The Rebellion Against the Aesthetic Norms

When talking about Pop Design one has to keep in mind what caused it and what were the main factors that influenced and affected it. The term was coined in the 50’s referred to popular culture. The Independent Group was founded in London in 1952 whose members were Richard Hamilton, Eduardo Paolozzi, Reyner Banham and Peter and Alison Smithson. It was the era of rebellion for the people born during the Post-World War II generation. They wanted to destroy the traditional boundaries between fine art and design.

It initially started in England as was the Industrial Revolution. It was a reaction against abstract expressionism that was happening in America such as the splattering works of art of Jackson Pollock. Before the emergence of Pop Design in the 1960’s, Functionalism and good design were popular in Germany whilst Italy was producing Bel (beautiful) Design. There were developments in artificial materials such as polypropylene which gave designers the possibility to experiment with design as well as colours.

Joe Colombo 4860 Chair in 1964

It was a revolutionary idea to make a chair from a single piece of material and the fact that the same chair could be adjusted to three various heights. These models were also stackable and since they were completely produced by a machine a new way of mass production had started.

Giancarlo Piretti, Plia in 1969

This design was novel due to the fact that it had a new element to the chair. It was now foldable. While at the same time chairs were being stacked on each other, now they were being folded and actually diminishing the surface area that they occupied. This chair was light and flexible. It was also an elegant chair which could be used both for the indoors as well as the outdoors. Due to its simple and straightforward construction, this chair could be produced at low cost. 

We also have Verner Panton’s Panton Chair in 1967 at this time which was also made out of one piece of material. This chair was developed with Vitra in 1963 and was considered a sensation once it went public and had received numerous prices as well. Today this chair is considered as a classic of modern furniture which is still used by many in their private homes as well as public buildings which gives a sense of style and elegance to the interior of the place.

Once that all these new materials were being discover it prompted for pop culture and Anti-Design to rebel against traditional norms and behaviour. They wanted to protest against the established design by making use of artificial materials. They also mocked previous styles by joining them together where in fact they clearly to dot blend together… which is the whole point about it all. One of such examples is the work of designer Alessandro Mendini in his Poltrona di Proust in which he got a Baroque chair design and decided to cover it with a pattern which is very similar to Pointillism.

Showing the similarity between Alessandro Mendini’s Poltrona di Proust Chair and Georges Seurat’s Detail from Circus Sideshow (1889).

The ‘Blow’ chair (1967) designed by Jonathan de Pas, Donato d’Urbino , Paolo Lomazzi and Massimo Scolari for Zanotta  is an example of an ephemeral culture in which objects were not made to last and their purpose was to be replaced thus it was of low quality. It was aimed at the younger market because it was cheap and fun. This design was the first of its kind which had a thin membrane of PVC with welded seams which contained air. 

The functionality and rationality of Modern design was being questioned in the 60s and 70s. Designers were starting to question their own work – what was the role of the designer in society? If the artists could be “playful” and experimental in their creations, why couldn’t designers also be that way? Artificial materials were being invented at this stage which designers thought were playful enough to be used in their creations. Such creation examples are:

Sacco by Piero Gatti, Cesare Paolini, Franco Teadoro for Zanotta in 1968. This seating symbolises a break through tradition. Since that era was characterized by the hippy movement and the idea of apartment sharing this “non-chair” was ideal for said circumstances. On creating this the designers launched the term of a “good bourgeois taste”. Since it has no fixed form its loose filling allows it to take any form thus it was popular with the youngsters. 

In the meantime while everyone was enjoying themselves with fun designs, art and the hippy movement there was the Cold War going on between America and Russia, as well as the Vietnam War. These wars were the inspiration to another type of designers. The graphic designers, which were not taking things in the fun way as the other designers and painters were doing but more forcing the people to realise what is actually going on in the rest of the world. They wanted to prove that the world was not all filled with peace, love friendship and flowers. There was actually a war going on, especially the one in Vietnam with actual people dying. 

The thing about the cold war between America and Russia was also being insinuated in movies such as Rocky when he has to fight against Ivan Drago. 

Pop design was the antithesis of the Modern movement’s motto of “Less is more” which they changed it to “Less is a bore”. It eventually led to Radical Design in the 1970’s.

Designboom. 2000. Joe Colombo - chair ‘universale’, 1965/67 [online] Available at: http://www.designboom.com/history/joecolombo_chair.html [Accessed on 30th November 2013]

Poltrona di Proust. Since 1978. Vitra Design Museum - Alessandro Mendini. [online] Available at:  http://www.design-museum.de/en/collection/100-masterpieces/detailseiten/poltrona-di-proust-alessandro-mendini.html [Accessed on 30th November 2013]

Georges Seurat. Detail from Circus Sideshow. 1889. Wikipedia. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Seurat  [Accessed on 30th November 2013]

PVC Blow Chair. 1967. Zanotta - Jonathan de Pas, Donato d’Urbino , Paolo Lomazzi and Massimo Scolari [online] Available at: http://brimstonesandtreacle.wordpress.com/2012/03/08/you-are-a-nomad/ [Accessed on 30th November 2013]

Sacco. 1968. Zanotta - Piero Gatti, Cesare Paolini, Franco Teadoro. [online] Available at:  http://www.design-museum.de/en/collection/100-masterpieces/detailseiten/sacco-gatti-paolini-teodoro.html  [Accessed on 30th November 2013]

Rod. 1966. Creative Roots - Anti-Vietnam War Poster  [online] Available at: http://creativeroots.org/2009/04/anti-vietnam-war-poster-1966/ [Accessed on 30th November 2013]