Bauhaus, De Stijl, lines, etc.

As future designers you will be expected to draw inspiration from your own knowledge, experience, and background. In the last couple of weeks, we have looked at designs from Bauhaus and De Stijl. It is very useful to revise your understanding of these styles by identifying unique characteristics of each style, and also their similarities.


You should, for instance, be able to tell which is which:

Notice the use of straight lines in the first design. This was a characteristic used prominently in De Stijl. But, obviously, straight lines can be found in all sorts of designs So, if the first design was indeed from De Stijl, what are some of the other features that would indicate this?

Here we have something you would all have seen from De Stijl:

Again, you will have noticed the strong emphasis on straight lines. However, here are a couple of things from Bauhaus that also feature prominent straight lines:

A good exercise, then, would be to reflect in your own words why you think these designs are indeed examples of different styles. Write about the subtleties that make them so, based on what you know about the history and philosophies of these two styles, and consider things like materials and use of colour.

Ultimately, it is important to recognise that ideas behind designs are often fluid, and as future designers you will most likely be influenced by a myriad of styles everytime you are in charge of designing something. Take this building, for example:

It may have occured to you that it seems disproportionate to the timber planks below it. That's because it's a doghouse:

If you were hired by someone to design a house for a dog, would you draw inspiration from Bauhaus? Considering the needs of the dog, is this a good idea? What are some other considerations you would need to take into account of? Nevertheless, the designer behind this doghouse was able to formulate their design based on their knowledge of a style that isn't normally associated with doghouses - something that makes the final creation more remarkable and noticeable.

Ornamentation and Negative Space

In class we discussed both Art Deco and Bauhaus designs, and the concept of "negative space". Here are a couple of photos from inside two different buildings:

As you can see, both of these spaces are mostly free of objects and furnishings. Imagine, for a minute, that these two spaces were rooms inside your current house. How would you use these spaces? Would they be suitable for your bedroom, dining room, or study, perhaps? How do they make you feel in terms of their senses of space? Justify the way in which you would use these spaces.  For instance, would you fill these spaces with lots of decoratives, or useful furniture, or would you leave them empty, as is?

The mass-production of handcrafted things

In class we discussed how mass-production techniques allowed for the efficient and uniform output of everyday goods. One of the main innovations to come out of this period was the concept of a "division of labour" and the system of the assembly line. It is interesting to observe, in this case, the ways designers began to incoporate considerations for mass-production into their ideas.

A good example of this, like we discussed, can be found in the 1940s and 1950s, when electric guitars were mass-manufactured for the first time. Two companies, Fender and Gibson, have come to define through their different designs two alternative ways of approaching the concept of mass-production.

Fender's most famous design was known as the "Stratocaster". Production of this model started in 1954, in Fullerton, California. The guitar shown below is an actual 1954 model:

The Stratocaster is a good example of a design that allows for the implementation of efficient mass-production techniques. Here we can see that the neck of the guitar is bolted onto the body by four screws and a plate:

And here we see (from the underside) that the electronics essential to the guitar are mounted onto a plate:

And this plate is then screwed onto the body of the guitar by eight screws:

Gibson, of Kalamazoo, Michigan, was a much older company that had specialised in making acoustic instruments since the end of the 19th century. Their first electric guitar was known as the Les Paul. In the same year as the first Stratocaster, the Les Paul looked like this, in 1954:

We can see from the picture below that the Les Paul neck joint required gluing onto the body:

 

You might have also noticed that there are two covers on the back of the guitar. Underneath the larger of the two covers, it looks like this:

The electronics of the Les Paul, as shown here, would've been assembled inside the guitar, and its cables wired through internal canals onto the front of the guitar.

Having seen these photos and brief descriptions of their design features, discuss the implications for the mass-production of these two guitars. Both models are still in production as of today, so they have obviously both worked as successful designs. Discuss why you think this is.

Welcome!

Welcome to our class blog. Make sure to read each post and record your thoughts and comments in the comments section. Your input will form your accumulated mark for your Critical Diary assessment. Enjoy!