Industrial change
A main turning point for the development of materials and manufacturing was the industrial hit that was the18th/ 19th century as the working and living process began to modernise from traditional ways. Many cultural and economics factors had evolved to match the growing process of industrialisation. Certain factors such as the new energy sources such as coal and gas, new materials like iron to steel along with a big impact on textile fabrics. As a society that was suffering greatly with unemployment and poverty, this impact left many looking for these modern jobs with outside the country and made their ways into the cities for these jobs. People took up jobs in manufacturing or textiles productions with a positive of these help many people develop these skills however, many artists or designers were not as pleased with this new way of life as they saw it as a poisoning of what was once great as a lot especially developed a relationship with nature. Due to this many artist moved to the countryside to enjoy what they felt was the ideal of life.
Japonism
While art and design was on the decline with the manufacturing jobs taking priority, what was interesting was the shift in art preference at this time. Art became focused on the woodblock prints by many Japanese artists. These prints really juxtaposed the previous trend for art in Europe as it was based more on the Renaissance and idyllic type of art compared to that of very bright, two dimensional prints that Japanese artists created. With the growing spreads of Japanese prints, European artists such as Claude Monet and Da Vinci that took major inspiration from Japanese art and these created a bigger need for this type of art style. This art style became know as Japonism and did continue to dominate the 18th to early 19th century until its decline in the later of the 19th century.
Arts and craft movement
With artists, this change of the century helped urge the creation of the Art and Craft Movement that was in protest of this industrial impact. This movement preached the ideals of medieval methods and urged many to go back to hand work instead of machinery work. Japonsim also played a part within thus movement as Japanese prints and engravings, that was used as wrapping paper, gave many of these artists inspiration. A leader that help kickstart they movement was William Morris as he was a founder to a firm that created handmade art and work. Though his work was handmade, his methods were not as medieval compared to other artists; Morris still wanted to put focus to the generation of his time but be inspired by transition pieces such as Celtic or Viking patterns. These styles would later become forms of the Art Nouveau movement.
