Stylogenyin the style of Art Nouveau

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Craft & organic · 1890–1910 · Western Europe, Central Europe, Southern Europe, North America

Art Nouveau

Also known as Jugendstil, Stile Liberty, Modernisme, Modern Style

An international 'new art' that sought a modern style free of historical revival, drawing its forms from plant growth and the female figure. Graphic work flows with whiplash curves and stylised flowers, frames idealised women in arches, halos and mosaic borders, and draws custom lettering that bends to fill the space, fusing image, ornament and type into one decorative surface.

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An illustrated poster headed “RIVERBLOOM” shows a woman in a flowing green dress with long auburn hair entwined with pink flowers, reaching down to touch rippling water. Water lilies, curling foliage and an ornate botanical border surround her, with a river, distant trees and a golden sun behind her.
AI-generated by Stylogeny from the style’s design choices. Not a real or historical work.

01

How it works

  • Let a single sinuous whiplash line drive the composition, flowing through figure, ornament and lettering alike.
  • Draw letters by hand and distort them to fill the shapes left by the image instead of setting them in lines.
  • Base ornament on stems, tendrils, flowers and flowing hair, stylised into rhythmic contour lines.
  • Enclose the central figure in arches, halos, roundels or panels framed by decorative borders.
  • Outline flat or softly graded areas of muted, harmonious colour with a confident contour.
  • Treat poster, book, interior and building as one Gesamtkunstwerk sharing a single ornamental language.

Brussels, Paris, Nancy and Munich, with offshoots in Barcelona, Turin, Prague and the United States

02

Its design choices

From Stylogeny’s vocabulary of design choices: defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

Layout & composition
Space & hierarchy
Typography
Colour
Form & shape
Surface & texture
Ornament
Imagery
Medium & production
Tone & intent
Avoids
Modular grid, Rectilinear, Angular & zigzag, Grotesque & neo-grotesque, Ornament-free, Flush left, ragged right

Palette

  • #efe2c4
  • #d9a6a0
  • #9fae84
  • #c9a24b
  • #3f7a75
  • #4b3b2a

Typefaces

  • Arnold Böcklin

    Otto Weisert, 1904

  • Eckmann

    Otto Eckmann, Gebr. Klingspor, 1900

  • Grasset

    Eugène Grasset, G. Peignot et Fils, 1898

  • Mucha's hand-drawn poster lettering

Known for

  • Alphonse Mucha

    Gismonda, 1894–95; JOB, 1896

  • Eugène Grasset

  • Henry van de Velde

    Tropon poster, 1898

  • Hector Guimard

    Paris Métro entrances, c. 1900

  • Otto Eckmann and Jugend magazine

    Munich, from 1896

  • Aubrey Beardsley

    Salome illustrations, 1894

  • Will H. Bradley

    The Chap-Book covers, 1894–95

03

Make something in this style

Say what you need, and Stylogeny’s image studio draws it from Art Nouveau’s design choices and checks it against them. It takes about a minute, and you get a link to share.

Rule out a choice, read the prompt, or blend in another style: take this brief to Mix styles.

04

Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

Before it

The style it grew out of, and the styles it borrowed from.

This styleArt Nouveau1890–1910 · Western Europe, Central Europe, Southern Europe, North America

After it

The styles that grew out of it.

Alike in its design choices

Styles that make many of the same choices, related or not, besides those above.

05

Real works

Artefacts in museums, libraries and archives that show the style, linked at their source.

  • Absinthe RobetteHenri Privat-Livemont · 1896 · Bibliothèque nationale de France (via Wikimedia Commons)
  • Jugend, Nr. 14 (cover)Otto Eckmann · 4 April 1896 · Wikimedia Commons (scan credited to Kansallisarkisto, National Archives of Finland)
  • The Chap-BookWill H. Bradley · 1895 · Library of Congress, Artist Posters collection (via Wikimedia Commons)
  • Job (papier à cigarettes)Alphonse Mucha · 1896 · Bibliothèque nationale de France (via Wikimedia Commons)

06

Sources

  1. Philip B. Meggs & Alston W. Purvis, Meggs' History of Graphic Design
  2. Paul Greenhalgh (ed.), Art Nouveau 1890–1914 (V&A Publications, 2000)

How Stylogeny researches and checks a style: where the facts come from.