DESIGN - is all around us . - Ilkley U3A

DESIGN –

    is all around us………..

‘Have nothing in your house that you do not know
to be useful, or believe to be beautiful’

                             William Morris

‘My  belief is simply that if reasonable and intelligent people are offered
something that is well made, well designed, of a decent quality and at
a price they can afford, then they will like it and buy it.’

Terence Conran
(Founder of Habitat)

WAYS OF DESIGNING AND MAKING
(Note – the direct connection between the two)

1 HANDCRAFTING

vHIGH labour costs
vHigh skill level needed
vHigh individuality
vSlow delivery
vSmall quantities
vHigh Value Added

WAYS OF DESIGNING AND MAKING
q MACHINE MADE (Post Industrial Revolution)

q HIGH capital investment
q High division of labour/ specialisation
q Lower workers’ skills level
q Risk of redundancy/replacement by machines/robots
q Lower individuality – more standardisation
q Quicker delivery (sometimes)
q Lower value added
q Mass production
q Globalisation

WAYS OF DESIGNING AND MAKING
3 ETHICAL MANUFACTURE

Ø   Aim to reduce harm to society overall
Ø   Reduce impact on the environment
Ø   Consider the ‘whole life’ of the product – circular production process
Ø   Concept of ‘Fair Trade’
Ø   Re-investing profits to benefit of others
Ø   Avoiding ‘In-built obsolescence’ c.f. Fashion/Electrical Industries

An Historic Perspective

The Age of Aesthetics (1851 – 1914)

1851 – The Great Exhibition
•   Crystal Palace (Joseph Paxton)
•   Constructed in six months
•   Six million people—equivalent to a third of the entire population of
    Britain at the time—visited the Great Exhibition
•   Arts, sciences and industry all
       exhibited
•   International focus
•   ‘Museum quarter’ of South Kensington

An Historic Perspective
The English Arts and Crafts Movement
                (1862)

The English Arts and Crafts Movement (1860s - )
•   Associated with the Pre-Raphaelites and Victorian Gothic movements (Pugin)
•   Importance of William Morris
•   Recognising the skills of craftsmen (anti industrialisation)
•   Artists and craftsmen working together
•   Nature as a major source of inspiration
•   Renaissance in the decorative arts
•   Heightened social awareness
•   Improving living standards

                  1859 - The Red House,
           architect Philip Webb and the
                 designer William Morris

The English Arts and Crafts Movement (1860s - )
•   Integration of architecture and interior design
•   Importance of educating the public
•   Socialist ideals in production
•   Supported by John Ruskin
•   Included printing, furniture, wallpapers, buildings, ornamentation etc

Jessie M King illustration
William Morris

An Historic Perspective

Art Nouveau from c1890…….

Art Nouveau
• An attitude, rather than a style, influenced by William Morris et al
• A continental movement, rather than British
• Importance of Belgium, Paris, Nancy and Riga
• in different languages by different names: Jugendstil in German; in
  English it is also known as the Modern Style
• Inspired by natural forms and non-industrialised processes and scales
• Found across many art forms and designs, not just painting. E.g.
  Jewellery, fabric, furniture, advertising
• Increased status of the applied/decorative arts

ALPHONSE MUCHA (1860 – 1939)

THE GLASGOW SCHOOL
Charles Rennie Mackintosh et al

Art Nouveau in Riga

Art Nouveau wallpapers

VIENNA SECESSIONISTS

The Beethoven Frieze
Gustav Klimpt

Ålesund - Jugendstil

An Historic Perspective

Art Deco / Style Moderne   (early 20th century - 1939)

ART DECO
• Holistic design.
• Associated with opulence and luxury (liners, jewellery, décor etc)
• In fact it impacted on all classes of people
• Grew out of Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts movements
• BUT – sleek, not sinuous; for the machine age
• Speed motif + idealised female form
• Use of black with metals
• Importance of international exhibitions and foreign influences
  (e.g. Egyptian)
• Impacted on fashion, décor, buildings, furnishings, glassware,
  posters, theatre etc

• Try watching the Hercules Poirot TV programmes!!!

Art Deco posters

Art Deco fashions

Art Deco buildings –
Especially sky-scrapers

Eltham Palace

                Broadcasting House +
                Eric Gill’s ‘Prospero and Ariel’

Glassware – Renee Lalique

Art Deco and Transport

An Historic Perspective

 The Bauhaus Movement (from c1919)
  (Walter Gropius 1893 – 1969)

The Bauhaus Movement
•   A real school of design, based in Weimar
•   Removed distinctions between craftsmen and artists
•   Gathered like-minded people around him
•   Combined architecture, sculpture and painting into one form
•   Spread world-wide – led to modernism
•   ‘Form follows function’
•   Honesty and simplicity of design
•   Reduction in decoration for its own sake

An Historic Perspective

Scandinavian and Contemporary Design

Scandinavian and Contemporary Design

• Cult of minimalism, lack of clutter and
  ornamentation
• Natural materials
• Clean lines
• Indoor/outdoor living
• Scandinavian influence spread
  internationally
• Biomorphism – undulating forms

Eero Saarninan chairs

                                        Alvar Aalto stools

                        Charles Eames

In the UK in the sixties – the importance
of Terence Conran’s ‘Habitat’

This is one of their very early catalogues
(1971)

NEXT TIME………..
We will look at some ‘Design Icons’ and a few designers we should all be aware of.