How to Make Art Deco Poster

Art deco details are often found on buildings.

Art deco is all around you. You can find it in the New York City Chrysler Building's sleek lines or Miami Beach's neon architecture. You can see it in the old movies with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Her fabulous satin gowns, the black and white dance floors and the extravagant set designs were all influenced by the art deco movement. When creating an Art Deco poster, you'll want to start by channeling that elegant and glamorous mood.

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Poster board
• Paints
• Brushes
• Toothbrush
• Ruler and other measuring tools

1. • 1
     Find inspiration by looking at the masters of art deco. Many of them worked in France during the 1920s and exhibited at the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris, from which the movement gets its name. Well known art deco artists include painter Tamara de Lempicka, fashion illustrator Erte and poster designer Cassandre.
   • 2
     Choose a subject for your poster. Because the age of art deco coincided with the growth of the automobile and airplane industries, many art deco posters featured transportation and speed. One of the most famous art deco posters was Cassandre's "Normandie," which illustrated a highly stylized version of a French cruise ship. Other common art deco subjects were fashion and food. They were also strongly influenced by the treasures discovered in King Tut's tomb in 1922.
   • 3
     Create a vivid color palette. Art deco posters from the 1920s vibrated with bright colors: sky blues, rich reds and shimmering greens. Art deco artists also liked to use black and white and occasionally metallic colors.
   • 4
     Decide on a method for creating shapes. Art deco was strongly influenced by Cubism, and its shapes tend to be geometric. Graphic design software will allow you to draw those shapes with precision, but using software might require you to have the poster printed out professionally. Cassandre used stencils and an airbrush. If you're planning to draw the shapes yourself, make sure to have measuring tools available.
   • 5
     Focus on your subject. Art deco posters aren't cluttered. Usually, one object lies right in the middle of the poster, whether it's a blimp or a cruise ship or a bottle of Campari liquor. The point is to see the subject in a new way by streamlining its lines.