Contemporary Design and Mass Culture, A

The 60's and 70's were a time of great innovation all around the world.  New materials, new products, new processes, and new ways of advertising were all introduced during this time period.  While many are impressed with the discovery of new ways of making things with new materials they often overlook a very important aspect: Advertising.  Without a way of advertising for their products companies would find it harder to get their product on the market and sell it with great success.  While televisions and radios were being invented around this time actual paper advertisement remained extremely important.  As a result graphic design became very prevalent.  Artists were commissioned to create logos for large companies.  Creating these logos entailed creating a graphic as well as a unified text style to be associated with a particular brand.  For example, Paul Rand was hired to design the logos for IBM, the Westinghouse Corporation, and ABC (Raizman, p. 328).  When developing logos and advertisements it was important for the designer to be sure that it pertained to the audience he or she was trying to reach for instance in terms of age and nationality.  It was also important for graphic designers to create universal symbols so that someone of a different nationality could still understand what was trying to be said.  For example, symbols for men's and women's restrooms, telephones, airports, trains, smoking or non-smoking, etc.  (Raizman, p. 330).  Graphics can also be used for the power of suggestion.  Artists may use a particular font, texture, or graphic in order to imply a certain feeling that he or she may want the viewer to acquire when viewing the ad.  As you can see graphic design has more of an impact than one might consider.  In what ways will you incorporate graphic design into your career as an interior designer.  Do you think it will have an effect on your success as a designer and your ability to acquire clients?  Why or why not?

Design and Mass Appeal/New Materials A

While the first post-war decade of the 1950’s initially brought about a much greater focus on mass media and consumption of goods, the 1960’s expanded on the use of new technologies and materials to create false obsolescence of goods. However, instead of merely focusing on better economic value and functionality to categorize a product as “new,” manufacturers and designers began to focus more on esthetics, combining art and functionality. The wealth of new materials and processes developed in the 1960’s and later began to obscure “the distinction between design and fashion, between needs and wants.” (Raizman, pg 318) This meant that functional design went hand-in-hand with current trends of the time and, as a result, wants became necessities. A few of the main materials used during this time were plastics and metals. Various new processes were used to make strides in areas such as furniture design, product housing, and sports equipment. Changes in furniture design were made possible by the process of injection-molding stronger plastic polymers, molding lighter weight aluminum, and using foam as a construction material instead of merely filler for upholstery. Seating design came to resemble many tendencies in the fine arts, such as abstraction and precision. A few great examples of this include Joe Columbo’s injection-mold plastic side chair and Pierre Paulin’s foam “ribbon chair.” Next, new materials and processes were used to make product housing much more compact, often allowing for more portable products. Called miniaturization, a few examples of this include a portable typewriter developed by Ettore Sottsass and Perry King, a portable television developed by Sony, and the Walkman portable cassette player, also developed by Sony. Finally, the use of metals instead of wood in sports equipment lead to many performance-enhancing changes to more simple designs. The professionals who advertised them endorsed the idea that the newer, lighter, more contoured designs were better for the athletes that used them. One primary example of this was how tennis rackets began to be made from aluminum. All of these new products and processes were supported by the development of brand recognition through graphic design of easily recognizable symbols. These symbols developed corporate identity systems based on the characteristics of those most likely to buy the products, which helped to advertise the products and make them more well known.


Do you think that these advancements demonstrate positive or negative changes to production of goods? How have these products and processes paved the way for products we see in stores today? How has the use of these new materials affected the economy and the styles of today? Are they supportive of the "green design" emphasized in today's society?

Design & Mass Appeal/New Materials B

In the 1950’s the expansion of both the middle and industrial class brought mass media into focus. Mass media, mass culture and mass market are all inter-related. The traditional standards of “Good Design” were influence by false obsolescence. Obsolescence is used to convince consumers that they need the next “new” thing. A critic, Reyner Banham aptly described this phenomenon as a “throwaway culture” (Raizman, pg. 295)
Many industries used obsolescence to market their products. During the 50’s the biggest example of this is the automotive industry. General Motors president Alfred Sloan used annual stylizing changes to “create a vehicle “for every purse”, defining a series of gradations from efficiency to luxury in terms of visible difference…”. (Raizman, pg. 296) The number of car makers began to decrease because of the competition to promote their annual changes. Brand identification was also very important.
Advertising for cars came in many forms. Hollywood helped to show the freedom and individual expression in movies like American Graffiti. Ads in magazines and newspapers showed attractive couples either coming in from a night out or at some fabulous restaurant. These ads helped to equate luxury with cars.
Obsolescence can also be found in the model home market. Instead of different models every year, it was used to show individuality. “And like car makers, they used styling to give buyers an illusion of choice”; this pretty much sums up the model housing in the 1950’s. (Votolato, pg. 227) Consumers were offered choices to make the model homes not so cookie-cutter. Practical considerations also drew consumers. Kitchens with picture windows, attached garages and appliances tried to tip the scale of conformity.
The 1950’s was about convenience. Time saving appliances, model homes, cheap products were all the rage. How has this affected today’s culture? Do you think design in this period had a large impact on design today? Give some examples of obsolescence today. Do you think false obsolescence is a good marketing tool?

Design and Mass Appeal/New Materials, C

At the end of WWII, the United States, Europe and Japan, the countries most affected by the outcomes of the conflict, experienced a phenomenal growth in all fields, starting mainly from economical.
Thanks to the long period of peace and political stability, the United States was particularly able to accumulate a large amount of money and rebuild its economical and political powers.
It is during this time that the development of new materials, such as Bakelite, Lucite, Vynilite, Rayon and Nylon, new techniques and the electrification of the assembly line brought new possibilities in all fields of design and architecture. Also, the time of peace allowed people to enjoy their leisure time and really look forward to achieve their desires. New luxurious beach resorts came to play an important role in Americans new vacation times because they offered services that were not available in the domestic sphere and because they opened a new market for travelling.
From the 1950s, we rapidly saw the development of a mass culture that appreciated money, beauty and luxury.
Thanks to magazines and catalogues, people were now able to choose from a wide variety of products, from houses to home appliances, cars and fashion products, sport goods and toys.
William Levitt, considered the Henry Ford of housing, introduced the mass production of houses. As people moved away from the city into the suburbia, they wanted new, cheap houses, and Levitt gave them what they needed. Thanks to the use of inexpensive materials, like concrete, wood studs, dry walls, etc., and the fast methods of construction, these prefabricated houses could be put up in a very short time and efficient manner at a very low cost, starting from $ 7900 (Raizman, page 305). Even though it created conformity and peripheral areas look almost entirely the same, everyone could customize their house the way the wanted to. Also, with the availability of new products (television, radio, home appliances, kitchens, chairs, home décor, etc.), people started to fill these places with as much stuff as possible, and, likewise the Victorian Era, they could show off their status by displaying all that they had. On top of that, if they could afford one of the new models of automobiles, they could park this one in their new garage, attached to the house – one of the new features of the prefabricated residence.
Because of the abundance of products and the possibility of customization, the new concept of obsolescence came to be of great importance in post war society. As new objects were produced and advertised, old ones became out of fashion. Everything, from fashion to interior design products, home appliances and sports goods, was affected by seasonal changes, even if minimal. The late 19th century society became known as a throwaway society deeply affected by advertising and vogue.

After the war, Europe started to rebuild what was left, trying to keep a balance between their historical past and the modernist influence coming from the United States and Japan. Because money was a problem and there was not much of it left after the war, obsolescence and mass culture less affected Europe, and did not allow the mass production of goods and especially houses. In fact, if you get a chance to travel to Europe, you will see that conformity and standardization are not as common as they are in the United States. Why do you think the United States opted for standardization instead of diversity? Even in clothing today, such as Abercrombie or Hollister, seasonal changes are very minimal. In the design of houses, we still see prefabricated houses and residences that look very similar. Do you believe that conformity is an advantage or disadvantage to American traditions and culture? How do you think the United States is seen from the outside because of this globalization within its own borders?

International Modernism C

Following the time after Word War II, nations around the world, like the United States and Germany, sought to create their own identity and style. In order to reach this goal countries would study their own material cultures using “designed artefacts and images as a means of expressing themselves and of attempting to persuade others of what they believed to be, or wanted to be” (Sparke, 95). From their material cultures, nations set goals for their economy, like better trade with neighboring nations (Sparke, 97). Overall, a since of nationality and unity was needed across the world.
When creating these national identities there were two major design ideas that countries would adopt into their design style. The first was a national style based off of the Craft time period, a movement focused on natural materials and manual labor. The second idea found in this time period was the idea that the world was moving into an industrial way of life. This idea was considered to be a “leap of faith” in the design world (Sparke, 95).
During this time of national growth and identification, a strong sense of competition was also present. This competition was best shown within the numerous exhibitions of the time. One of the first exhibitions included the exhibition in Hyde Park, London. The great sense of competition is also shown through the amount of countries participating in these exhibitions, like France, Germany and the United States (Sparke, 97)
Furthermore, there was a very large interest in the popular exhibitions of the time period. For example, Paul Greenhalgh, author of Ephemeral Vistas: The Expositions Universelles, Great Exhibitions and World’s Fairs, studied the various exhibitions and found a series of common themes in each (Sparke, 97). Some of these themes included “new technologies, raw materials and manufactured goods” (Sparke, 97).
Overall, each exhibition provided an opportunity to show off one’s national strength. Also, national achievements and products were displayed openly and proudly.

How is this different from our present day world?
Is our economic and national strength put out there for others to see, like in the various exhibitions of the time period?
Today, are different countries so eager to share their materials and products?
Furthermore, do you think nations today have met their goals in establishing their own national identities and design styles?

International Modernism

International Modernism was a major design style lasting from around 1945 to the 1960’s brought about by the “shortages” and “rationing” after World War II (Raizman, 244). However due to new exhibitions as well as the example of the United States, economic recovery, optimism, and consumer confidence were once again motivated (Raizman, 244). In the United States, architects maintained “eclectic historicism based on the concepts of the Paris Ecole des Beaux Arts,” (Pile, 373). Many new “modern design initiatives” began to appear after the war, which used new “materials and technologies to domesticate consumption and efficiency” (Raizman, 244). Modern Industrial materials, such as plastic, Poly-T, fiberglass, aluminum, steel wires, and concrete were utilized for individuality and comfort in a way they had never been used before. Technologies used in the war efforts began to surface for domesticate uses, like Ploy-T or pliable plastic manufactured in 1942 used in the new production of “Tupperware,” a household item which continues to be used today. Because there were products on the market which were more specialized to specific needs, companies began to market themselves to “differentiate the company’s product…from their competitors” (Raizman, 245) often favoring the use of photography (Raizman, 251). During Industrial Modernism, industrial technology was thought of as “the agent of improved efficiency” and allowed for a sense of “individual fulfillment” (Raizman, 247). Charles Eames took his knowledge from working in the US Navy and experimented with new technologies creating low cost furniture in more “organic sculptural” forms, for example the “lounge chair“ designed in 1956 (Raizman, 247).
International designers sought to design products in a way which would express individuality and new public appreciation for original designs and the production of new technologies allowed for sculptural flexibility. In the United States, designers like Frank Lloyd Wright, which was influenced by Japanese geometry (Pile, 373). International Modernists designers, like Paul Rand and Gene Federico, used the element of surprise and contrast in their works to communicate “bold innovation” (Raizman, 252). Designers like Alvin Lustig believed they must remain “free” in order to “experiment, play, change, and alter forms” (Raizman, 253-254). Magazines began to have more striking compositions which would experiment with typography using a broad array of techniques (Raizman, 254-256). Will Burtain, a German graphic designer, began to “cover a wide range of activities,” in which he would often juxtapose images freely (Raizman, 257). International Modernism took many varying directions, while having a large impact on the public, and designs of today.

How has International Modernism influenced design of all fields today? How has International Modernism changed from and developed over the past 60 years? Do you think that new materials (like the development of Tupperware) had positive or negative effect on society? How do you believe International Modernism has shaped todays society?

International Modernism (B)

Following WWII every country in its own way focused on marrying economy and efficiency, joining good design with practicality, or as Raizman summarized it, they all ‘dealt with the humanization of science’ 267. Along the way each of them explored the relationships between inspiration from the organic and experimentation with new technologies. In Scandinavia the lava-lamp curves of Anne Jacobsen’s Egg chair and the straight-from-nature radial forms of Poul Henningson’s lamps are an expression of the organic, while Gertrude Vasegaard’s porcelain tea service explored the more utilitarian side of new materials.
In England the war meant a severe depletion of resources, so their designs erred more on the side of the industrial- as is seen in George Carwardine’s Anglepoise lamp. But there was still room for whimsical creativity in the textile design of Marianne Mahler’s Bird and Bowl pattern.
Italy was highly concerned with establishing a name for itself- being such a little country competing in a global export market. They took a route harkening back to the director/artist system of the royal manufactories by employing a consultant designer to create a unified design approach. From there they could mass produce to their heart’s content. The curvaceous Lady armchair by Marco Zanuso references natural forms, simultaneously experimenting with the new materials of foam rubber while Italian light design (much like the simplistic English lighting) took the minimalist/industrial form of Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni’s Tubino desk lamp.
Germany pioneered the automobile field, using streamlined curves for its bodywork in the BMW while still maintaining straightforward rectilinear lines for much of its design such as Max Bill’s granite statues.
Japan had to work a little harder than everyone else to get back in the world’s favor, ‘With government support a number of Japanese manufacturers began a conscious pragmatic effort to enter the export market for the more sophisticated products of good design. (Raizman 286)’ They did so with the nature-derived curves of Sori Yanagi’s butterfly stool but more popularly with the orthogonal boxes of Nikon cameras and Sony radios.
Has America developed any tendencies in our own wartime world, whether they be in design or in lifestyle? Where do you see tension between organic design (not sustainable design, but specifically nature-inspired design) and industrial design in our contemporary world? List examples of products from the same time period that express themselves in these two different ways.

Industrial Design and Art Deco

It was primarily during the interwar period of history that the position of “industrial designer” saw great development and in turn, industry saw great development from this wide-spreading position. The industrial designer was first solely concerned with creating products that were efficient and functional. The industrial designer wished to create a product that could quickly and easily be created with the machine, was affordable to the general public, and served all of the user’s basic needs. Thus, they created products that were simple, cheap, and functional. Henry Ford and his production of the Model T automobile is a great example of this take on industrial design. Ford produced over 15 million Model T’s over a ten year period with the same “black lacquer finish and carriage-based body form” (Raizman 210). Due to the invention of the assembly line within the Ford Motor Company factory, Model T’s could be produced easily, quickly, and because there was a lack of competition to such speed in the manufacturing process, cheaply. However, Ford was not seeking to create unique automobiles that appealed to his individual customers, instead he was simply creating a single product for mass-production. Thus, his costumers were at a loss for individualized products as were all consumers during this period of industrial design. Consumers could easily obtain functional, inexpensive products, but they were not unique in any way.

It was during this time that industrial designers moved away from the blandness of mass-producing function and function only and began “styling” products to increase consumer appeal, while still retaining a design that was highly functional and efficient. Increasing consumer appeal was very important at this time due to the severe economic downfall of the Great Depression. Styled products were those that had a modern design approach and were “streamlined.” Many products had a unified body which housed all necessary components in one unit and was without interruptions from “ugly seams,” and had rounded edges that helped to achieve the streamlined design approach (Sparke, 99). Raymond Loewy’s Coca-Cola Fountain Dispenser was a styled design that had both a unified body and an attractive streamlined design through the implementation of curves on the product’s edges. Loewy, like many industrial designers, was successful in creating a branded product for the Coca-Cola Company and elevated the company’s sale’s success and familiarity among consumers through his design. Thus, industrial designers had now become branding agents for varying companies and were just as in tune with creating functional products as they were with creating appealing products consistent with the particular company’s theme.

Consider a specific company from today and determine whether or not an industrial designer had created a specific brand through their designs that speaks for the company altogether. This was the effect of the first industrial designers, is it still a relevant concept for today’s industrial designers?

Art Deco and Industrial Design B

The message portrayed in the 1939 New York World’s Fair was one of efficiency, improvement and an overall optimism for the future quality of life. The vision of the Exposition was “Building the World of Tomorrow,” and featured developments in transportation and comfort of living. In the Futurama exhibit, “traffic flow in the modern metropolis was managed by multi lane highways and banked exit ramps, as well as by a radio-controlled system that monitored speed and distance between vehicles”(Raizman 221). This exhibit stressed the importance of highways as well as helped stimulate the purchase of new cars. In addition to improvements in transportation, the fair took advantage of the efficiency and logic of modern technology to “erase differences contradictions, conflicts and irritants” (Raizman 222). Overall, the products of the exhibition provided the economy with “tangible ‘proof’ of improvement and sufficient cause for optimism” – a key aspect in recovering from the Great Depression. The exhibition allowed people to see that the economy was running again, and things were in fact returning to normal.
Today, the economy is in rough shape once again. Jobs are being lost, companies are becoming bankrupt, and the average American is scared of spending whatever money they might have. We live in fear of the return of the Great Depression. The recent radical drop in the economy causes industry leaders to critique the current performance of our products. These revisions will yet again lead to improvements in daily life and means of survival. Parallel to the improvements in transportation of the late 1930’s, motor companies are developing new means of transportation and fuel use. We are researching more cost-efficient and eco-friendly ways of transportation, to ignite the new era of industrial technology. Just as the exposition of 1939 revolved around making life more enjoyable and leisurely than years past, researchers are finding new ways of giving back to society.
It is obvious that our current economic standing reflects the situation of the 1930’s. Can the arrival of 2009 jump start the reformation of the economy the way the World’s Fair of 1939 did? Or will we have to go through much worse conditions before serious restructuring can occur? What will it take for our society to pull together in a patriotic movement to dig ourselves out of this rut and return to the prosperous nation we have always been?

Art Deco and Industrial Design A

After the war, the United States’ history of modern design could not be discussed without mentioning the importance of advertising. That time after the war was considered a “culture of consumption.” (Raizman 223) Everyone was excited about the new technological advances and how the mass production of products was helping their economy; but word of the mouth wasn’t enough. There’s where the world of advertisements came into play. Tools that were used to help “spread the word” were things such as photography, layout and typography on things such as posters to visually communicate their products efficiently and effectively. These advertisements were to build and strengthen the companies and their key products. The advertisements themselves were depicted in terms of the product being used in a more upscale setting, like a nice Model T car being driven to go watch a polo match or a golf tournament. They were to show the products being used in everyday leisurely activities and how they could be used while living the “good life.” Such advertisements could be seen in mass-circulated magazines such as The Ladies Home Journal.

Advertisers believed that the purpose of such advertisements was to sell the company’s products and that reference to the individual artists or to the works of art focused attention upon the ad as an “object” rather than as a promotion product (Raizman 225). Here, we saw a switch from photography used as a form of advertisement device to a form of journalism; capturing the use of the product as everyday people used it on a regular basis. Art directors turned to photographic reproduction for it “objective” truth and its visual impact.

Did all these new advertisement ploys seem to create a new visual culture in the US? If so, can this still be seen in today’s society? Do you think that the advertisers originally used the portrayal of the “good life” to show how they wanted their products to be used? Do you think that advertisements today tend to show products used in a more everyday sense or used in a more upscale, exclusive manner?