The emergence of professional designers

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The emergence of designers can not be separated from the history of human development, when our ancestors first picked up the stone, in the process of hammering and chiseling, polishing, making tools, the primitive sense of the designer appeared. Designers in the primitive sense of the word appeared. Problems triggered by survival have always been the driving force behind the evolution of life and human civilization. In order to solve the problem of food, clothing, shelter and transportation, our ancestors took materials from nature and created a rich material civilization. The creation of things greatly contributed to the enhancement of handicrafts and manufacturing. All man-made things mean design, from the first "tool maker" to the modern sense of the designer, is a long evolutionary process.

Tools created by Paleolithic man

During the Paleolithic period, primitive man clarified the purpose and process of design by making stone tools. During the Neolithic period, the invention of pottery marked the beginning of the creative activity of human beings to change the properties of materials through chemical changes, and the beginning of the design phase of human crafts. The emergence of the Industrial Revolution turned mass production into reality, and mankind began to enter the era of great material abundance.

Pottery created by human beings in the Neolithic era

01

Craftsmen

Towards the end of the primitive society 7,000 or 8,000 years ago, there was the first social division of labor in the human society, and the handicraft industry was separated from agriculture, and craftsmen specializing in the production of handicrafts appeared. The best craftsmen would enter the palace and serve the upper class. There were also most artisans in the private sector, engaged in the design and repair of daily necessities. The status of craftsmen was generally so low that Aristotle in ancient Greece called them "the vile trade". To this day, there are still many artisans around the world who pass on ancient cultures. Many of the cultural renaissance, craftsmanship and intangible cultural heritage that we now advocate are derived from them. The status of artisans has been elevated in modern society.

Artists' studios in the Renaissance

02

Artists moonlighting as designers

The Renaissance of the 14th century set artists free. Painters, sculptors, and architects became the new major design forces. In Florence, Italy, the term "architect" appeared for the first time. The first true architect of the period, Filippo Brunelleschi, appeared in Florence. The symbol of the Renaissance, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Flowers, was built by him. In time, painters, sculptors and architects became the new main design force.

Filippo Brunelleschi

The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Flowers

Leonardo da Vinci, as we know him, was also a designer in the modern sense of the word, and one of the few all-rounders in history. He had many of the qualities of a professional designer, not to mention drawing skills and structural design. He designed mechanical cars and flying machines, knowing that the design of transportation is the ultimate goal of industrial designers. He also designed the current hot robot, which he did 500 years ago.

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci's manuscripts

03

The royal family

There were many other court painters like Leonardo da Vinci who did design work for European royalty. For example, soft furnishing design, tapestries and soft furnishings. There were also cabinetmakers who created luxurious furniture. These royal artists were in charge of style, design details, docking manufacturers, and guaranteeing supplies. They had a major influence on European design in the 17th and 18th centuries.

After the German Gutenberg invented the printing press, the rapid rise of the publishing industry led to the rapid development of graphic design, resulting in a large number of book designers, illustration artists, and layout designers. Before the Industrial Revolution, architectural design, product design, graphic design basically took shape largely, but none of them formed a specialized profession. Except for royalty, who could have supplies of fine quality, much of the design came from the private sector.

Johannes Gutenberg

Gutenberg's invention of printing

04

Professional designers during the Industrial Revolution

In the 19th century, the Industrial Revolution began in the United Kingdom, and booming industrial manufacturing replaced much of the manual labor, calling for the birth of modern industrial design. The new production methods required professionals to design products suitable for mass production. A debate on the relationship between industrial design and design, the relationship between manufacturers and consumers, the relationship between design and art, and the relationship between traditional craftsmanship and mechanization continued.

In the second half of the 19th century, the planning and construction of a number of world's fairs in Europe and the United States contributed to the development of architectural design and product design. The special needs of exhibition architecture led to the development and popularization of new building forms and new materials and technologies. Most of these expositions were organized to showcase the industrial products of various countries, and it can be said that they were the beginning of modern industrial product design.

Site of the Crystal Palace at the First World's Fair in 1851

William Morris

William Morris was a pioneer of modern design. The British Arts and Crafts movement came into being thanks to Morris's personal efforts. The Art Nouveau movement that followed was heavily influenced by the English Arts and Crafts movement. Morris's artistic flowers competed in this Art Deco movement that spread throughout Europe and America. The light of his ideas shone on a number of pilgrims who traveled the road to modern design. The German Industrial Union and the Bauhaus are a kind of inheritance and development with Morris's ideas as the starting point. The emergence of the Bauhaus marked the formation of modernist design and the maturity of modern design style. However, Morris's life was full of contradictions: he had a profound influence on the modern design movement, and at the same time he tried to turn back the wheel of history. Carrying the heavy cross of tradition and modern ideals and reality, he stumbled on a new journey of art and design in the modern sense.

William Morris

The interior and decoration of the Red Room designed by William Morris

05

Europe's modernist design masters

Between the two world wars, the Constructivist movement in Russia, the Stylistic movement in Holland, and the Bauhaus in Germany laid the foundation for the birth of modernism. Modernism began with the development of architectural design, and gradually influenced urban planning and design, environmental design, furniture design, industrial product design, graphic design, communication design, etc., forming a truly complete modernist design. Most of the first generation of industrial designers in Europe graduated in architecture, had a solid foundation of higher professional education, and had long-term practical experience in architectural design. But they are still stuck in the exploratory and experimental stage, and have not yet been linked to large-scale industry, mass production, and the consumer market on an international scale.

Peter Behrens

Peter Behrens is one of the important founders of German modernist design, a pioneer of industrial product design, active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and also known as the "first modern art designer," the well-known architect Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus school, also worked in his studio in the early days.

Peter Behrens

Kettle series designed by Peter Behrens in 1909

In 1904, he was involved in the pre-organization of the Federation of German Industries (FGI), which was formally established in 1907 under the initiative of Mutheus. Under his efforts, the German Industrial Union proposed the "quality of industrial products" and tried to integrate art into industry. He was later employed by General Electric in Germany and became an industrial designer in the true sense of the word.

06

Professional Designers in the United States

The design movement in the United States was filled with pragmatic commercialism from the very beginning. Intense commercial competition fostered the development of industrial design in the United States. After Europe experienced two world wars, many designers with dominant power immigrated to the U.S., and many early products came from these designers.

The U.S. relied on strong industry, mature business, and strong economic power in the late 1920s, and took the lead in turning industrial design into an independent profession, which was launched in New York, Chicago, and other places.

The earliest industrial design sector came from the automobile manufacturing industry, which hired professional stylists in order to capture the market. The trend quickly spread to other industries as well, with entrepreneurs turning to industrial designers for help in making their products more aesthetically pleasing and attractive in order to boost sales.

The first generation of industrial designers in the United States came from a variety of backgrounds, including advertising, commercial art, and window design, and some did not even have formal higher education. But the scope of their design is very wide, and the number is also very impressive. From transportation to daily life, from corporate logos to advertisements, almost everything is possible. Although the concept of design is not as deep as that of European designers, from the perspective of the market, their commercial design is very successful: they emphasize on the skills of commercial negotiation, short design cycle, strong market competitiveness, strong design expression, and dazzling drawings. They shaped the national image and social life pattern of the United States in the 20th century.

Raymond Lowe

Raymond Lowe is the father of industrial design in the United States, the most famous industrial designer of the 20th century, the pioneer of the design industry - first of all, the streamline modeling and the fusion of European modernism, to establish a unique artistic value. The first pioneer of industrial design, enabling the combination of design and business; and with a keen sense of business, unlimited imagination and excellent design talent for the development of industry to inject new elements of life.

Raymond Loewy

His name became a household word in the 20th century, and his work is known throughout the world. "The Coca-Cola bottle and logo; the Shell logo; streamlined cars, trains, and airplanes; President John F. Kennedy's plane, Air Force One; and the cockpit of the astronauts who landed on the moon are just a few of the thousands of designs that he led and participated in.

Raymond Lowe is a highly commercialized designer, he preached that modern design is not the most important design philosophy, design concepts, but the economic benefits of design, which naturally caused some design theorists criticized, to which Raymond Lowe did not comment, and made a further explanation: "For me, the most beautiful curve is the sales of the rising curve. curve." As the first generation of industrial designers in the United States, Raymond Lowe did not have any taste of pedantry, nor the so-called intellectual idealism component, the purpose of the design is only to promote, full of strong pragmatism color of the commercial atmosphere. He put the design highly specialized and commercialized, so that his design company became one of the world's largest design companies in the 20th century.

Raymond Lowe's design work

The professionalization of the designer separated the production of products from the product design process, and also allowed the importance of the designer to be recognized and respected. At the same time, it promoted the emergence and development of free designers, who were able to freely provide design services for the society and meet the demand for diversification and personalization of social products. The emergence of professional designers, marking the development of design has entered a new stage of specialization, his development will certainly promote the rapid development of design in countries around the world.

Summary

1, the professional development of designers can not be separated from the evolution of human society, and the history of each stage, the state of social development, economic strength are inseparable.

2. The essence of design is human needs.

3. All design-related professions have no obvious division at the beginning, and many great designers can cross the boundaries of the industry to do design in different fields.

4. Mature industrialized production and the material needs of the consumer era are the key drivers for the popularity of the design industry.

5. The rise of various exhibitions and alliances and associations has promoted the professionalization of designers.

Question

1, we introduced the design development and representative designers of different periods according to the order of linear history today, as of the stage of the rise of industrial design in the United States, after the development of design and the typical representatives are not introduced, interested friends can continue to explore it?

2, today's content, manufacturers and design companies, associations at various stages of the representative are not introduced, welcome to add.

3, the above content is based on industrial design, does not include other design segments, if interested, welcome to add the historical process of the emergence of professional designers in the field of architectural design, interior design, clothing design and so on.