Design History Essay: Design Development Since the Industrial Revolution

Drawing inspiration from Art Deco, Ettore and friends started the Memphis Design group. They were in favor of Industry like Bauhaus and Art Deco, but also advertising and more importantly daily life. The Memphis designs set out to unite object with user, and gained their inspiration from daily influences such as comics, movies, punk music and pastel colours. They designed objects, furniture and graphics. These things were colourful, symbolic, witty, cheerful, playful and often based on children's toys. In this example of Carlton Shelves by Ettore Sonttsass (1981) to the right, we can see these design characteristics at play as well as geometric pure shapes that was another characteristic in Memphis design.
They didn't have decorations, but sometimes appeared to be one big decoration. The products were made mainly from plastics and wood, and a whole range of other materials. The furniture was designed for mass production, though their designs were sometimes not super functional. They were therefore influenced by the past, especially Art Deco, but they also reflected the images of their time, and were part of the world of industry.
So design has developed in a big way since the industrial revolution. Even though all the design movements I have written about have been different in many ways they are all brilliant in their own way and are just some of the styles that are design.
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