Section B: History of Design

Background information
The industrial revolution completely destroyed the old ways of
doing things. It included changes in:

• Agriculture
• Textile manufacture
• Metal manufacture
• Transportation
• Economic policies
• Social structures

ARTS AND CRAFTS MOVEMENT

AIM:

• To emphasize and bring back the importance of

traditional craftmanship, natural materials, and the
value of human touch.
• To break away from the styles being formed as a
result of the industrial revolution.
• Highlighting the value of handmade goods.
Reaction:
• Worked against the mass-produced, low quality
goods of the industrial revolution
• Criticised the lack of integrity and personal touch in
manufactured goods.
• Main goal was to revive traditional craftsmanship
• Was a reaction against the poor taste of Victorian
industrial era.
Influences:
• Gothic architecture – symmetry, pointed arches and
roofs
• The English cottage style – use of natural, locally
sourced goods
• Against the poor taste of the Victorian industrial era.
• JOHN RUSKIN’S INFLUENCE – his writing
emphasised the importance of art and craftsmanship,
inspiring a return to handmade objects
• WILLAM MORRIS’S VISION – he championed the
value of handmade goods, rejecting the mass
production of the industrial revolution.
Characteristics:

• Gothic style
• Intricate (very detailed)
• Realistic
• Too costly and mainly only affordable to the upper
classes
• Truth to materials
• Natural materials (wood, clay, wool etc.)
• Traditional craft techniques
• Harmony with environment
• Colour: flat areas of bold striking colours – blue, red,
yellow & earthy
• Texture: achieved through patterning
 • Furniture: simple lines with linear or organic shapes.
Graphics used wavy and curving patterns of leaves
and flowers.
Designers and their designs
PLEASE NOTE – I’m not sure which designer we should focus
on so I’m just naming 1-2 for each movement that we went
through the most in class

• William Morris
• The Morris Chair: An early type of reclining chair.
• Sussex Chair
• Philip Web:

The red house

ART NOUVEAU MOVEMENT

AIM:
• Developing a modern visual style.
• Creating a new style by breaking away from
traditional styles.
• Unite art and industry.

Reaction:
• Against academic art and design, they wanted to
emphasise creativity and experimentation.
Influences:
• Japanese art and culture
• Arts and crafts movement
• Inspired by nature – curved lines, floral patterns,
vines, leaves
• Industrial revolution – they were shaped by the new
materials and methods (e.g. the use of iron, glass and
ceramics)
• Desire for a new aesthetic
Characteristics:
• Flowing lines
• Organic forms (curved lines and organic shapes
inspired by nature)
• Use of raw materials (iron, glass, ceramics)
• Flat and muted colours
• Stylised lines and shapes
Design and designer
• The staircase of the Hotel Tassel by Brussels, Victor
Horta
De Stijil
Background:
•Holland
•Founded in 1917
•De stijil means style in Dutch
Aims:
• Aimed for an ideal mix of form and function
• Extend their artistic vision to all other forms of art
including literature, music, typography, and
industrial design.
• Redefine art/design by bringing it back to its essence
and give it a new set of rules
Influences:
• Dutch tradition of logic
• Arts and crafts movement – a return to traditional
quality handmade crafts
• Dada movement – moved away from traditional ideas
• Cubism – reducing objects to their most basic forms.
Characteristics:
Style
• Simplicity
• Abstract
• Purity
• Order
• Minimalism
• abstract squares and rectangles and blocks
Material
• Metalwork
• Tubular steel – left exposed as part of the overall
‘look’
Colour
•Bold flat colours
•Colours separated by black lines
Decoration
• Purity in objects being left in simple forms
• Straight lines
• Geometric shapes
• New typography created
Designers and works:
• Piet Mondrian: “Composition with Yellow, Blue and Red”

Gerrit Rietveld: “Red and Blue Chair”

Bauhaus Movement
Background:
•1919-1933
•Originated in Germany
Aims
• The Bauhaus school aimed to train their students to
create designs that reflected the machine age.
• Encouraged mass production
 • Architects turned towards rational, functional and
more standard buildings
Influences
•Machine made and mass produces designs
•Form follows function
•Arts and crafts movement – simple designs
•De Stijil’s use of abstract squares
Characteristics
• Pure geometric forms
• Buildings were made of straight, horizontal and
vertical lines.
• Truth to material
• Smooth surfaces that were undecorated to reflect
the machine age
• Harmony through form follows function
• Emphasis on functionality
Colour
• Mostly seen through the colour of the materials
used such as steel and wood
• Primary colours (yellow, red and blue)

Art Deco
Aims
• Modern style that incorporates functional objects
with artistic elements
• Wished to improve mass produced products
• Their designs were luxurious and very decorated
• Aimed at producing luxury items made from
expensive materials, that were sold to wealthy people
Influences
•
Originated from painting movements that were
popular at the same such as cubism and abstract art
• Fauvism and futurism resulted in dynamic planes with
non-naturalistic colours
• Cubism in their use of straight lines and layered
geometric designs with abstract shapes
• The exoticness of oriental art influenced their choice
in materials (pearls, snakeskin, sharkskin etc)
Characteristics
• Simple clean lines
• Streamlined look – emphasis on vertical lines that
draw your eyes in a certain direction
• From expensive materials
• Rarely mass produced
• Used man made AND natural substances
• Geometrical or stylised ornaments

Scandinavian Design
Background
• Included – Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland
Influences
• Modernist and Bauhaus styles
• Elegant forms inspired by surrealist movement
• Forms inspired by the natural environment
• Long winters which created the need for bright and
practical environments with clean lines
• New machinery, technology and materials available
after world war II
• The development of the Scandinavian’s social
democracy in the 1950s – meant availability / equality
for everyone
Aims
•
To create simple and functional designs that were
low-cost and easily accessible
• Beautiful, functional everyday objects
• Handcrafted wooden furniture with the aid machinery
• Simplicity and functionality for the comfort loving
post-war consumers.
• Their ideas and aesthetic can still be found in
contemporary designs today
Characteristics
•
Use of new materials
•
Simple designs
•
Furniture used light coloured wood and support
structures which were often left exposed
• Textiles were simple, bright and cheerful colours on
ordinary cotton fabric, using lots of dots and stripes
• Graphics and textiles incorporated stylised forms
and patterns
• Combined biomorphic (inspired by nature) forms with
harder-edged (geometric) patterns
• Affordable mass production of furniture and other
products
• Functionality and low-cost
• Humanistic – focused on people and on the
environment (sustainable design)
Colour
• Light coloured wood with exposed support structures
 •Simple and artistic painted designs.
Form/shape
• Organic forms with a harder geometric edge
• Embraced newer plastics and all the ways you can
manufacture it.
• Simple in shapes with clean lines and smooth
textures
• Textiles showed abstract or stylised forms, dots and
stripes
Line
• Clean, smooth organic and straight lines
• Smooth textures
Designer and works
The Ant chair by Arne Jacobsen

Modernism
Background
•USA
•Development of modern societies and the growth of
cities as a result of WWI
Aims
• Rebuild lives according to the modernist mind-set
and values after world war II
• Shifting from individually crafted products to mass
production
• Against traditional method and materials
• Create designs that are universal and can be
understood by all
 • Create new and cheaper stylish products for
consumer markets
Influences
• Modernist society is driven by Authority
(governments)
• Modernity and Bauhaus – new technology and
materials
• Form follows function
• Less is more
• Minimalism
Characteristics
Style
•Simplicity, Purity, order and minimalism
•Seamless, Functional, 3D organic shapes
•Emphasis was on space rather than volume
•Flat roofs, buildings looked same all around
•Ribbon windows ran in broken horizontal rows that
formed a grid-like pattern
Materials
•The use of new materials: glass, plastics, steel, re-
enforced concrete etc.
• Used a lot of concrete because it dries fast and is
cheap
Decoration
• Purity and simplicity of form
• Nonessential (not important) decoration was rejected
in favour of simplicity and purity
• Teardrops and streamline shape
Colour
• Raw colour of concrete left exposed or painted plain
white
• Pastel colours
• Bright colours were used for advertising
• The use of man-made chemical dyes and acrylic
paints

Section C: Social Cultural Design

Background
• Human obsession with consumerism and resource
consumption has left our world in an unstable
situation – overpopulation, climate change, poverty,
disease, etc.
• Design plays a large role in addressing
environmental and social challenges that we face
today, mostly because design has contributed to the
situation.
• Industrial Revolution – encouraged people to prove
their wealth through the homes and items they
possessed
• Nowadays, instead of creating unnecessary objects,
designers focus on improving the lives of those in
need and to actively address social and
environmental concerns through their design
process
Adriana Bretini
• Brazilian artist uses expired or defective condoms as
a raw material to make Avant Garde fashion art
instead of fashion.