Style

Art Deco ‎ is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and jewelry, as well as the visual arts such as painting, graphic arts and film. After the Universal Exposition of 1900, various French artists formed an informal collective known as “La Société des artistes décorateurs” with the purpose to demonstrate internationally the evolution of the French decorative arts. They organized the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Art) in Paris: the terms style moderne and art deco both derive from the exposition's title. Streamline Moderne, sometimes referred to by either name alone or as Art Moderne, was a late type of the Art Deco design style which emerged during the 1930s. Its architectural style emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. As the depression decade of the 1930s progressed, Americans saw a new aspect of the Art Deco style emerge in the marketplace: Streamlining. The Streamlining concept was first created by industrial designers who stripped Art Deco design of its fauna and flora in favor of the aerodynamic pure-line concept of motion and speed developed from scientific thinking. As a result an array of designers quickly ultra-modernized and streamlined the designs of everyday objects. Manufacturers of clocks, radios, telephones, cars, furniture and numerous other household appliances embraced the concept with open arms. Being presented to the public in 1923 the Bugatti Type 32 Tank with its revolutionary design and aerodynamics’ principles applied to its bodywork captured the imagination of millions of people and no doubt it influenced the designers of that time that later adopted similar concepts developing the “Streamline Moderne” design.  This is another demonstration of Ettore Bugatti’s genius, being always ahead of the curve, for his mechanical and stylistic innovations and creations.