The artistic designer and mass customisation

Matthew McCallum: DSDN171

Matthew McCallum Essay for DSDN171 Head: Margaret Petty Victoria University 2009

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Matthew McCallum: DSDN171

Artistic designers and their unique approach to mass production techniques has lead to a new form of customisation in design and a new consumer attitude within society.

Artistic designers have a unique approach to design as their process and experimentation often leads to new production techniques. They have the ability to change the way consumers view and use products, especially those produced using mass manufacturing techniques. The artist-­‐ come-­‐designer’s success in the design industry came about in the 1960s as their passion for art and craft led to new frontiers in mass customisable design. This was a reaction to the homogeneity of mass production in the post-­‐war era.

After the Second World War there were many returning soldiers therefore generating a great need for fast and affordable solutions for housing and life improving products, such as washing machines and televisions. 1 The technical advancements before and during the war resulted in new materials and construction techniques, which now became available to designers. This included the new method of

1 Margaret Maile Petty, Modernism: Consumerism: Media, dsdn171,

August 26th, 2009

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constructing kitset buildings, which involved assembling prefabricated parts quickly and easily. These technologies helped solve the problems at the time and the processes became very popular within most industries.

The consequence of these mass-­‐produced commodities soon became apparent, as the global market was flooded with these easily produced goods that most people could afford.

These products, such as washing machines and refrigerators, were usually marketed towards the domestic area and claimed to improve the buyer’s quality of life. However, the rapid consumption of these items soon became so embedded within society it led to towns, such as Levittown, Philadelphia USA being built entirely of similar styled mass-­‐ produced housing. This homogenous reality was unsustainable and soon the individual mentality began to rebel and demand change.

The 1960s led to rebellion and disharmony as society rejected the ideas of minimalism and standardisation in the mass-­‐produced commodities that surrounded them. Gaetano Pesce, a recognised designer who rose to prominence during the 1960s summed up the discontent of the contemporary

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masses in his statement stating ‘…products don’t totally satisfy us because we know we possess things others possess as well’. 2. Instead consumers began to search for individualised and unique objects that reflected their own uniqueness in such a character defining time. 3 Two artist designers, who represented the qualities of the 60s and reacted to the rejection of the mass manufacturing culture, were Joe Colombo and Gaetano Pesce. Both of these designers were brought up in post-­‐War Italy at a time when design had an immense influence in Italian culture.4 Joe Colombo was born in Milan in 1930, and began his career as a painter. At the start of the 1960s he began a highly successful career as an industrial designer focusing mostly on interiors and furniture. Colombo had strong views on how design affected society and with the birth of the space age, found himself the forerunner of design for the future. “He was able to fuse technology and visions of the

2 Silvana Annicchiarico, editor, Il Rumore Del Dempo Gaetano Pesce

(Milano: Charta: Triennale di Milano, 2005), 169.

3 Margaret Maile Petty, Post-­‐Modernism and The Remix, dsdn171, September 2nd, 2009 4 Marteo Kries and Alexander von Vegesack, editors, Joe Colombo: Inventing the Future (Vitra Design Museum, 2005), 17.

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future not only in his imagination but in reality, because he was very well informed about materials, production methods and technological details.”5 Colombo became aware of Italy’s greater population density, a result of the ‘baby boom’ in Italy after the War; hence, there was a great need to maximise space in order to cope with the fast paced, modern lifestyle of the 60s. Colombo believed ‘human housing must be as “elastic” as possible’ and his solution for this was to create a customisable living space that that met the needs of a rapidly changing society and their desire of individualism. This new mode of home living came in the form of modular interiors and furniture, such as the Living system Box 1 (1968) and Tube Chair (1969). These pieces of design presented the individual with a degree of flexibility so that they could create the type of space they needed when they needed it, and when the furniture was no longer required it packed away into the smallest amount of space possible.

5 Ibid., 75.

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Colombo’s designs began to focus solely on the two principles of dynamism and “future living”.6 As technology, such as the television, became more common in the home, Colombo realised that his own designs must be adaptable to this and other future technological advancements. His foresight into future technologies such as ‘audiovisual media’ and its incorporation in the home was avant-­‐garde. 7 This ultra modern perspective was introduced to society and created a new frontier of living and interaction within the home. Colombo’s own apartment interior was testament to his own theories and included multifunctional furniture such as Rotoliving (1969).8 Colombo’s ideas were so significant they are still seen in today’s products such as the iPod by Apple (2001).9 The modularity of the iPod device allows the user to buy specific accessories that complement that person’s lifestyle like the Nike + iPod Sports Kit (2006) Gaetano Pesce was born in Italy in 1939, and lived during the same post-­‐War design period as Joe Colombo. The start of his successful industrial design career also began through

6 Ibid., 9.

7 Ibid., 9.

8 Ibid., 9.

9 Ibid., 88.

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Matthew McCallum: DSDN171

involvement in experimental art and installation.10 Pesce is a multifaceted designer and is involved in many different design disciplines from sculpture to architecture. Pesce has a great understanding of the importance of mass production and is aware of its ability to satisfy consumer needs but also realises it subsequently creates needs as well. The torrent of products with so much emotionless functionality into the market, has led to a loss of their purpose to the individual.

They have also lost their ability to fulfil the emotional needs of the user, as it did not reflect the values of the society in which it was produced.11 In an attempt to solve this problem, Pesce turned to modern synthetic materials and began a series of advanced experiments producing furniture and lighting. The resulting products often have a random appearance with irregular shapes and varying finishes. This customisation was created using industrial materials such as foams, plastics and urethanes, as their properties provided a certain unpredictability and had the capacity to be individually hand

10 Anne Watson, Mod to Memphis: design in colour 1960-­80s (Sydney:

Powerhouse Pub., 2002.), 51.

11 Silvana Annicchiarico, editor, Il Rumore Del Dempo Gaetano Pesce (Milano: Charta: Triennale di Milano, 2005), 39, 169.

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crafted or machine moulded.12 Pesce’s artistic approach to materials allowed him to create unique individualised products expressing his feelings towards the soullessness, minimalistic homogeneity of rationalised mass-­‐produced products with respect to the practice and rationality of mass production. 13 The Nobody’s Perfect collection (2002) and 543 Broadway #2 Chair for Bernini (1993) are great examples of his experiments and achievements using his new found process that produces item that are always different to each other.

These new mass customised designs have not only changed the way materials are conventionally used by designers but are consumed by society in a much different way to mass-­‐ produced commodities, as mass customised products have the ability to represent not only the individual’s taste but also their social status, personality and ideology.14 In recent times Pesce continues to design mass customised products and as the designer himself claims ‘this is the time

12 Ibid., 91.

13 Anne Watson, Mod to Memphis: design in colour 1960-­80s (Sydney:

Powerhouse Pub., 2002.), 51.

14 Silvana Annicchiarico, editor, Il Rumore Del Dempo Gaetano Pesce (Milano : Charta: Triennale di Milano, 2005), 39.

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of non-­‐homogenous production’. 15 His products are sold with advance warnings that they are unique in appearance due to the manufacturing process and there is no guarantee of uniform appearance.16 This gives Pesce the ability to explore the boundaries of art and commercialism by producing sought after hand-­‐crafted items and machine-­‐ made products that were equally as innovative and individual.17 Ron Arad is a younger designer born in Tel Aviv in 1951. As the son of two artists, Arad also trained in art and architecture and developed a unique and more artistic approach to design. 18 Although Arad’s ideas and approaches to materials were similar to that of Colombo and Pesce, Arad has had the advantage of learning and designing during the digital age.

15 Gareth Williams, The furniture machine: furniture since 1990

(London: V&A, 2006), pg ??

16 Gaetano Pesce, 543 Broadway #2 chair, Unica Home, (Italy: Bernini, 1994), http://www.unicahome.com/p1010/bernini/543-­‐broadway-­‐2-­‐ chair-­‐by-­‐gaetano-­‐pesce.html.

17 Silvana Annicchiarico, editor, Il Rumore Del Dempo Gaetano Pesce (Milano : Charta: Triennale di Milano, 2005), 82-­‐84.

18 Gareth Williams, The furniture machine: furniture since 1990 (London: V&A, 2006), pg ??

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Arad began his experiments with metal materials, producing limited edition objects for the cultural elite. However, he soon realised mass produced items were far less painstaking yet could still be individualised.19 Plastics were still the popular choice of material for most designers, and Arad quickly discovered their customisable abilities. This is evident in his shelving system Bookworm (1994) where the user is able to define how the shelf is to be used. This means the consumer can arrange the selves from complex shapes for arranging items, to flowing curves for stacking books. For this reason the shelving system was a breakthrough in mass production as it was a product that was not designed for a specific purpose or to be used in a specific way.20 Manufactured by Kartell the product became accessible to the public through shops, as it was mass-­‐produced leaving the realm of the art world in search of the modern and sophisticated consumer. 21 Arad then turned to new digital methods in an attempt to create more ways to customise products that can be mass

19 Deyan Sudjic, Ron Arad, (London: Laurence King Pub., 1999), 103.

20 Volker Albus, Design Classics: The Bookworm by Ron Arad (Frankfurt

am Main: Verlag form, 1997), 11.

21 Deyan Sudjic, Ron Arad, (London: Laurence King Pub., 1999), 103.

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manufactured. His series of objects titled Blown out of proportion (1998) were the physical outcome of a computerised visualisation, in which each Vase had the potential to be different from the other by manipulating the digital model. The technology and method used to create these unique fluid forms was derived from highly technical architectural cladding. Arad, however, altered the procedure by changing the scale and simplifying the process. It therefore seemed appropriate to use an equally highly technological material such as aluminium, which was heated and blow-­‐moulded to create unique randomness in the final products, such as floor bowls, tables and vases collectively known as the B.O.O.P collection.22 Arad’s use of the computer has led to a new frontier of product customisation giving the consumer the ability to choose his or her own unique design. This is made possible by using a computerised simulation of the material, which is then created in the physical form using rapid prototyping

22 Ibid., 201.

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technology.23 His collection entitled Not Made by Hand, Not Made in China (2000) is a series of objects including jewellery and vessels, and is a great example of his experiments in computer modelling and construction. But his Bouncing Vase (2000) best represents this new concept of individualised mass manufactured products. This is due to the consumer’s option to select a frame from an animation of the springy vase. The frame is then printed using the manufacturing process of stereolithography that creates a unique and individualised product. Each Bouncing Vase can never be replicated, as the frame in which each consumer chooses is deleted from the animation.24 Arad’s skill to produce such items that appeal to the constant change in consumer culture has made him a very influential figure of contemporary design.25

23 Gareth Williams, The furniture machine: furniture since 1990

(London: V&A, 2006), pg ??

24 London Design Museum, Ron Arad Product Designer + Architect (1951-­) 25/25 -­ Celebrating 25 Years of Design 29 March -­ 22 June 2007 (London: Design Museum + British Council, 2007), http://designmuseum.org/design/ron-­‐arad.

25 Gareth Williams, The furniture machine: furniture since 1990 (London: V&A, 2006), pg ??

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Artistic designers have proved to the design industry that their unique approach to design often leads to new production techniques and frontiers of customisation. Their understanding of dynamism and future technology has allowed them to produce avant-­‐garde designs in numerous design disciplines. The products have not only transformed they design industry, they have change consumers attitude towards the products they buy. The concept of mass customisation allows for the consumer to represent their individuality through what they buy. Therefore artist designers will have the ability to provide for the ever-­‐ changing consumer through their talent to discover new and futuristic methods of mass customization.

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Bibliography Albus, Volker. Design Classics: The Bookworm by Ron Arad.

Frankfurt am Main: Verlag form, 1997.

Annicchiarico, Silvana. Editor. Il Rumore Del Dempo Gaetano Pesce. Milano: Charta: Triennale di Milano, 2005.

Fiell, Charlotte. and Peter Fiell. Designing the 21st Century. Köln; London: Taschen, 2005.

Hopkinson, N. R.J.M. Hague, and P.M. Dickens. Rapid Manufacturing: An Industrial Revolution for the Digital Age. Chichester, England: John Wiley, 2006.

Hudson, Jennifer. 1000 new designs and where to find them: a 21st-­‐century sourcebook. London: Laurence King, 2006.

Kries, Marteo. and Alexander von Vegesack. Editors. Joe Colombo: Inventing the Future. Vitra Design Museum, 2005.

London Design Museum. Ron Arad Product Designer + Architect (1951-­) 25/25 -­ Celebrating 25 Years of Design 29 March -­ 22 June 2007. London: Design Museum + British Council, 2007. http://designmuseum.org/design/ron-­‐arad.

(Accessed on October 23rd, 2009).

Petty, Margaret Maile. Post-­‐Modernism and The Remix. dsdn171 lecture. September 2nd 2009.

Petty, Margaret Maile. Modernism: Consumerism: Media, dsdn171 Lecture, August 26th 2009.

Pesce, Gaetano. 543 Broadway #2 chair. Unica Home. Italy: Bernini, 1994. http://www.unicahome.com/p1010/bernini/543-­‐ broadway-­‐2-­‐chair-­‐by-­‐gaetano-­‐pesce.html. (accessed on October 23rd 2009).

Sudjic, Deyan. Ron Arad. London: Laurence King Pub., 1999.

Watson, Anne. Mod to Memphis: design in colour 1960-­80s.

Sydney: Powerhouse Pub., 2002

Williams, Gareth. The furniture machine: furniture since 1990.

London: V&A, 2006.

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