Futurism Design Movement

The movement launched onto the scene in 1909 and is an expression of modern life with elements of cubism. It uses a bold, abstract style with contrasting colours, focusing on progress and modernity. It uses urban landscapes and new technology, this being along the lines of trains, motor vehicles or mobile phones. The futurism design movement is a movement that focuses on the future, expressing this through the different designs in the work.

A piece of futurism art in the early days of the movement, there is minimal use of colour.

More modern days of futurism showing a motor vehicle, there a range of different colours.

Certain trends that occur along futurism work is linked to cubism, using blocky styles of illustration and different gradients throughout the design. Through the art, the impression is trying to show the ways of modern life throughout the year’s changes but comparing the early days of the futurism art movement to modern-day there is a jump in colour.

Technical Worksheet of Contrast

Task- Make a technical sheet showcasing your understanding of contrast

In terms of graphic design, contrast refers to the presentation of two or more objects within the design in different ways. Graphic designers find it useful as it creates a focal point or a spot where the eye is naturally drawn because of its vibrance. Examples of contrast include; black and white, big and small, fast and slow, thick and thin. The more different these aspects are to each other the easier they become to compare and become more contrasted with each other.

Task- Make a piece of digital illustration reimagining something in futurist style

For my modern take on the futuristic style, I used a new model of the iPhone as my centrepiece. By using the pen tool, I was able to outline the exterior of the phone and use a 0.5pt stroke as I needed a thinner outline. I decided to stick with the colour purple and to contrast, this colour with orange for my background, as well as I shadowed my phone multiple times with different shades of purple in squares to follow the blocky technique of the futuristic style. I added an orange gradient behind this design to create the contrasting effect that the futuristic style movement follows.

If I were to do this piece again however I would use more of the orange colour in my piece and try to use other contrasting colours within it as well my piece I believe does not look as vibrant as I believe it could be. What I do like about my take on the futuristic style is my use of shadowing and repeating my shapes as it is a great way to show the phone is the main part of the piece.

When comparing my work to another piece someone has made taking a modern take on the futurism movement, their work is a lot cleaner and shows how simplistic the piece can be whilst also being futuristic which is what I really like about it. I will take inspiration from this piece for future work when using the futurism style.

What I like about the futuristic art movement is how abstract you can be with it and experimenting with different colours. It is a great way to bring something modern and use a style from the past and combine the two to show how the object may have been viewed and advertised in the past.