Design in a nutshell

This collection of short videos introduced me to the 6 main design movement that have shaped the creative world for hundreds of years.  I think that although this has no direct relevance to the topics I am studying, to have a basic knowledge of the design movements and styles is key for anyone in any creative field to know and be able to reference and draw inspiration from.

Gothic revival

Amongst constant new extravagant religious buildings created as acts of worship, and the industrial revolution, some people decided that society needed more ‘meaningful buildings’.  With the church of England more prevalent than ever before, architects began building churches in the gothic style everywhere.  At first wealthy people where the ones who brought into the gothic style, resulting in extravagant gothic homes. It wasn’t long however until the style filtered down to everyone in everyway, from furniture to fonts in newspapers. Gothic style defined an era.

Arts and crafts

About 150 years ago, in the Hight of mechanisation and industrial advancements, some people became unhappy with the new mass production culture. Arts and crafts was a movement started by artist William Morris who didn’t want society to loose its creativity, and appreciation for skill and craft. Turns out that people embraced the movement, and loved its ethically pure motives. The sentiment of the movement is something that is still very relevant, we still like to know where things came from, and appreciate craft and handmade things.

 

Bauhaus

This movement was at its peak between the two world wars. The movement was based around a new kind of art school and teaching style. Instead of training in one art field, you could train in all. The movement was all about embracing latest innovations in art and creativity, and using it to our advantage. The movement is defined by minimalism and practicality.

Modernism

With society traumatised after the war people wanted to forget about history and reality, which art had previously reflected. Cubism, impressionism, symbolism, expressionism and so on, where born from this movement. The movement embraced new materials and innovations in all areas, and the less is more view.

 

American Industrial design

Emerging from the great depression, it was peoples poverty and lack of spending that inspired this movement. Industrial design gave modern and fun flourishes to everyday, practical objects, making people want to buy things they didn’t even know they needed new versions of. Style was still more important as function, and marketing and branding really started to come to play in packaging.

  

Postmodernism

The era of less is more was now considered boring and out of style. More was more, and anything was possible in the task of expressing yourself. Postmodernists wanted things that where more challenging and perhaps shocking to people. The aim was to push boundaries and be unique and liberating.