Branding

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Consumption

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Abstract:

We live in a world where business and the consumer are constantly changing. It is a constant struggle for business to establish a market niche and develop a product, which fits that niche. They must then develop a strategy with the use of technology and advertising to support their product.

The American consumer now bases their purchases more on instant gratification rather than basic needs. As a result, advertising and product promotion have a primary function to increase sales and profits. Products are no longer produced with the interest of society as a whole in mind. The live for today and don’t worry about tomorrow philosophy has created a moral dilemma for the American consumerism and its effects on society.

Materials: Plastics

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Abstract:

The origin of plastics began as a technological breakthrough in synthetic materials. In the United States, in particular, plastics have experienced a meteoric rise to become a dominant material in the culture. Plastics are everywhere, from household products to technological devices to building materials to clothes. Plastics have been a major contributor to material culture in the United States. It is the driving force behind disposability. New applications for plastics continue to emerge, and as ubiquitous as these materials are in our culture, they are becoming even more pervasive. In this dawning age of environmental responsibility, new revolutions in plastics must occur. Innovations in eco-friendly manufacturing, sustainability, and processes and applications for recycled plastics are on the horizon. One important part of this revolution, however, is a societal shift in attitudes toward disposable goods. In short, we need to quit sending plastics to the landfill.

Materials: Glass

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Abstract:

Glass: Window to the Future

Building materials have been around since the settlement of humans. They have helped humanity move from a nomadic existence to a sophisticated society. One of the key materials that had a large influence on building design through the ages is glass. Although glass is an old material, it has undergone many technological advances and will continue to be enhanced in the future. Glass has brought us to where we are today and it will continue to move us forward with new and interesting materials that are already being developed.

Culture: A look at technology and how it affected culture in the 1950's

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World Exhibitions

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Abstract:

World Exhibitions will always hold a place in societies around the globe because the benefits they provide are timeless. The concept of exhibitions has developed throughout the years from French and British predecessors into the events we recognize today. Clear evidence supports the theory that world exhibitions bring countries together, specifically through the common appreciation of design development, help nations build or strengthen their national identity, present social and economic gain to host countries, and aid future advancements in design through technology, including materials, products, techniques, and travel methods.
It can be argued World Exposition attendance is a thing of the past, because technology has advanced so far that we could much more easily watch an online broadcast of an exhibition than be physically present. However, numerous sources pointing to the past success of exhibitions makes it difficult to believe they will ever be out of date.

Post Modernity and the Current State of Design

The 1960s signaled the recognition of several co-existing cultural expressions in art and design, a situation sometimes referred to as Pluralism, in which no single approach to modernity dominated, and the value of all commodities overshadowed former distinctions between good, mass, and popular design (Raizman, p.354). Thomas Crowe summarized this situation by saying, “The avant-garde is the research and development branch of the culture industry.”

Architecture

Dissatisfaction with modernism affected architecture and city planning before it reached design. In her book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs stated her views against “monolithic uniformity of the modernist vision” saying that cities should instead be a sort of patchwork of new, old and renovated buildings that relate to the human-scale of the street level. Five years later (1967) architect Robert Venturi also declared a preference for “messy vitality” over “obvious unity” in a manifesto entitled Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. He flipped the script of Mies van der Rohe’s “less is more” by saying “less is a bore.” Denise Scott Brown’s Learner from Las Vegas launched the postmodern movement saying the building façade should be a medium of communication, and forms of pure information. Ralph Caplan, a critic and contributor to I.D., claimed that boredom from the modernist movement resulted in an inclination towards flashy, colorful, ephemeral products. He stated, “after so many years of clean, stark, unlittered design, product designers, like architects, are saying, ‘Why the hell shouldn’t there be some fun in it?’” Form follows function was translating into form follows emotion, during post modernity.

Design

For design, postmodernism includes projects and forms that mark the end to the ongoing argument between esthetically-directed or socially-directed design and commercially motivated design, which appeared as a strain of modernism that dominated design theory for much of the two decades following WWII. “Theoretically, postmodernism shares with mass culture a user-oriented approach to design that emphasizes multiple interpretations and meaning and often embraces the ephemeral rather than the permanent characteristics of the design enterprise, exemplified by… performance art and the inclusiveness of popular art forms,” (Raizman, p. 354). Postmodernism also is often discussed in conjunction with post-industrialism and late capitalism, where consumption is the subtext. It is marked by the readiness of businesses to design, manufacture and market new products with ever-increasing speed. Postmodern products were designed on a higher level of sophistication due to an accelerated interactivity between design, manufacturing and marketing through the use of digital technology.

Postmodernism, or Pluralism, was the overall theme for the Design Now: Industry or Art exhibition in the German Architecture Museum in Frankfurt in 1989. The Formic Corporation requested members of the Memphis design group to design furniture using their new ColorCore product, which could be molded and cut, yielding products like Stanley Tigerman’s Tete a Tete chairs of 1983. Another chair produced using Pluralism design values was Robert Venturi’s Chippendale chair of 1984, which mocked important tenets of modern industrial design, which flaunted its decorating through the use of colorful painting, rather than eliminating ornament or expressing it as subservient. French architect/designer Philippe Starck emerged in the mid-1980s with original furniture designs for sophisticated clients, working with Art Deco and using assembled industrial materials, simple geometric shapes and collapsibility for storage. American architect/designer Michael Graves designed a moderne-inspired tea and coffee service set with polished surfaces and non-functional blue knobs. He was also hired by Target to design a series of household products, for which he used an egg shape for inspiration, saying it was ergonomically friendly design.

Technology & Design

Digital technology has had a major impact upon the practice of graphic design. The interface of the computer experienced major developments and change during the 1980s, thanks largely to Mac computers. The experience of the user shifted from turning pages to clicking links, showing windows filled with information that was seen, read, and heard—often all at the same time. Programming changed from type and images in electronic code to creating and controlling those object with an interactive mouse that moved across a virtual desktop. Contemporary design is often referred to as “soft” design: the use and manipulation of virtual (rather than real) materials and forms through computer imaging, which allows one to work more dynamically and experimentally in a more interactive and collaborative process.
“In a sense, it seemed that the history of design in the US had come full circle. Although most people could not fathom the complexity of the software that enabled them to design their own websites, or that in the future might be enable them to participate in the designing of their own clothes, furnishings, appliances, or automobiles, the transparency of that software’s interfaces gave them a feeling of being closer to the source of things, closer to the basic level of the artisan or craftsperson, than at any time since the advent of the Industrial Revolution.” (Meikle, p. 210).
Do you think computer interface and software has helped you in your own design process? Do you think you would reach the same conclusions in your designs without the use of computers and computer programs? Is there a negative side to using computers as part of the creative design process?


Reform & Social Responsibility

Not unlike so many other contemporary products, phones have become a lifestyle accessory, which is tailored to our age group and aims to help us become the image we would like to be perceived as. Should shopping for a phone result in so many options? Are we really being presented with several quality options, or has the quality and durability of components and materials been degraded and combined with variety to make the phone market another case of planned obsolescence? Has our culture become a “throw away” culture? Or are we now moving away from this direction, heading towards a “green” movement? Perhaps we are only faking this so-called “green” movement as yet another marketing ploy to see more products when none are actually needed by the consumer?

Conclusion
(But not really because we’re living in Postmodernity/the current state of design!)

“Somewhere between universal standards based upon taste, safety, human factors, or environmental impact, and a democratic embrace of the seemingly insatiable desire for individual fulfillment through commodity consumption, there may lie a middle-ground that sustains hope for the future of design, a balance between the permanent and the ephemeral, between nature and the consumer-dominated culture that has emerged during the past 200 years,” (Raizman, p. 363).

The Cultural Impact of Television

The New York World’s Fair in 1939 held some of the earliest exhibits for television, which was greatly influenced by the culture through the technology of radios.  The market opened with DuMont and RCA’s first black and white televisions to the public market.

During the war, although suburbs did struggle, the television helped to raise the market after the war.  The television, just like the image of the housewife began to take on the tool of what was necessary to keep up in social status of the home.  With the new development of the television within the home came the question of ‘Where does the television go within the house’.  (Spidel 1)

 In the past, the family sat around a fireplace, but now the television was taking over the living room.  Even pianos were becoming a thing of the past.  With this came the new terminology of ‘the family room’.  The irony, was this really a family room if the television was the center focal point of interest? 

The television created a world of dreams.  The past was called upon again after the war when women were expected to return home to complete housework while the men went looking for jobs.  The television definitely supported this imagery.  The woman was perceived as a housewife, the male as the worker for the family, and the children as a definite asset to the “American Dream”.  The television shows certainly portrayed the perfect life, but was life really perfect or did the television merely created a fairy-tale lifestyle? (Spidel 2)

 Similar to past generations where the upper classes would buy radios to blend in with their residential designs, the American consumers were beginning to buy television stands to hide the product.  The poor had their televisions on display, while the rich took it upon themselves to make to television seem as though it was secondary to their expansive lifestyles.

 The television certainly called upon a “glued-to-your-seat” idea for children and families.  Families lost “family time” and children lost educational benefits.  Television became the drug of the 1950’s and later generations. (Spidel 3)

 Today, we use the television as a means of our central entertainment on a daily basis with no second-guessing ourselves.  An online study states, “on average a child watches a solid days worth of television over one week” (“Kids”).  Do you think the television has taken away from family life and more important things back in the 1950’s and has exceeded the limit?  Do you think parents should still set time limits for their children? Do you think we move away from the more important things in life to watch our favorite shows?  How has the media used this exhibition and invention to their advantage both in the 1950’s and today?  How has television influenced children and their decisions?

 

 

Johnson, Chris. “Kids watching too much TV? Duh!”. 18 Nov. 2009.

Design and Mass Appeal

When World War II ended, it meant manufacturing no longer needed to be focused on creating goods related to the war effort. Instead, production could be targeted to the consumer market. And that market was growing in numbers, diversity, and economic strength. Returning soldiers ready to get on with their lives, households finally recovering from the Great Depression, and burgeoning business opportunity fueled demand. At the same time, the end of the war effort meant manufacturers needed the consumer market as a replacement market for their products.

This flux tended to swamp the “good design” movement, which had sought, among other things, to shape society and educate the public’s taste through exposure to high quality design. Instead a fairly broad eclecticism prevailed.

This eclecticism was further encouraged by the concept of “artificial obsolescence,” which had been championed by advertising pioneer Elmo Calkins early in the 20th century. Calkins viewed every-increasing spending, rather than saving, as the key to prosperity (Gorman 131). His idea to purposely design things so they would become obsolete before their utility was depleted was one way to promote spending.

Raizman notes that broad eclecticism not particularly concerned with design standards: “Standards suggest permanence and durability of products, while obsolescence and novelty imply a perpetual state of ‘becoming,’ of desire, where consumption itself becomes a way of life.” (Raizman 295)

Obsolescence, however, requires frequent change to the product, which entails risk, so manufacturers of the time tended to focus on changing superficial rather than integral parts of their designs, an approach not unlike earlier industrial designers.

A number of financing options for consumer goods, including credit lines and term payments, were also expanded in the postwar era as another way to encourage spending.

Companies used a variety of media, including radio and television, which were rapidly expanding into households, to reach consumers. Advertisements linked products to the achievement of status, beauty, and social acceptance (Raizman 295). This interaction of market and media and the interrelated attitudes of consumers is often referred to as “mass culture.”

The Automobile

The automobile industry made prominent use of the concept of artificial obsolescence, beginning in the early 1950s when the post-war market for new cars in the U.S. was nearly saturated. Ford had applied the concept before the War, but Alfred Sloan, president of General Motors, re-energized it significantly. Sloan’s idea was to differentiate GM’s product line, through visible differences in styling that changed frequently, and offer a variety of models from economical through luxurious to fit most people’s budgets. This differentiation helped to equate car buying with social and personal mobility. The variety of styles and features including massive tailfins, lots of horsepower, and options like convertible tops also provided consumers with a sense of personal expression that enhanced the feeling of freedom that came with automobile ownership (Raizman 296-298). America’s famed love affair with cars is generally traced to this period.




The 1954 GM Cadillac El Dorado

The 1954 Ford Thunderbird, modeled somewhat on Italian sports cars and priced for a broad market, pushed the idea of buying a car for self-indulgence rather than practical reasons (299).

There were critics of the extreme styles. According to Raizman (300), Raymond Loewy thought that the outer forms of Ford, GM, and Chrysler products had wandered too far from streamlined modernism and from the mechanical basis of the cars themselves. His own designs for Studebakers were critically well received but did not sell well enough for the company to survive.

The broader cultural debate that had begun with the Industrial Revolution re-surfaced around questions related to whether mass design is a means to manipulate the buying public under the “banner of freedom of choice and democratization of luxury,” (using artificial obsolescence and the advertising that went with it) or whether mass design and mass culture is an “expression of the desire for individuality for a diverse audience” (Raizman 300).

Resort Hotels

The postwar period also saw another defining contributor to popular design: the resort hotel. These hotels first appeared in Miami and Las Vegas where they were destinations for the expanding base of Americans with interest and means to travel and vacation. Notable among these is Morris Lapidus’s Fountainebleau in Miami, built in 1954 and characterized by sweeping curves, mezzanines, and grand staircases that “seemed to reduce the barrier separating Hollywood from the experience of Americans escaping for a week of vacation at the beach.” (Raizman 301)

Lapidus took much of his inspiration from France, which in the postwar period was again associated with the most cultivated tastes, particularly in fashion. His designs, like high fashion of the time, were rich in sensory excitement.




The Fountainbleau Hotel, Miami

Las Vegas hotels also emphasized sensory stimulation, extensively using neon lights and incorporating gaming and sexual allusions.

The movies, an important component of mass media, glamorized these design developments and exposed them to a broad swath of the American.

Housing

Housing in the postwar period is closely tied to the automobile and to the automobile industry, which lobbied for federal investment in highways. A more extensive highway system not only made motoring easier, it made it possible to locate homes further from the places in the cities where people worked.

Advances in manufactured and pre-fabricated housing also made it easier and cheaper to build further out from cities. Federal investment in low-interest mortgages made it easier for people to buy these houses.

This combination of factors contributed to the growth of suburbia in the United States where land was relatively cheap compared to Europe and where home ownership was more closely associated with stability and social status (Votolato 218).

Most suburban housing of the time was fairly traditional and rather modest (Raizman 306). The most common house type was the Cape Cod, but builders also offered Colonial, Tudor, and Ranch style homes. Houses continued the trend toward informality and emphasized comfort and entertainment. Emphasis was placed on the kitchen as the nerve center of the house (Votolato 222) and as a way to market to women.




A basic Cape Cod style house

New industrial materials like Formica and Naughahyde and materials like aluminum that were redeployed from the war effort reduced the standardization of interior design and decoration (Raizman 307-309).

Processed foods and advances in home appliances were targeted to women, often with the dual promise of better homemaking and more leisure time. These messages tended to reinforce the idea that it was a woman’s place to take care of the home (and increase her consumption of home-related goods).

Suburbanization is also linked to increased economic and racial segregation as people moved from more diverse urban (and also rural) areas to relatively homogeneous housing developments.

Critique of Mass Culture

The debate around mass culture that began to take shape in the 1950s continues, although it has new expressions.

Raizman (301) frames the debate this way: “…popular culture reveals a paradox, for its expressions may be viewed both as a form of resistance to conformity on the one hand and as acceptance of the ephemeral criteria of mass appeal on the other. In either case, however, the status of the commodity and the capitalist system that creates and distributes it remains paramount, for even resistance most often takes the form of consumption rather than threatening social or political action.”

How do you think mass culture has changed since the 1050s? How do people today interact with the market as a means of personal expression? How do people express themselves without interacting with the market or mass culture? What forms of resistance to you see people exercising? What effects do these attitudes and behaviors have on design?


References:

Gorma, Carma. The Industrial Design Reader. New York: Allworth Press, 2003.

Raizman, David. History of Modern Design. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall Inc., 2004.

International Modernism: The U.S. and Europe

International Modernism in the post World War II period was marked by a shift of material culture from production to consumerism. The consumption based culture made extensive use of graphic design and typography to create a strong corporate culture.

Throughout the late nineteenth and early-mid twentieth century, existing and emerging nations (like Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Scandinavian countries and U.S.) tried to create, express and promote their individual national identities through design (Sparke, 95). These identities were meant to demonstrate the status and power of a nation, to its citizens and to the world. Design was used as the “commercial face” of the identities, thus resulting in national style. While each one of these countries had their own unique national expressions, France and U.S. became the main proponents of consumerism.

France developed its national identity through the production and marketing of luxury items specifically targeted towards women. This created a strong consumer culture based on design. This was expressed in the Paris Exposition of 1925 where a retail culture, with shop fronts and department stores’ pavilions displaying fashionable and exotic merchandise, was evident (Sparke,106).

Around the turn of the century, the national identity of U.S. was that of a consumer society, defined by the wants and desires of the marketplace. Mass circulation of magazines, department store, shop windows and advertisements were seen as part of the ‘American way’- a consumer culture (Sparke, 104). In the New York World’s Fair of 1939, U.S. focused upon integrating design into its private corporate image, showcasing its large corporations- General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, AT&T etc. These formed the country’s identity based on industrial design, technology and consumption (Sparke, 108).

As other nations followed consumerism, Germany and Switzerland set up standards for graphic design and typography known as the International Typographic Style which was seen in books, posters, ads and trademarks. It was an exploration of visual components of graphic expression and their use in influencing large masses of people (Raizman, 277). There was a strong need for clarity in word and symbol to break barriers of language. Graphic design began to move away from illustration, photography and color. Ideas were communicated universally and effectively with simple reductive means. Swiss artist Armin Hoffman’s 1958 poster for performances at the State Theatre in Basle shows the use of different lines forming associations to stage, music and dance with a brief phrase “Are you a subscriber?” (Raizman, 279). This is a good example of communicating information through symbols and minimum words. Corporations needed international identification, and global events such as the Olympics called for universal solutions which the Typographic Style could provide.

During this period, many large multinational corporations adopted consistent policies towards design which translated into corporate culture that the employees of a company could identify with, and that provided performance guidelines to the company. The development of corporate culture led to the subordination of the individual to the company. Trademarks such as those for IBM, Knoll Corporation, ABC etc. became an important part of the corporate culture.




Is there an emerging predominant national design style/philosophy in U.S. at this time? What is it focused on? Is it being used to influence the corporate culture?
Weigh the positive and negative effects of having a corporate culture.

Does graphic design, specifically in signage, today have influences from the International Typographic Style? Do you notice any relationship between the two?

Art, Design and Industry (Art Deco): The beginning

The beginning of the Art Deco period was motivated by the admiration for the beauty of new geometric forms and technology possibilities. technology was beginning to accelerate to great extents in which large quantities could be produced in less time. The pace in which goods were produced stimulated the quality of life for the wealthy and the middle class because they could afford these new luxuries. Because of the boost in technology and new advancements, this period is also known as the "machine age."
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, was significant because it stimulated public interest in newer designs by the artwork that was displayed. Museums promoted modern styles emphasizing the integration of art into the lives of the middle class and for the ability of the decorative arts to raise the level of public tastes (Raizman, 206). Vogue and Vanity Fair were popular magazines that used illustrations to cultivate the image of modern life associated with fashion, sport, travel, etc. This method is still very successful today. Geometric shapes were very popular such like the designs of Raymond Hood and Ruth Reeves. These designs were very similar to Frank L. Wrights horizontal and geometric features in his architecture. Hood created furniture and interiors that emphasizes industrial materials and angular geometric decoration (Raizman, 208). Reeves's "electric design" uses zigzag overlapping shapes to convey the speed and man-made power of electric energy (Raizman, 208). Another very geometric design was the Skyscraper bookcase designed by Paul Frankl. We fimiliar with Skyscraper as being a tall building but it can also be used to refer to furniture of the Art Deco era, it has a strong sense of verticality with rectangular shelving sections.
Like most design periods, interiors during the 20th century were based off of past centuries. The wealthy homes inhabited large, heavy brick or stone with comfortable frame houses while the interiors echoed ideas from the Aesthetic Movement with wide rooms, soft hangings and old mahogany (Meikle, 89). Most families of good wealth had a bungalow and living areas were scattered with decorative flower motifs and elaborate designs on fabric resembling the Victorian era (Meikle, 89). The poor lived in rickety little houses with old pieces of furniture, solid heavy quilts and very few furniture if any (Meikle, 89). Luckily, the machine age required art to be simplified so that people from any class could enjoy the products and it would be cheap enough for the most people to afford it.
Henry Ford is an important figure in this period who is widely known for his productions of the automobile, specifically the Mobile T which is a type of car he invented. The automobile transformed the way people live, work, and how to identify themselves whether they have a car because they need it or to show off their economical status.

What are museums used for today? Do you think an art museum today still stimulates new ideas and designs for the future? Money is always a huge influence on where you live and what items you can afford to have, how does money affect us today and influence the way we live? does everyone have equal opportunities to own goods or do you think there is a large gap between wealthy and poor?

Art Deco & Industrial Design: The Industrial Designer

The profession known as industrial design emerged during the Great Depression of the 1930s (Meikle p.105). Many of the early industrial designers started out in the advertising business and dealt a lot with stage and set designs for theaters. An industrial designer is neither just an artist, nor simply an engineer, nor a market researcher but rather a combination of all three (Sparke p. 94). What did these industrial designers do? As Fortune magazine of 1934 explained: “Now it was the turn of the washing machines, furnaces, switchboards, and locomotives. Who was to design them?” (Spark p. 96) And the answer to that question is the industrial designer. The industrial designer was now in charge of coming up with all different kinds of machines for the new modern era. The problem with this was that the designers struggled to find a machine aesthetic both intellectually defensible and commercially viable (Meikle p. 113). They wanted to create a style that was an honest expression of the technology of this new modern life. The style they developed was called streamlining. Streamlining was based on the new science of aerodynamics and borrowed from the emerging technology of aviation where it was both functional and organic (Meikle p. 113). Streamlining allowed a vehicle to travel much faster by eliminating the wind resistance.

Some of the industrial designers that were very prominent at the time were Walter Dorwin Teague, Norman Bel Geddes, Raymond Loewy, Henry Dreyfuss and Henry Ford. Henry Ford is one of the first industrial designers. The automobile was the most significant technology of the 20^th century, transforming the way almost all people lived, worked, and identified themselves (Meikle p. 102). Henry Ford’s mass production using the assembly line helped the automobile become so popular. The Model T transformed popular fantasy into universal reality (Meikle p. 102). By 1928, there were more than 20 million automobiles registered, one for every six people (Meikle p. 102). This changed the world forever. Another industrial designer was Walter Dorwin Teague first worked as an advertising agent before he designed industrial products. Many of his designs were informed by a desire for simplicity and unity as well as a belief in the ability to design to improve the quality of life by promoting an awareness of taste and discrimination (Raizman p. 215). One of Teague’s most well known developments are the redesigning of several cameras for Kodak. Norman Bel Geddes was very influential with the streamlining of the automobile. He came up with several prototypes for a streamlined automobile but unfortunately they were never put into production. He did however serve as a consultant to the Chrysler Corporation for the 1934 Airflow, which adapted a more unified approach to the construction of the grill, hood, and windshield (Raizman p. 216). The Airflow contributed to a streamlining fad among the public and convinced GM and Ford to use it throughout their automotive lines (Meikle p. 118). Streamlining also started having an impact on the railroads, such as with the Zephyr. Raymond Loewry first worked in illustration, window dressing, and advertising before he founded his own industrial design firm in 1929 (Gorman p. 155). His office designed trains, Greyhound buses, Coke bottles, International Harvestor farm machines, the Skylab, and many other products for the world’s largest companies over the next 50 years (Gorman p. 155). His desire was to naturally give the pubic the most advanced product that research can develop and technology to produce (Gorman p. 155). He also served as the in-house “art director” for Westinghouse radio cabinets from 1929 to 1931 before becoming an independent consultant and designing car bodies for Hupmobile (Meikle p. 109-110). One of his major contributions was the Coldspot refrigerator. Lowery emphasized its verticality by using long, slender hinges and running three parallel ribs up the middle from bottom to top (Meikle p. 110). Another industrial designer of the time was Henry Dreyfuss. Dreyfuss started out as a set designer working with Geddes. Sears, Roebuck hired Dreyfuss to design a washing machine with the supplier’s engineers (Meikle p. 109). His washing machine was named Toperator and showed a careful blend of functional and psychological considerations. Dreyfuss was very concerned with the functional fit of a product to the person using it. All of these industrial designers became public heroes, filling the pages of popular magazines, which even described what they even had for breakfast (Sparke p. 98). They soon became symbols of the modern age, pointing to the future at a time when economic situation was less than optimistic (Sparke p. 98).

Without the invention of industrial designers where do you think we would be today? Who would have made those products that the industrial designers made? How large of an impact do you think industrial designers has had on the world today?

Technology and Modernism: DE Stijl, Constructivism

De Stijl

De Stijl means the style for Dutch and also, the name of a journal that was published by Dutch painter, designer, writer, and Theo van Doesburg in Holland.

During the World War I, Netherland was remained natural, so Dutch artists were not able to leave the country thus the art was separated from the world.

Dutch designers used Frank Lloyd Wright's design, that was flat roof and overhanging eaves, in their own architecture. Also, they extend the principle in many different parts such as painting, sculpture, typography, furniture, interior ensembles, and architecture.

For Van Doesburg, interior space and architecture were considered as a sort of walk-in painting. Mondrian had similar ideas but more emphasis on harmony and balance. He used asymmetrical formal balance by using only straight horizontal and vertical lines and rectangular forms. He introduced the new conception of art as Neoplasticism or the “New Plastic” which means the general principle of plastic equivalency. In 1920, Mondrian and Van Doesburg designed a new cover for De Stijl. This new cover was provided Neoplastic idea. Mondrian also believed that art and life should be together that means art should not be separated from living.file:///Users/eunyoungan/Desktop/images.jpeg

Especially, for Van Doesburg, color was important. He used color for better understanding abstract arts of work. In his work, the color helps to reinforced integration, unity and balance. Van Doesburg designed the patterns for colored brick tiles in a Duch building and window composed of colored squares for another building.

Probably, Schröder House in Utrecht is the best known architecture for De Stijl project. This house has been built completely according to De Stijl principle. Especially, in the interior space, this building was created a “living” of work of non-objective art.file:///Users/eunyoungan/Desktop/180px-RietveldSchroederhuis.jpg

Constructivism

Constructivism was created in Russia around 1925. It started for Soviet Workers Club. The artist and designer Alexander Rodchenko (1891-1956) designed the reading room and furniture. This Soviet furniture was built in a workshop setting rather than commercially manufactured. These forms were standardized and used for collective values for the Communist society.

Kasimir Malevich (1878-1935) is the most representative artist for abstract non-object style of art. He used the term Suprematism and noted the similarity between the geometric rectangular form and the form of modern technology. Malevich helped the Suprematist through the school (UNOVIS). This school was not only recognition of the non-objective art but also, purpose of propaganda.file:///Users/eunyoungan/Desktop/images-1.jpeg

El Lissitsky (1890-1941) worked with Malevich at UNOVIS, he used the abstract art as a means to a political end. In 1922 El Lissitsky published as international journal of the new art “ object”. This journal had articles and photographs about fine art, decorative art, and industrial products.

Rodchenko was one of the artists who directly addressed collecitve social needs through his work. His works were shown through the organization INKHUK(The Institude of Artistic Culture). The concept of the “artist-constructor” was applied to his design. During the early 1920s, there was a change. The young Constructivists had turned to realism. The Constructivists hope that further developed the contribution of the “artists-constructor” in Russia. RodchenKo’s posters were very influenced in that period.

What do you think about the De stijl and Constructivism? These two movements were related and very influenced to the society. Do you think arts should be affect to the society, or not? What do you think the beauty from the abstract of object like De stijl principles?

Technology and Modernism: Bauhaus

The Nineteenth-Century was a whirlwind era of advancement in technology and the development of industrial design. A demand for individuals who could combine artistic with technological skills (Sparke, 158) arose when British manufacturers desired “appropriately trained” workers. The idea of the craftsman and the artist as separate individuals was not part of the forward thinking concept of modernism. The solution to this issue was conceived in the form of the Staatliche Bauhaus, a new educational program that attempted to establish a relation between the emerging modernism of the fine arts and a broad range of design and craft fields (Pile, 320).

German architect and designer, Walter Gropius, headed the Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany, which began with the combining of the Academy of Fine Art and the School of Applied Arts. Staff members of the Bauhaus included some of the most influential expressionist painters of the time – Lional Feininger, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, and Oscar Schlemmer – who, although sometimes collaborated teachings, specialized in specific areas of study.

The institution’s guild-inspired system allowed for exploration of art and design, but also called for some concentrated learning as well. The Bauhaus’ goal was to bring together all creative effort into one whole, to reunify all the disciplines of practical art – sculpture, painting, handicrafts, and the crafts – as inseparable components of a new architecture (Gorman, 98). This new architecture was idealized in the design and construction of the Bauhaus’ second location in the city of Dessau (the Bauhaus was forced to move in 1925 due to economic and political problems). With Gropius designing the new buildings himself, he developed what was then classified as the ‘International Style’. The term reflects the fact that modernism was not marked by the strong national differences typical of earlier design (Pile, 330). The interior and exterior designs reflected each other, both expressing simplicity and functionality.

Unfortunately, the Bauhaus was force to close in 1933 under the direction of Mies van der Rohe, due to both financial pressures and the hostility toward all avant-garde ideas that marked the rising of the Nazi movement (Pile, 330). Although the school closed, many of its teachers and students took their knowledge and spread it to different areas throughout Europe, and many even traveled to the United States to pursue their idea of modern design and express it as desired.

The concept of the International Style was a huge movement for design and architecture. It signified the passing of specific national differences and the unification of them all. Do you think this movement was disadvantageous in the sense that various places of significant architectural styles lost their prominence? Or was it beneficial because of the integration of one style? Also, was the International Style successful as compared to previously developed styles (i.e. Victorian design, Eclecticism, etc.)? Are the principles behind the International Style something we still see in today’s design field?

(Villa Savoye - International Style Example - Google Images)