Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

What is Design?

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

Etymology & Grammar• Comes from Italian word disegno: drafting or drawing of

a work; or the idea at the root of a work.

• A noun and a verb.

“Design is to design a design to produce a design.”

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

According to the OSU Department of Design• Design is a purposeful, systematic,

and creative activity.

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

Fine Art vs. DesignThe primary motivation in:

• Art is usually oneself.

• Design is usually others.

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

Overview of Design History &

Contributions

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

The Real Beginnings• Stone tools created 2 million years B.C.

chopper hand axe scraper needle

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

Industrial Revolution• 1765-1880

• A shift from craft labor to mass production; workshops to factories.

• Mass production and interchangeable parts allowed design standardization.

• Steam engine.

• Mass production & Mass marketing.

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

The Steam Engine• James Watt

• 1765

• England

• Powered by steam: expanding and cooling water within a cylinder drove a piston up and down.

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

Mass Production• Cheap products, mass produced quickly.

• Poor quality.

• Many different styles: classical mythology, Baroque, Gothic, Romanesque, Renaissance.

• Lots of Ornamentation: machined lathed/band saw parts were interchangeable.

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

Steam Engine?

• Classical façade.

• Excessive Ornamentation

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

Toilet?• Reference to classical

mythology “Chimaera,” part lion.

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

Telephone?• 1888 on top

• 1914 on bottom

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

New Manufacturing Technologies

• Bent Beechwood

• Thonet, 1859 Chair No. 14

• Thonet, 1860Rocker

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

Mass Marketing• Josiah Wedgewood’s Pottery factory.

• Used old energy sources: horses, moving water; not steam; 1769.

• First to market to the middle class; pioneer of mass marketing; earthenware that was affordable, aesthetically pleasing, could take sudden changes in temperature; quick to produce.

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

Singer Sewing Machines

• 1850- Isaac Merritt Singer designs first in-line shuttle sewing machine.

• 1855- Singer becomes the world's largest sewing company. Singer begins overseas expansion, starting in Paris, France, making Singer the world’s first international company.

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

Installment Payments• 1856- Edward Clark, working for the Singer

Manufacturing Co., originates the “hire-purchase” plan, the prototype for all installment selling or time payment purchases.

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

World Fairs or Exhibitions

They provided an International marketplace, International competition, and exhibited the latest advancements in technology.

• London, 1851

• Paris, 1889

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

The Road to Modernism

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

Changing Aesthetics• Driven largely by new technologies in manufacturing and

materials.

• Steam bending wood

• Steel

• Glass

• Curvilinear vs. Rectilinear.

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

Curvilinear vs. Rectilinear

C. R. Mackintosh French Furniture Company

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

Curvilinear vs. Rectilinear

Henery van de Velde Frank Lloyd Wright

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

Frank Lloyd Wright• Guggenheim Museum

• New York, 1956

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

“Form follows function.”

• Louis Sullivan

• Chicago

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

Simplification & Abstraction

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

Perspective & Rationale

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

Corporate Identity• Peter Behrens

• AEG - Electrical Products Manufacturer

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

The Bauhaus• Founded in 1919 by

Walter Gropius

• Weimar, Dessau, Berlin

• Closed in 1933 due to the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany.

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

ConstructivismPropaganda & Social Messages

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

StreamliningTransportation, Future Forms, & Marketing

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

Evolution of a Chair

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

Red & Blue ChairGerrit Reitveld, 1918

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

Chair Marcel Breuer, 1921

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

Wassily Chair Marcel Breuer, 1925

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

Barcelona Chair Mies van der Rohe, 1929

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

Grand Comfort Lounge

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

Lounge Chair Wood Charles and Ray Eames, 1945

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

RAR RockerCharles and Ray Eames, 1948

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

Lounge Chair &

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

Tulip ChairEero Saarinen, 1956

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

Panton ChairVerner Panton, 1959

Design 200: Introduction to Design Department of DesignThe Ohio State University

That is about all we have time for.

Without taking another two hours to cover Scandinavien, Minimalism, Post Modernism, Deconstructivism...