Unlike some previous art movements, Expressionism didn’t begin as a collaboration between designers or a way satisfy an industrial need. Instead, Expressionism began with young artists throwing out the rules and traditions of the past, and inventing a new way to approach art.

The movement focused on the imaginative expression of the ideas and feelings that came from within the designer. Expressionists focused on the psychological value of design aesthetics. Shapes, colors, and forms were used to evoke different moods in the audience. Proportions were distorted in order to create dramatic senses of movement in designs. The key factor in Expressionism was to never use the literal interpretations of a design concept. For example, a book cover would use the emotions the text created rather than an illustration of scenes and characters from the story.

The movement was embraced by a public that wanted to visually represent their feelings at the time and long for a better world. It began to decline as this same style was taken and altered to push political points of view that were not reflective of Expressionism’s original intent. It no longer represented the people who had once developed it.

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