Blogs - Reviewed

William Morris 

"Art and Design is of poor quality"- William Morris. He believed that during his career, art and design was so poor. He claimed that this is all because of the Industrial Revolution and its poor life. 

William Morris & Co designs

Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau is known for its sinuous, elongated, curvy lines, whiplash lines, vertical lines and height. It is also known for stylised flowers, leaves, roots, buds and seedpods amongst others.

"Bieres de la Meuse", a French beer advertisement by Alphonse Mucha

Organic Design

Today most of the contemporary furniture we see in different stores, are well inspired by organic design which started right after World War II in the mid-20th century and continues to do so today.

Organic Design today. The Arm Chair by Onur Cabanli, 2009

Ray and Charles Eames

The married couple Ray and Charles Eames are best known for their designs in architecture, furniture design, industrial design, manufacturing and photographic arts. They are also best known for their moulded plywood designs.

McDonalds Tigne. Ray and Charles Eames chairs

Raymond Loewy

During his career, Raymond Loewy designed cars, ships, airplanes, appliances, toothbrushes, pens and everything that you could think of. Nowadays, critiques say that Raymond Loewy is the designer of the modern world. Thanks to his products, Raymond Loewy is the one who designed and made everything including the Coke bottle, the lucky strike cigarettes pack, IBM card punchers to massive cargo ships to sewing machine to NASA.

TIME Magazine

Norman Bel Geddes

Designing from commercial products to other designs like the bullet shaped train, Norman Bel Geddes was the beginning of the exploration of some products to what we have today. In 1927, he designed a set of commercial products in his own industrial design studio in which he opened the same year. Some of these products are the red, white and blue Patriot radio and the Soda King Seltzer bottle for Walter Kiddie.

Norman Bel Geddes

Post Modernism

Starting in the 1980s, Post Modernism consist of a set of ideas including art, architecture, music,film, literature, fashion and technology. When I think of Post Modernism, the first thing that comes to mind is modern and contemporary. 

During its period from the 1970 to 1990, Post Modernism brought the "liberty" to art and design. It was part of the beginning of what we have nowadays.

Juicy Salif lemon juicer by Philippe Starck, 1990s, Designed for Alessi

Kettle designed by Michael Graves in 1984-85

Anti-Design Designers

Looking at it for the first time, you'll think that it is a baseball catcher's mitt. In fact this is a giant baseball catcher's mitt sofa designed by Paolo Lomazzi and named the Joe Sofa after the baseball player Joe Di Maggio. It is made from polyurethane and leather.

Designer Donato D'Urbino on the Joe Sofa

De Stijl

Founded in the early 20th century, De Stijl was found by Theo van Doesburg. Another important designer of De Stijl is Gerrit Rietveld. The Rietveld-Schroder House in Netherlands is one of the most important architectural works of Gerrit Rietveld.

"The scaling of fun defined space to human proportions may be achieved by a line drawn on a road, a floor, a wall, a covering surface, a combination of vertical and horizontal planes, curved or flat, transparent or massive. It is never a partitioning or closing off, but always a defining element of what is here and there, above and below, between and around" - (Gerrit Rietveld 1924)

When I was doing my research I noticed that Verner Panton's "S" chair is so related to that of Gerrit Rietveld's "ZigZag" chair. Both containing oblique lines and cantilever form. The ZigZag chair is made out of wood while that of Panton's is made out of plastic in different bright colours.

"Choosing colours should not be a gamble. It should be a conscious decision. Colours have a meaning and a function." - (Verner Panton)

"Mondrian Swim" swimsuit collection inspired by De Stijl, designed by Sarah Schofield 

Focus Fireplaces inspired by De Stijl

De Stijl inspired bedroom

Verner Panton

Known for his "Space Age" nor "Pop Art", Verner Panton is one of the founders of Pop Art style. During his career Verner Panton created more than fifty different chair designs. His chairs are still being produced today.

Verner Panton chairs

Futurism

Creating movement and speed, Giacomo Balla uses diagonal lines in his paintings. Using these sort of designs in his paintings, Giacomo Balla studied light and speeding cars.

The futurist movement ended so quickly as it is a very short period. It ended in 1916 although today we can still find designs like posters.

Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash - Giacomo Balla

Henry Dreyfuss

Consisting of the "Princess" telephone, the John Deere tractor, the square Mason jar and many others, were some first designs of Henry Dreyfuss. As the title says, The Forgotten Industrial designer giant, Henry Dreyfuss is not that much known today for his designs but having said that, every person has been interacted in a way or another with his designs so I think that his name should be clearly known like that of Steve Jobs.

Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright was the person that has always been the influence to American architecture. Starting from homes to large buildings, he was the start to open plans. This led to the whole world being influenced by him and his organic architecture.

Frank Lloyd Wright with his model of the Guggenheim Musem

Bauhaus

Bauhaus operated in three locations. Starting in 1919 till 1925 Bauhaus was first in Weimar, then it moved to Dessau in 1925 until 1932 and last in Berlin in 1932 until 1933. During the time when it was still operating, Bauhaus has influenced every generation. It was to be considered as "radical step towards modernism."

Pass the Bauhaus by Steve Rura