Personally, I'd rather live in the whimsical architectural world of Diagon Alley or Hogwarts than in modern London and I think there are many people who feel the same way. There's a reason, other than magic and adventure, why we want to escape into stories like this. We want to inhabit these worlds with their sights and sounds.
The saddest thing is that our ancestors lived in a world like this. And then, the 20th century arrived. With the help of a wave of dictators who were some of modernism's strongest advocates, movements like Art Nouveau and Art Deco gave way and we've been stuck in modernism ever since.
Now, because I am so drawn to the artistic achievements of previous generations, it should come as no surprise to you that I try to draw inspiration from them in the application of my own craft, but in my experience it often produces a job that just seems cheesy and I've always had a hard time understanding why.
And slowly, I think I got closer to answering that question and, in doing so, it helped me realize what was so fundamental to true and good art and which modern conventions are sorely lacking.
So let me give you an example of what I mean. I love beautifully designed calligraphy. It's so impressive to think that someone could write something like these illuminated texts from the Middle Ages.
As a graphic designer in the digital age, I don't need to be able to pick up a pen or brush to use beautiful lettering like that, I can just grab a cool font and go, but for some reason, Every time I try to do this, it just doesn't have the same quality as something that was made from scratch or by hand. So what is missing?
Asking myself this question while trying to use these kinds of elements in my own design work, the answer that came to me was that one of them inspires us and the other doesn't.
When you watch someone create a visual like this with your own hands, you witness the culmination of what it takes to master something. You witness human excellence and when you do, it inspires you.
When a graphic designer simply types it using a predefined font and then prints it. You don't witness the same kind of thing. This mark of creative inspiration is lacking. That's why, as a graphic designer, I've learned that in order to use elements like that and have the kind of impact I want, I need to signal to my audience that I've done more with it than just the type and space it. I have to do something creative with it to get the kind of reaction I want…the kind of reaction we get when we see good art.
And that, for me, is the key element that's missing in a lot of modern art. How many times have you seen a modern art exhibition and said or asked someone, "What's so great about that?" Could I do that?"
Basically, what they're saying is that it doesn't inspire me. Show me something I couldn't do.
If you walked into a place like the Sistine Chapel and looked at Michelangelo's masterpiece, you'd never hear someone say something like, "Meh, I could do that." » Instead, we stare until our necks hurt, wondering how another human being, a creature with the same starting point as you and me, could become so good at something that it could produce something like this. It takes us out of ourselves and the limits we impose on ourselves and makes us think. It inspires us.
This feeling of inspiration is the key ingredient that I believe is missing from the philosophy behind modernism and the art movements it inspired. The key ingredient that modernism and postmodernism seem to emphasize is self-expression. Which means that everything is art, and nothing is art. This means that all those American Idol rejects who gave it their all were actually brilliant performers and not the comic relief they were treated with, because who among us can doubt the sincerity of self-expression.
True art should impress, amaze and inspire us. This should make us wonder how it was possible for another human being, made of the same ingredients as me, to do something so incredible, and then it should motivate me to want to realize that if I combine the same types of choice than them, maybe I can also do something incredible.
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