Josef Hoffmann Design Response

Josef Hoffmann Design Response

• Assessment 3 - Assigned Designer and You • • Design in Society • Grap1041 • • Design Pioneers: 20th Century Furniture Design • • School of Design • Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology • Matthew Rodway | s3784670

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Contents 03

•Introduction•

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•Author Bio•

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•Josef Hoffmann•

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•Designer Biography•

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•Timeline•

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•Quadratl-Hoffmann•

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•the Wiener Werkstatte•

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•Design Response•

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•Concept Ideation•

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•Concept 1•

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•Concept 2•

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•Concept 3•

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•Reflection•

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•Bibliography• 2

Introduction Josef Hoffmann is a Austrian born, architect and industrial designer, whose work heavily changed design, not only during his time, but also influenced design in today’s world. Hoffmann worked in all fields of design, from architecture through to furniture design, as well as table settings and cutlery. Hoffmann also dabbled in graphic design through his career, when he designed furniture cloth to accompany his furniture.

Although Hoffmann worked in a range of design fields, this assignment will be mainly focus on his furniture design. It will look into how Hoffmann innovated the use of bent wood with his furniture as well as his geometrical design style. It will also investigate Hoffmann’s design movement wiener werkstätte where he worked with other designers to create one of the longest living design movements of the twentieth century.

As a designer, I relate strongly to Hoffmann’s work mainly due to his geometrical design style, and strong use of pattern. Also working through a different assignment where we researched a little into him I found his work very interesting and I was amazed at how he was able to influence so many people through his work. Then after conducting deeper research on him to write an essay I was intrigued at the way he worked and it was for these reasons that I chose Hoffmann for this assignment.

For the presentation of this assignment, I have taken posters of Hoffmann’s design movement, wiener werkstätte, and used them as an influence in the layout of each page. This includes the black borders around the elements of each page and the strong black typeface used for titles. Pattern and repetition is also prevalent in these works with comes across with the squares accompanying the titles, which too came from this design movement.

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Author Bio My name is Matthew Rodway, and I am a first year student studying a bachelor of mechanical engineering and industrial design at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. After finishing my VCE studies down on the Mornington Peninsula, south of Melbourne, I began my pursuit of the things I enjoy doing most. Drawing and understanding how things work.

Through school my studies were similar taking visual communication and design, as well as physics and maths. These helped with my university studies as they covered all basics of my courses.

Outside of university I stay active playing basketball through the week, going camping, and also working. I am a very ‘hands-on’ person who enjoys getting out there and getting stuff done. This assists with my studies as it helps clear my head when I am getting too bogged down in the work. It also gives me times when I am not thinking about current projects, which at times can be when my best ideas come through. I am a firm beleiver in that we should stay active no matter the career you pursue because fresh air is always good and constant work can be harmful.

As a designer I am a very technical thinker who somtimes struggles to see a more ‘artistic’ view as I tend to focus more on the working side of a product. However I feel like this is a benefit to me as I think differently to those around me and therefor work well with them because when we put our minds together we get a vast array of ideas coming from all different backgrounds. Also having this technical thinking also helps me understand how a design will work in the real world which stops unrealist design possibilities making in too far in the design process.

Being only in my first year of my studies I haven’t really found my ‘design style’ but am rather trying many different methods and style to inspire my own. Currently my design style is very geometrical as I like to use basic shapes to come up with and create new ideas. My style is also minimalistic as I try to avoid over complecating my designs. A strong use of pattern or repetition of one idea or shape comes up alot when looking back at my past designs. For example I designed a stool during my second semester of univeristy called the ‘twisted hexagon stool’ which only uses two main shapes, but they are repeated to create a more complex looking design. However the actual shape is simple but still gives the idea of a hexagon twisting as it goes up.

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Assessment 2 Analytical Essay Josef Hoffmann vs. Khai Liew Josef Hoffman, an architect and designer born in Brtnice, the Czech Republic in 1870 and Khai Liew, a Malaysian born furniture designer born in 1952, who is now based in Adelaide, are both very successful designers in the furniture design field. Their works have many aspects and elements that relate to one another and differ from each other. These factors come from a range of influences such as eras they worked in, materials they used, and the innovation of their designs. The environment they designed in demonstrates the difference between the two designers as Hoffmann designed in a much earlier time period to Khai and therefore has vastly different hurdles to get over and influences on his design. Similarities between the designers’ works come through when looking into materials that the two worked with. Both mainly used wood in their furniture design, each for their own reasons. Khai liked the warmth of wood and therefore used it in his furniture, and Hoffmann utilised the structural strength of the material. Innovation is a factor of both designers’ work which illustrates similarities and differences between the two. Both were innovative with their designs, Hoffmann sticking to his geometrical design but making square shapes look inviting, and Khai designing his furniture with new ways of working wood and also adding a story element to his designs. Where these two differ though is Hoffmann then also was at the forefront of creating a whole new design movement, showing that his designs not only inspire others but his design style influences the future of design.

Josef Hoffman grew up through the late 1800s and lived through the mid 20th century. This meant he lived through many major global events as this time period was a time of great change around the world with many countries wanting new land and therefor going to war for it, and other countries breaking away from the larger empires and stating their own independence.

Arguably the largest most influential events during Hoffman’s lifetime were the world wars. World War 1, which occurred from 1914 through to 1918, which then lead to the great depression. Being born into the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was one of the great powers of the first world war, and therefore one of the hardest hit but the Great Depression, Hoffmann struggled with design. His designs became far more quadrilateral and geometrical, causing him to get the nickname; ‘Quadratl-Hoffmann’ (Square-Hoffmann).

The Great Depression halted Hoffmann’s work as it forced the closure of his workshop, the Deutscher Werkbund. This is was played a major part in Hoffmann moving more away from architecture and large-scale interior design, and more into furniture and domestic products such as cutlery and lamps.

Khai Liew, experienced a vastly different environment to Hoffmann as he lived through the 20th and 21st centuries, which was a very different time.

War wasn’t as prominent during Khai’s lifetime but it was a time for great advancement in technology and modernised living. This was a great influence on his design as he was able to focus more specifically on one design type.

Australian Design. At 18 Khai moved to Adelaide Australia and fell in love with the furniture design that now surrounded him. Unlike Hoffmann, Khai didn’t create a new design movement, but he does connect with his on the organization side of things. Hoffmann who was involved in the creation of the Deutscher Werkbund, and Khai who started his own design practice with his wife Nichole Palyga. Through this design firm, Khai was able to draw from his heritage to give great contrast through his design. Being a Malaysian man who moved to Australia and “became a collector of South Australian and Australian furniture” [Ping, 2017], Khai has a lot to draw inspiration from.

• Josef Hoffmann •

• Khai Liew •

• Sitzmachine Chair • Josef Hoffmann

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Material is an element of both Hoffman’s and Khai’s designs that connect their works.

Hoffman, being an architect primarily, liked to work with wood as it was a strong yet light material. This allowed for the structure of his furniture design to be very sturdy and therefore practical. Having a very geometrical design style, Hoffmann was able to combine the square sheets of plywood with beams of bentwood to create his designs. This shows heavily with his Sitzmaschine Chair [1] where he used ply for the seat, backrest and side panels and bentwood as his framing. Similar to Hoffmann, Khai Liew works with a range of materials but his most prominent material, especially in his furniture design is wood. Khai, having grown up in the 20th and 21st centuries, had a greater range of possibilities when it came to different materials than Hoffmann, but chose to work with wood for its “beauty, warmth and sustainability.” [Ping, 2017] His love of wood shines through when looking through his work as Khai’s most famous works are all constructed with only wood. The Whimsical Alice in Wonderland Chair [2] and Sunflower Chair [3] both very different in styles, one being tall and square and the other small and natural in shape, both utilise the colour and feel of the wood, thus making the chair more inviting to sit on.

Josef Hoffman’s was a very innovative and influential designer of his time, which shines through with the creation of the Wiener Wekstätte. Hoffmann who lead the movement, along with associates Koloman Moser and Dagobert Peche, created what would become one of the longest-lived design movements of the 20th century. The Wiener Wekstätte which drew from other design movements such as “Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau as well as traditional folk art” [“The Wiener Werkstätte Movement Overview”, 2019], went on to influence larger art movements such as art deco and the international style. This new design thinking from Hoffmann lead to what were at the time very innovative designs, with his geometrical design. Hoffmann’s Kubus Armchair [4] which was designed in 1910 illustrates Hoffmann’s use of squares and cubes but still demonstrates how he could make something which would otherwise be an uncomfortable shape inviting to sit on. This sort of concrete design was different from those around him and other designers had a far more abstract way of designing and coming up with new designs. Khai Liew too was innovative with his design but different to Hoffman, he created new things within his design style rather than creating a whole new movement. Khai, who often is referred to as “a lyricist with wood” [Ping, 2017] was always pushing the material “in new an exciting ways” [Khai Liew]. This lead to great recognition for him, winning the ‘South Australian of the Year in the arts’ in 2011. He has also been inducted into the ‘Design Institute’s Australian Hall of Fame’ for his “Contribution to Australian design” [“Khai Liew - Art Gallery of WA, 2018 ]. Khai’s storytelling through his designs is a clear example of the way he creates and works. The ‘Whimsical Alice in Wonderland Chair’ [2] demonstrates this as when designing this the client had grandchildren and Khai explained that he wanted it to be a chair that’s both inviting fo the kids as it was for the grandparents. He explained how he had “imagined that the children would be barefoot on the rugs and that they would be competing with each other to stake their claim on their favourite chair during their visits with their grandmother.” [Ping, 2017] This shows that Khai’s designs are more than a piece of furniture but also a piece of art.

The works of Khai Liew and Josef Hoffmann and their design styles, relate and intertwine with one another through many elements as well as how they differ. Things like materials that each designer used demonstrates a correlation between the two, as both were fond of using wood in their furniture. Hoffmann, more so than Khai, then went on to innovate the use of wood in combining differents woods and also bending it to create new elements to his designs. This then lead to him challenging the way furniture was made and creating a new design movement. Khai, on the other hand, didn’t go as far as to create a new paradigm but instead challenged the dominant one that believes wood a concrete don’t mix. This comes through in the book published by Khai and his wife, ‘The Kinfolk Home’, which shows off his house in Adelaide that was designed and furnished by Khai. He intentionally filled his ‘fortress-like home’ [Liew & Palayga, 2019] with all wood elements to bring warmth into his home.

• The Whimsical Alice in Wonderland chair • Khai Liew

• Sunflower Chair • Khai Liew

To further analyse and compare the works of Josef Hoffmann and Khai Liew extra aspects can be looked into. Using tools such as a S.W.O.T analysis, which can look into the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, of each designers’ style and work will give a better understanding of how beneficial their designs are. It will give an understanding of how strong each design is and also the problems the designers faced. Overall, the scope of this study gives a vast understanding of each designers’ work and how they designed in their eras, by looking into major aspects of each designers’ style. It allows an understanding of how each factor can influence design and how they relate individually to different designers.

• Kubus Chair • Josef Hoffmann

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The man

Josef Ho

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that is:

offmann

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Designer Biography Josef Hoffmann is an architect and designer born in Brtnice, the Czech Republic in 1870 to parents Leopoldine Tuppy and Josef Franz Karl Hoffmann, and lived throught to the age of 85 when he died in 1956. Hoffmann has worked in a range of design fields, but originated in architecture which he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Austria. At the age of 27, he founded his own design practice where he focussed mainly on his architecture but also worked on designing furniture too. Around 10 years later Hoffmann, along with a range of other designers founded the Vienna Secession which was an association of designers, artists, and architects that went against the Austrian design style.

• Josef Hoff

Hoffmann’s most influential work was the construction of The Wiener Werkstätte, which he founded alongside good friend Koloman Moser as well as a group of other designers. The workshop followed the idea of designing the total project, from the building, down to the graphics on the furniture.

Due to this the workshop included artists of all fields of design as well as a range of artists. The Wiener Werkstätte, later developed their own style and resulted in the introduction of a new design movement; Wiener-Werkstätte-Stil. This design movement went on to become one of the longest-lived design movements of the twentieth century and influenced a range of others.

Material is an element of Hoffman’s designs that set him apart from other designers of his time. He worked with a range of different materials through his range of different design fields, such as silver for his cutlery sets, and glass of some vases, but being an architect primarily, liked to work with wood as it was a strong yet light material. This allowed for the structure of his furniture design to be very sturdy and therefore practical. Having a very geometrical design style, Hoffmann was able to combine the square sheets of plywood with beams of bentwood to create his designs. What revolutionised Hoffman’s work however was the idea of painting his designs. His furniture, made mainly of wood, would be coated in a single colour of paint to change the look completely. This gave him a point of difference at the time as other wooden furniture was being left as the colour of the wood.

As Josef Hoffman grew up through the late 1800s and lived through the mid 20th century, this meant he lived through many major global events as this time period was a time of great change around the world with many countries wanting new land and therefor going to war for it, and other countries breaking away from the larger empires and stating their own independence.

Arguably the largest most influential events during Hoffman’s lifetime were the world wars. World War 1, which occurred from 1914 through to 1918, which then lead to the great depression. Being born into the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was one of the great powers of the first world war, and therefore one of the hardest hit but the Great Depression, Hoffmann struggled with design. His designs became far more quadrilateral and geometrical, causing him to get the nickname; ‘Quadratl-Hoffmann’ (Square-Hoffmann).

The Great Depression halted Hoffmann’s work as it forced the closure of his workshop, the Deutscher Werkbund. This is was played a major part in Hoffmann moving more away from architecture and large-scale interior design, and more into furniture and domestic products such as cutlery and lamps

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• Furniture c

• TEa Service •

• Sitzmaschine Armchair•

fmann •

cloth•

• Kubus chair•

• The Wiener Werkstatte•

• Women’s Dress for a Masked Ball •

• the Palais Stoclet • 12

Timeline

| 1905 |

Sitzmaschine Ad Armchair is crea Josef Hoffmann.

| 1903 |

| 1889 | Hoffmann founded The Vienna Secession

Hoffmann founded The Wiener Werkstätte, alongside Koloman Moser

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Hoffm is creat

| 1905 | Josef Hoffmann’s most well known building, ‘The Paris Stoclet’ is built.

| 1902 | Hoffmann design ‘cubist releif ’ sculpture 5 years before cubism was a thing..

| 15 of December - 1870 | Josef Hoffmann is born in Brtnice, Moravia, Austria-Hungary, to parents Leopoldine Tuppy and Josef Franz Karl Hoffmann.

1870

1880

| 1899 |

Josef Hoffmann became a proffessor at what is now called the ‘University of Applied Arts’, Vienna at age 29.

1890 13

1900

191

| 1916 |

djustable ated by .

Zurich branch of The Wiener Werkstätte is built.

| 1929 | Berlin branch of The Wiener Werkstätte is built.

| 1922 |

907 |

mann’s ‘Armchair’ ated.

New York branch of The Wiener Werkstätte is built.

| 1929-1939 | The Great Depression spread worldwide.

| 1910 |

| 7 of may - 1956 |

Hoffmann designed the Kubus Chair

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Josef Hoffmann passed away aged 85, in Vienna, Austria.

| 1939 1945 | The second world war broke out across the world.

| 1914 1918 |

The first World War breaks out across the globe.

| 1932 | The Wiener Werkstätte is forced to close due to the Great Depression

1920

1930 14

1940

1956

quadratlHoffmann Quadratl-Hoffmann, which translates to ‘Square-Hoffmann’ was a nickname given to Josef Hoffmann due to his strong geometrical design style. Hoffmann’s works illustrate the way he would employ simple geometry such as circles and squares to design stunning works of art.

Hoffmann developed his style to allow it to become recognisable amongst other designers and he employed it in all fields. The buildings that Hoffmann designed seem to repeat square or rectangular faces with the inclusions of some round edges for asthetics. This followed through to his furinture design where he would extrude very simple two dimensional shapes, then cut away to produce semlessly elegant deisgns.

Hoffmann’s Kubus Armchair which was designed in 1910 illustrates Hoffmann’s use of squares and cubes but still demonstrates how he could make something which would otherwise be an uncomfortable shape inviting to sit on. This sort of concrete design was different from those around him and other designers had a far more abstract way of designing and coming up with new designs.

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The Wiener Werkstatte Established in 1903 The Wiener Werkstätte, which translate The Vienna Workshop, was created by Josef Hoffman along with Koloman Moser and a range of other designers at the time. It was a workshop where all these designers, who came from a range of design backgrounds such as architecture, graphic design, interior design and also some painters, came together to work to the belief, Gesamtkunstwerk. Gesamtkunstwerk, which means “total work of art”, is a belief of The Weiner Werkstätte where they design everything to do with a project. This includes the architecture of the building, all the interior design from the furniture down to cutlery, as well as all fabrics that would accompany these pieces. This thought process was able to unify painting, architecture and the decorative arts, and lead into the workshop becoming very successful.

Due to how well the world took to The Wiener Werkstätte, the design group expanded setting up new outlets across the world. Zurich in 1916, New York in 1922, and Berlin 1929.

Due to the aftermath of ‘The Great War’, or World War One as it’s known now, financially, The Wiener Werkstätte, struggled and was forced to close down in 1932. The great depression, between 1929 and 1939 played a major factor in this, as the workshop struggled for new and innovative designs.

Although the workshop had closed down, the style of their designs became one of the longest-lived design movements of the 20th century. The Weiner-Werkstätte-Stil which has a literal translation to “the Vienna workshops style” became a design movement that originated from The Wiener Werkstätte. The Wiener-Wekstätte-Stil which drew from other design movements of the time such as ‘Arts and Crafts’ and ‘Art Nouveau’ as well as ‘traditional folk art’.

Hoffmann lead the movement, along with associates Koloman Moser and Dagobert Peche, created a design movement that went on to influence larger art movements such as art deco and the international style. It also has influenced the works of the Bauhaus in Germany, as well as both Scandinavian and Italian Design between 1940 and 1980.

The design style was based around the works of very distinctive artists of the time one of which included Josef Hoffmann. His square design and his cubist sculpture of 1902 was a big gateway for other designer to break away from the design movements of the time and into their own style. The fact that ‘cubism’ came into style in 1907 which was used to describe the work of Pablo Picasso, and Hoffmann had already set the grounds for his cubist design style shows how influential he was at the time.

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Desig

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• The Wiener Werkstatte Postca 17

gn

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ard no. 67 by Josef Hoffmann • 18

Concept

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Ideation

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Concept 1 Use of Hoffmann’s bentwood to constuct the framework. Similar to Sitzmachine armchair

Orthographic Sketches Layed back design to act as lounge chair

Chair constructed of 5 main parts: - Seat - Back rest - back frame - 2 side frames

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Exploded View

Concept 2 Inspired shape from Hoffmann’s Kubus chair.

Repetition of squares and rectangles to give stand around base a more interesting look.

Concrete used instead of wood as framework to make the design more personal to my own design style rather than just Hoffmann’s

Simple gormetric shape to relate to Hoffmann’s design style.

Orthographic Sketches

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Concept 3 Not over complicated like Hoffmann’s armchair, with only major elements being the frame work, seat and back rest.

Use of leather in seat and backrest to relate to Hoffmann’s Kubus chair.

Leather also add comfort to design.

Use of bentwood for the framework to relate to Hoffmann’s work.

Reflection The seat that I have designed in response to the works of Josef Hoffmann relates in many ways to his designs. I have been inspired by Hoffmann’s work and used aspects of his design style to create this chair.

As Hoffmann was a pioneer when it comes to the use of bentwood I have incorporated this into the chair, using as the basis of the framework. Bentwood is used in both the arm rests that also become the front legs, as well as bentwood used as the back legs. This relates to designs such as the Sitzmachine armchair, where Hoffmann had strong use of bentwood.

I have also used leather in the back rest and seat of the chair with pressed studs to provide comfort when sitting in the chair. This also related to the Kubus chair of Hoffmann, who had wrapped the whole chair in this material.

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BIBliography Gardener, G. (2019). Josef Hoffmann. Retrieved 7 October 2019, from https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/designer-profile-josef-hoffman-126816 Cella, E. (2019). Josef Hoffmann | Biography | Edward Cella. Retrieved 7 October 2019, from https://www.edwardcella.com/artist/Josef_Hoffmann/biography/ Josef Hoffmann - Designer. (2011). Vienna Art And Design - Educational Resource, 1(1). khai Liew – Art Gallery of WA. (2018). Retrieved 4 October 2019, from https://artgallerywablog.wordpress.com/tag/khai-liew/ Khai Liew. (2019). Retrieved 5 October 2019, from http://www.khailiew.com/#KL/About Liew, K., & Palayga, N. (2019). The Kinfolk Home: Khai Liew & Nichole Palyga – Kinfolk. Retrieved 6 October 2019, from https://kinfolk.com/kinfolk-home-khai-liew-nichole-palyga/ Ping, F. (2017). Furniture craftsman Khai Liew is a ‘lyricist in wood’. Retrieved 6 October 2019, from https://www.star2.com/culture/2017/10/06/furniture-craftsman-khai-liew/ Reif, R. (1975). Josef Hoffmann, the Austrian pioneer of modern, above, designed the small-figured floral, right, 50 years before today’s decorators ‘discovered’ the look. Retrieved 7 October 2019, from https://www.nytimes.com/1975/05/13/archives/in-design-a-glance-back-at-two-who-m ade-the-present.html The Wiener Werkstätte Movement Overview. (2019). Retrieved 7 October 2019, from https://www.theartstory.org/movement/wiener-werkstatte/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Hoffmann https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brtnice http://poulwebb.blogspot.com/2013/05/wiener-werkstatte-postcards-part-1.html https://www.balineum.co.uk/blogs/design-notes/wiener-werkstatte https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/furniture-cloth/WAGsfwebkguOyw?utm_source=google&utm_medium=kp&hl=en-GB&avm=2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiener_Werkst%C3%A4tte https://www.moma.org/collection/works/3431 https://www.theartstory.org/movement/wiener-werkstatte/

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