The art nouveau movement was a somewhat rebellion against the common style of art, pulling influences from the Japonisme movement but also pioneering a lot of new styles too. Because art nouveau is such a broad style, each country and each individual took their own approach. 

Charles Rennie Machintosh (1868 - 1928) 
​Mackintosh was an architect functioning during and fully embracing the art nouveau movement. He took a particularly geometric approach in both his architecture and especially his furniture design. Mackintosh's pioneering take on art nouveau later inspired the art deco movement.

Koloman Moser (1868 - 1918)
Viennese art nouveau was inspired almost entirely by Mackintosh. Moser took the idea of art nouveau and took the natural route, being inspired by the flow of flora and fauna. He embraced this movement by expressing himself through pattern design and decorative posters. 

Federico Arias Rey 
​Rey designed the House of Gallardo, a hugely decorative building. Again, he took the natural approach to art nouveau, using swirls and curves. He did embrace the geometry on a bigger scale with the general shapes and angles on the building. His style was very decedent with a lot of decoration for decorations sake. 

Emile Andre (1871 - 1933) 
Andre was inspired by nature and as well as incorporating them designs into his architecture, he also included a lot of colour. His style was less decedent than that of the Spanish however it was along the same lines. 

For the comic project my line was "your god has been given right" which made me think of the Buddha being given the right to become enlightened. My initial idea was to split the nine panels into three along the top, three along the bottom and one long panel in the middle. I was then going to put animals in the six individual panels and the Buddha in the middle to give the impression that the natural world around him gave him the right. 

​After speaking with Tony I realised that I was too bothered with the aesthetics and I wasn't telling a story so I went back and told the story of the Buddha's enlightenment; where he leaves a life of royalty to find some meaning. He experiences suffering and turns to spiritual leaders to find his way. He then sits beneath a tree and becomes enlightened. 

Japonisme is a French word describing art and material that has been influenced by Japan. This came from the aesthetic movement in Japan that saw artists like Hokusai and Hiroshige creating beautiful wood prints and illustrations but despite their incredible design, within Japan they had nearly no value. So little value that when the French began buying pots and decorations from Japan, they were delivered wrapped in these prints to protect the valuables inside. Eventually artists began to admire this artwork and experimented with this more free and meaningless way of producing art. 

Above is an illustration by American artist Helen Hyde titled "Hagoita in the New Year's Day" (1914). 
In 1890 Hyde moved from New York to Paris in search for some new approaches to art as she was initially inspired by the European art of the time. After experiencing the wave of Japonisme in Paris she began to create wood prints and etchings of her own. She then moved back to San Fransisco and started her career creating Japanese artworks such as the one above. Eventually she moved to Japan to be amongst the art that she as so inspired by and she continued to create these kinds of works for the rest of her career. 

Before Japonisme was the pre-Raphelites, beautiful paintings depicting striking realism and gorgeous scenery. These art works served to show grace and beauty and they were immaculate. Theres no colours where they shouldn't be, theres no harsh lines and theres no creative endeavours. Despite how close to life they look, they're incredibly boring.

In 2014 Ryan created his character "Lord Nermal", a cat with his middle fingers up. Five months later while doing a pop up at Fairfax Avenue, Ryan put up a Lord Nermal sticker that looked as though it was flipping off the nearby Supreme store; pictures of this then went viral and RipNDip has been rocketing ever since because of their comedic approach to fashion, "The company's success has been in it's humour - sometimes a little crude - amid a sea of seriousness" (Kari Hamanaka for WWD.com)