I am an artist and art teacher. I've lived through the designs of the 50's 'till today (much of the reason why I have latched onto the mid-century modern design movement - I was born in it, lived in it and feel very comfy with it). I do love other design forms but am a child of Pop Art and the 60's. In conversation about art and design with my husband tonight I mentioned that I have not seen a major significant change in the art, fashion and design world since the mid 70's. Everything seems to be just a twist of what was out there before. I am back to wearing capris, clam diggers and bermuda shorts as I did when I was a kid. My stilleto heels have been the sexy style for ages. Skirt are up and down and have been forever. My jeans are not much different than they have been since they first became in vogue to wear out in public in the 60's (we called them dungarees back then and the Gap -'69 - only sold Levis [the jeans name came later] - tight, skinny, ankle, low (hip huggers from the late 60's).
As far as the art world, I constantly frequent contemporary art museums and it appears that we are all trying to push the envelope, but it's still same old. I work in my studio, do what I love, try to think up what hasn't been done before and come up with nothing realy new. I go back to doing what I feel comfortable with.
The much of the furniture designs that I do enjoy don't seem to be comming from the USA. I Love visiting Italy, Amsterdam and the like and looking at fresh designs. What I do see is designs that are very reminicent of what many of us on this board love in the classic mid-century style. Clean, neat, simple, thought out......Timeless comes to mind!!!!
Are we hanging onto our comfort zone? Is it because of what is going on the the world? Is it just me because I live in the USA? Is the rest of the world more able to see the future and I'm just looking to hang onto better times? I need a perspective and I think I may not have it!
Getting Old and Need a Change, I think!!! ~L
The next new trend will be...
Interiors that emulate the look of computer games both visually and in terms of some interactivity. These interiors will blur the line (i.e., break down the boundaries) between the games going on inside your computers and game boys and the games going on outside in your living space.
As a gamer fellow I once knew said: Life is a game, so live the model.
The interactive game is the new paradigm.
Its aesthetics and strategies and interactivities will filter down into our every day lives just the way movies and television did.
I rather hope I don't live to see it, but it will be here before you know it.
While
the rate of change in every area has been accelerating, I see no reason to think that, in any of many fields of endeavor, we might not sooner or later arrive at 'the best' and have no where left to go. Maybe the middle of the last century, or that period of twenty years or so that followed the War, was actually the zenith of many of the visual arts that we look at here. Why not ? How many wheels can we reinvent ?
L~ and I
are of an age. It isn't clear that that makes a difference in how one sees the products of any given decade. But familiarity doesn't necessarily breed contempt. Quite the opposite: I am both nostalgic for and committed to the design of the 1935-1970 period. I agree that much good new work is being done -- but the record is beginning to skip on its turntable a bit, isn't it ?
I think one reason why people are
collecting classic mid-century modern designs is because how incredibly forward and appropriate these designers were!
It's still amazing to me that 'ultra modern' furniture that was designed towards the end of the Art Deco period - Aalto's 1936 pieces, Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona chair and La Carbusier's leather chairs and sofas STILL look modern and fashion-forward all these years later! (Most Deco and Streamline furniture looks a bit dated and is of its own era....Gilbert Rohde's furniture, for example.)
Quite a bit of the post modern stuff is just plain silly and ugly:
Gunnar Aagaard Anderson's 1964 "armchair"
Roger Tallon's 1965 "chair"
Roberto Sebastian Matta's 1966 "Malitte" seating system
was already stuff that might look good, but is not really what I would consider comfortable, usable and aoppropriate.
Much of the 1970's was goofy and quite a lot of stuff made in 1980's and later seemed to me to be reminiscent of the 1950's.
There ARE exceptions, of course, the ARCO lamp the Tizio lamp, the Ribbon chair have settled to become iconic pieces that are still begin produced and any of these would look beautiful in a room with 1950's pieces.
So, who knows what's the next good design thing?
G R E E N
So we've come through the futuristic lavishness of the Deco period, the stark rationality of international, the stripped down functionality of MCM, the phsychedelic POP era, unfortunately the 70's, the bizarre kaleidoscope of Memphis, the even more bizzare fads of the 80's into the extravagant minimalism of the 90s boom. Along the way nostalgia started picking off folks and dragging them into generic 'period' style pieces that morphed into an even more generic 'contemporary' McMansion style. So where does that leave us?
Half observation, half wish list I'd say we're headed towards a period of restraint and awareness. People are going to start looking at the size and scale of how they live and making choices that will bring a more simple, more organic style of living. Organic in the sense that things will be perceived by their neccesity, their functionality, and their longevity. I see environmental concerns already being pushed in retail design sector, as well as in the manufacturing design sector, and architecture as well. Like Mid Century Modernism in the sense of a rethinking of the HOW and the WHY. I'd like to see it as a renewed period of optimism and advancement, with technology driving people towards cleaner, greener lives.
Thats just the design world...many people will still have McMansions, Hummers, and WalMart.
Isn't that the reason
why Herman Miller stopped using Rosewood? I'm under the impression that both Herman Miller and Knoll currently made pieces are environmentally safe and appropriate. Same goes for all of the other higher-quality makers (Cassina, Fritz Hansen, Artek, Kartell, Alessi, etc.)
From what I've read all of these companies were extremely sensitive to making sure that all of their products are made from sustainable products.
Material-wise the "green"...
Material-wise the "green" factor has to be the dominating force in design for our future but design-wise, I hope that there will be never any trend...every designer should always be true to him/herself and strive for originality and timelessness in their designs! I can't stand it when all the top designers in the world come up with pieces that can all be lumped in some kind of faddy category. That's what terrible about fashion design, there always has to be some buzz word trend for each season and everyone jumps on board to be a part of. I hope that doesn't happen to furniture and product design, ever!
Another Trend-Thread
Their was also a nice thread
http://www.designaddict.com/design_addict/forums/index.cfm/fuseaction/th...
Just look back to this day
30 years ago to find out what the next design trend is. Things seem to be simply reinvented or rather reinterpreted in 30 year cycles. Muscle cars of the 70's today the new Dodge Charger, the "Bullitt" mustang, hip hugger jeans. Organic food made it's debut in the 70's which was a resurgence of what was the only thing available in the forties, and is again in a resurgency in the "oughts" (2000's). At least that has been my observation.
Closed Cycle Manufacturing
We will see more firms that offer closed cycle manufacturing, where the firm that sells the product, will also serve as the recycling point for all or part of the product. It will also become more common to find re-used parts in a newly assembled product, just as much of the paper we now use contains at least some recycled fiber.
I expect governments to increasingly get into this act by mandating closed cycle manufacturing or creating tax incentives for those who recycle their own goods, or penalties for those who do not.
Multinationals who are currently hiding their eco-criminal behavior behind the communist gulags in China and behind corrupt Third World governments, are not going to be able to hide much longer, since international agreements will penalize trade with makers of goods that are not closed cycle manufactured.
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