CategoriesArtistic Disciplines
Design
Useful objects shaped with aesthetic intent, from furniture and lighting to industrial products, and the designers and movements behind them.
16 works · 10 related artists
About
Design as a profession grew with industry. When factories could make chairs, lamps and tableware in quantity, someone had to decide how they would look before production began. In the 18th century, the architect Robert Adam was already planning entire interiors, down to carpets and door handles. Reacting against shoddy machine goods, William Morris argued in the later 19th century for honest materials and handwork, while the Thonet firm showed how a bentwood chair could be both cheap and elegant.
The 20th century turned design into a set of competing ideals: the geometric, factory-ready forms of the Bauhaus, the streamlining of the 1930s, the moulded plywood and fibreglass of the postwar years and the playful plastic of Eero Aarnio's Ball Chair (1963). George Nakashima kept the natural edge of timber slabs. A strong piece shows its logic: materials suited to use, clear construction and details that reward handling.
