What’s on the Arts & Crafts poster
A definition and 6 facts worth remembering.
A British movement from about 1860 to 1910, led by William Morris after Ruskin, arguing that machine production degraded both the object made and the person making it.
- Against: shoddy mass production and its labour.
- Truth to materials, visible construction, craft skill.
- Morris and Co. 1861; Kelmscott Press 1891.
- Ruskin's The Nature of Gothic was the founding text.
- Handwork made the goods expensive and elite.
- Fed into Art Nouveau, and then into the Bauhaus.
- Period — about 1860 to 1910
- Central figure — William Morris
- Morris: have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to…
The contradiction was never resolved. Goods made without machines could only be bought by the class Morris argued against.
Questions about the Arts & Crafts poster
- What’s on the Arts & Crafts poster?
- A definition and 6 facts worth remembering. A British movement from about 1860 to 1910, led by William Morris after Ruskin, arguing that machine production degraded both the object made and the person making it. Against: shoddy mass production and its labour.; Truth to materials, visible construction, craft skill.; Morris and Co. 1861; Kelmscott Press 1891.; Ruskin's The Nature of Gothic was the founding text.; Handwork made the goods expensive and elite.; Fed into Art Nouveau, and then into the Bauhaus.; Period — about 1860 to 1910; Central figure — William Morris; Morris: have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to…. The contradiction was never resolved. Goods made without machines could only be bought by the class Morris argued against.
- Who is the Arts & Crafts poster for?
- Arts & Crafts belongs to the Art & Design section rather than to a school year, because design is not something one grade owns. Anyone learning art history can pin it up — a beginner, a student mid-course, or someone revising years later.
- When should you use the Arts & Crafts poster?
- Use it to find where design as an ethical practice actually begins. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so Arts & Crafts belongs on the wall where that design work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with Arts & Crafts?
- Abstract Expressionism, Bauhaus and Constructivism sit alongside Arts & Crafts in the Art & Design section. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.Abstract ExpressionismBauhausConstructivism
- Is the Arts & Crafts poster free to download and print?
- Yes. Arts & Crafts downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the Art & Design section. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the Arts & Crafts poster print at?
- Arts & Crafts is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of Arts & Crafts loses nothing.Printing guide
Related posters
Charts that sit alongside Arts & Crafts on the same wall.
Browse every Art & Design poster, or start from the full catalogue.