Notes on Introduction to Design - Chapter 4, Section 3

I. Background of design development in the 19th century ?

1, the era of change and progress : Looking back at the 19th century, a vibrant era of change and progress emerges in our vision. The gap between rich and poor gradually widened, the emergence of the middle class, in a solid class structure, consumer culture toward the development of diversified direction. New industrial centers emerged, and the rich and poor became extremely polarized.

2, the combination of repressive inhibition and intellectual experimentation: The 19th century was an extraordinary combination of repressive inhibition and intellectual experimentation. The new consumer culture, design is playing an important role. After the first mass-produced products, as well as the emergence of department stores, advertising posters and mail-order orders, the role of the designer and the social function of design became an important topic of discussion.

Brunel, Raskin, Darwin, and others achieved great engineering accomplishments, innovative scholarship and research, and people were filled with confidence and faith in social progress.

3, the important role of design:

? Important new inventions appeared; the concept of standardization and mechanization began to play a real role in design, a large number of large-scale design exhibitions was a feature of the 19th century. 1851 "Crystal Palace" exposition.

Second, design education and design reform in the 19th century

(a)? Design education

1, the most important way to improve the level of industrial design: education

The British government supported the establishment of design schools for the training of teachers; debates on the design of the syllabus; heated debates on the ways and means of training designers.

2. Two schools of thought: attempts to elevate decoration to the status of a true art form

(1) Owen Jones, The Fundamentals of Decoration - Jones's categorization of decoration demonstrates the century's predilection for historicism (borrowing from the past), which, even for the most progressive designers, was seen as an indispensable part of design.

(2) William Dyce, A Manual of Sketches - presents a guiding principle that geometric forms provide the most appropriate style for decorative motifs.

3. Plant construction and botany: Other experiments have shown that plant construction and botany provide meaningful avenues for design. Visual experiments at the French School of Fine Arts and the British School of Design viewed nature as a laboratory to be studied in a scientific way, and the principles studied were applied to design.

4, and the above theory of the opposite point of view that: design school things are indifferent, even crude, they ignored the power of religion, ignored nature and the human spirit, which is something non-mechanical, can not be reduced to a simple set of management;

5, the Gothic style to move forward: these design reformers believe that the Gothic style deserved to move forward. Starting in the 1860s, the Gothic revival dominated 19th-century ideas and tastes at various levels and forms.

(1) Pugin: Gothic architecture embodied an extraordinary level of achievement and beauty, and Gothic was the only style that worked from a visual and moral point of view.

(2) Raskin: Many designers began to see the Middle Ages as a method of social change through design. Influenced by Raskin in this regard: The Seven Lamps of Architecture, The Stones of Venice

His work was based on two important theories: 1) Decoration and Design England were based on stylized natural forms; 2) Design had strong moral connotations.

Although the Gothic Revival did not use specific details of Gothic design in its design, it implied a Gothic ethos for vernacular forms, material authenticity and the role of design in society.

6, Arts and Crafts Movement: Britain was the first country to experience the Industrial Revolution, it was at the same time the emergence of an anti-industrial organization, and soon named "Arts and Crafts Movement". Morris, the designer, was a writer, social activist, and one of the most influential design thinkers of his time, and in 1861, he opened his own company, which, along with its products, still retained the idea of arts and crafts.

Maurice Marshall Faulkner: The first principle was authenticity of materials; another ideal of the Arts and Crafts movement was social reform through design.

7, Art Nouveau (noun explanation): At the end of the 19th century, there was a last great decorative style flourished in this period, called "Art Nouveau". It is characterized by: curved, naturalistic style, the use of plants, insects, women's bodies and symbolism. In France, it was led by the designs of Gallet and Louis Marjorie of the Nancy School. But Art Nouveau was used at this time to refer generally to the 19th century revival of decorative arts, which spread from the cities of Brussels, Milan and Vienna to the United States and then to countries around the world.

"Vienna Crafts", founded in 1903, was based on the ideas of the "Craftsmen's Guild", founded by the British designer Ashby in 1888, but there were some important differences. In general, the Viennese Craftsmen's work was more avant-garde due to its unique aesthetic based on the use of simple geometric forms. But it is more concerned with matters of style than with changing society through Morris's ideal of pleasant labor.

8. While these European styles were important for design, the American style raised practical questions about manufacturing, production, and distribution, and proved to be fundamental to design, marking the transition from the 19th century to modern design.

The important production change that accompanied the American retail revolution was called the American System. Principle: Design products with uniform standards of parts so that they can be manufactured or repaired anywhere in the country. The Colt pistol, an icon of the American West, is an example of this new production method. The idea of breaking a product into simple components led to an important new theory of factory management, Taylorism;

Taylor published Principles of Scientific Management in 1911 Taylor advocated breaking the production process into its smallest parts to form a capitalist production line from which more profit could be made.

Taylorism played an important role in the emergence of the Ford production line, and Fordism represents the highest achievement of production in the 20th century, and has had a significant impact on the modern movement in Europe.