Individual Work: Essay

‘Society is changing and so she pleads for a new robe, for her old one is worn through; patching it up will no longer do… that new robe is the new style that must be created…’ - Bart van der Leck.

In 1917, which was the period after World War 1, architects and designers were discovering new methods and ideas relating to design. A group amongst these, published their ideas and designs were in a publication which was called De Stijl and eventually formed the De Stijl movement.

 De Stijl is about basic human interactions. It was all about functionalism, and the concept behind this style was to create art that diminishes formality with the use of strictly primary colours and non-colours, together with the use of straight lines. Gerrit Rietveld made a major contribution to this movement with the Red/Blue chair. Its design encapsulates the philosophy of the De Stijl movement, and it demonstrated a major illustration of what was going on at that time.

Paul Overy in his book called ‘De Stijl’ said; ‘One of the functions of Rietveld's chairs, with their hard seats and backs, is to focus our senses, to make us alert and aware… He wished to keep the sitter physically and mentally "toned up."

Stability is given with the black verticals and horizontals that give a bright motion with the use of the bright yellow squares and rectangles, which at the same time makes the audience more aware of the chair’s structure.

In addition, Gerrit Rietveld’s Schroeder House is the most complete realization of the De Stijl’s beauty. The house has two floors and it is painted in basic colours and shades of grey that are a reflection to Mondrian's paintings. The cube was the underlying form for the architecture of the house. Together with openness, lightness and pillars the use of new material was also incorporated.

In addition, Rietveld transformed a big room to a smaller one with the use of partitions. The strong lines that where incorporated in the interior produced dynamism, and these were combined with a sense of lightness that was created through the removal of ornaments. The removal of unnecessary materials approach was very influential upon the development of the Modern Movement as well as the use of geometric formalism.

De Stijl is all about connections and interactions, and Gerrit Riedveld’s approach aimed exactly at this. He managed to reach his goals with the use of both the materials and techniques he created both for the chair and the house, and this can be demonstrated as contribution to a change in attitude towards design and culture, since society was in a great need for change.

Furthermore, another movement I chose to discuss is Pop design. This era is all about bright colours and the use of plastics. Technology has provided the design world with new materials, and this is what helped experimentation. Furthermore, pop design has to do with psychadelia.

Inspired by mass production and mass consumerism, the idea for buying for aesthetics started to become popular. People now started to question good design rejected modernism.  They went back to what was designed before the concept of less is more. Therefore, Panton was interested in what was fun.

Pop design focused on fun, frivolity, change, freedom and disposability. Now cheap products, were preferred form the durable; and so a throwaway culture started. People were interested in what was fun, and when the object becomes out of fashion, it was replaced. Pop design destroyed the traditional boundaries between fine art and design, since design was lifted high to the level of art.

Verner Panton was born in Denmark in 1926, Panton was a ruler of the fluid, futuristic style of the 1960s design, and is considered as a mayor designer who contributed to the design in relation to the cultural events of the time. In fact his work is what led to the introduction of the Pop aesthetic.

Panton assisted Arne Jacobsen in the creation of the ant chair. Jacobsen researched obsessively in new materials and technologies which inspired Panton, and I think was a contribution to his own experimentation with materials.

After making a name as a visionary designer, he was given license to experiment, which he was able to due to technology. It was him who developed the very first inflatable furniture. This was made out transparent plastic film. It was his tense use of colour and bold experimental designs that set a new trend.

His designs, and experimenting with materials and various techniques were a major reflection in the change of attitudes towards design. This can be denoted by the impression given by the Panton Chair in 1967, which was the first cantilevered chair, made from a single piece of plastic. There were other before him who had experimented with a similar technically and aesthetically sophisticated concept, however it was Panton who was the first to realize it.

Bibliography:

Hans Janssen and Michael White, 2011. The Story of De Stijl Mondrian to Van Doesburg

Art, Design and visual thinking, 1995. De Stijl. [Online]  Available at: http://char.txa.cornell.edu/art/decart/destijl/decstijl.htm [Accessed at: 19th January 2014]

Styleture, 2011. What is De Stijl. [Online] Available at: http://www.styleture.com/2011/06/14/de-stijl/ [Accessed at 19th January 2014]

Anthony C. Romeo. Home; Aesthetic Realism Foundation. Gerrit Rietveld's Red and Blue Chair. [blog]. Available at:  http://www.terraingallery.org/Anthony-Romeo-Chair.html [Accessed at 19th January 2014]

UNESCO, 1992. Rietveld Schröderhuis. [Online] Available at: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/965 [Accessed at 19th January 2014]

Bernd Polster, Claudia Neumann, Markus Schuler and Fredrick Leven.  The AZ of Modern Design

Design Musuem. Verner Panton. [Online] Available at: http://designmuseum.org/design/verner-panton [Accessed at 19th January 2014]