Plakastil

Introduction

Plakastil is a style of art that trace its roots from Germany. This piece of art was used in designing posters. It began in the early 1900s. Berliner Lucian Bernard was the one who came up with this style or form of art. The characteristics of this art are normally described by straight fonts and colors which are flat. This style has simple objects, shapes, and subject that contain more details.

This piece of art came up when Bernard presented it in a competition where he won. The simple nature of this style drew more interest and took up popularity from Art Nouveau style, which was more decorative but was in the verge of losing its vitality with time. This new style got great application in commercial advertisement in Berlin at that time.

One major event that took place in the history of the world at the time when poster style existed was the World War one. Indeed the World War one came up with new role for the poster propaganda. The poster style was used in functions like, advertising campaigns that were very importantly used to pass information out the war to combatants (Consuegra, 2005). It was also used in raising money, in recruitment of soldiers, encouraging volunteer efforts and inciting outrage at the negative acts of enemies.

One other event was the “Bolsheviks” revolution. This revolution used the poster art largely to help in winning the war against whites. Posters were used to spread propaganda both in cold and hot wars.

Plakastil art used simple contemporary features that people were familiar with at that time to communicate the intended message. Features like beautiful country landscapes, people,were, musical instruments like violin, attires like coats, mountains and rivers among others.

The greatest artistic element that drove this style onto its peak was its simplicity in expressing its message. This made it to be adopted as a universal style without having to pass through any form of school. It used bold lettering and a simple focus on the central image. The colors were distinctively attractive. Since the message in this style was simple to deduce, it was considered aesthetically appealing. Bernard made use of flat color background and shapes. He used very simple and clean font. There is no much hustle in this style since the lines themselves are also considered a style (Moore, 2011).

Bernard significantly made use of the principles of art to organize his work. Plakastil used the principle of movementto make the artwork flow and to lead the viewer on how they see the work. He marked the use of simplicity to help viewer arrive at the main object.

Unity: The wholeness in this artwork was what would describe the unity of the work. Thus it was achieved by use of simple colors that were indeed attractive and easily agreed with one another.

Harmony: It was achieved by using elements that were similar throughout the piece of work. Bernard made his work simple and less complicated to help achieve the required harmony.

Variety: It was achieved in this work by use of different lines, colors and shapes.

Balance: Plakastil art balanced its work so that no part outdid the other. The work was symmetrically, asymmetrically and radically balanced.

Contrast: This was achieved by use of colors that complemented one another; these colors made plakastil look interesting. Note that it did not make use of many complicated colors but still achieved this principle (Arntson, 2011).

Proportion: It was achieved by recognizing things that were considered more superior to                                                                                       others. Like more famous figures were accorded larger shapes while less famous were given smaller shapes.

Pattern/rhythm: It simply signifies consistency with colors. Plakastil carefully made things simple by applying less confusing colors to yield this standard. The coloring becomes consistent and attractive.

An example of artwork of this period is by Erler Fritz entitled “winter in Bayern” 1905, the poster is a drawing of a man clad in warm clothes, skating on ice. The artist was trying to inform the viewer that in winter, there is ice in Germany and people normally go to skate. This work could have been created to advertise to tourists about the nice skating spree in Bayern during winter or just communicating to the viewer some of the things that make up Bayern. When looking at the artwork, it is so simply presented that it gives me a quick clue of the beauty of Bayern’s landscape and recreational activities. In the artwork, the mountains in Bayern are represented by drawings of mountain painted whitish on a blue background. The warm clothing represents the cold weather in Bayern during winter season.

I clearly like this artwork. It is a good artwork, well drawn and to the point. By its simple outlook, the viewer understands the message very quickly. The artwork is important because it sells the beauty of Bayern to people who are not from Bayern and it can be used in commercial application like advertisement (Poulin, 2011). I would gladly display this artwork at my home. It brings Bayern closer to me. The artwork is fit enough to be in a museum for future reference.

Conclusion

Plakastil is an interesting artwork. It uses simple principles to communicate to the viewer. It got wide commercial application during early times. This magnificent style has clear and observable beauty that it draws from the simple less complicated images. Interpreting it is made easier by the fact that it applies simple and familiar shapes. It attracts the viewer to the point