Good design
Related: Stephen Bayley - good taste - design
Good design would mean something as long as there was some identifiable competition in the form of "bad" design. (Stephen Bayley, 1991)
Design classics
Some industrial designs are viewed as classic pieces of design that can be regarded as much as works of art as pieces of engineering. This is a list of designs that are regarded as having reached this classic status.
- 1859: The No. 14 chair by Michael Thonet
- 1903: The Hill House ladder back chair by Charles Rennie Mackintosh
- 1916: The glass Coca-Cola bottle by Root Glass Company of Terre Haute, Indiana
- 1917: The Red and blue chair by Gerrit Rietveld
- 1925: The Wassily Chair No B3 by Marcel Breuer
- 1929: The Barcelona chair by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
- 1935: The Volkswagen by Erwin Komenda
- 1948: The Porsche 356 by Erwin Komenda
- 1950s and later: Tupperware
- 1955: Arne Jacobsen's Chair 3107
- 1955: The Citroën DS "Goddess"
- 1961: The IBM Selectric typewriter
- 1963: The Porsche 911
- 1967: The Panton chair by Verner Panton
- 1994: The Aeron chair
- 1998: The iMac by Jonathan Ive and Apple's Industrial Design Group
- 2001: The iPod by Jonathan Ive and Apple's Industrial Design Group
Example
Image sourced here.
Image sourced here.
SK4 record player, 1956
Design: Dieter Rams and Hans Gugelot
Manufacturer: Braun
Dieter Rams is the last survivor of the modern movement (Stephen Bayley, 1991)
The modern movement can be interpreted as an attempt to restore rules to the theory and practice of architecture after a century and more of eclecticism. (Stephen Bayley, 1991)
'Good Design' exhibitions 1950 -1955
MOMA held a series of Good Design exhibitions from 1950 to 1955 in collaboration with the Merchandise Mart of Chicago.
While the issue of good design is a pressing question today, we should remember that “good design” is also a phrase from the past that carries a mixed message. From 1949 to 1955 the Museum of Modern Art, along with the Merchandise Mart of Chicago, produced a series of exhibitions and educational programs to promote design excellence in the United States. It was called the "Good Design" program, and its director, Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., was aided by some of the leading designers of the day. In many ways the program was a great success, focusing public and corporate attention on the quality of products, affecting consumer perception and encouraging manufacturers to improve the quality of their products through wider use of professional designers. But the program was also controversial because it promoted a certain number of specific products selected by Kaufmann and his juries. To be sure, the criteria of "good design" were not mistaken. All of the products were examples of good design, displaying qualities of beauty as well as functional clarity and efficiency. But the selections also represented the tastes and preferences of a relatively small, elite social group, and many other examples of good design were neglected. Over time, the standards of the Good Design program became a heavy-handed authority in the minds of many people, standing as an obstacle to personal enjoyment of the diverse goods that surround us in our daily lives. The program ended up promoting standards that were too narrow for a country undergoing explosive technological, social and cultural change. --http://id.bobulate.com/readings/gooddesign.pdf [Mar 2006]
See also:
'good design' -
MoMA -
good taste