Presentation: Summary

     This is a summary of the final presentation I had to do with my group. We had the title Post- Modernism. We started by introducing the presentation by talking about what was happening before Post- Modernism began. There was Pop Design and Radical Design which were a lot about striking colours, scale distortion, irony and a reaction against perfection.

    We introduced the subject itself by saying some characteristics of Post- Modernism. Post- Modernist found the designs of the Modernists to be fundamentally meaningless and boring. Designers got inspiration mostly from forms and Motifs drawn from past styles.

    Fashion during this time was inspired a lot from the theatre and Alexander McQueen was mostly popular at this time. He is a British Designer who designs to show the vulnerability of women, which gives them strength. For Spring/Summer collection of 1995 he created The Birds, a collection all inspired from Hitchcock film- Birds.

    Micheal Graves is an American architect who design abstract style private houses. He built the Portland building in 1982 which is the first major building of Post- Modernism. It is a 15-storey office block in Portland, Oregon. The building in all costs around ninety five million dollars. It is a building which reminds me a lot of cubism because of its geometrical shapes. It is also very symmetrical.

    Philippe Starck is a French interior and product designer born in Paris. He believes that everything needs to have a function and he tried to create ordinary things but in an abstract form. Miss Less is a sculptured chair made of contemporary shiny plastic molding. Its base is a cube available in various solid colors while the back can be as in the same color as in some contacting color as transparent. Such chairs would be a great addition to any contemporary interiors. I have never seen a chair this shape and the idea is very unique. The design  is very simple and is lightweight and easy to move around.

    The Memphis Group was founded in 1981 in Milan, Italy by a group of designers and architects who believed that their designs should consist of different textures, colours, patterns and shapes. Memphis was a reaction against the slick, smart, warm, black humorless design of the 1970's. Ettore Scottsass was an Austrian designer, but lived in Italy, from the late twentieth century. He was one of the founder of the Memphis Group, and also he designed iconic electronic products, as well as furniture and ornaments. He designed the Acme House in Maui. It is a two story building with high roofs built around a big garden filled with beautiful green grass. The outside of the building has five colours- green, red, white and purple. These colours fit in really well together and makes the place very colourful. Since the outside already has a lot going on with the colours, the shape is quite simple and very geometric. It is made out of cubes only, except the roof of one part of the house which is triangle. This is a very beautiful home near the beach.

These were a few of the many examples we talk about in our presentation.

Bibliography for whole presentation:

 •Alessandro Mendini: Redesign and Revival. 2014. Alessandro Mendini: Redesign and Revival. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.ateliermendini.it/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,print,0&cntnt01articleid=3&cntnt01showtemplate=false&cntnt01lang=en_US&cntnt01returnid=222. [Accessed 14 January 2014].

•Rory Scott, 2010.  AD Classics: The Portland Building/Michael Graves. [image online] Available at: http://www.archdaily.com/tag/michael-graves/ [Accessed 17th January 2014]

•Alessi, 2014. 9093 Kettle. [image online] Available at:http://www.alessi.com/en/2/1313/kettles/9093-kettle [Accessed 17th January 2014]

•Megan Sveivan, 2010. St. Coletta School/Michael Graves. [images online] Available at: http://www.archdaily.com/88771/ad-classics-st-coletta-school-michael-graves/ [Accessed 17th January 2014]

•Eliinbar, 2011. Someone Has Built It Before. [image online] Available at: http://archidialog.com/tag/michael-graves/ [Accessed 17th January 2014]

•Kevin West, n.d. Michael Graves. [image online] Available at: http://www.citelighter.com/art-architecture/architecture/knowledgecards/michael-graves [Accessed 17th January 2014]

•Salhi, S. (2013). Inflatable House by Starck in 1969 tribute to Quasar Khanh Amazing designer at this time.. Available: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/508906826613094919/. Last accessed 19th January 2014.

•Starck, P. (2012). Miss Less. Available: http://www.starck.com/en/design/categories/furniture/chairs.html#miss_less. Last accessed 19th January 2014.

•JESSICAD. (2012). Philippe Starck. Available: ttp://industrial.design.iastate.edu/501/2012/08/27/philippe-starck/. Last accessed 19th January 2014.

•Watson-Smyth, K . (2010). The Secret History Of: Philippe Starck's lemon squeezer. Available: http://www.independent.co.uk/property/interiors/the-secret-history-of-philippe-starcks-lemon-squeezer-1972849.html. Last accessed 19th January 2014.

•Paquette, J. (2011). Raygun Gothic Rocket Ship. Available: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/54280266. Last accessed 19th January 2014.

•Marshall, J. (2006). FutureFactories- Holy Ghost 2. Available: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rootoftwo/267284228/. Last accessed 19th January 2014.

All searched on January 2014

Chart: Description

For my chart I chose four fashion designers and a textile print designer which are – William Morris, Elsa Schiapparelli, Nancy Judd, Jean Patou and Andre’ Courreges. They all lived in different times, but all have something very common between them- they all have designs that where inspired directly from flowers. In the designs that I showed they have directed flower patterns on them. 

Starting with William Morris who was part in the Arts and Crafts Movement during the late 1800’s. He was widely aware about the drawbacks of the Industrial Revolution and that people were going to work and produce repetitive stuff with lack of creation and design. He was against all this and he worked hard to continue to produce designs by hand where each and every product was unique and different. He was a very famous print designer. All his designs where inspired directly from nature. His patterns where very full and busy. They were also very organic and classic with vibrant and rich colours and each leaf and flower was very detailed. The three designs that I showed in the chart are very bright and beautiful. 

Elsa Shiapparelli was a fashion designer during the early 1900’s and she was very popular after WW1. The end of the war inspired her more to have different designs from what already existed. She wanted fashion to have a new start in design. Her designs were very feminine and elegant. She had a very colourful style. The Garments I showed in the chart all have flowers and organic shapes embroidered to them. This embroidery make the clothing look very rich and sophisticated. They are very detailed patterns just like William Morris’s.

Only a few years before the 1930’s the thomb of Tutankhamun was discovered in Egypt. This was a big worldwide news and the fashion designer Jean Patou inspired himself from this historic event. He created clothes with shapes and colours inspired from the Egyptian culture. On my chart I am showing two long dresses from his designs. One of them is light orange with a long beaded and embroidered pattern on the front. It is a very detailed organic sophisticated dress. The colours of the dress where inspired directly from the tomb of Tutankhamun. The other dress is very flowy with three big statement flowers pinned to the sides. This is a more literate feature than the parrens of Schapparelli’s and Morris’s.

Andre’ Courreges was also inspired from what was happening and the discoveries of his time. He was mostly famous during the 1960’s and plastic was just invented and he experimented a lot with PVC in his designs. In the late 1960’s the first man on the moon landed and fashion around the world took a whole new look inspired from rockets and space. For my chart I showed two designs of Courreges and both are in white PVC and inspired from space suits. They actually look like something an austranout would wear. One of them has two big flowers in the front as a decoration. These flowers are very different than the ones from the previous dsigners I talked about. It is a very simple literate flower, while the others are more decorated with leaves and different shapes. Courreges design is a bit more childish. 

A huge eco environmental campaign is happening today all over the world. We are becoming aware that we cannot no longer continue to put our junk in our landfills. The government is making us recycle most of our thing and part of the education in school is about how to make our environment better. Nancy Judd is known as the Recycle Runway Designer. All her fashion designs are made out of recycled objects mainlt aluminium and paper. One the designs I show in my chart is a pair of normal black heeled shoes and she added aluminum flower details. The flower is very simple with small petals around it. The other garment that is on the chart is a black dress with white papered lace. The lace pattern is very detailed and beautiful and very feminine.

It seems that the further back we go in time the pattern of flowers on textiles and fashion was much more elaborated and detailed. Though it was always a subject that designers was mostly inspired from.

Essay: William Haines and Eero Saarinen

William Haines was born in 1900 in Virginia, U.S. He left home at a very early age in his teens and started out his career as an actor in Hollywood. He became famous very quickly and was loved by many fans. In his late thirties, he quite from being a movie star and started his new career as an interior designer. He was the number one designer in Hollywood, and worked for all the movie stars and famous people there. Haines transformed the very new look of Hollywood.

He created sleek, classic pieces that were triumphs of form and function. Haines was very interested in how people lived and how he could make their homes easier to live in. After the two world wars, people wanted a huge change in life, they wanted to be more comfortable and Haines successfully showed this in all his designs. He created beautiful luxurious homes which were different from the past. He had his own unique style. 

His style was inspired mostly from art deco, but he also was very futuristic in his ideas. The Valentine, Bel-Air, and the Tufted are three sofas that Haines created in the early fifties and the three of them have very similar styles. Valentine has a bright red/ scarlet colour, hence the name- ‘Valentine’, while the Bel-Air is in white and Tufted in Beige. They are very boxy shaped sofas, with quilted squares all over the fabric. The wooden frame is all hidden, except for the sofa legs. They look very comfortable, unique and bold. The design must have been very modernistic for the time being, they actually look like something that might have been designed today, during our contempory period. They are long sofas, which don’t look bulky at all. 

Valentine

Bel-Air

Tufted

The Iron Coffee table is another luxurious and classic design of William Haines. It is a very simple black metal framed coffee table with a transparent glass top. The metal frame is very different from the usual table frames, it actually looks like a tennis court. The design is very fun and sleek. This is the kind of designs people wanted in the 1950’s – simple and luxurious. They were very tired after both world wars and these designs made their life much easier. The graceful lines of the table are very glamorous and original. 

Iron Coffee Table

Eero Saarinen is also an interior designer mostly popular in the 1960’s, from Michigan. Just like Haines he was also a designer who wanted a change, someone who wanted his designs to be simple, but fun and luxurious. During Saarinen’s time people were already getting used to the change of design after both wars. In the 1960’s there was a huge experimentation, with organic shapes and different materials.

 The Tulip Chair is considered to be a classic of industrial design. Saarinen original design is all white with red cushion. It is aluminum based with fiberglass frame. The style is very modernist with smooth curved lines and the experimental with materials was very futuristic for the time. For the time being it was also very original the idea of creating a chair with just one leg. This was part of the huge change in design from before the world wars. It is a very elegant slim design.

Tulip Chair

The Womb Chair is another classic design of Saarinen. It is a lounge chair and a footrest, with its polished chrome base and a frame upholstered in fabric over a fiberglass shell. It looks very comfortable and the shape is very agronomical. This design defiantly sets new standards for comfortable modern design. The chair is designed to facilitate a relaxed sitting posture – hence the name ‘Womb’. Like Haines designs this looks like something we still have in our homes: their designs were very futuristic. 

The Womb Chair

Both William Haines and Eero Saarinen were involved in the huge challenge for change after the two world wars and both were very successful. When the wars ended, they left a new worldwide generation of veterans with young families struggling to rebuild their lives. They were hoping for a very comfortable future with inexpensive housing and furnishings and this led to a boom in design and production. Both their design were very futuristic and most of them are still being produced today.

Bibiliography:

Jared Goss 2013 http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/dsgn3/hd_dsgn3.htm

Hive 2014 http://hivemodern.com/pages/product173/knoll-eero-saarinen-womb-chair-ottoman

Design within reach 2014 http://www.dwr.com/product/womb-chair-classic-boucle.do

All searched on the 17^th January 2014

Enviornmental Design

    By the 80’s environmentalists made a hug awareness and warned everyone about the effects of industrialization on global warning. We needed to care more of our landfills and started being more aware of what we buy and what we throw away. We started reusing and recycling things, and overall we started learning how we can change materials into new products. Environmental design is concerned with minimizing waste and reducing consumption of energy and materials. Sustainable design describes a design philosophy that values the natural environmental as an integral factor in creating new products or modifying old ones. Sustainable designs try to maximize overall efficiency with surrounding resources, such as transportation as well as energy efficient.Below are some Contempory designs that are made from recycled objects.

    Malissa (her full name couldn’t be found) owns The Tiny Tack House, which is a group of small houses surrounded with big areas of fields in Washington. People come here for a short period of time for a holiday. Both exterior and interior of this area include designs and construction, all inspired from nature and environmental design. Below is a picture of an outside dining table with seating that are around this area. This design is made from pieces of pallets, and two huge brick under each seating as a base. This design is very simple to make also it is actually a very decorative and a very original idea. The neutral colours of both material blend in with the surroundings and it makes you feel that you are part of nature. I think young people would really enjoy this and should get inspired to do something similar for their gardens, instead of going and spend a hundred euro on one outdoor chair. It would be a great place for a group of people to chill and enjoy their time together.

    Loopworks is a company that is no stranger to using recycled materials. They produce items from wetsuie fabric, cotton, jersey, Italian wool, hemp, nylon, vinyl and recycled polyester. These iPad cases were their first design with using leather. The cases are made from scraps of excess shoe leather eliminated because it had natural blemishes. This discarded material can amount to 4500 pounds per day from just one factory! In my opinion this design is very classy and eco-chic. It looks very retro and vintage, and one who does like simple and plain things would love to own one of these. It also looks very good tailored. Just like the above outside dining unit this is an easy way to recycle things. You can easily find both pallets, and scraps of fabric easily around. 

    Loopworks isn’t the only company in the world that uses recycling materials, in fact there are a lot more. Grove and Maple xo collaborated to make these iPhone backs out of the discarded post-industrial skateboard material. The backs are each milled and finished by hand, so no two are alike. Each week, skateboard factories create enough waste to fill a city bus and this is such an original way to recycle them. I have never seen a phone case with stripes and I think it is very colourful and unique. Apart from protecting your case they are a decoration to your phone and the best part is that no one will ever have the exact same phone case as you!

     You wouldn’t believe sometimes how much stuff you can do with the materials we throw away every day. It is very important to throw the materials in the recycling bins so that someday we can use them again in a different form.

Bibliography:

Chris and Malissa November 6, 2012 http://chrisandmalissa.com/

Erin McCarthy April 22, 2013 http://mentalfloss.com/article/50227/13-products-made-using-recycled-materials

Grove 2012 http://www.grovemade.com/product/iphone-5-skateback/#vibrant-iphone-5-skateback

All searched on the 13th January 2014

Ergonomic Design

    Design changes so much from time to time, it functions for the needs and the lifestyle of that particular time. With the technology changing so fast these last couple of years, design has to cater for our new developments and our needs. Ergonomic design applies findings from the study of anthropometrics and is an analysis of the relationship between the human for our surroundings. It performs better and is more user friendly and easier to maintain. Today designers in their designs think about people with disabilities or old people, who might need a specific design for a certain object to be better to handle than others. Today design is based more on weaknesses rather than strengths. 

    Micheal Boulay created this set of cutlery that can be easily be used by a motor skills of a handicapped hand. The function of the cutlery and the way of holding them grow together in parallel. These designs were tested on various disabled children and it resulted that the shape of their handle is much easier to use that a normal-shaped cutlery. Being handicapped isn’t synonymous with remaining handicapped, and progress is always possible and designs like this will help the person develop even further. Most probably someone without disabilities will find these cutlery difficult to use because their shape isn’t designed for our kind of hands.

    The set of cutlery on the right are designed by Normann Copenhagen and are made from mat steel. Their shape is the kind of cutlery a person without any disabilities is familiar to. Their flat handle is the perfect shaped handle for their kind of hands. A person without any disability finds this design more functional than the Micheal Boulay one. Many people find this kind of design so for granted because it has been the same for so many years, that they won’t even realise that a person with disabilities might find a different design much better to use.

    The Vertebra is a great example to explain ergonomic design. It is the first automatically adjustable office chair ever invented. It was introduced in 1976 and the design responds and adapts to the movement of the user’s body. It also provides comfort and support. This is a great chair for those who stay seated in front of their desk for long hours every day. It could also be very handy for old people who will find this seating very comfortable for their back. Lower back pains cause to those people who have few support on their chairs and to those who don’t do proper exercise. This chair will help with the pains because it will adjust automatically with the posture of your back.

Overall ergonomic design is the design that works in harmony with the human body. Products are safer and more user friendly.

Bibliography:

Made in Design 2014 http://www.madeindesign.co.uk/prod-normann-cutlery-gift-box-16-pcs-normann-copenhagen-ref330524.html

Micheal Boulay 2013 http://mickaelboulay.fr/index.php?/menu/transitions/

The Metropolitan Museum of Art 2013 http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1989.48

All searched on the 10th of January 2014

The House of Christian Dior

    By no doubt, Christian Dior is the heart of anyone who adores fashion. He is known in every country of all the world. He is famous for his extravagant and sculpted embellishments. He was born in 1905 in Normandy, France and after he abandons his political studies in 1928, he opens an art gallery founded by his father. He becomes part of a Bohemian art group. After Dior’s family falls on hard times, he begins sketching designs for a number of fashion houses and in 1938 Dior joins Robert Piguet as a designer. Nine years later, Dior launches his fashion house with the Corolle collection. This was his first major collection he created, which was quickly nicknamed ‘The new look’ by the press.

    On the right one of ‘The new look’s, which consists of a white round shouldered jacket with and narrow waist and wide at the hips, sort of a peplum effect. It is dressed up with a black midi skirt (length below your knees), which is all pleated from the waistband. It is accessorised with a wide rounded straw hat and black satin gloves. This is a very feminine elegant look. The colours make the look very clean and cool. The wide bottom of the jacket makes the woman look with beautiful curves. Below are more pictures of this collection of evening wear. They are all fun feminine looks with flared skirts that give the woman a flirty look. The colours black and white were used the most in Dior’s collection. 

    In 1948 the Envol collection of scooped skirts and fly-back jackets is embraced by a converted public. On the left is one of the looks from this collection. The dress is less wider and less flowy from the collection of the previous year but still looks very comfortable. Although it has no pleats the fabric looks very drapy. The length of the dress is a bit further up the ankles which makes it very easily to walk and move in. the wide low length jacket is very beautiful and it completes the whole outfit along with the round small hat and long black gloves. Dior loved designing outfit with long satin black gloves, and they made each design look very smart. The black kitten healed shoes where very popular at that time, and it was a basic need in each woman’s closet.

    Marlene Dietrich who starred in Stage Fright by Alfred Hitchcock, impressed the audience with her Christian Dior’s garments. Her contract with Hitchcock required a Dior wardrobe, which she was allowed to keep after the end of the shooting. The most popular dress she wore was a peach toned evening satin dress. It was pleated at the top and big and flowy and the bottom. She wore it with a big white fur shawl that made the look very rich and elegant. Like all Dior’s designs this look was very feminine. Marlene Dietrich look perfect in Dior’s clothes and she became his model for more events.

    In 1953 his collection included barrel-shaped coats worn over shorter skirts that created a softer look. It was a more accessible look that remained popular throughout the 50’s. Each collection after the other is started to look less fitted and flowy and more comfortable to move in. Blazers are usually less feminine than blouses, but Dior still made look very rich and fashionable.The hat is still very popular by Dior. Few years later a young Yves Mahieu- Saint- Laurent joins the Dior house as a design assistant.

    Style changes a lot from time to time and below is a picture of a woman wearing Calvin Klein's blazer from the last decade. They are two completely different designs, but still both are a woman's blazer. Both have round necklines, but in Klein's design the neckline is much higher and more narrowed. Dior's blazer very boxy while the other is fitted more to the woman's body. They both have pockets on the sides, Dior's are more hidden while Klein's are a decoration feature. 

‘’At the risk of being thought soulless, and in spite of my love of architecture and interior decoration, I must admit that clothes are my whole life. Unlimitedly everything I know, see or hear, every part of my life, turns around the clothes which I create. They haunt me perpetually, until they are ready to pass from the world of my dreams into the world of practical utility’’. Christian Dior

    In 1957 Dior dies suddenly with a heart attack and his design assistant takes his place at the Dior House. Today John Galliano is the main designer in this House and new designs are launched every season.

Bibliography:

In style 2013 http://news.instyle.com/photo-gallery/?postgallery=100162#1

About 2014 http://vintageclothing.about.com/od/designerstolookfor/a/Christian-Dior-And-The-1947-new-Look.htm

All searched on the 10th of January 2014

Alberto Meda

    Alberto Meda was born in 1945 and has masters on mechanical engineering. For many years he work as a technical manager with Kartell- a famous Italian company that makes and sell plastic contempory furniture. From 1979 he worked as a freelance industrial designer with various companies including Alfa Romeo Auto. He had various exhibitions of his designs in Tokyo, Paris and also Milan. Most of his work include dining table and chairs. Below are a few examples.

    The Teak collection is a set of tables and chairs ideal for outdoor areas. The collection consists of a chair, a chair with armrests, a sun lounger chair with white nylon wheels, four kinds of tables and benches. These are all made from light metallic grey aluminium and wood. These furniture are lightweight and are easy to be carried around. The chairs are all designed to be stackable and the tables can be folded easily to store better. Their design is very simple yet beautiful, and they don’t look like they are from cheap material at all. They will give the garden life and also a bit of character. Their light colour will defiantly blend in with the bright colours in a garden. The seatings look ergonomically comfortable because their shape is not completely flat. Even though these are perfect for the outdoors I cannot imagine them being used for the indoors. Below are some pictures.

    The OttoWatt was designed in 2011, which is a desk lamp with only one LED light that consumes only 8 watt. This lamp has a rotational disk which can be rotated to change the light to be cold or warm. This is very efficient especially for summer, when it is really warm and the hot bulb next to you is too much while working. The lamp is all made from aluminum and can be adjustable in length and in its direction. It is a very thin desk lamp that won’t take a lot of space on your desk and can be moved easily because it is very lightweight. The design is very simple and has no details at all. I could easily imagine this desk lamp at a high class contemporist office.

    The Ugol by Yaroslav Misonzhnikov is a very different desk lamp than the Otto Watt. The lamp is placed through the edge angle of the table and automatically the bulbs are diagonally on the table. It reminds me of a shovel handle because the shape looks exactly like it. Unfortuantly, unlike the Otto Watt if you don’t have a cornered table this cannot be used. The Ugol is more unique and takes less space on your desk but cannot be adjustable. This has a very unique style unlike the one deisged by Alberto Meda which is very similar to most of the desk lamps you find today. 

    Overall Meda’s designs are very simple yet convenient. They have minimalism of details but could be very useful and comfortable to use. He is one of the few designers that puts functionality before form. He thinks more about the function of the object than how it is going to please the eye.

Bibliography:

Suite New York 2013 http://www.suiteny.com/product/detail/31/5/47

Alias Design 2012 http://www.aliasdesign.it/worlds/49/teak-setes/

 Erin 30^th April 2013 http://www.contemporist.com/2013/04/30/ugol-by-yaroslav-misonzhnikov/

All searched on the 5th of JAnuary 2014