Bauhaus

Ah designers in hats, takes you back doesn't it. These lads and lady are masters and students of the highly influential Bauhaus school of design in Weimar in Germany. The school operated between the first and second world wars but was closed by the Nazis. You can see the influence they have had as a group on typography and furniture design if you have a look at their original designs below.

Take a seat.

I love this suite by Erich Dieckmann who trained at the very famous Bauhaus design school in Weimar.
Image via ffffound.

The Thonet chair from 1859, you know this one like you know the word cafe.

This is one of the most successful industrial designs of all time. Michael Thonet developed the process of bending timber using water and steam. That's how you can make a back and legs from a single piece of timber.

The Finn Juhl chair NV-45 above proves that some very cool things were happening in Copenhagen in 1945 when this was made.


 Check out designer Ron Arad's work with chairs.

Stage and set design from Pink Floyd to Ninja Tune

Here's a little thinking on stage and set design from a right up to date Amon Tobin stage set design back to Architects and designers Fisher Park who designed concert rigs for The Rolloing Stones and Pink Floyd.

Amon Tobin 'ISAM' Live (Extended Trailer) from Ninja Tune on Vimeo.

Ninja Tune. (2011). Amon Tobin 'ISAM' Live (Extended Trailer). [Online Video]. 13 September. Available from: http://vimeo.com/24502224. [Accessed: 27 June 2012].


Above a good look at the design process and some fantastic projected lighting effects.

Unknown, (1968), stage [ONLINE]. Available at: http://maisdjlileikaite.blogspot.ie/2010/12/inspiration-archigram-instant-city.html [Accessed 27 June 12]. 


The walking city above was an idea proposed by architect Ron Heron. The idea for the walking city concerns the mobility of large structures. In the 60's it was all theory and today it still is except in the world of big concert roadshow where armies of articulated trucks shift huge stage sets across continents.


From another angle modern concert set design has its historical routes in the nightime Son e Lumier shows from 1700's France where as the name suggests elaborate lighting shows (elaborate for the time) were combined with live music.


Below are the concept drawings and finished product for The Wall tour.

The Architects' journal: Volume 196, Issues 14-21 - 1992, (1992), 1980-1 - Mark Fisher - Teacher - "The Wall" [ONLINE]. Available at: http://cyberneticzoo.com/?p=6921 [Accessed 27 June 12].

behance.net ffffound.com

Let me tell you where I head for inspiration on my travels through the web.
If you are looking to see some great creative portfolios have a look at behance, where there is a strong creative community curating there own portfolios. The quality here is strong and the mix is from illustration to
architecture.

http://www.behance.net/

I love this shop by itomasaru on behance, August 16 in metal.



Image taken from http://www.behance.net/gallery/16AOUT-complex/4202813





bottom images from ffffound

Also ffffound is where creative types gather and bookmark images that they have come across on the web.

Peter Saville Designer

So I seem to be covering most of the ground so far with 2d designers, the masters of print and digital media.
Lets have one more post on a man who has designed everything from album artwork to gravestones. Peter Saville was the principal designer used by Manchester's Factory Records. Factory are probably best known for being the record label that Joy Division and New Order were signed to.

http://www.clashmusic.com, (2011), Peter Saville [ONLINE]. 

Available at:http://www.clashmusic.com/feature/the-modern-fabric-of-england-peter-saville

 [Accessed 13 June 12].

Peter Saville, above, and would you expect a designer to look any different.

Suede by Saville

Joy Division 

Gravestone of Factory Records Founder Tony Wilson designed by Peter Saville.

Dave Davidson, (2011), Peter Saville - Commercialism + Design [ONLINE]. Available at:http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=b4j_bRiZ_nU#! [Accessed 13 June 12].

Tomato

Who or what is Tomato. Tomato is a collective of artists, designers, musicians and writers. On the musician end you may recognise Underworld. Tomato was founded in 1991 to work on commercial and research based multi media projects  and they work in advertising, architecture, fashion, public installations, music, television, film and graphic design. I have given a little sample of their film video work below.

water ink rorschach from TomatoMultiMedia Productions2076 on Vimeo.

OK with the piece above, tell me what you see.




tomato graphics from tomato on Vimeo.

The piece above Tomato graphics reminds me of the title sequence for Se7en which we had a look at earlier

Wall tiles.

This image is so simple, I really should not add any words. Wood , concrete, tile. Furniture.

http://www.marazzi.it/, (2012), For the Milan Triennale in 1960, Gio’ Ponti and Alberto Rosselli designed a 4-time curved ceramic brick with shiny surfaces and in different colours. [ONLINE]. Available at: http://retaildesignblog.net/category/materials/ [Accessed 05 June 12].

Film Title Design

Film title Design follows on well from Typography, Layout and Film Set Design.
Film title designers can, and do play an essential part in setting the tone of a film and two of the masters in this area are Thomas Cobbs and Saul Bass. Bass is perhaps best known for his work in the 1950's and 1960's on the films of Alfred Hitchcock. He used a cut out animation technique for the opening sequence of Anatomy of a Murder.




Have a look at the typograpy here in Thomas Cobbs opening sequence for the film Se7en. The script design works as a strong contributing element to what is a very sinister opening sequence. This piece sparked a new interest in film title sequence design. Both pieces, here and below are prime examples of film titles that could stand as films in their own right.




Saul Bass

 For a great film title resource have a look at Art of the Title

Neville Brody

OK catch up time, what have I covered so far. Film set design, signage design, Cold War Modern and what makes for good design. So its Tuesday and this naturally means we need to go 2D and talk about layout and typography and for me the most natural place to start is with Neville Brody. Brody was art director at The Face magazine from 1981 to 1986. He studied at the London College of Printing during the mid to late 70's punk era in London and his work still exhibits some of the iconoclastic energy of the time. Pick up nearly any magazine these days and it is bound to have some echo of Brody's radical approach to layout and typography. He also worked with Arena magazine and designed a new Typeface for the London Times newspaper. I think Brody still likes to see himself as a radical. He is not afraid to criticise the design establishment.

magazine type layout

type 

Typography

In the video below speaks  about design and culture with particular reference to digital culture.



Neville Brody by Etapes. (2009). Neville Brody. [Online Video]. 2009. Available from: https://vimeo.com/7538439. [Accessed: 29 May 2012].


Images Neville Brody, (2010), various [ONLINE]. Available at: http://benstanley00.blogspot.com/p/neville-brody.html[Accessed 29 May 12].

What makes good design?

What makes for good design? Well one man, the German industrial designer Dieter Rams, has I suspect given this question more thought than most of us. Ramms worked as a designer for the German domestic appliance manufacturer Braun for over 50 years and his work became known for his simplicity. Only the essentials are kept. The record player (remember those) below became known as "sleeping beauty" because when the lid was down it looked a little like a glass coffin. His ten properties of good design are listed below. They have become known as the "Ten Commandments" and could be applied to web design as well as to architecture. They are great observations, my favourite is "Good Design Makes A Product Understandable", it a thing, a building a web page, whatever should communicate something of its simplicity to its user.

Good Design Is Innovative : The possibilities for innovation are not, by any means, exhausted. Technological development is always offering new opportunities for innovative design. But innovative design always develops in tandem with innovative technology, and can never be an end in itself.

Good Design Makes a Product Useful : A product is bought to be used. It has to satisfy certain criteria, not only functional but also psychological and aesthetic. Good design emphasises the usefulness of a product while disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it.

Good Design Is Aesthetic : The aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because products are used every day and have an effect on people and their well-being. Only well-executed objects can be beautiful.

Good Design Makes A Product Understandable : It clarifies the product’s structure. Better still, it can make the product clearly express its function by making use of the user’s intuition. At best, it is self-explanatory.

Good Design Is Unobtrusive : Products fulfilling a purpose are like tools. They are neither decorative objects nor works of art. Their design should therefore be both neutral and restrained, to leave room for the user’s self-expression.

Good Design Is Honest : It does not make a product more innovative, powerful or valuable than it really is. It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept

Good Design Is Long-lasting : It avoids being fashionable and therefore never appears antiquated. Unlike fashionable design, it lasts many years – even in today’s throwaway society.

Good Design Is Thorough Down to the Last Detail : Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the consumer.

Good Design Is Environmentally Friendly : Design makes an important contribution to the preservation of the environment. It conserves resources and minimises physical and visual pollution throughout the lifecycle of the product.

Good Design Is as Little Design as Possible : Less, but better – because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials. Back to purity, back to simplicity.


Have a listen to Rams discuss his work in the video below from the BBC,

GrabMore. (2010). Dieter Rams on The Culture Show. [Online Video]. 09 June 2010. Available from:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLMbDJ_nNfU. [Accessed: 25 May 2012].

Neon De sign of the times

These posts on design may well be posted in a riff format, as in what ever catches my eye as being something of quality design is my starting point for each post. Something worth sharing.

Signs are everywhere and a lot of the time we don't notice them, when was the last time really you looked up on the street? Although street signage clutter can be a plague leading to information overload. Where I live in Dublin traffic signs have been erected where they obscure traffic lights (bad design decision) but sometimes isolated sign design can work so well.

This fantastic piece (above) is via Eight Hour Day. To me  this sign as a piece of design it is very evocative. It says America, it says 1950's and it says showbiz. Granted the evocative feelings are there because this piece of design looks as if it has history. The 50's was probably when the use of neon hit its peak as the prime element in the design of illuminated signs and there are not many signs like these manufactured these days. As a result they are expensive to make and you would be hard pressed to let any town planners let you erect anything so dramatic these days in most cities. I think there is an element of craft in good neon work; by that I mean people manipulating materials directly with heir hands.

I should have a picture of this sign when it is fully illuminated but you know it looks as good in daylight, Sky blue against Sky blue

Are there any areas of design that you think I should cover?

Let me know in the comment box below.

Image via eighthourday.com

Film Set Design. Cold War Modern

Lets start with a little film (below) on possibly the best and most iconic of film set designers.
Ken Adam, the name doesn't ring a bell? He is the designer of all of those brilliant master criminal
layers in the Bond movies. Think Dr.No and the set of the War Room (photo above) in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove.


The design style of these sets and the buildings they influenced came to be known as Cold War Modern.
Have a look at the link here to the Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition on the Cold War Modern Design.
I really like the the style mainly because all of those Brutalist concrete buildings have mellowed with age and can be viewed from the safe distance of decades. It is rare to get a good biographical film on the life of a designer. Enjoy it.




coldwarmodern. (2008). Ken Adam, designer - Cold War Modern. [Online Video]. Oct 1, 2008. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-Cyp7bIZOM. [Accessed: 22 May 2012].