditional standards of paintings, so historical, religious subjects and portraits were valued. Even the landscapes were not popular.  The paintings had to be drawn with details and accurate lines, so one could examine them closely.  According to that standards, Académie had an annual art show called Salon de Paris, where the artists could win prizes and gain a prestige.  Thus, there were mainly being presented the works of Jean-Léon Gérôme and Alexandre Cabanel. 

Alexandre Cabanel - Albayde

Jean-Léon Gérôme -  Pollice Verso 

Other young artist( like Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, Frédéric Bazille, Édouard Manet, Camille Pissarro, Paul Cézanne and others) were always rejected.
In 1863 was organized Salon des Refusés, where were presented all the refused works. It drew a lot of attention and attracted more visitors than the regular Salon.


Édouard Manet - Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe 
 Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Les Fiancés

After that in 1874, a group of artists(Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro and Alfred Sisley) called the Société Anonyme Coopérative des Artistes Peintres, Sculpteurs, Graveurs (Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, Printmakers) organized an exhibition in Paris, where participated approximately thirty artists.
Bright  colors, new unusual technique were shocking for eyes accustomed to the more sober colors of Academic painting. The exhibition was criticized. The critical response was mixed, but  Monet and Cézanne received the harshest attacks.
Claude Monet's Impression, Sunrise(Impression, soleil levant) (Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris) gave the Impressionist movement its name when the critic Louis Leroy accused it of being a sketch or "impression," not a finished painting.

Claude Monet - Impression, soleil levant


Impression—I was certain of it. I was just telling myself that, since I was impressed, there had to be some impression in it ... and what freedom, what ease of workmanship! Wallpaper in its embryonic state is more finished than that seascape.

The term "Impressionists" quickly gained favor with the public. Even though they were a diverse group in style and temperament, unified primarily by their spirit of independence and rebellion, Impressionism was a movement of enduring consequence, as this breakthrough of modernity made a way for later avant-garde art in Europe.