Chart # 2

Peter Behrens from Deutscher Werkbund had worked with William Morris, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright. Behrens used to work for the company AEG where he was an artistic director of this company. AEG produced a range of electrical goods including household items and industrial products.

Following the success of the Ford Model T first automobile, during this period there was a mass production especially when it comes to cars.

The Deutscher Werkbund had influenced styles like De Stijl, Futurism, Cubism and Constructivism. These styles also influenced the Bauhaus and Pop Design during the International Style.

During the Deutscher Werkbund period there was the first world war and the famous accident of the RMS Titanic which led to better design studies on ships and cruise liners. Cruise liners became more popular during the Bauhaus period. This is why the swiss canal was widened for a better access for larger ships.

Walter Gropius was the one who created Bauhaus where he shown how form should follow its function. Tubular steel chairs were introduced after they were inspired from the bending of the gas pipes.

Form Follows Function                                                                                     Tubular steel chair

Also during this time skyscrapers were being built which led to glass structures in the International Style. By this time, electricity became a must for everywhere and therefore these buildings included an escalator or lift to be used instead of the stairs.

In the Bauhaus period, concrete started to be used in buildings and structures where it was then replaced with reinforced concrete; concrete with steel bars inside for stronger durability. By the time of International Style, skyscrapers became more lightweight, taller and more attractable.

                                                                                                                     International Style

Bauhaus

The Bauhaus also influenced De Stijl and the latter was an inspiration of the International Style. During the International style reinforced concrete was very popular with Le Corbusier which as already mentioned it was already being used during the Bauhaus.

                                                            Reinforced concrete

During the International Style there was the first man's landing on the moon, the second world war and also the baby boom right after Pop Design. The man's landing on the moon resulted of having a design style on its own known as the 'Space Age' where sphere-shaped objects were produced and the colours white, black & silver were popular in fashion.

Man's landing on the moon

                                                            
                                                                                                                                               Baby boom


References:

Anon. n.d Berlin wedding aeg premises [image online] Available at: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Berlin-wedding_aeg-premises_20060407_321.jpg [Accessed 20th January 2014]

Anon, n.d. The evolution of mass production [image online] Available at: http://www.ford.ie/AboutFord/CompanyInformation/Heritage/TheEvolutionOfMassProduction [Accessed 20th January 2014]

Anon. 2012. Form follows Function. [image online] Available at: http://vimeo.com/formfollowsfunction [Accessed 20th January 2014]

Admin, 2007. B32. [image online] Avalable at: https://www.google.com.mt/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=rN70qhpxyA2LCM&tbnid=x6BajGkkesSPzM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gitnews.com%2F2007%2F08%2Fb32%2F&ei=54HlUs3mHcSX1AWNgoHgAg&psig=AFQjCNHX_jhDjUrvPLfdpm3JJ-PPZVUQtw&ust=1390859048685100 [Accessed 20th January 2014]

Conservapedia, 2010. Baby Boom. [image online] Available at: http://www.conservapedia.com/Baby_boom [Accessed 20th January 2014]

Subhasis, 2009. All can witness man's first landing on moon. [image online] Available at: http://www.littleabout.com/Science/all-witness-man-landing-moon/24080/ [Accessed 20th January 2014]

Chart # 1

In my chart I decided to work with the following artists from their respective movements:

- William Morris - Arts and Crafts

- Charles Rennie Mackintosh - Art Nouveau

- Peter Behrens - Deutscher Werkbund

- Walter Gropius - Bauhaus

- Le Corbusier - International Style

When talking about William Morris he mostly worked in the Arts and Crafts movement. This movement was dominated by the Victorian era  and handcrafted goods were made by craftsmen. Morris designed a number of wallpapers in which he was very organic and included nature by adding leafs, birds and flowers. Hand made products were very popular in this time and this led to the Weiner Werkstatte where workshops were created for more manufacturing.

William Morris wallpaper                                                                                        Handmade goods

During this period there was also a rise in the middle class that effected the design industry. This is because things were becoming produced better everyday. By having new inventions in agriculture, it made it possible for fewer people to produce crops and also resulting of having the cities to grow larger.

William Morris was influenced from the romantic escapism of the Pre-Raphaelite and the Medieval Art. With the collaboration of his friends in the Pre-Raphaelite, Morris had formed the 'Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.' in 1861 and he had put theory into practice.

Lady Godiva, Pre-Raphaelite

                                                                                                                                          Medieval art

William Morris also worked closely with Peter Behrens from Deutscher Werkbund on a number of projects so I linked them together to show this.

From Art Nouveau I had chosen Charles Rennie Mackintosh where he was famous for his elliptical forms and high backed chairs. 

Mackintosh used mostly geometric forms in his works and these had inspired other movements like De Stijl, Futurism, Constructivism and Cubism. All of these styles included geometric forms that were influenced from Mackintosh's works.

Mackintosh was also inspired from Japanese Art and insects and nature that relates to Art Nouveau. These elements were linked to the previous William Morris' Acanthus leaf where he used it a lot in his wallpaper designs.

During this period there were the invention of the first automobile and the light bulb. The first automobile was the Ford Model T which was invented by Henry Ford in 1908 and was a huge success of transportation. The light bulb was invented by Thomas Edison in 1879 and later this helped to form the company known as DEG (Deutsche Edison Gesellschaft) which was later renamed to AEG (Allegemeine Elektrizitats Gesellschaft) related to the Deutscher Werkbund and Peter Behrens.

Ford Model T

                                                                                                                        Thomas Edison Light Bulb

References:
John Lewis, 2012. William Morris Wallpaper. [image online] Available at: http://daviddangerous.blogspot.com/2012/06/william-morris-wallpaper.html [Accessed 20th January 2014]

Sam S. Rainer, 2009. Worldwide Middle Class Boom. [image online] Available at: http://samrainer.com/2009/02/worldwide-middle-class-boom/ [Accessed 20th January 2014]

Anon. 2013. The teaching of history. [image online] Available at: http://3diassociates.wordpress.com/2013/12/30/the-teaching-of-history-the-debate-continues/ [Accessed 20th January 2014]

Anon., n.d. The Devil and Demons in Medieval Art. [image online] Available at: http://temperaworkshop.com/history/demons.htm [Accessed 20th January 2014]

Michael Delahunt, 2010. DeStijl. [image online] Available at: http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/d/destijl.html [Accessed 20th January 2014]

steampunkopera, n.d. Russian Furturism. [image online] Available at: http://steampunkopera.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/russian-futurism/ [Accessed 20th January 2014]

Andreas, n.d. Hokusai. [image online] Available at: http://andreas.com/hokusai.html [Accessed 20th January 2014]

findingDulcinea Staff, 2011. On This Day. [image online] Available at: http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/on-this-day/September-October-08/On-this-Day--The-First-Model-T-Ford-Is-Produced.html [Accessed 20th January 2014]

Essay

Frank O. Gehry

As a teenager Frank Gehry was uncertain about his career direction as he found himself hampered by his lack of skills as a draughtsman. While studying architecture in Los Angeles and working closely with the modernist architect Raphael Soriano, he confirmed his career choice and got a degree in architecture in 1954.

After working for a number of architectural practices, in 1962 he opened his own firm called “Frank O. Gehry & Associates Inc.” And within this firm in 1972 he designed a series of fourteen furniture pieces under the name of Easy Edges. These pieces were made from corrugated cardboard and Gehry was among the first designers to experiment with the use of this material.

 

However, these designs with the use of cardboard made success and were popularised with the buyers as they were of a low cost budget. But since Gehry was an architect, he stopped their production after only three months as he didn’t want himself to be known as a furniture designer.

As a modernist, Gehry designed a number of residences which included industrial materials and deconstructed forms. One of which was his own family house in Santa Monica (image below). When Gehry and his wife bought this house, their neighbours did not have the slightest idea of how this house was going to be transformed into a symbol of deconstructivism. Infact Frank still kept the original existing house and built his international style structure around the house. Among the neighbours’ mansions it was very contemporary and his neighbours hated it, but this house still remained a state of the art when it comes to archtecture.

Being so innovative with his building designs he had received international acclaims for his deconstructivist projects. While working in his own firm (today known as Gehry Partners, LLP) he spent more time with sculptors and painters including Ed Kienholz and Bob Irwin. They were all trying to find new uses for the overlooked by-products of industrial civilisation. Thus, Gehry began to look for an opportunity to invent a more personal vision in his own work. This is when he started to design brick and steel structures.

In 1989, he designed the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, but due to financial shortages and political infighting this project was delayed for many years and so it was finally completed in 2003.

Also in 1990, the Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota was completed and was Gehry’s first monumental work in his own country. It was constructed from bricks and stainless steel, two materials that were popular during the time.

Following the success of Frank Gehry, he achieved the Pritzker Prize award  in 1989 for the works of the Disney Concert Hall which is the world’s most prestigious architecture award.

Alessi

Giovanni Alessi founded his own company FAO (Fratelli Alessi Omegna) in Italy in 1921 where his son Carlo Alessi used to work in his metal workshop at an early age. In 1935 Carlo took over his firm as the head designer.

In the 1930s till the 1940s, Carlo designed many works, including the “Ottagonale”, “Scalini”, “Cilindrica” and “Bombe” series.

Uptill this time these kind of works where being made more ‘crafty style’ and so Alessi moved away from its craft origins towards a more industrial mode. This affacted the way their culture used to be from a cheaper version that mostly everyone could have afforded to buy, to a more professional work with richer materials that became more expensive for people to buy.

During this period, the world was dominated from the second world war and this resulted of having shortages of materials. Alessi was infected by the lack of nickel-silver and brass and thus, they began using pressed stainless steel and in order to remain competitive in the in the industry, Alessi began commissioning work from well-known designers.

In the late 1970s, designers from Post-Modernism began to work for Alessi by producing limited edition ranges. These designers were eleven in total which included Ettore Sottsass, Michael Graves, Aldo Rossi and Robert Venturi where they designed the “Tea and Coffee Piazza”.

Michael Graves                                                                                                    Robert Venturi

These limited edition works all motivated the architecture in miniature which had brought Alessi international recognition and ensured the company’s position as one of the leaders in Post-Modernism.

Today Alessi are still producing these works that were designed by famous designers among with other industrial products and also offers online courses for students who want to design in this related field. 

Aldo Rossi

References:

Laura, 2013. Easy Edges collection. [images online] Available at: http://www.arredativo.it/2013/recensioni/salotto/poltrone-salotto/easy-edges/ [Accessed 19th January 2014]

Anon, 2013. Our theaters & concert halls. [image online] Available at: http://www.musiccenter.org/about/OUR-VENUES/Our-Theatres--Concert-Halls/ [Accessed 19th January 2014]

Anon, 2010. Frank O. Gehry. [online] Available at: http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/geh0bio-1 [Accessed 19th January 2014]

Elvira Masson, 2010. Alessi s’ expose à Munich. [image online] Available at: http://www.lexpress.fr/styles/design/alessi-s-expose-a-munich_895145.html [Accessed 19th January 2014]

Dezeen, 2009. Alberto Alessi at the Design Museum. [images online] Available at: http://www.dezeen.com/2009/11/14/podcast-interview-alberto-alessi-at-the-design-museum/ [Accessed 19th January 2014]

Design for Safety

Safety has to be everywhere and all the time. Designing for safety was coined as an awareness in the 1960s with the publication of the book "Unsafe at any speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile" by Ralph Nader.

Ever since the first automobile was invented in the beginning of the 1900s, there a lot of deaths and injuries. This is when Ralph Nader stepped in and published this book that applies about safety of automobiles and driving.

By time, products were being developed and making them more safe to use. Some safety equipment included fire extinguishers, seat belts, air bags, helmets and smoke alarms. All these products are manufactured according to design and safety guidelines.

Industry products which comply with the European Directives will have a mark on them "CE" that indicates that the product can be exported and imported in the member countries. These letters are the abbreviation of the French phrase "Conformite Europeen", that when translated to English it means European Conformity.

References:

Anon., n.d. Ralph Nader's Unsafe At Any Speed. [image online] Available at: http://www.autolife.umd.umich.edu/Design/Gartman/Books/BK_Unsafe_Any_Speed.htm [Accessed 24th January 2014]

Anon., n.d. Overview of CE marking directives. [image online] Available at: http://www.s-ge.com/en/content/static/Overview-of-CE-marking-directives [Accessed 24th January 2014]

Design for the Third World

Designing for the third world is when we empower developing nations to meet their own needs making economic and environmental sense. Products can be designed and manufactured in a way that can be used without having a power supply or other mechanisms that could not be found in these kind of places.

In 2010, Kenyans were given solar powered lamps that will give them light whenever they need it and also saving their poverty. These people used to buy kerosene to light up their lamps, and now with the use of these solar lamps they can save their money and instead buying kerosene they can buy more food. 

The image on the side shows what it's called the 'LifePlayer'. It is a solar-powered five-band radio and mp3 player designed to be used as a teaching aid for children. It includes 64GB of memory inside it to store educational materials and can run from either a removable solar cell or by rotating a hand-crank.

Reference:

Janelle Zara, 2013. Design to save the world. [image online] Available at: http://blogs.artinfo.com/objectlessons/2013/04/16/design-to-save-the-world-a-kenyan-engineers-solar-powered-led-lamps-for-sale-at-friedman-benda-this-weekend/ [Accessed 23rd January 2014]

Charlie Sorrel, 2011. Lifeplayer, a wind-up mp3 player for developing countries. [image online] Available at: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/06/lifeplayer-a-wind-up-mp3-player-for-developing-countries/ [Accessed 23rd January 2014]

Crade-to-cradle Design

Cradle-to-cradle was brought up to design by William McDonough and the chemist Dr. Michael Braungart in 2002. The term 'Cradle-to-cradle' is an encouragement to pause from the everyday routine and rethink about the conditions that form our designs. It is a method to minimise the environmental impact of products by employing sustainable production that will was discussed in the previous post. 

Cradle-to-cradle rejects the idea that growth is makes things worse to environmental health, after all nature growth is good. But instead, it promotes the idea that good design can support a rich human experience including fun, beauty, better inspiration and enjoyment.

The cradle-to-cradle is basically about constantly improving from being "less bad" to becoming "more good".

The image above is an example of how cradle-to-cradle applies to the material of aluminium. Firstly, the material comes from mining and produced in alumina. It is then taken to production to form the primary stage of aluminium which will lead to the semi-fabrication. From this stage, aluminium is ready to be manufactured into products and after using these products, they will be recycled and goes back to the semi-fabrication stage where other products can be manufactured.

References:

Anon. n.d. C2C Framework. [image online] Available at: http://www.mbdc.com/cradle-to-cradle/c2c-framework/ [Accessed 22nd January 2014]

Alcoa, n.d. Aluminium Cradle-to-Cradle Loop. [image online] Available at: http://www.alcoa.com/sustainability/en/info_page/products_design_lifecycle.asp [Accessed 22nd January 2014]

Environmental and Sustainable Design

As we hear the word 'environment' first that comes to our mind is the reduction of waste. Infact environmental design is concerned with minimising waste and reducing consumption of energy and materials. Richard Buckminster Fuller was the pioneer back in the 1920s. His designs were often related to space and science.

Geodesic Dome, 1958

Environemtal design takes into consideratin the products' whole life cycle and the extraction of raw materials. By recycling, energy is still required for the process to end the lifetime of the product and produce it into another one. Sometimes this may question whether it is better to recycle certain things or reuse them. This may occur in the case of plastic bottles versus the glass ones.

By increasing the product durability this minimises waste and energy consumption. Doubling the product life can minimise the environmental impact by half.

On the other hand, sustainable design is a philosophy that values the natural environment as an integral factor in creating new products or modifying old ones. A good example of being sustainable is by converting a landfill gas into energy. This system was pioneered by Emanuel Falzon in 1982 in Australia where he founded his company LMS Energy which reduces gas emissions and provides a local renewable energy source for the community.

References:

Anon, n.d. Buckminster Fuller. [image online] Available at: http://www.spatialagency.net/database/where/knowledge/buckminster.fuller [Accessed 20th January 2014]

Garrison Dale, 2012. Bagpipe. [image online] Available at: http://bagpipeonline.com/?p=8866 [Accessed 20th January 2014]

Anon, n.d. Powering a more sustainable future. [online] Available at: http://www.lms.com.au/ [Accessed 20th January 2014]

Anon, 2010. LMS Energy. [image online] Available at: http://www.climate-connect.co.uk/Home/?q=node/2629 [Accessed 20th January 2014]

Design for Disability

As years will go by we keep learning that some things were designed for better use but still lacks the function for certain people. When designing an object one will have to think about the user abilities. It doesn't have to be a disabled person to have these kind of designs as these may also be even more helpful for everyone.

This mug for example has a cup holder attached to it that is aiding for more grip and protecting the hands from the hot surface. What makes it more effective is that this holder can be adapted to other mugs and not buying one for every mug.

This cutlery set was design by a graduated student that was aimed for people with hemiplegia. This kind of condition paralysis one side of the body and thus people will have to find a way to handle their cutlery with one hand. 

While working with a hemiplegic patient, Mickael Boulay created four sets that resembles one for each stage of development. Boulay had this idea that the human body is like plastic and that as we can come disabled, we can 'unbecome' disabled.

References:

Duncan E. 2012. Disability products. [image online] Available at: http://disabilityhorizons.com/2012/11/disability-products-really-useful-things-from-such-and-such-design/ [Accessed 20th Janaury 2014]

Justin McGuirk, 2012. Design for knife. [online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/jun/18/design-cutlery-disability [Accessed 20th January 2014]

The Memphis Group

As mentioned in the previous post, Post-Modernism led to the foundation of the Memphis group. Ettore Sottsass was the main founder in 1982. Together with the other main five designers; Michele De Lucchi, Marco Zanini, Mateo Thun, Nathalie du Pasquier and George Sowden, the aim of the Memphis group was to re-invigorate the Radical Design Movement.

After Mendini's re-designing became the central to the output of Studio Alchimia, Ettore Sottsass found this to be too creatively restricting and so he left this group. In 1980 he reunited with the group and while collaborating with his group mates, he played the Bob Dylan's song entitled "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again" over and over, and this is when he came up with the name of the group "Memphis". Sottsass also called the group the "New International Style".

The group produced bright, colourful, shocking pieces which reflected that period. Inspiration was taken from previous movements such as Art Deco and Pop Design as well as the Kitsch style and futuristic themes.

The Carlton bookshelf was a creative design having angled shelves and bright colours. 

Most of their collection products were finished in brightly coloured laminates. At that time laminates were mostly used to protect kitchen furniture but the group had chosen to work with this material because of its lack of culture.

Carlton Bookcase,1981

Memphis, 1980s                                                                                     Art Nouveau, 1867

This image above shows a bookshelf created by the Memphis which reminded me of a cabinet back from Art Nouveau. They both include straight lines and geometric forms.

The group's hybrid themes and oblique quotations of past styles produced a new post-modern vocabulary of design.

References:

GreenHalgh, P. 2000. Essential Art Nouveau. V&A Publications: London.

Paolo Feroleto, 2010. Information on the Memphis Design Movement. [image online] Available at: http://italychronicles.com/italian-design-focus-on-the-memphis-design-movement/ [Accessed 7th January 2014]

Rowan Derryth, 2010. Prim Perfect. [imge online] Available at: http://primperfectblog.wordpress.com/2010/10/31/ekphrasis-eliza-wierwight/ [Accessed 7th January 2014]

iDesignArch, n.d. Memphis Milano Collection. [image online] Available at: http://www.idesignarch.com/memphis-milano-collection/ [Accessed 7th January 2014]

Post-Modernism

Post Modernism was founded in 1978 after that the designers from the Modern Movement found the latter style to be fundamentally meaningless and boring. As it was mentioned in the previous post, during the Modern Movement there was the quote "Less is more", in Post-Modernism there was another quote that said "Less is a bore".

During this period there was a global recession in the early 1990s, materials were becoming less expensive and therefore there was a better chance to experiment with more rational designs. In this time there was the study of signs and symbols as elements of communicative behaviour. These are called the "Semiotics" where Roland Barthes beleived that "if objects and buildings were full of symbolism, the viewers and consumers will relate more to them". 

Post-Modernism first took over the architecture and it was then moved to industrial products, furniture and later fashion. One of the architects who is known for this movement is Michael Graves. He introduced a new aesthetic by the mid 1970s and in 1982 he designed the Portland Building. 

Ettore Sottsass and Alessandro Mendini began to produce work within this movement where they applied decoration to their products unlike the Modernism. Later on the group Memphis was created  were designers produced monumental and colourful Neo-Pop Designs.

Regarding the Memphis group, this will be discussed further in the next post.

Going back to Michael Graves and Ettore Sottsass, they both had worked for Alessi. They were two of the eleven designers who worked on a series of limited edition "Tea and Coffee Piazza". This range had motivated architecture in miniature.

As Michael Graves was inspired from the cubist interpretations of Le Corbusier, he designed his limited edition Piazza in cubic forms. Also, Post-Modernist designs can be compared with the style of Art Deco, De Stijl and Deconstructivism.

               Octagonal Tea Set, Art Deco, 1932


Michael Graves, 1983

Post-Modernism never stopped and is still active nowadays.

The image on the side shows "The Villa" in Netherlands constructed in 2008 that revived the post-modernism goals of architecture and the popular culture.

References:

Kevin West, n.d. Michael Graves. [image online] Available at: http://www.citelighter.com/art-architecture/architecture/knowledgecards/michael-graves [Accessed 7th January 2014]

Anon, 2011. Memphis-Milano Movement. [image online] Available at: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Memphis-Milano_Movement.jpg [Accessed 7th January 2014]

Anon, n.d. Antique Silver Octagonal Tea & Coffee Set. [image online] Available at: http://www.leopardantiques.com/object/stock/detail/316 [Accessed 7th January 2014]

RA Forum, 2011. Radical Post-Modernism Today. [image online] Available at: http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/events/talks/radical-postmodernism-today,1783,EV.html