by Jacques CaussinThe 1920s and 30s saw the birth and initial development of modern design as we know it. World War I had ended, so resources could be diverted from war efforts into other areas. A rare phenomenon took place at that time. After WWI, new ideas and new materials became available to designers and manufacturers. In addition, a favorable psychological environment and a pressing need from the business world to increase consumer spending—and its own profitability—produced the fertile ground needed for the growth of terrific times.
New Ideas
In Paris the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes was held in 1925. Even though the exhibition was international in scope, the United States did not participate. According to our government, we really had nothing to show. And indeed, not much was going on in modern design in the United States in the early 1920s. Americans were still buying home furnishings in the arts and crafts style, although interest in this style was beginning to wane. However, Europe was entering the roaring 20s with all the excesses inherent in a post-war period.
As can be imagined, the Paris Exposition was much discussed in this country. After the Exposition closed, 400 objects exhibited at the exposition were shown in the United States. In this country, people were extremely interested in the objects, which were shown with a great deal of fanfare.
Department stores climbed on the modernism bandwagon and were actually strong supporters of the modern trend. Stores developed very trendy window displays and promoted shows of contemporary furniture. In 1927, Macy's did an "Art in Trades" show that featured the work of Paul Frankl. Lord and Taylor featured Modern French Decoration. Museums exhibits followed. In 1936, The Museum of Modern Art arranged an exhibit of contemporary Swedish decorative arts.
But most merchants and manufacturers realized that French design style could not easily be purchased by the average American. The general public could not afford the expensive items made of luxurious and exotic materials used by the French. There would be few macassar ebony bedroom sets or eggshell lacquered boxes in American homes.
Bench with aluminum base. Donald Deskey, 1932. Radio City Music Hall. Photograph Leland A. Cook. From ART DECO A GUIDE FOR COLLECTORS by Katharine Morrison McClinton.Ways had to be found to democratize the extravagant French style to make it reachable by the average American. In this country, the French art deco style gave way to what we usually refer to as "zigzag deco" furniture. Of course, there were levels of quality and cost in these adaptations as well. The furniture produced ranged from the mass manufacturers in Grand Rapids at the low end, to the skyscraper line of furniture designed by Paul Frankl in 1927 at the high end.
New Materials
There was also a proliferation of new materials available to industry. Certainly, Dr. Bakeland and his invention of synthetic resins—plastics that could be formed into countless shapes—changed the course of modern life, at least as much as Earl Tupper, the inventor of the ubiquitous plastic containers that are so commonly found in American homes.
New uses were developed for many materials. For example, cork was used as a wall covering; in addition to pots and pans, aluminum was used in furniture and in the manufacture of jewelry. But an enormous change was also taking place in the attitude of people towards the machine. Machinery became a symbol of a universally acceptable way of life.
The post World War I period brought America's second industrial revolution. The revolution arrived with the development of techniques of mass production. For the average American, this revolution developed into the idea that "everyday life" could be implemented and sustained by machines. The era of technological advance merged into the age of machine-implemented culture. People could then accept the machine as a precision instrument, sufficiently delicate and responsive to be able to take an artist's product and multiply it countless times without obscuring the artist's touch or the item's design integrity.
So here we were—people with modern ideas—a culture ready to accept modern design into their lives. But a catalyst for this to take place was still needed. Well, the catalyst arrived quickly and with great force. Black Friday ended the meteoric rise in the stock market. The Great Depression turned out to be the catalyst of change.
The Rise of the Designers
Today, historians of this period recognize certain designers as great contributors of change in the development of American tastes. Among these designers were: Walter Dorwin Teague, Paul Frankl, Donald Deskey, Norman Bel Geddes, Henry Dreyfuss, Kem Weber, Raymond Loewy, Kurt Versen, Russel Wright, Walter Von Nessen, George Sakier and Wolfgang and Ida Hoffman. It is interesting to note that more than a few of these designers were recent immigrants to this country. Of course, they brought with them European ideas that contributed substantially to the explosion of the design movement in America.
Walter Dorwin Teague was born in Decatur, Indiana in 1883. His career took off in 1908 when he joined the art department of a well-known advertising agency. By 1927, Teague had become a freelance artist and an important authority on typography. He believed that the use of better business methods and products would improve the quality of life for ordinary people. He was 46 years old when the Depression arrived.
In the late 1920s, mass production brought a new component to the business world. A market could become saturated with competing products, with few distinguishable differences among them. Ways to gain a competitive edge would have to be developed. Certainly, one of the most famous people to learn this hard fact was a resident of Detroit, Mr. Henry Ford. In 1927, Ford's Model T—available in any color as long as it was black—was losing ground to General Motors. By that time, General Motors had introduced a range of colors and classic styles to their car line. Mr. Ford learned an expensive lesson then, and manufacturers throughout the consumer goods industry certainly noticed it.
Of course, after the stock market crashed and the Depression settled in, manufacturers had an even more crucial problem—survival. Marketing people realized that, in most cases, it was only an object's appearance that distinguished it from other similar products.
Vornadofan, The O.A. Sutton Corporation, Industrial Designer, Wayne Porter. From U.S. INDUSTRIAL DESIGN '49 '50.Oil heater cabinet, Florence Stove Company, Industrial designer, Ralph Kruck. From U.S. INDUSTRIAL DESIGN '49 '50.
Now, product redesign was vital. The most significant point to be made, however, is that it was not manufacturers, engineers, art critics or connoisseurs who actually redefined the link between aesthetics and function—it was the industrial designers who were called to the factories to work their magic. As Harold van Doren said in his 1940 book, Industrial Design, "The job of an industrial designer is to interpret the function of useful things in terms of appeal to the eye; to endow them with beauty of form and color; above all to create in the consumer the desire to possess."
Gilbert Rohde wrote in 1936: "Industrial design has become a glamorous name. Certain magazine articles, calculated to dramatize a new profession, have drawn a picture of industrial design as being the exclusive and mysterious possession of a handful of supermen who are revolutionizing everything from hairpins to locomotives at a fabulous price. The stories are exaggerated. Stripped of hocus-pocus, industrial design is a very simple matter; it is design brought up to date—design in terms of a mass production economy instead of a hand-crafted economy."
The streamline style that developed during the 1930s arose from the perception by the general public that faster, better automobiles and airplanes were changing peoples' lives a great deal. A way was needed to unify the new look that was emerging. Streamlining was associated with industrial progress; everything was touched by the magic curved lines and their decorative accent, the three speed bands.
As far as the decorative arts and interior furnishings were concerned, every single item in the house—from the furnace in the basement to the ash tray on the coffee table—was affected by new design ideas.
Some of the major new industrial patrons who fostered the acceptance of modern design by the general public were: - Heywood Wakefield, who used both Gilbert Rohde and Russell Wright as designers in the 1930s.
- Eastman Kodak, who had a long relationship with the design firm of Walter Dorwin Teague.
- Herman Miller, a company from Zeeland, Michigan, who commissioned Gilbert Rohde to design furniture as early as 1932.
