The Design Profession. Chapter 15

Transcription

1 The Design Profession Chapter 15

2 The Rise of Design During the 1920s in the United States, people began to refer themselves as designers. They were previously described as involved in the graphic arts, the industrial arts, the craft arts, or in architecture. It was seen as a serving industryable to take any object or product, and make it appealing (and therefore persuade someone to buy it). Appeal has two components: functionality and style. Most successful product designs have bothespecially a distinctive and stylish appearance. Consider the success of the Apple company today, from their original Macintosh Color desktop computers in the 1990s to today s I-Phones.

3 The Arts and Crafts Movement During the first half of the 19 th century, mass production increased in Britain, and the quality and appeal of goods declined. A civil servant, Henry Cole, organized the Great Exhibition of 1851, an industrial production exhibit meant to show the public how bad the state of design was in Britain. This reaction led to the Arts and Crafts movement. William Morris, an artist and poet, was dedicated to the renewal of design through medieval craft traditions, and handmade craft. He thought that the mass-manufacturing process alienated workers from their labor, and he missed the quality of handmade items. Industrial laborers had no stakes in what they made- and therefore no pride in the work.

4 Morris & Co. Morris founded a firm in 1861, Morris & Co., dedicated to undertake any species of decoration, mural or otherwise, from pictures, properly so-called, down to the consideration of the smallest work susceptible of art beauty. They produced stained glass, painted tiles, furniture, embroidery, metalwork, wallpaper, and carpets. Their designs emphasized two principles, simplicity and utility: simplicity of life begetting simplicity of taste Workaday Furniture meant to be simple and appeal to the common man. Like Josiah Wedgewood (ceramics), he also had a second distinct line of products, State Furniture - more costly and elaborate. Top right: The Morris Adjustable Chair, designed by Philip Webb, 1880, ebonized wood covered with Utrecht Velvet. (State Furniture) Bottom Right: an ad for Rush-Seated chairs (Workaday Furniture)

5 Frank Lloyd Wright Fallingwater, built , Pennsylvania This well-known architect was also a furniture designer. He designed furniture for the interiors of his houses. He stated It is quite impossible to consider the building as one thing, its furnishings another, and its setting and environment still another. The Spirit in which these buildings are conceived sees these all together at work as one thing. Wright s motto was form follows function, a principle associated with modernist architecture and industrial design in the 20th century. The principle is that the shape of a building or object should be primarily based upon its intended function or purpose.

6 Art Nouveau Art Nouveau was a decorative arts movement that began in 1900 with a shop operated by Siegfried Bing, called the Galeries de l Art Nouveau. He was impressed with America s arts and crafts, especially the glassmaker Louis Comfort Tiffany. Inspired to start a new design movement, he contracted Tiffany to produce a series of stained-glass windows designed by artists. Electricity had just been invented, and Bing wanted to combine a new technology of lighting with new art. Lamps combined with stainedglass are known as Tiffany lamps, bringing vibrant color into interior spaces. Louis Comfort Tiffany, Tiffany Studios, water-lily table lamp, Leaded Favrile glass and bronze, 26 ½ high.

7 Design Characteristics Art Nouveau is associated with wave-like lines, organic and undulating imagery (like flowing hair, willow trees, vines, and snakes). Ornamental, curving lines and energy were the opposite of the geometric, simple lines of the Arts and Craft Movement. Many people believed Art Nouveau was excessively objective and personal, especially for public artforms like architecture. It became associated with aristocratic wealth, refinement, and emotional abandon. Jan Toorop, Poster for Delftsche Salolie (Salad Oil), 1894, Dutch advertisement poster, 36 ¼ by 24 3/8

8 The Modernist Era As a reaction to Art Nouveau, geometric design became popular again in 1925, following the International Exposition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts. It showcased the style of Art Moderne, which is now known as Art Deco. Art Deco designers preferred up-to-date materials, like chrome, steel, and Bakelite plastic. They wanted to express everyday modern life. The modern design movement was influenced by Cubism, which was the most avant-garde of all modern art movements. Geometric forms opposed the free-flowing lines of Art Nouveau. Avante-Garde: new and unusual or experimental ideas, especially in the arts, or the people introducing them. Paul T. Frankl, Skyscraper bookcase, 1927, Maplewood and Bakelite, 6 ft 7 7/8 by 34 3/8

9 Constructivism Constructivism was an art movement in Russia that aimed to unite art and everyday life through mass production and industry. Nonobjective formal elements were designed with propagandistic meanings- the triangle is red and aggressive, attaching the circle. The action also comes from the left. Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge ("Клином красным бей белых!" Klinom krasnym bey belykh!) is a 1919 lithographic Soviet propaganda poster by artist Lazar Markovich Lissitzky, better known as El Lissitzky. In the poster, the intrusive red wedge symbolizes the Bolsheviks, who are penetrating and defeating their opponents, the White movement, during the Russian Civil War.

10 The Bauhaus The Bauhaus was a school of arts and crafts founded in Weimar, Germany by Walter Gropius in He wanted to create machines to make everyday life easier, and affordable to everyone- likes clothes washing machines and dryers. Gropius wanted to break down the barriers between the fine arts and crafts, and to create a place where all of the different media could work creatively together. The name of the school comes from the German words for building (Bau) and house (Haus).

11 Marcel Breuer, Armchair, Model B3, late 1927 or early Chrome plated tubular steel with canvas slings. This chair appealed to the masses because looked absolutely new, and it came an icon of the machine age. It was inspired by a bicycle, and is still produced today. Herbert Bayer, Cover for Bauhaus 1, 1928, photomontage. This cover for the first issue of Bauhaus magazine shows a few trademarks of the schoolsimple typography (or letters), a mechanically reproduced image, and architecture.

12 Design returned to the organic (vs. geometric) again as a result of new scientific knowledge. Designers discovered that if extra details were eliminated, and edges were rounded, air would flow more smoothly over machines like planes, trains, and cars. Machines could move faster using less energy. This was known as streamlining. Shown here is the Burlington Northern Co., Zephyr #9900, Streamlining and Organic Design, Wind-tunnel testing concluded that the ideal streamlined form was a teardrop.

13 Russell Wright American Modern Dinnerware, designed 1937, introduced 1939, glazed earthenware Streamlining influenced the design of everything from tableware to vacuum cleaners. It was thought to capture the American character - to be modern was to be American.

14 After the end of World War II, the American economy expanded and products were needed to fill the large number of new homes. Car production rose and were influenced by organic design. Fins on cars suggested movement and speed. At first a symbol of aerodynamics, the large fins on Cadillacs became a symbol of American 1950s style and excess: fast food, Las Vegas, Playboy magazine, and a TV in almost every home.

15 Design Since 1980 Since 1960, design evolved to accept the tensions between the organic and the geometric, and the natural and mechanical. Competing elements were unified. By the 1980s, design had embraced multiple styles and cultures. Television, the telephone, the internet and interdependent economies have all led to more diverse and unified design. For example, logos are typically designed to be recognized by the largest possible audience. In the 1980s designers began to address niche markets, or ones that were more narrow and specific.

16 New Design Right: Memphis, Carlton room divider, designed in 1981 by Ettore Sottsass, in wood and plastic laminate. The vivid colors and seemingly random interplay of solids and voids suggest avantgarde painting and sculpture. The angles are part of a structural system based on real and implied triangles. Left: MTV logos, The Music Television Network logo was designed by the Manhattan Design Firm, noted for their radical experimentation. The logo was constantly shifting, proving that it wasn t necessary anymore to have a standard corporate identity. The logo had life and personality, and introduced the idea of motion graphics.

17 Computers and New Technology Computers have greatly influenced contemporary design and how design students are taught. Before the computer, most graphic design emphasized craftsmanship and traditional drawing skills. Scanners and printers quickly replaced rulers, exacto knives, and light boxes. Handcrafted design was replaced by the speed of electronic media. Speed has allowed for more freedom and experimentation. Images can also go viral - such as Shepard Fairey s Barack Obama Hope poster, Images and ideas are mass distributed online and able to reach many people quickly. They are also easily copied and ownership can be challenged. An Associated Press photographer sued Fairey for using his photograph of President Obama without permission to create the design.