Overall I have definitely enjoyed the blog process. My favourite themes that we have explored have been Art Nouveau, Japonisme and 1960's poster art. A huge positive of the blog tasks for me was researching these art movements as I didn't know about them beforehand, but now I am highly interested in them and will continue to research them and be influenced by the work. One element of the blog process that I definitely struggled with was my timekeeping, as I did fall behind with a few of the tasks. If I had the opportunity to develop my blog I would make sure to work on my timekeeping skills and keep on top of the weekly tasks.

'Just What Makes Today's Homes So Different So Appealing' is an iconic photo collage created by Richard Hamilton in 1956. Hamilton Made use of images of consumer items and role models at a time when the UK and USA were rebuilding their economies following WW2. Hamilton stated that he wanted to include: 'Man, Woman, Food, History, Newspapers, Cinema, Domestic Appliances, Cars, Space, Comics, TV, Telephone, Information'. In 1992, with the rise of digital imaging, Hamilton actually remade the work with a new collection of images and icons that reflected the age 35 years later. 
In my 2019 response to Hamilton's collage, I felt that politics would play an important part in my choice of images. There has been a large debate over politics throughout 2019 with talks of Brexit, an upcoming general election, and the divide between supporters of the labour party and the conservatives. In my collage, a protest against Brexit can be seen outside of the window, and I decided to portray current PM Boris Johnson in a clown suit, probably making my views towards Brexit and the conservative party obvious. I also wanted to include an image that represented something popular in the current media, so for this I chose the popular Star Wars TV series 'The Mandalorian', as the show itself has been very anticipated for 2019 and the character Baby Yoda has been all over the internet.

Moodboard depicting 'official' vs 'unofficial' culture in 1980's Britain.
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In 1980's Britain, cultural output such as films, TV, and art & design falls into two categories: official and unofficial. Official culture was commercially conscious, widely popular, and reflected the mainstream values and norms of the time. On the other hand, unofficial culture was a rebellion against the Thatcherite zeitgeist, was predominantly Northern and centered around the working class, and presented a counter myth of England that was sexy, violent and articulate. 

Wes Wilson is generally acknowledged as as the father of the 60's rock concert poster. Wilson's first poster was self-published in 1965 and nicknamed 'Are We Next', it is a protest by Wilson to the ever increasing U.S involvement in the Vietnam war, and is a clear example of Wilson's politics and his willingness to speak out through his art. Wilson's posters are notable for distorted hand lettering, vibrant colours and strong images, earning him the reputation as the inventor of the psychedelic poster. Wilson's work drew inspiration from posters designed by European artists such as Alphonse Mucha, Gustave Klimt, and Egon Schiele. 

Bob Peak was an American commercial illustrator, whose work is known for revolutionary developments in the design of movie posters. Peak worked at the Alexander E. Chaite Studios, one of two illustration firms that served the publishing industry and provided many of America's great illustrators of the time employment on large advertising campaigns. Having doubts about the style of his work, which he felt was too safe and imitative of his artistic influences, Peak reinvented his style to that of a more expressive one consisting of saturated colour. Within the advertising world, Bob Peak won acclaim and awards for his recognisable work, as well as an abundance of commissions from brands such as Pepsi, Chrysler and Cosmopolitan magazine. Peak's style, which often included flat saturated colour work made him a trendsetter and brought him to the attention of Hollywood, allowing him to revolutionise the film poster. Films that Peak illustrated posters for include Excalibur, Superman, and the original Star Trek films. Throughout his decades long career, Peak has over 130 film posters to his name, and collectively, this body of work earned him the name 'The Father of the Modern Hollywood Movie Poster'. Thanks to his contributions to the film industry, Peak was presented with the Key Art Lifetime Achievement Award by the Hollywood Reporter in 1992. 

W Korea is the South Korean edition of American fashion magazine W, launched in 2005. 80% of the magazine's readers are female. 'Bourgeois Declaration' is a fashion story written by Lee Yeji which explores bourgeois fashion. The piece explores designer Hedi Slimane's new 'bourgeois' collection for Celine. The narrative is informative as it explores the history of bourgeois fashion and how it was ridiculed in the past as being too 'boring' and 'proper', yet is now coming back into fashion thanks to fashion designers such as Slimane. The written piece is accompanied by fashion photographs of Slimane's designs, expertly detailing his idea of bourgeois fashion. The photographs are very simplistic, with the models standing against a plain black background lit by a single white light source. This is effective as the audience's attention is focused solely on the clothes  that the models are wearing. The outfits themselves are simplistic, made up of neutral tones such as brown and grey. The written piece and fashion photography go hand in hand, detailing the simple yet stylish nature of bourgeois fashion.  
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Vogue Italia is the Italian  edition of Vogue magazine. It is the least commercial of all editions of Vogue magazine and is considered the top fashion magazine in the world. In this piece, fashion editor Italo Pantano explores the most original turtleneck pullovers from new menswear collections. This piece will be targeted towards a male audience. The readers will be familiar with the well known brands featured in the article such as Vetements and Dolce & Gabbana. The piece also consists of fashion photography of male models on the runway wearing turtlenecks. The photographs show the full length of the models, allowing the reader to get a good view of the clothes they are wearing. 

Max Bill was an influential Swiss graphic designer, typographer, Bauhaus artist, architect, and a principal figure of Concrete Art. He was also the co founder of the Ulm School of Design, where he was the head of the Architecture and Product Design department in the 1950's. In addition to building and teaching in the Ulm School of Design, Max Bill also taught at the School of Arts in Zurich in 1944. He became a professor at State School for Fine Arts in Hamburg in 1967 and received awards, honours and an honorary degree.Max Bill's work was primarily influenced by the Bauhaus design philosophy “form follows function.”. He also sought to create forms in accordance to Concrete Art philosophy--art should be non-referential, it should not refer to, allude to, the entities normally encountered in the natural, visible world. It is intended to emanate directly from the mind. He understood that embodiment of ideas is the ultimate expression of concrete art. This is evident in his work through the use of precision and proportion, and clarity of design composition. This clarity is expressed with the use of clear geometric shapes, sans-serif fonts, and bold solid colours. 

Joost Schmidt was a German painter, sculptor, typographer and graphic designer belonging to the German Bauhaus school in Weimar, an experimental university founded by Walter Gropius with ideas of balancing the opposites of craftsmanship and artistic creation. His work, especially in advertising, has exercised great influence in art and graphic design of the 20th century. From the years 1919 to 1925, Schmidt trained in workshops in stone and wood under the guidance of Johannes Itten and Oskar Schlemmer. This allowed Joost to learn about a medium he had never previously worked in, extending his artistic capabilities.

During the year of 1921, Schmidt worked on two projects that would serve to be key milestones of his career - he designed carvings for the Sommerfield House in Berlin and devised posters for the Bauhaus exhibition that took place in Weimar during the year of 1923. This work gave Joost the opportunity to run the sculpture workshop and be head of the typographic department, however Schmidt refused this offer and decided to accept an offer from Walter Gropius himself, in which he became a Junior Master at the Bauhaus Dessau.
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To this day, it is argued that Schmidt is one of the most overlooked figures of the Bauhaus. This may be due to the fact that he tried to separate himself from the school's influence as the Nazis were rising to the political top of Germany, but what is often neglected is the fact that he contributed greatly to the legacy of Bauhaus after the war ended. Following the Nazi regime's downfall, Schmidt was appointed as a professor at the Hochschule fur Bildende Kunste (School of Art) in Berlin. 

Constructivism was a movement in art, design and architecture that began in Russia in 1913, and rose to popularity after the Russian Revolution of 1917. Russian constructivism was considered more of a philosophy than just a style, and reflected a belief in art for social change. The Russian constructivists were proponents of functional art and design rather than decorative art, which echoed the revolutionary mood of the times where the bourgeois culture was being replaced by the revolutionary proletariat movement. In constructivist art, the tools and techniques of the more traditional, figurative painting and art styles were replaced by 'constructed' photo montages and heavy typography. Russian constructivism characteristically had minimal colour palettes, often just red, black and white, which were the colours for the government party that were running for the revolution at the time. The use of bold colours and geometric shapes engaged the audience, and the influence can be seen in today's modern design.

'Hit the Whites With the Red Wedge' is a 1920 lithographic Soviet propaganda poster by artist El Lissitzky. It is considered symbolic of the Russian Civil War in Western publications. Lissitzky produced this politically charged work in support of the Red Army shortly after the Bolsheviks had waged their revolution in 1917. The Red Wedge symbolised the revolutionaries, who were penetrating the anti-communist White party. Here, Lissitzky uses the signature colour combination of red, white and black, which reinforces the message indicated by the work's title. For example, the smooth, curvlinear walls of the white circle are pierced by the red triangle, emphasising how the the Red Army has pierced the defenses of the White Party. A similar colour palate is used in Gustav Klutsis' photo-montage 'Oppressed People's of the Whole World' in which he uses red and black geometric shapes to convey his political message. In a similar manner  to Lissitzky's piece, Klutsis makes use of a black triangle which leads the viewers eye towards the red circle which contains the key text, translating to "Opressed people's of the whole world, under the banner of Comintern overthrow imperialism!". The major difference between the two pieces of work is that Lissitzky's poster only consists of bold geometric shapes, while Klutsis' photo-montage combines bold shapes with cut outs of political figures.

Art Nouveau is a style of art that emerged in the 1890's throughout Europe and the United States. Frustrated by the rigid constraints of 19th century academic art, a growing number of artists sought to develop a new art style which would embrace the modern to transform society for the better. For its motif, they chose nature, which since the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species in 1859, had come to represent evolution and therefore progress. Inspiration from nature can be seen in Art Nouveau through the use of long, sinuous line, and organic and geometric forms. Art Nouveau had its origins in the English Arts and Crafts movement and went on to have influence throughout Europe and beyond. Each country blended nature with its own symbolism and history to create its own unique take on the style. 
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In Scotland a unique brand of Art Nouveau developed, led by the 'Glasgow Four', Charles Rennie Mackintosh, his wife Margaret Macdonald, her sister Frances Macdonald, and her husband Herbert McNair. This interpretation of the Art Nouveau movement became known as the 'Glasgow Style'. Inspired by Celtic spirituality and Victorian purism, the four created graphic works consisting of elongated silhouettes with dreamlike colour schemes. They make use of colours that are light, neutral, natural and mythical at the same time. The group's work reveals some early elements of modern art, such as the use of symmetry and geometric figuration. Their poster "The Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts" (1895) displays the four's take on Art Nouveau through its use of long sinewy figures with similarly attenuated plant forms. The male figure's cloak and the female figure's hair both sweep around behind them, forming part of the abstract design. The work of the four was strongly influenced by Celtic art. Characteristics of Celtic art include dense, interlaced patterns, curvlinear elements and zoomorphic forms, much like that of the work of the Art Nouveau.
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Vienna became the centre of a distinct variant of Art Nouveau which became known as the Vienna Secession. The Secession was a group of artists who sought to distance themselves from historicism, creating the Viennese interpretation of Art Nouveau. The secession movement was led by Gustav Klimt from 1897 to 1905. In 1898, the Secession commissioned the architect Joseph Olbrich to build an exhibition hall. The result was a masterpiece of Art Nouveau architecture that remains one of the gems of Vienna. The building is striking with strong axial symmetry and contrast between the blank spaces of the walls and the elaborate gold decorations over the main entrance. The secessionist's work provides in large part the visual representations of the new intellectual and cultural flowering of Vienna around 1900 in fields such as medicine, music and philosophy. The Viennese take on Art Nouveau is particularly prominent in the leading figure of the Secession's work, Gustav Klimt. The organic feminine patterns of his works are intertwined with floral motifs and the subjects of his paintings are mainly ancient or biblical myths, allegories and female forms. 
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A remarkable variant of the Spanish interpretation of Art Nouveau is the Madrilenian Art Nouveau or "Modernismo Madrileno", which emerged in Madrid in the early 20th century with such notable buildings as the Palacio de Longoria , the Casino de Madrid, or the Cementario de la Almudena. Renowned modernists from Madrid were architects Jose Lopez Sallaberry, Fernando Arbos y Tremsanti and Francisco Andres Octavio. The palace de Longoria is the headquarters of the Spanish Society of Authors and Publishers in the Masalana district and is well known for being one of Madrid's few totally Art Nouveau buildings. The palace was built for the financier Javier Gonzalez Longoria as a family home, and is notable for its luxurious, highly ornamental external appearance, very much in line with the Art Nouveau taste. The artificial stone of the exterior creates smooth, organic forms using interlinked decorative elements. The building is topped by an impressive iron and glass dome. Inside the building the main staircase is striking with its circular outline, and takes its inspiration from French Art Nouveau architecture, as does the rest of the decor. Another building, the Casino de Madrid, is a magnificent example of Madrid's eclectic ideas in the early 20th century, with a mixture of french and baroque trends. The building consists of the French classicist style with Art Nouveau details. Much like the Palacio de Longoria, the casino is highly decorative with flowing, organic forms that can be seen throughout the structure.
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In France, it is in Nancy that the Art Nouveau movement gained momentum after the loss of Alsace and the Lorraine departement of Moselle to the Prussians in 1871 at the Treaty of Frankfurt. From the 1870's Nancy began to attract young, cultivated people who had fled the German annexation, and so its population doubled between 1870 and 1914. The economic development of Nancy was considerable and the group of Art Nouveau artists known as "Ecole de Nancy" made the capital of Lorraine a major centre of French decorative arts. The leader and founder of the Ecole de Nancy was Emile Galle, one of the best glass artists of his time and the leading initiator and driving force behind the Art Nouveau movement in Nancy. Galle's deigns took inspiration from nature along with heavy Japanese design influence. Galle's glass vases became famous for their beautiful forms, rich colour palettes, and inspired decoration often featuring popular Art Nouveau motifs relating to nature, botany, and insects.