Design and Industrial Production

National Romanticism

Northern and Central Europe
Mid-late 19th century
Sought to establish sense of cultural independence and national identity
Indigenous arts, history, music, and folk traditions
Historical movement

Deutcher Werkbund

Germany 1907
Large companies wanted practicality over luxury
Strong sense of nationalism
Effective, high quality mass production
Everything uniform and standard
First time mechanization was viewed in a positive light
Promoted modularity, standardization and mechanized production

Industrial Design

Process of design applied to products manufactured through mass production
Associated with Deutcher Werkbund movement

Corporate Identity

Materials like logos, brochures, building design, and stationary that communicate an image of the organization
How a corporation presents themselves to the public
Associated with Deutcher Werkbund movement and Fordism

Standardization

Defining uniform procedures and objects in design
Process of implementing and developing technical standards
Started in US with emergence of nationally branded products and services
Associated with Fordism

Scientific Management

Frederic W. Taylor
Experiments to measure and maximize worker’s productivity
Created productivity standards and increased division of labor and efficiency
Promoted conformity and uniformity of production

Fordism

System of standardized mass production attributed to Henry Ford
Moving assembly line
Labor defined as factor of time rather than skill
Uniformity and standardization
Early 20th century

Assembly Line

Product moved from worker to worker, each person performing single task in making of a product
Reorganization of the location of parts
Transformed automobile from luxury item to vehicle for middle class

How was design involved in national culture in Finland and Hungary at the end of the nineteenth century?

National Romanticism
Pottery in Hungary

How did German industrial design before World War I differ from Arts and Crafts?

Machine-made mass production
Uniform style
Benefits of efficiency in design and production outweighed individual expressive concerns

How did Taylor’s “scientific management” and Fordism change the mass production of goods?

Maximized productivity
Increased division of labor and efficiency
Promoted conformity and uniformity
Standardization

What does the nineteenth century history of the sewing machine demonstrate about the division between home and work?

Began to advertise differently
Showed well-dressed model sitting at individual table with space rather than hunched over in factory
Decorative elements to fit into hime
Clearly not a factory tool

Key Figures

Hermann Muthesius
Richard Riemerschmid
Otto Eckmann
Peter Behrens
Henry Ford
Frederic W. Taylor
Isaac Merritt Singer
Charles Rennie Mackintosh