Design Theory

Analyse the Arts and Crafts (1850-1900) movement

• Key point: Traditional crafts rather than machines

• Influences: A reaction to the loss of traditional skills and overuse of ornamentation that was perceived to have resulted from the Industrial Revolution

• Inspirations: Medieval craft guilds, simplicity, natural forms and the beauty of timber

• Features: ‘Honest’, handmade, traditional methods (e.g. pegged mortise and tenon joints), the beauty of materials (e.g. grain and figure of oak clearly displayed)

• Designers: William Morris, Charles Voysey

Analyse the Art Deco (1925-1939) movement

• Key point: Popular modernism with exotic influences

• Influences and inspirations: The end of the First World War, aspirational consumers, popularity of travel and growth of mass production, the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922, a range of international styles (e.g. Egyptian temples, Aztec motifs and African carvings)

• Features: Ziggurat, stepped decorationss and building styles (e.g. New York skyscrapers), sunburst motifs, stylised, geometric forms of products, from jewellery to furniture, contrasting with Art Nouveau

• Designers: Clarice Cliff, Eileen Gray

Analyse the Modernism Bauhaus (1919-1933) movement

• Key point: Machine aesthetic approach to ‘Form follows function’ (i.e. dictated by the way the product work)

• Influences and inspirations: Post-First World War idealism, abolition of censorship, Arts and Crafts views on form and function, First World War industrial methods and materials, geometrically pure forms, as also influenced Art Deco

• Features: Founded as an art school by Walter Gropius and eventually closed due to pressure from the Nazis, the course covered materials, form, metalwork, furniture design, architecture, graphics and more, embraced mass production to create ‘everyday products for everyday people’ using modern materials (e.g. tubular steel), Marcel Breuer’s chairs typify its functional, ornament-free, ‘machine aesthetic’ approach

• Designers: Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer

Analyse the Post-Modernism Memphis (1981-1988) movement

• Key point: Less is a bore

• Influences and inspirations: A Milan-based collective of designers rebelling against the functionality of Modernism, Art Deco and any other era, movement/design that interested them, from Pop Art to children’s toys)

• Features: Playful, bold, bright, colourful, sculpural designs that often overlooked functionality, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic features, simplistic, abstract and often random juxtapositions of geometric forms, designed to shock, a range of non-traditional materials (e.g. plastic laminate)

• Designers: Ettore Sottass, Michele De Lucchi