Pop Design

Pop Design was founded in 1958 right after the Post-War period. The name itself refers to the popular culture during the decade. Despite the "ugliness" style of streamlining and the affects that resulted after the second world war, Pop designers sought a more youth-based and less serious approach than previous movements.

Before Pop Design there was the Good Design that was mostly popular in Germany. During this movement there was a development of artificial materials like polypropylene that gave designers the possibility to experiment with design and colours. Having more materials to experiment with and the increase in productivity, resulted in short-lived goods. This meant that people were buying stuff and after a while they toss it away as it is well said "use-it-today, sling-it-tomorrow".

As already mentioned the use of plastic mainly polypropylene was included in new designs. Ray and Charles Eames were among the first to experiment with the bending of plastic in their furniture. Today moulded plastic chairs are still very true to their origins and fully authentic. As technology advanced over the years, there were updated materials within the plastic to meet the environmental requirements.

DAR Chair, 1950

When mentioning Pop Design and the plastic material, one cannot not think of the Panton Chair by Verner Panton. This will be discussed more in detail in the next post.

Speaking of the plastic chairs and the advancement of technology since they were invented, I went to visit the showroom DEX in Qormi that still imports these types of chairs and other designers'.

Panton Chair, 1959-60

The Panton chairs not only were manufactured in a more variety of the already existed colours, but have a matt finish rather than the glossy and shiny surface as it was originated. These are the originally "Panton Chairs" while the glossy ones are called the "Panton Chair Classics".

The PAC-1 armchair was also in this showroom that was originally designed by Ray and Charles Eames in 1950.

Children also have their own designer chairs that can be bought from this showroom. These included the elephant kids chair by Ray and Charles Eames and the miniature Panton Chair called the "Panton Junior".

As already mentioned in the beginning, Pop designers sought for the youth-market and so products had to be cheap and however they were often constructed of a poor quality. This countered the "Less is more" that directed to the Radical Design later in the 1970s.

During the Pop Design period their were a major impact on the world; the first man's landing on the moon in 1969. This led to new designs that were influenced from astronauts that led to a new style called the "Space Age".

Nivico 3240 GM, 1970

References:

thedesignfiles, 2011. Eames Molded Plastic Armchair. [image online] Available at: http://www.stylehive.com/bookmark/eames-molded-plastic-armchair-by-charles-and-ray-eames-from-herman-miller-midcentury-modern-classics-843592 [Accessed 2nd january 2014]

Cheon Lee, n.d. Rare JVC 3240GM Videosphere Ball TV. [image online] Available at: https://svpply.com/item/632819/RARE_JVC_3240GM_VIDEOSPHERE_BALL [Accessed 2nd January 2014]