History of design

In general, I think that design is expressed in shape, but in fields other than art and art, a balance of design and function is always required. Some are functional and have beautiful designs, and some have good functions but not good designs... The world has been full of various designs for a long time.

With the so-called IT revolution (information revolution) in the mid-1990s, PCs and the Internet became popular, and anyone could easily design. As a result, the citation and abuse of designs from various eras, and the expiration date of the design itself are rapidly shortening, and it is no exaggeration to say that it is now an era of mass consumption and mass disposal of design.

Going back to the history of design, there is a style and decorative culture represented by the Gothic style of the 12th century. At that time, it was a luxury item for aristocrats and wealthy people as a symbol of the status and power of the user. With the economic development of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century, decorative culture as a symbol of wealth entered its golden age, but in the 19th century, mass production by commercialism flooded with poor goods, and in the second half of the 19th century, William Mo The Arts & Crafts movement takes place to return to "high-quality crafts by skilled craftsmen of the good old days" by squirrels.

However, the values that Morris emphasized, such as "reviewing traditional craftsmanship and improving people's quality of life by designing and supplying beautiful daily necessities and living spaces with artistic handicrafts", are only created through careful work. The Arts & Crafts movement did not spread to the public because of the contradiction that it was only acceptable to some upper-class people.

Nevertheless, the ideas and activities of Arts & Crafts, which tried to match life and art, spread to various countries, influenced Art Nouveau in France and Jugent Steel in Germany, and Henri van de Verde, modern It is said that it became the source of modern design in the 20th century, such as the establishment of Weimar's School of Arts and Crafts, the predecessor of Bauhaus, an educational institution of design.

Bauhaus was founded in Weimar in 1919 by architect Walter Glopius. The Bauhaus style has become one of the most influential trends in modern design, modernist architecture and art, design and architectural education, and designs that are in line with ideas and the era of mass production such as rationalism and functionalism are still He continues to influence art, architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design, and typography.

Above, I have roughly written the history of design, but the foundation of today's mainstream design is the ideology of the mass production era. I think the obsolescence of design due to the development of technology mentioned at the beginning is one of the things that makes you feel the end of the history of modernism, which has lasted for 100 years since the mass production era, but it is that the early design was created based on ideas, It's probably because the design after that will simply become a copy and paste of the shape.

In recent years, the world is about to change significantly from the previous society, such as population decline, the accompanying slowdown in economic growth, and the transformation from mass production and mass disposal to a sustainable society.

Recently, I feel that I have had more opportunities to see the word "Folk art". Similarly, such as sustainable and bio-philic, these series of words seem to be trying to regain their original humanity, just like the Arts & Crafts movement that occurred after the Industrial Revolution. It is.

The modernist thought by functionalism and rationalism is simply "producing mechanical and standardized things in large quantities at a low cost" from the original mission of "improving people's quality of life by designing and supplying high-quality daily necessities and living spaces" I have the impression that it has become far from human nature. Looking back on history, the obsolescence of design and the beginning of new ideas may always be the same.

Isn't it time for design based on modernist ideas in the era of mass production to finish its role and start to need a new design?

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