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]

The Architect and the Painter

Following Alvar Aalto’s discoveries were the couple, Ray and Charles Eames. Charles came from an architectural background whilst Ray came from a background of painting and weaving as well as the new developing Abstract expressionism. They travelled to Europe and were both exposed to the works of the Modern Movement, Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Gropius.

Their breakthrough was when they won the Organic Design in home furnishings Competition which was held at the Museum of Modern Art New York in 1940. This competition sought new contemporary forms of home furnishings, upholstery and related items. The winners were Eames and Eero Saarinen who had collaborated to form an organic curved wooden shell chair that united beauty with comfort. It was a new idea of design in contrast with the harsh, geometric forms which were being seen at the moment of the Industrial Style, and it was that factor which made them win the competition.

The discoveries made by Ray and Charles Eames in the bending of wood got them a commission from the US Navy to develop plywood splints, stretchers and glider shells which were moulded by heat and high pressure. Their revolutionary proposals were state of the art in manufacturing technique, firstly the moulding of plywood into complex curves and also the use of cycle welding which enables metal and wood to be joined by the electronic bonding process. At this time there were a lot of advancements in technology which made these techniques possible. Such example could be seen in:

Plywood splints commissioned by US Navy

CTW table and screen and LCW plywood chair

They did not only produce furniture and necessities needed by the war but also children’s toys and they used the same techniques which made these works immediately recognisable as Eames creations. The fact that they were making use of bent wood it made their products strong even though they had a light weight appearance to them.

 

In early 1940’s Charles Eames used to work for MGM in creating movie sets and also working with his wife in creating and developing the Kazam machine. It was the machine that made all their creations possible. Although in early designs they had to split the wood at specific points so that the mould would not burst.

 

The Kazam Machine and Chair Shell Experiments, designed 1941-45, moulded plywood, metal, and rubber.

Once they had mastered the moulding technique Ray and Charles Eames moved onto another material thus created the fibreglass moulded chairs series. This way they had provided a universal seat shell that could be mass produced therefore it was cheaper to the consumer and it could be applied to a variety of bases. Their designs were so innovative that we still see them in today.

Eames plastic shell chair with various bases 1948-1950.

Eames Wire Mesh Chair 1951-1953.

Plastic Mould of La Chaise 1948.

Today we consider these designs as elegant and a sense of style in which whoever has one wants to show a statement of lifestyle and living. I am not talking about only the Eames chairs but also other innovative designs such as Arne Jacobsen’s famous Egg and Swan Chair. Said designs often go unnoticed when we watch a movie because they still blend well with our present lifestyle and are ageless due to their organic forms. So I did some research about these designs so that I can point out in which movies they were shown, but the list was much longer than I expected when I came across Anne-Sophie’s blog in which she gives a detailed analysis. This blog can be found at: http://www.retrofurnish.com/blog/en/2012/08/design-in-movies-week-2/

Some examples consist of:

Eero Saarinen’s Eero Chair which is a reminiscent of the chair by which he had won the MOMA competition with Charles Eames but this time it is more refined, with more padding and the use of chrome for the legs.

We also have the Pedestal Chair which was innovative in its own way. This was due to the fact that it was produced to have one base instead of four legs which gave a sense of lightness.

These two stylish chairs are the Swan and Egg Chairs 1957-1958 by Arne Jacobsen which were created as a whole with the Arne Jacobsen Royal Hotel Copenhagen 1956-1960. 

These are the Panton Chair 1960 and Cone Chair 1958 by Verner Panton.

Vitra Design Museum. UN. Organic Armchair Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen [online] Available at: http://www.design-museum.de/en/collection/100-masterpieces/detailseiten/organic-armchair-charles-eames-und-eero-saarinen.html [Accessed on 23^rd November 2013]

 Herman Miller. Design Story.[online] Available at: http://www.hermanmiller.com/products/seating/multi-use-guest-chairs/eames-molded-plywood-chairs.html [Accessed on 23^rd November 2013]

Tom. April 2013. Miniature Chair Man: Charles and Ray Eames - Time-Life stools [online] Available at: http://www.miniaturechairman.com/8/category/charles%20and%20ray%20eames/1.html [Accessed on 23^rd November 2013]

Anne-Sophie. August 2012. Design in Movies: week 2. [online] Available at: http://www.retrofurnish.com/blog/en/2012/08/design-in-movies-week-2/ [Accessed on 23^rd November 2013]

Humanising Approach to Design

The term for International Style was first used in 1932 by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson in their essay titled The International Style: Architecture Since 1922. So instead it got its name from a poster like Art Nouveau and Art Deco did, this got its name from a catalogue for an architectural exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. The International style is mainly characterised by the works of Frank Lloyd Wright and Walter Gropius by their use of rectilinear forms, light, plane surfaces that have been stripped of any ornamentation, the use of open interior spaces and the fact that the buildings have a sense of weightless quality due to the use of reinforced-concrete cantilever slabs. Other characteristics are the combination of simple and natural materials with modern building materials, such as glass and concrete with wood and stone. 

Even furniture was to be free of ornamentation and had to imply clarity, transparency, elegance and rationality. But apart from the Architectural design we also have the Organic Design of International design. The humanizing approach to design was first pioneered by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Frank Loyd Wright continued to work on these ideals. Their principle was the unity of the whole total effect matters more than the sum of all the parts. A building had to capture the spirit of nature and the interiors were made to connect with the architecture. Architecture was made to connect with its surrounding nature although organic forms were seldom used.

An important designer we find in the Organic Design of International Design is Alvar Aalto who studied architecture in Helsinki, then travelled to Europe and Scandinavia. His travels, as well as his homeland, are going to influence his designs and his way of thinking. Aalto started to experiment with the bending of wood which later led to his revolutionary chair designs which also inspired other designers such as Ray and Charles Eames.  His belief was that natural materials fulfilled the functional and psychological needs of users.

One of Alvar Aalto’s 1930s plywood experiments.

He also designed his house in Turku in 1927 which was regarded as the first example of Scandinavian Modernism.

Although it is constructed using geometric shapes it is still considered as organic since it blends with the surroundings. Even the materials and colours blend with its surrounding nature.

Chair by Alvar Aalto, Model 31, in comparison with the Red and Blue Chair by Gerrit Rietveld. Both are following the same principles, that of simplistic in form and without decorations. But in Aalto’s design we get more curves of the wood and only done in two parts, rather than the angular multiple pieces of Rietveld design.

Alvar Aalto iittala vase

Alvar Aalto Stackable Stool

Aalto pioneered a humanizing and modern organic vocabulary of form, with soft flowing curves instead of rigid formalism. His main concern was both the functional and emotional impact his products had on the consumer rather than the possibility of universal transcendence.

Encyclopædia Britannica. 2013. Encyclopaedia Britannica: International style. [online] Available at: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/291280/International-Style [Accessed on 16^th November 2013]

Hauffer T. 1998.design a concise history. London. Laurence King Publishing.

Simon Glynn 1999 (updated 2004). Walter Gropius House, Lincoln MA. [online] Available at: http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/gropiushouse/  [Accessed on 16^th November 2013]

The Little House Window design. 1998. Wright on the Web: Seventeen Buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright. [online] Available at: http://www.wrightontheweb.net/flw8.htm [Accessed on 16^th November 2013]

UN. Design Museum: Plywood. [online] Available at: http://designmuseum.org/design/plywood  [Accessed on 16^th November 2013]

Auctionata: Chair by Alvar Aalto, Model 31. [online] Available at: http://auctionata.com/en/o/28572/chair-by-alvar-aalto-model-31-around-1930  [Accessed on 16^th November 2013]

Scherer Marton. March 2013. Debu: A design nagymesterei – Alvar Aalto [online] Available at: http://www.designbutorok.hu/a-design-nagymesterei-alvar-aalto/  [Accessed on 16^th November 2013] 

The Reunification of all the Artistic Handwork Disciples

The Bauhaus didn’t just come to be, but rather progressed from other previous movements that lead to it. For instance, the Arts and Crafts movement together with Constructivism, De Stijl and Deutsche Werkbund were the founding movements which lead to the Bauhaus Movement. I already discussed these said movements individually about their foundations and principles. Now we are going to see how each contributed to make the Bauhaus Movement possible.

Being modern means making use of new technologies and techniques, as did the Impressionists at that time. With regards to design, the fact that we went through the Industrial Revolution and mass production, makes it modern. Therefore anything which is new and innovative is by definition modern!

The Bauhaus was founded in 1919 by Walter Gropius in 1919, by uniting the Weimar Art Acadamy and Henry van de Velde’s schoolof Industrial design. Its name meant literally building house. It was initially moved to Dessau then to Berlin but it was eventually closed down in 1933 by the Nazis. Later the Bauhaus moved to America but it did not last long there. “The Bauhaus’ attempts to gather all artistic creation into a single entity – the reunification of all the artistic handwork disciplines – sculpture, painting, the applied arts, and crafts – as indissoluble elements of the new art building.” Walter Gropius. (Thomas Hauffe Design a concise history page 75). By following this belief, the Bauhaus developed an entirely new organisational and architectural structure. Another quote from their manifesto was that “the complete building is the ultimate aim of all visual arts” in which they believed in the equality between artists and craftsman. The designers got their inspirations from: 

Henry van de Velde, 

William Morris from the Arts and Crafts Movement, 

Expressionist paintings, 

De Stijl, 

Constructivism, and especially the technology of machines.

Henry van de Velde Bloemenwerf Armchair. It is very simple in design without excessive decoration.

In 1922 Theo van Doesburg, the founder of the De Stijl movement conducted a course close to the Bauhaus. Doesburg was completely against the artistic approach the Bauhaus was taking, so he introduced the clear, constructivist forms of the De Stijl movements to the students there. After this introduction this influence broadened in 1922.

This influence can be clearly seen in Marcel Breuer chair 1923. Breuer was a great admirer of the De Stijl movement and we are going to see more famous chairs created by him in the style of Rietveld between 1921 and 1929.

Reitveld Red and Blue Chair.

Other examples of Marcel Breuer are:

Arm Chair B35, 1928-1929.

Cesca Side Chair (model B32) 1928

Club Chair (B3) 1927-1928

It can be seen that the design is becoming less decorative even from the previous ones. He is making use of tubular steel in which it is bent to create the legs and frame as a whole and as a one entity.

Later Social idealism joins commercial reality in which art meets the industry. They are exploiting new technologies. There was function with the fixation and rationality.

During this movement we have Walter Gropius who is very important and like Frank Lloyd Wright did, he is going to work on the fact that a building is considered as a whole. To him construction is an important social, symbolic and intellectual endeavour.

The Gropius House was built for Gropius family after he had moved from Germany to America. This house was the first of its kind in America and had a great impact on people, so much so that they were describing it as “the new Industrial Style”. It was innovative, asymmetric and simplistic compared to the Victorian houses found at the time. It was so even on the inside since it is considered as a whole. Yet it has a dramatic feel to it, for instance in the dining room there is a spotlight recessed in the ceiling which only covers the diameter of the table while leaving the diners in the dark. Also the interior keeps to the Bauhaus principles which Gropius had founded. He makes use of simple forms as well as simple lines making the whole building simplistic.

It is such an innovative house that today we are trying to go back to this simplicity instead of all the Pop colours and ideas we had in the 90’s era. In fact today we are going through this transition from that chaotic way of life to the simplistic yet with a hint of fun.

“We will always be modern, our design always essential”

(Frames, Issue 89. Page 047) such designs are still being produced today.

These Lammhults Chairs, Series S70 are looking back at the Bauhaus designs such as the Arm Chair B35 as well as the Cesca Side Chair (model B32). As quoted from the Lammhults site itself “Bo Lindenkrantz and Börge Lindau brought their playful, colourful and joyful attitude to Lammhults.”

Cesca Side Chair (model B32)   and     Arm Chair B35

Bonluxat. UN. Henry van de Velde Bloemenwerf Armchair. [online] Available at: http://www.bonluxat.com/a/Henry_van_de_Velde_Bloemenwerf_Armchair.html [Accessed on 15^th November 2013]

Simon Glynn 1999 (updated 2004). Walter Gropius House, Lincoln MA. [online] Available at: http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/gropiushouse/  [Accessed on 15^th November 2013]

Hauffer T. 1998.design a concise history. London. Laurence King Publishing.