During the period between 1720 - 1770 an interesting style emerged in France. Rococo came at the end of the Baroque period. The style can apply to visual arts, graphic design, architecture and music and is characterized by elaborate ornamentation and superficial elegance. In graphic design it took the form of elaborate scroll work, tracery and plant forms. Rococo exhibited the extreme excess of the French aristocracy.
Rococo fell out of favor after the French Revolution. It was rejected and replaced by a less lavish return to simpler classic forms and themes. This Neoclassicism focused on ancient Greek and Roman themes and art form.
The world was changing fast. and with the invention of the steam engine by James Watt in 1781 the industrial revolution was just around the corner. It would create profound social upheaval and change. The world went from a largely agrarian, handmade society to a world of machines and mass-production. People left their farms and moved into the cities to work in the factories.
Graphic design advanced along with the rest of the world with advances in the design of presses, paper manufacturing and the invention of the Linotype.
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