GRAP1041 Design in Society Task 2 Design Response
‘ A response to Ettore Sottsass’s artworks and his era ’
Jiapei Zhou s3599812
Week 10
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Contents
01 Brief Introduction to Ettore Sottsass 02 Design 1
Wave Pattern Shelf
03 Design 2 Picasso Mirror 04 Design 3
Memphis Pendant
05 Design 4 Sottsass Associati Desk 06 Reflection 07 Reference List
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01 Brief Introduction to Ettore Sottsass
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Ettore Sottsass was an essential figure of the late 20th century. He is the founder of the early 1980s Memphis collective. Because of his strong personal characteristics, he led a revolution in the aesthetics and technology of modern design in the late 20th century. One of the most significant counter-forces to modernism in design history, Ettore Sottsass made monumental artistic contributions to every decade of his working life since starting his practice in the late 1940’s. His career produced a provocative body of work, including architecture, furniture, industrial
design, glass, ceramics, painting, photography and a wealth of writings. He was born in 14 September 1917 in Innsbruck, Austria, and grew up in Milan. Before became an industrial designer, he studied architecture and was forced to participate in Italian army. He also worked different companies and came out distinct designs. The era he lived was under huge change. Famous events happened a lot from 1920s to 2000s, but some upsetting events happened too.
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Survetta bookcase
Adesso Pero Bookcase
Ultrafragola
Max Shelf
Carlton
Sculptural Lamp
For Sottsass, creating a lexicon of design that incorporated emotive, sensorial and humanist concerns was a rebellion against post-war rationalist architecture that valued function over form, and left human nature largely out of the architectural equation. He was moved by the subjective gesture of American Abstract Expressionist painting and the direct resonance of Pop Art. He also looked to ancient eastern cultures for examples of how to create a spiritual connection between form and meaning. A central concern of much of Sottsass’ work is the social, cultural and technical implications of architecture and design on the way people live and interact. Always counterintuitive and built on complex thought-patterns, the notion that a functional object could communicate an abstract idea was revolutionary and has emboldened legions of designers today.
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02 Design 1
Wave Pattern Shelf
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Research In 1960s people were passionate at using pattern to decorate their daily objects. They used pattern in different ways, for examples, printing patterns on clothes, shaping furniture with pattern, using colours to compose patterns, even using pattern to create some kind of psychological visuals to attract people’s attention. To Sottsass, patterns were inspirations for him to create novel designs. He designed a few bookshelves with patterns. Although theses bookshelves were painted only with one colour, they are still remarkable. Anyone who had seen his shelf designs are able to tell his works from a large range of shelves. He also had some works that were more relative to Memphis’s design styles. But what I am looking here is the way he used pattern and how he combined bright colour, interesting waves to a strong style of modernism. 1960s is an important area for global situation. Soviet and America started to launch their space plans. Martin Luther King gave I had a dream speech. The first successful heart transplant operation also happened in 1960s. For design fields, the society’s change affected how designers came out ideas a lot. Designers tried to transit their traditional materials and visuals into new ones.
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1960s 8
Pattern
Short legs
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Material Dimension Colour
Painted Wood 1200 X 250 x 1578(mm) Pink
Notice
No back side plate
Red and Pink were popular in 1960s. From research, many designs applied red and pink. Wood was widely used around that age. Also wood keeps a sense of old fashion and traditional look. Wave patterns were inspired from a common pattern in research. It shows a sense of movement.
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03 Design 2 Picasso Mirror
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Research Ettore Sottsass had experienced an important event in human history, World War II. He participated in Italian army after graduated from University. He also stayed in a concentration camp until 1945. During World War II, a lot minor or civil war happened around the world. The whole world was surrounded by terrifying atmosphere. It is also the age the famous artist Picasso created some invaluable works, such as ‘Guernica’ and ‘A witness to Guernica: The weeping women’.
Pablo Picasso
was born in Málaga, Spain, in 1881. He is one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century and the creator of Cubism. A Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and stage designer, Picasso was considered radical in his work. His artworks and legend lives on after his death. For nearly 80 of his 91 years, Picasso devoted himself to an artistic production that contributed significantly to—and paralleled the entire development of—modern art in the 20th century.
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The story of Guernica is by now one of the most familiar in the annals of modern art. During the Spanish Civil War, the ancient Basque city of Guernica was bombed for over three hours by German bombers sympathetic to General Franco. The city lay far behind the lines and was undefended. It contained only a civilian population who were relentlessly strafed as well as bombed. The bombing took place on 26 April 1937. On 1 May, Picasso made the first sketches of what was to become the epic-scaled painting, Guernica.
Picasso had been invited earlier that year by the Republican government of Spain to paint a mural for the Spanish Pavilion at the Paris International Exhibition. The bombing of Guernica provided him with the grimly appropriate subject: the Spanish agony. The painting itself was one of the largest Picasso ever undertook, standing 351 cm high and running for 782 cm. Even for Picasso the work went with astonishing speed. Dora Maar, his companion of the late 1930s and early 40s, photographed the great work seven times before its completion, vividly recording the separate stages. It is a reasonable supposition that she did so because the work evolved so quickly; the changing faces of pity and terror had to be caught. Although there is no firm date to mark its completion, the underdrawing for the entire composition was in place by 11 May, just ten days after the first pencil sketches. The work was installed in the Spanish Pavilion by July 1937, therefore it must have been completed by the end of June at the latest.
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I try to put two paintings together, including their famous parts, like distorted body and geometrical shapes. Colours are inspired from ‘the woman’. The primary colours can also be related to pure and childish thoughts. In children’s world, there are no war no harm. Even though the whole mirror is separated into pieces, the colourful shapes composed them together again. To make the mirror functional, I choose to put decorations at bottom. Adjustable support is also used to make sure users are able to use the mirror in a way they like.
Brainstorming and refinement of ideas
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Material Dimension Colour
mirror (glass mercury) / plastic / wood 1200 x 800 x 1800 (mm) Red+Green+Blue+black +brown
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04 Design 3
Memphis Pendant
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Research MEMPHIS was a Milan-based collective of young furniture and product designers led by the veteran Ettore Sottsass. After its 1981 debut, Memphis dominated the early 1980s design scene with its post-modernist style. It is also the great cultural phenomenon of the '80s that has revolutionised the creative and commercial logic of the design world. Created on the initiative of
Ettore Sottsass and a group of young Milanese architects and designers, shortly to be joined by some of the most famous names on the international design scene, Memphis overturned all the existing preconceptions around the idea of "living". With Ettore Sottsass as the backbone of the group, Memphis abolished the creative limits previously dictated by the industry, and Design assumed a new expressivity in the form of new shapes, materials and patterns. Thus, the Memphis movement has become an almost mythical symbol of "New Design" and its influence is still strong in many areas of production and beyond. In 1997 Memphis realized it could no longer use the name Memphis for its new products and developed the brand Post Design. Post Design includes a wide range of collections created by Italian and international designers and artists, including household names like Ettore Sottsass, Nathalie Du Pasquier, Dennis Santachiara and Johanna Grawunder as well as less well-known names in a conscious effort to give visibility to young designers.
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To show a strong Memphis style, I applied bright colour and striated pattern on different parts of the lamp. Different geometric shapes are composed together. Even though these parts might create shadow, they still provide enough space for light to spread around the whole room. I expect the material can be plastics that can stand high temperature in case the bulb produce a lot of heat.
Material Dimension Colour
plastics 200 x 200 x 300 blue/ pink/ yellow/ black/ white
Notice
It should be hanged up to ceilling
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05 Design 4 Sottsass Associati Desk
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Research Whilst the Memphis movement in the eighties attracted enormous attention around the world for its energy and flamboyance, Sottsass Associati are presently based in London and Milan and continue to sustain the work, philosophy and culture of the studio. Ettore Sottsass was simultaneously assembling a major design consultancy which he named Sottsass Associati. The studio was established in 1980 and gave the possibility to build architecture on a substantial scale as well as to design for large international industries. Sottsass Associati, primarily an architectural practice, also designed elaborate stores and sh owrooms for Esprit, identities for Alessi, exhibitions, interiors, consumer electronics in Japan and furniture of all kinds. The studio was based on the cultural guidance of Ettore Sottsass and the work was conducted by the talent and energy of its associates.
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Research and Inspiration
Even in architecture, Sottsass used geometric shapes to create visual shock. All his architecture works look like those created in fairytales. He only applied single colour in one part, creating a sense of harmony even though the contrast is strong, like red and dark blue, pink and tint blue, brownness and bottle green. He also used a wide range of materials to create the contrast between texture. I was strongly inspired by the design on left. Even though the whole photo looks harmonious, there are contrast between stone and metal, light pink and dark metallic colour, curves and angles‌ It is a design with complex thoughts and planning behind it. And I would like to use such interesting contrast in my design,
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I used similar technique to make my desk look simple but not dull. There are contrast between angle and curve, wood and metal, silver and pink‌ The height is also designed to a most comfortable and common number 700mm according to a few researches and interviews with my potential users.
Material Dimension Colour
Painted Wood / metal 1200 x 900 x 700 (mm) Pink / silver
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06 Reflection Through out the process of studying Ettore Sottsass’s works and his background knowledge, I see how strong an era can impact a designer, also how a designer can bring change to the world. To my perspective, Sottsass’s design is to show his spirit of revolt to the world, or modernism. He was affected by a wide range of fields, including the war, the feminism, pop art and cartoon. And he dedicated at pushing designers move forward, like encouraging Memphis movement. The way he designed works look childish and simple, however, those works were still composed by deep thinking. When I try to balance the colours and shapes in my design, it is hard to make many things going on but still look harmony in one page. I also learnt a lot about understanding an artwork by understanding its creator, for example, Picasso. Once an artwork related to an important event or carried special meanings, it can become invulnerable. And the meaning and effort put into the works are the most essential part.
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Reference List https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1474156517355-f2ac399ffec9?ixlib=rb0.3.5&q=80&fm=jpg&crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&s=231667afeeae3a72bd67fd3795ac02db http://www.phaidon.com/resource/9780714865843-780-1.jpg https://www.kaufmann-mercantile.com/field-notes//images/Ettore-Sottsass.jpg https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/94/b9/d2/94b9d2684bfe1fb1c0ab0149ace08d58.jpg http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/images/hb/hb_1997.460.1ab.jpg https://a.1stdibscdn.com/archivesE/upload/9301/44_13/20131029artbrokerdesign47/XXX_20131029artbrokerde sign47.jpg https://www.wright20.com/items/index/2000/359_1_important_design_december_2014_ettore_sottsass_adess o_pero_bookcase_from_the_ruins_series__wright_auction.jpg?t=1456272786 https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/0e/1f/fd/0e1ffd7207e2ed4c6c646838ba00f84d.jpg https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/4b/79/05/4b79050804d78999cf529bc30ff69d7b.jpg https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/03/d7/5c/03d75cd314109b883922a507ce945f0d.jpg https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/83/13/93/83139330d97b50430d00ae8d7fa1ceeb.jpg http://editorial.designtaxi.com/news-systems091213/1.jpg http://www.elledecor.com/design-decorate/a2738/60s-interior-design/ http://edc.h-cdn.co/assets/cm/15/04/54bffcd5c6dde_-_60s-design-feature.jpg http://theglamoroushousewife.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/1960s-interior-design-1.jpeg http://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_leo8qeIIc31qcnkk2o1_500.jpg https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/bc/4c/f4/bc4cf49442ac7f0d4b5006d4c803194b.jpg https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/a6/b2/0e/a6b20ecd86a8bb545def893e70569cd5.jpg http://a5.files.biography.com/image/upload/c_fit,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,h_1200,q_80,w_1200/MTE1ODA0OTcxNzU0M Dk2MTQx.jpg https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/0e/d7/52/0ed752443198c590add6153960ab6bcf.jpg https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--xFR9AJCf-/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/vjfsehwnnddnhnaylgah.jpg https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/c6/eb/f3/c6ebf39d4d315f773a700d4ba00e1c6e.jpg https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/61/76/fe/6176fec7a1c430ecdc909b988f4b6f1a.jpg http://italychronicles.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Cannetti-clock.jpg http://www.boostyle.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/4cb7boxingring.jpg https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/shrinknp_800_800/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAiIAAAAJDNjYzE2Y2ZhLTU3YWMtNGEy Ni05OTk4LTBhYjI0NzY2YTlhZQ.jpg http://mirror80.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Memphis-Milano-style-balsa-wood-lamp-design.jpg
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