Design: History and Future

design

theresa m. winge Fall 2008

design • creative problem-solving (v.) • product (or idea) resulting from creative problem-solving (n.)

design history • • • • •

industrial revolution (technology) modernism (art and philosophy) bauhaus (education) “women’s work” contemporary design (movements)

industrial revolution • late 18th and early 19th century • industrialization of the Western world • impact on fashion • technology • cotton gin • sewing machine

• science • textiles

• unions • UCLA

modernism • late 19th and early 20th century • cultural, social, fine arts, applied arts, etc. movement • experimentation and fragmentation of the human experience • characterized by deviations from cultural norms • reject tradition in favor of new ways to “make”

bauhaus history •Walter Gropius •1919 founded •Werkbund movement •Weimar Art Academy and the Weimar Arts and Crafts School •combine art and craft (skills)

bauhaus school

Bauhaus ideology • to design team work cooperatively and combine their skills. • to combine the areas of arts and crafts (skills). • to elevate the status of crafts and design to the same level as fine arts, painting, sculpting, etc. • to create and maintain industry contacts, in order to create designs that are marketable and user-friendly.

design process

design elements and principles

“form follows function” • • • •

design motto form = aesthetic function = purpose aesthetic based on purpose

bauhaus design critique • Design is a collaborative, not individual activity • Not all design is created by professionals • Emphasizes production at expense of creative contribution of consumers/ users/ makers • Political critique of linking morality with architecture, and of ‘Whig’ interpretation of history as bound up with ‘progress’ • Pluralism rather than single-strand development the norm • Form does not necessarily follow function, or new technology • Where are women? The emphasis on architecture and product design marginalises areas like fashion, craft

contemporary design •marcel bruer •studied at bauhaus •changed bauhaus’ direction from “arts and crafts” to “arts and technology” •harvard university •Post-modern •d schools

harvard graduate center (1950)

whitney museum of american art New York City 1966

contemporary design challenges • • • • • •

human rights animal rights environmental issues social injustices civil rights (and liberties) sustainability issues

“women’s work” • • • • • •

domestic arts home economics human ecology dress studies fashion design apparel merchandising

green design

virtual design

references

• • • • • • • • • • •

20th Century Desinger Data Publisher. “Marcel Breuer”.r20thcentury.com /bios/designers. BBC Education. “Walter Gropius”. bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/centurions/gropius/gropbiog .html. Design Technology. “Marcel Lajos Breuer”. www.design technology.org/Marcel Breuer.html. Elam, Kimberly. Geometry of Design. Princeton Architectural Press, 2001. Meggs, Philip B and Alston W. Purvis. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2006. Flores, G. “Bauhaus”. History of the Bauhaus. people.ucsc.edu/~gflores/bauhaus/history.html. Huovio, Ilkka. “Bauhaus: The New Man The New Technology”. www.uiah.fi/presentation/ history/ ebauh.html.. Morgan, Ann. & Naylor, Colin. Contemporary Architects, 2nd edition. Cicago:Saint James Press, 1987. Rowland, Anna. Bauhaus Source Book. New York:Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1990. Sharp, Dennis. Illustrated Encyclopedia of Architects and Architecture. New York: Quatro Publishing, 1991. The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities. “Gropius House”. spnea.org.