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Nina Fout

History of Graphic Design

Professor Laura Huaracha

December 15, 2017

The Original Hipster Movement

Throughout the history of design we have seen many trends come and go: some only

here for a short time while others endure for years. One of the most important design

movements was the Arts & Crafts movement that took root in London during the late

nineteenth century. The Industrial Revolution that took place shortly before in the mid

nineteenth century generated many advancements in technology and cuts to the cost of

production; however, those changes caused an overall decline in design quality because of the

surplus of machines and mass-production of materials lead to a design process that was cheap

and disjointed (Douglas). What the Arts & Crafts movement did was it brought back the human

element back into design and turned the discipline of graphic design into a craft. It marked a

turning point in design philosophy and elevated the art of design to the same status as that of

fine art found in museums. Although the movement did not completely reject mass production

and the use of machines; instead it advocated for the mastery of design as a craft, unity from

start to finish, and bringing back the organic and “human” element that makes graphic design

an art. This movement reflects the same kind of attitudes found in the contemporary

subculture of the hipster movement that has surged in popularity in recent years. The modern

hipster movement is all about the “farm-to-table” mentality that follows a design all the way

from conception to its completion and advocates for truth in materials.

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The hipster movement can be traced to a number of different eras in American culture

such as the emergence of the Jazz Age and the rapid social changes that took place during that

time to redefine what is “cool,” and the new direction of modernism that favors streamlined

functionality over sentimental ornament. Another example would be the hippies of the

Vietnam era that popularized underground counterculture to the point where it was embraced

by the mainstream. Today we see hipsters as independent thinkers that are sincerely insincere

and drenched with irony: hipsters are purposefully “uncool to be cool” (Weeks).

The way that the “farm-to-table” mentality fits into the hipster ideal is a preoccupation

with the ingredients and their source. However, the argument being made by critics of this

movement is that an obsession with ingredients is formed at the expense of developing any

kind of actual talent in the treatment of those ingredients (Herman). A comparison can be

made between modern hipsters and designers of the Arts & Crafts era in the way that they

both focused very heavily on the materials being used. They advocated for truth in materials in

a way that designers believed that the materials being used were a fundamental facet of the

overall design. However, a key difference between the two is that in Arts & Crafts, the

treatment of those materials were equally as important as the materials themselves.

In contrast with the Industrial era in which Arts & Crafts originated, the

movement was largely influenced by medieval illuminated manuscripts which were filled with

intricate detail and only used the finest materials. Each illuminated manuscripts was made by

one person and they were responsible for every aspect of its creation from conception to

publication. Due to the costly and time consuming process, illuminated manuscripts were only

used to make specialty books, such as the bible, that only the royal and the affluent could
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afford. With those same ideals in mind, Arts & Crafts designers held craftsmanship as the

ultimate priority and sought to mimic the same process by having each designer stay with their

work in the same way that illuminated manuscripts were made; by doing this designers could

solve the problem of their designs becoming disjointed as it’s passed to a new person for each

step of the process. The designer is able to stay with their design every step of the way and can

defend their artistic vision from outside influence.

On the other hand, there were some downsides to craftsmanship that is taken to the

extreme in instances like the Arts & Crafts and modern day hipster movements: the

preoccupation with only using high quality materials to create artisan products drove costs to

skyrocket. Comparing products from the Victorian and Arts & Crafts era, products were now

fewer and farer inbetween. All the progress made during the Victorian era as far as accessibility

of products go had been undone. The Arts & Crafts era returned to an era similar to medieval

illuminated manuscripts. During that time bookmaking was such a time consuming, tedious,

and expensive process that only the very privileged royal and affluent families could afford

them: the same problem is facing present day hipsters hawking commodities that are whole,

organic, and raw (Meggs and Purvis 49-51). What good is craftsmanship if no one can even

afford to have it? It has the potential of forcing people to begin regarding the entire field of

design as superfluous and frivolous.

Despite challenges regarding availability that are present in both the Arts & Crafts and

the contemporary hipster movements, the intentions of both still remain noble. By the end of

the Victorian era, designers got so carried away with all of the new technology that was coming

into availability that they lost sight of the artistry element to design. What the Arts & Crafts
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movement set out to accomplish was to return graphic design to a craft through the mastery of

materials. Its hipster ideals served as a wake-up call for designers to restore their sense of

integrity and, once again take pride in their work. William Morris, who is considered to be the

father of the Arts & Crafts movement, has described the motivation for the movement as the

search for the“fitness of purpose, truth of materials and methods of production, and individual

expression of both designer & worker” (Meggs and Purvis 188)

As time progressed designers were able to strike a balance between maintaining the

integrity of the materials being used and keeping costs to a more reasonable level so that

printed goods could continue to be accessible to the general public. The Arts & Crafts

movement set the table for other movements, like Art Nouveau and Genesis design, to take

place and evolve into what we know now as modern design. Another important thing that

stemmed from the movement was the formation of artists guilds that allowed artists greater

control over their work and room for experimentation (Meggs and Purvis 191). These guilds

greatly resemble modern day design firms such as Pentagram Design, the world’s largest

independently owned firm.

In conclusion, the Arts & Crafts movement is one of the most important and influential

movements in design history because it was a critical point in design philosophy. That new

philosophy was then able to effectively elevated graphic design to the same prestige as fine art

through its treatment of materials and attention to detail. Those ideals endured all the way to

the modern age with today’s hipster movement that also promotes the same kind integrity in

consumer goods that made Arts & Crafts so successful. It was an essential movement because it

served as a wake-up call for designers worldwide to step up their game and produce better
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products that would continue to push the envelope of design and to keep us moving in a

forward direction.
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Works Cited

Douglas, Ava. “Arts and Crafts Movement.” History of Graphic Design,

www.historygraphicdesign.com/industrial-revolution/the-arts-and-crafts-

movement/642-arts-and-crafts-movement.

Meggs, Philip B., and Purvis, Alston w.. Meggs' History of Graphic Design, 6th Edition. John

Wiley & Sons, 2016.

Weeks, Linton. “The Hipsterfication Of America.” NPR, NPR, 17 Nov. 2011,

www.npr.org/2011/11/16/142387490/the-hipsterfication-of-america.

Herman, Valli. “The Farm-to-Table Backlash Is Here.” Fortune, Fortune, 28 Sept. 2015,

www.fortune.com/2015/09/28/farm-table-local-food/.

About William Morris. The William Morris Society, www.williammorrissociety.org/about-

william-morris/.

“Arts & Crafts.” Graphic Design History, www.visualartsdepartment.wordpress.com/arts-

crafts/.