A Brief History of the Art Deco Design Movement

A Brief History of the Art Deco Design Movement

When Art Deco design started making waves about a century ago, it came into play as a reaction against the highly stylized Art Nouveau movement. “We were transitioning from an era where so many things were ornate, curvy, and chock full of details,” says Mercedes Austin of Mercury Mosaics. It’s only natural, then, that Art Deco style would streamline things a bit. But Deco certainly wasn’t the same thing as the Bauhaus school, which emerged roughly around the same time and championed the marriage of beauty and utility—and the reconciliation of mass production and artistry.