Art Deco

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Art Deco, a flexible art that changed history.

The staple style during the 1920s and 1930s, with its geometrically futuristic linear design, Art Deco was applied in every field, including architecture, furniture, interior design, graphic design, fashion and typography. Its simplistic, symmetric, fluid and futuristic design was easily managed and breathable, in contrast to the frilly Victorian Art Nouveau designs. It took the world by storm after the 1925 Paris Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes (although some claimed that the movement started as early as 1910), influenced by historical arts like Aztec, Egyptian and Mesopotamian, Art Nouveau, Bauhaus, Neoclassical, Futurist and other modernist styles. Although the term Art Deco is commonly used, the term was actually coined in The Sixties during its resurgence after its popularity declined about World War Two.

Examples applied about Art Deco:

Comic Books

• The 1990s DCAU is heavily influenced on it.

Video Games

• The fifth installment of Civilization has some influences in Art Deco, some on the mainframe.
• Ditto with BioShock, whose level design and overall aesthetics were inspired by the era.

Western Animation

• Scenes based on Art Deco is featured on My Life as a Teenage Robot.

Real Life

• New York City period skyscrapers, like the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building, are heavily built on Art Deco.
• The Chrysler Airflow was a notable automotive example, being developed around the Streamline Moderne design language which was hailed as the future for motor vehicles. While it was ultimately deemed to be a commercial failure for Chrysler (not helping matters was the Great Depression which caused a slump in new car sales for one), not to mention a critical one as the public was alienated at what they saw as an "anonymous lump", it would later be Vindicated by History as a seminal car, inspiring the likes of Volvo's PV 36 Carioca and the Toyota AA, which was heavily derived from the DeSoto variant of the Airflow and ran on a straight-six engine copied from Chevrolet.