Memphis movement
is certainly somewhere my students have started look to for inspiration, although it was before most of them were born (see objectworship's post above)
http://www.dezeen.com/2014/06/09/valeska-jasso-collado-westminster-fashi...
The Mid-Century fad has...
The Mid-Century fad has peaked and I hope
that we start to look forward rather than backwards.
New designers need to be supported in their endeavours
to create original furniture and lighting designs that meet
the needs of contemporary living spaces and have minimal
impact on the environment.
I think there will always be a small group of serious
collectors out there searching for the best examples
of mid-century design. As public institutions such
as museums and galleries get less funding, the
educated collector has an important role to play
in the preservation of design artefacts and the
production of research.
Many public galleries have been slow to embrace design
and therefore a lot of the most important pieces are in
private collections. It is becoming increasingly necessary that
public institutions establish positive relationships with collectors
so that our design heritage can be preserved and
enjoyed by future generations.
So the mainstream may have moved on and the low
end of the market has eroded but I think the best examples
will always command the highest prices. On an over populated planet, contemporary designers have an important
role to play in harnessing renewable resources for the production
of design objects that are sustainable rather than designed to
end up as landfill.
Cheers,
Tick.
yes tick, never stop looking forward
But 3 things come to mind:
1) Most of the best contemporary designers are OBVIOUSLY looking backwards- but we shouldn't? (That cat is pretty much out of the bag if you ask me)
2) It's only a fad if you stop liking something because everybody else has.
3) When the lump in the population snake ( AKA the collective consciousness) deems something has "passed", that is when we can see how the fad put a filter on things. It is also when many people get their first glimpse of what "timelessness" in design really means.
@ EamesHead
You bring up good points and I have a few point to add to the conversation (trying hard not to be too long winded...)
Designers in general must look backwards before knowing how to move forward. This is simply part of the design process. That's not to say designs of the past are what's best for today, because they're not. Yes, they're timeless and have become classic just as much as a Mercedes 300SL has, but they are not practical for modern, everyday living.
Maybe less pertinent to some of the old timers on here (no offense), we live in an age where technology is a part of everyday living. Thus, it has to be incorporated into the design of furniture (cable management, built in outlets, speakers, etc.). Nobody in their right mind would drill a hole in the back of their George Nelson thin edge credenza to accommodate their blue ray player, or screw a power strip on the back to get wiring off the floor.
My generation (late 80's baby here) is really a throw away generation. With everything from cloths, to cars, to furniture (thanks Walmart, Ikea, Bob's furniture). None of my friends look at their purchases as "investments", but they instead opt to just buy a shit product and replace it when it falls apart.
I feel like we're just now seeing a trend of people wanting to spend a little bit more for a product that's going to last 5 times longer. Hopefully this will have a ripple effect in the design world, but I don't have high hopes. I don't think there will ever be a design boom like that of the post war era. There's no longer the economy nor the demand.
To get back on topic I don't really have the history to speak for the market slowing down. However, at the end of the day it's simply a style, and this is something that is so subjective and always changing. Also, considering it's my generation that's beginning to buy furniture for their home / family, most are too cheap to spend the money on an authentic piece when you can achieve the same style from Ikea for a quarter the price. It then becomes pretty obvious why it might be slowing down...
M_Dennis , Tick
Good points yourself M_Dennis. Your generation indeed has different needs and concerns than mine. So there is always need for change and improvement in new design.
Its funny though, in some ways Ikea is part of the same wave of growing appreciation of clean simple forms, and might be seen as a step on the learning curve, while at the same time providing some of the practical updates you speak of.
I agree with what you are saying though, and I agree that the human nervous system will always seek (and be entertained by) visual variety. Who knows where the over-arching narrative of life will take the tastes of the masses as we go forward?
I guess I just feel that some of the MCM forms hit the nail on the head so perfectly (in formal sculptural terms, if not always in practical ones) that they will always inspire future designers, and "transcend" in many ways.
TICK: Francis Bacon is an exquisite painter, I agree. One of the worlds best! He was one of the few world class figurative painters that survived the overwhelming world shift to abstraction in the 20th century. And was pretty much the ONLY contemporary figurative painter whom the abstract expressionists admired and looked up to. He stuck to his guns though it all. (And I am sure he could paint a closed mouth if he wanted to. He was probably just joking.) There is a wonderful small paperback book titled "Conversations with Francis Bacon". Every quote from him stops you in your tracks! I highly recommend it.
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A few cents, a lot of Danish furniture from the time is really conservative, Georgian, Klint taught with old models? Its early and I'm tired. But I don't really see any conflict between a lot of it and many good antiques.
I think (hope) buyers will begin (you can see it in this maker subculture) to have the same awarness about furniture and eventually clothes that there is about food, maybe one day every one will be a hipster though we must be approaching peak beard?
Did someone say that there was little of value made after a certain time, all made in China etc? Very much disagree, Droog, Vitra, Cap, Grcic, Maruni, Dixon, etc
Peak beard
Yeah we may have reached peak beard.
Why is it that visuals always seem to be the last thing people deem important to learn something about? Like it has to remain some kind of mystery while everything else in the world is studied.
Like you, I do see improvement in the furniture and objects that people are choosing to live with.
Now all that is left is space-- the final frontier. (As in "thoughtfully considered negative space") But I shouldn't talk, as I have precious little room for the luxury of enough negative space in my small abode.
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Its kind of an easy shot but what concerns me about the whole design scene and its dumbing down (horrible phrase, sorry) and popularity is that people buy the knock offs or a bit of vintage something or other but never really develop an appreciation of what good design is, its too much of a fad, hopefully though this little boom will have changed some minds.
peak knock off?
Wouldn't that be nice.
Sadly, there will always be a certain percentage of "casual participants", no matter what the area of interest. This time around it created a bad knock-off boom for the hopelessly casual. (I mean the bad kind of knock off here)
Perhaps the fad will age gracefully this time? It may not be pretty otherwise.
I'm not into Memphis/Hypermod...
I'm not into Memphis/Hypermodern so won't be going there. When I think of the 80's I think of uncomfortable chairs that were more about design than comfort/Nagel prints/people snorting coke off of bad glass tables.
Correct me, but it's my perception that beginning around the 80's good design was often sold as art. I didn't see a lot of people living every day with anything we'd consider owning from that era. The things everyone had in their home and were sold in mainstream stores, is not EVER going to be collected. I'm talking about spotted oak pieces. It's a lot different than the every day stuff from the 50's/60's/70's which we find of interesting now either because of quality or design.
Not coincidentally, the late 70's is when the good american manufacturers like Heywood closed because they couldn't compete with imports from China without considerably cutting back on quality.
Yeah, for me, it ends in the 70's. I guess there are a few pieces that are interesting as works of art, but for every day living pieces that don't make me feel like I'm in a museum, it stops in the 70's.
Ones mind is usually stuck...
Ones mind is usually stuck with a certain vision of just the negatives of an era.
The 80s has it's place like any other era.
I was thinking how to explain this but will just post this excerpt I found which I would agree with.
"The avant-garde edginess of 1980s design is often lost to memories of the decade?s well-known crimes against interiors.
While this period is widely remembered for its overbearing floral prints and pastel shades, its more experimental styles deserve a second look.
Gordon Gekko may have set the general tone for the eighties when the character uttered his ?greed is good? speech in the movie Wall Street, but high-end homes during this time of uninhibited excess were better defined by the mantra less is more."
http://www.hillarys.co.uk/inspiration/the-hub/2013/12/british-style-in-8...
Now these may be extremes...
Now these may be extremes but first image is obviously too much and just a room of Memphis pieces.
The second image is using some 80s chairs which I don't normally like and some 80s glass but in such a setting it looks fabulous.I do understand the amazing apartment is a major advantage but still I believe it's all about select pieces of any era used in the right context.
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