100 years of Art Deco: reflecting on the impact of an historic art movement on design

Art Deco is deeply embedded in our culture.

Even a century after its debut at the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, brands continue to draw on the nostalgia of the golden era and its love of progress, aesthetic sophistication and, by extension, luxury.

If we look deeper into what Art Deco represents today, we discover more than just a historical seed for a better future. 

It was, fundamentally, a response and reaction against the flowing, organic forms of Art Nouveau. Art Deco marked the birth of a modern, industrial, and opulent aesthetic: geometry, luxurious materials, bold colours, and striking typography. T

his was no minor development in the world of design. With stylistic influences from the Vienna Secession and the spirit of Futurism, Art Deco helped empower the advertising industry through style and structure.

It was a style that reflected a fascination with progress, speed, power, aeroplanes, cars, and skyscrapers in the early 20th century. 

But with the rise of World War II, a new cultural movement took the lead: Modernism (through the Bauhaus). As designers, we admire Modernism for its focus on function and minimal design, stripping away decoration while celebrating “honest” materials. 

This shift brought a new understanding of luxury (think of Mies, for example). Even though “minimalism” risks becoming a buzzword today, it marked a significant cultural shift.

Art Deco experienced a superficial revival between the 1960s and 1980s, especially in graphic design and fashion, as nostalgia for the Jazz Age and Hollywood glamour resurfaced.

Today, Art Deco is celebrated for its timeless elegance, craftsmanship, and visual impact. It continues to inspire contemporary designers, especially in luxury branding, architecture, and interior design. 

It laid the groundwork for the visual languages we rely on to make brands memorable. 

Think of the car luxury industry: from Maybach and recent designs from Jaguar, to Dacora and the Mercedes-Benz Vision Iconic, embodying a vision of "a well-dressed future." Similarly, the growing use of bold, extended typography by many brands, whether consciously or not, echoes both Art Deco and automotive heritage.

But if we dig even deeper into why Art Deco remains relevant today, beyond nostalgia, we must acknowledge the influence of ancient cultures and the use of decoration as cultural expression. 

As Gombrich* explores in his well-known thesis The Sense of Order, decoration is not merely ornament or surface “filler”, it is a profound cultural expression of order, rhythm, and perception. Humans have a natural tendency to seek structure and make sense of visual stimuli. Our brains are wired to find rhythm, symmetry, repetition, and variation both meaningful and satisfying. Gombrich views ornament as a form of visual communication that speaks to our cognitive need for structure, while also reflecting cultural values, status, beliefs, and technical skill.

Today’s design world embraces both historical extremes, from Art Deco to Modernism, constantly negotiating the balance between ornament and function. 

The issue is no longer about choosing one style over the other; what matters is the intention and the aim of communication. We face these questions every day in our work. The brands we build must honour history and emotion while moving people towards what’s next. In branding, especially, what’s essential is the alignment between business objectives, the strategic approach and how we express it.

So, the real question is: why do we choose a specific design direction, and why do we reference historical styles? 

Regardless of aesthetic preference, what remains essential (from my perspective) is the need to design with a critical mind, especially when engaging with historical materials and styles that demand thoughtful intention and a discerning eye.

Ultimately, what matters most is identifying the visual grammar that captures the essence of a brand: which elements best express its goals? We know that successful brands rely on structure, systems, and clarity. Perhaps it was Cassandre, with his iconic “Dubo Dubon Dubonnet” poster, who first sparked our love for repetition and reassurance, and with it, the need for solid, systematic visual languages that are instantly recognisable and lay the foundation for a memorable brand.

Art Deco teaches us that there’s beauty, even fluidity, in precision, and that design is most powerful when it brings both vision and structure to the stories we want to tell.

* The Sense of Order. A Study in the Psychology of Decorative Art. — (Ernst Gombrich, 1979)
Image credit: Jaguar