The Arts and Crafts Movement

Detail from a season ticket forThe Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society.

No, this has nothing to do with the arts and crafts you did in school as a kid, no tutorials on how to make a toilet paper roll kaleidoscope here. In this post I will be discussing the Arts and Crafts Movement, which is one of the most influential design movements in the history of design. This is because it changed the people's attitude towards quality. 

Before this movement, people didn't care about quality, mainly because they didn't need to, for them it was simple, if you were rich you could afford things that were well made and did not break as easily and if you weren't rich well you bought what you could afford and that was that, if it broke you tried to make do without it. 

Inspired by the revival of the Gothic style which preceded it, it was a prominent movement in the late Victorian and Edwardian eras in England (1860-1910). The founders sought to create a commercial revolution against the Industrial Revolution and its cheaply made products (ironic).

Let's make something clear: They were not against industrialisation. On the contrary, they thought it a great improvement in the history of mankind, what they were against was the shoddy wares and over ornamentation that the majority ( it wouldn't be fair to say all) of the manufacturers were releasing out into the shops and, eventually, the homes of the public. 

In France, floral motifs were fashionable at the time but the British manufacturers wanted to be able to compete commercially and substituted the these technically difficult patterns in favour of more geometric work. Not only this, but in buildings, architects were turning to historicism  to hide the ugliness of the machine itself from immediate view. William Morris, the founder of this movement, believed that design should inspire itself from nature. He also wanted to integrate craftsmanship and industrialisation together, something that would later inspire the Bauhaus members as well.

William Morris (24th March, 1834 - 3rd October, 1896, aged 62)

"We do no reject the machine, we welcome it. But we desire to see it mastered" - William Morris

The movement started almost coincidentally. John Ruskin, a great influence to the movement, was the first Art Professor at Oxford, where William Morris was attending school in order to follow his dream of going into the church, however he was inspired by Ruskin's love of everything Gothic and his friend Edward Burne-Jones' similar love and went on to study architecture. Through Burne-Jones he became associated with the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood whose ideals were similar to those of the Pre-Raphaelite Renaissance, to capture the beauty of nature.

After he got married, he commissioned Phillip Webb to design a house for him, the result being Red House in Bexleyheath near London. Like most people, Morris had a picture of what he wanted the interior of his house to look like and when he couldn't find what he was looking for among all the industrially manufactured wares, he and his friends set out to create the perfect interior for Morris. They spent about 2 years decorating his home, and when they were done in about 1859, they decided that people deserved the same quality which Morris and his friends were enjoying through their creations.

A year later, William Morris co-founded Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co., a company that was dedicated to the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement. Morris' dream was to someday integrate craftsmanship and industry in order for people to start getting quality made products at industrially cheap prices. Unfortunately by the time he had not realized this dream, indeed it take a while yet for his dream to be realized by the Bauhaus movement from 1919-1933.

References: 

N/A, (1874), William Morris [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.friendsofthewmg.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/image0012.jpg [Accessed 30 October 13].

The Crystal Palace

The Crystal Palace was a huge building primarily built using a cast iron frame and industrially made large plates of glass. It was erected in Hyde Park, London, England and built to house the Great Exhibition of London which was to take place in 1851. 

It was built 564m long by 39m high and had a total of 92000 meters squared enough space for over 14,000 exhibitors from different countries could show off the latest technologies at the time.

It was dubbed the crystal palace because of its large use of plate-glass which had only been invented a few years before. 

After the exhibition, it was taken down and rebuilt on Sydenham Hill, however this time it was built larger than before. Sydenham Hill was an upper class area of London. It stood there until it was destroyed by fire in 1936. 

REFERENCES:

The Crystal Palace - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2014. The Crystal Palace - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [ONLINE] Available at:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crystal_Palace. [Accessed 26 October 2013].

The World Exhibition

Picture this: You're a young girl living in London, you come from a well-off family and you would like to know what the girls in Paris are wearing, what do you do? The answer is simple: Go to the Internet. Now what if I gave you the same scenario and said that the year was 1889 for example, therefore there is no Internet yet, the answer is still pretty simple: Go to the World's Fair in Paris, after all that's what the exhibition stood for.

It was basically a large convention where everything was put on show, including how metal structures could be built in a new way such as the one below:

Eiffel Tower, Paris, unveiled during the 1889 World's Fair

and how an entire building could be made almost entirely of glass like this one:

The Crystal Palace, 1851, built as the main building which housed the Great Exhibition of London
for more information on this building check out my other post:

These buildings are both considered to be great feats of engineering and they were both erected for a World Exposition.

As you can imagine, these exhibitions attracted huge throngs of people simply because it was so hard to gather information on a particular item or trend and these expos made it possible to visit various vendors of the same kind and compare prices and materials. Something each country tried to do was have at least ONE innovative exhibit, whether it was the use of large plates of glass, a building made entirely out of riveted iron or the astonishing sight of an entire city lit up by electricity as revealed in the Chicago exhibit of 1893.

Chicago World Expo with electric light, 1893

These fairs were not meant for just clothes or furniture, they brought together the best of the best from around the world. Clothes makers. carpenters, jewellers, inventors. during the industrial age these were mainly known for all the great inventions and advancements that were shown. Some of these fairs are still held to this very day, however they obviously don't have as much impact on the world as they did back in 1851.

References:

World's fair - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2013. World's fair - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [ONLINE] Available at:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World's_fair#Industrialization_.281851.E2.80.931938.29. [Accessed 25 October 2013].

Unknown, (1889), Eiffel Tower, World's Fair [ONLINE]. Available at: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Eiffel_tower_at_Exposition_Universelle,_Paris,_1889.jpg
[Accessed 25 October 13].

Unknown, (1851), Crystal Palace, Great Exhibition [ONLINE]. Available at: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Crystal_Palace.PNG [Accessed 25 October 13].

Unknown, (1893), Chicago Expo in light [ONLINE]. Available at: http://haygenealogy.com/hay/1893fair/1893fair-night3.jpg [Accessed 25 October 13].

The Industrial Revolution... Continues

When Henry Ford came up with the idea of the assembly line and made the first ever mass produced car, the world became a much faster place. Have you ever heard the phrase "necessity is the mother of invention"? Well, this was continuously the case during this time. With each new invention, problems arose and restrictions were applied by government through new laws which meant that a solution had to be found and that led to a new invention, such as Henry Ford's River Rouge plant which was started as a means for him to move finished cars in a large number without damaging them.

From a design point of view, the industrial revolution was horrendous. Manufacturers were only concerned with making money with the least amount of effort and money possible. In France, floral decor and patterns were all the rage, but these were too technically difficult for the machines which meant that they couldn't be made easily, efficiently and cheaply. So these were pushed aside in favour of more geometric shapes which were easier to make with the new machines. The products produced were also very cheaply made and very easily broken and so there was no value in anything that was bought (I guess this is where the idea of "the more expensive the item, the better produced it is" came from).

Advert for Reaping Machine

This is how the middle class was created. Because the poor were no working in factories and earning more money, they had more money to spend, if this had been the only affect it had their money would have only been spent on food and just trying to make enough to live by. However, since the revolution affected everything, everything became cheaper. Farmers were tilling their soil and planting their seeds and reaping their crops much faster than ever before which meant they could plant more. this led to advances in the knowledge of the farmer. When the soil turned fallow, he learned to plant legumes in order for it to become fertile again. the legumes and scraps were then fed to the livestock and so farmers had a larger number of livestock as well.

Even textiles which had a slow and labourious process, now became much cheaper to make which meant that they could sell them at a cheaper price and people would by them more. Because everything became cheaper to make, it became cheaper to sell without loss of profit. People who had grown up in poor families and were starting to set up house, were enjoying the fact that their pay could go so far. they started buying more luxurious furniture and clothes and all of a sudden it became almost impossible for the on looker to differentiate between the rich and the middle class. the invention of trains and the railway as well this inexpensive lifestyle meant that people could save up in order to travel, but they didn't have to save much.

 People waiting for the train.

In so many words, the culture and lifestyles of a lot of people were turned upside down because of The Industrial Revolution.

References:

81.02.06: The Industrial Revolution. 2013. 81.02.06: The Industrial Revolution. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1981/2/81.02.06.x.html. [Accessed 22 October 2013].

N/A, (N/A), Newspaper Clipping [ONLINE]. Available at: http://corporate.ford.com/images/content/f_677_5dollarsaDay.jpg [Accessed 22 October 13].

N/A, (N/A), Reaping Machine Advert [ONLINE]. Available at: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Hussey's_Reaping_Machine_-_Project_Gutenberg_etext_19547.jpg [Accessed 22 October 13].

N/A, (N/A), People Waiting for the train [ONLINE]. Available at: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rmhttp/schools/primaryhistory/images/victorian_britain/leisure/v_train_platform.jpg [Accessed 22 October 13].

The Beginning of the Industrial Revolution.

I remember in elementary school, during history classes, the teacher would always say: "Remember! Back in those days, there was no middle class" and I used to wonder then where did the middle class come from? Since then, I have widened my reading range from just the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings books and realized that the source of the middle class was actually The Industrial Revolution.

Steam Engine - James Watt 1760

I used to think that this was something similar to the French, American and Russian revolutions, but if i had to compare it to another era, it would be right now, people don't realize that we're going to practically another industrial revolution and we have been since the 80's and 90's. The one we're in now is based more on technology rather than just industry, but it is having a similar effect on society.
It practically began with the invention of the steam engine in 1760, by James Watt (the very first steam engine was actually created in 1698 - I guess Leonardo Da Vinci wasn't so far ahead of his time as I used to think) A lot of people think that this was the very beginning of the Industrial Revolution, others think the beginning was more centered around the time of Leonardo Da Vinci when he started looking at how a helicopter could be made back in the late fifteenth century - that's about 200 years before the very first steam engine was commercially available. In my opinion, I agree with the latter statement.

Sketch of an Aerial Screw by Leonardo Da Vinci circa. 1460-90

The reason I think this was the beginning of this revolution is that because of these sketches (which are very detailed and clearly noted by the way), Da Vinci made everyone think ahead. What would the world look like in 200 years? 300 years? and so on - I bet he would be proud to see how far humanity has gone in such a relatively short time. Inventors started trying to outdo each other but found it unable to create such machines, until finally Thomas Savery found a way to invent the steam engine in 1698 and all of a sudden these dreams became possible.

Okay, so, how did the middle class actually start? Well, when the steam engine became available, factories started sprouting up like daisies. They provided people with jobs which weren't as hard, safer (although at the beginning they were almost deadly) and for the amount of work they did, they got paid more.

These were the pros of the revolution, however, in the beginning there were a lot of cons which made this era of history seem bleak. The most important one was perhaps child labour. Although the invention of the flying shutter meant a faster and more efficient process as one worker could do the work of two, they would easily go flying off across the factory, and at that speed, they were deadly. There were factories which employed children to simply go and fetch the shutters when they "escaped".

Children outside a factory

This meant that children were continuously getting hurt, but it wasn't until one (or some) were killed that the laws against child labour were passed. Here, on might ask the question "why were children working anyway?" well the only reason women and children were working in the factories was because back then they didn't have equal status to men and so they could be paid less, which decreased the amount of expenses for the manufacturer.


To Be Continued in my next post....

References:
Leonardo da Vinci's Aerial Screw Invention. 2013. Leonardo Da Vinci's Aerial Screw Invention. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.da-vinci-inventions.com/aerial-screw.aspx. [Accessed 20 October 2013].

81.02.06: The Industrial Revolution. 2013. 81.02.06: The Industrial Revolution. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1981/2/81.02.06.x.html. [Accessed 20 October 2013].

Industrial Revolution - Steam Engines. 2013. Industrial Revolution - Steam Engines. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.industrialrevolutionresearch.com/industrial_revolution_steam_engine.php. [Accessed 20 October 2013].

N/A, (N/A), Da Vinci Aerial Screw Sketch [ONLINE]. Available at: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Leonardo_da_Vinci_helicopter.jpg [Accessed 20 October 2013].

N/A, (N/A), James Watt Steam Engine [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/watteng.jpg [Accessed 20 October 13]

N/A, (N/A), Children standing outside a factory [ONLINE]. Available at: http://webs.bcp.org/sites/vcleary/ModernWorldHistoryTextbook/IndustrialRevolution/Images/child-labor.jpg [Accessed 20 October 13].

Neo Classicism

Neo-Classicism is a style which was extremely popular in the 17th to 19th centuries and was a revival of the Ancient Greek and Roman ideals which we refer to nowadays as the classical movements.

The Church of St. Madeleine, Paris, France

Here, design was still an unrecognized part of the process of creating something. The craftsmen felt that there was no need to design something before hand and simply filled out an order in any particular design they wanted most of the time.

Neo Classicism ran concurrently with Romanticism which is considered to be its opposite as it largely depicted romantic notions and was mostly based on fantasy rather than real life as Neo-Classicism was. It was based on the same ideals and characteristics as Ancient Greek and Roman art, namely simplicity and symmetry along with a proper depiction of nature.

One sub-category of Neo-Classicism worth mentioning is Victorian Classicism where the symmetry remained but was more ornamental in style. Naturally as with everything else in England at the time this movement was popular during the reign of Queen Victoria.

Ironically Queen Victoria was an advocate of simplicity and discipline, however the Victorian style is vastly considered to be an over ornamental style. This was one thing which the designer and founder of the Arts and Crafts movement William Morris despised above all - not the ornamentation itself, that e was actually very fond of, but the fact that craftsmen and manufacturers  were more concerned with ornamentation over the quality of the product.

Back to Neo-classicism, the emergence of this style closely coincided with the beginning of archaeology and the re-discovery of the Greek and Roman styles, and most especially Johann Joachim Winckelmann's writings showing the differences between the two and the sub-periods in Greek art which show the progress from the early art and sculptures to the more advanced workings of the Hellenistic period.

One very important designer of the Neo-Classic era was Josiah Wedgewood whose blue and white relief vases and home ornaments are still very much in demand today.

Two of Josiah Wedgwood's works 

REFERENCES:
Neoclassicism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2013. Neoclassicism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [ONLINE] Available at:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoclassicism. [Accessed 12 October 2013].

Gothic Revival

Abbey of Saint Denis - Paris. Believed to be the
earliest example of Gothic architecture

This style is commonly referred to by most as Neo-Gothic. It started in the late 18th century (1760+) in both mainland Europe and England. the architects who chose to design in this style sought to revive old medieval forms. 

The original Gothic period was popular from about 1140 (Abbey of Saint Denis in Paris (pictured right)) and it is believed to have reigned almost solely as an architectural style until it died out gloriously in 1520 with the King's chapel (at the time he was Henry VII)  at Westminster Abbey in London. Another church famous for its Gothic architecture is the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. Although it gave way to newer, more classical forms, it did not die out completely and survived in on-going projects (this is why it is called the Gothic Survival).

Both styles are basically the same, they are mostly intended for churches as the one main aspect of this style is the grandeur of the buildings. Especially in churches and, later on, in universities, the aim was to make the human feel like a minuscule nothing compared with the Universe and God which was represented by the building itself, I believe that the reason universities chose this same style and still do so to this day, especially in America, is because they want the student to try to live up to the grandeur of the place. 

Gothic detailing on Tribune Tower in Chicago 

       What I love most about this style are the lace like details which you can find in almost each and every example of the period. Some other key characteristics of these styles were the pointed arches, stained glass and the icons found in a lot of the churches from this period, tall dizzying spires, the flying buttresses and of course the ribbed vault. 

Palace of Westminster - designed by A.W.N Pugin

Two major designers who contributed to this style, were A.W.N Pugin, in England and Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, in France. Pugin was hired as a designer when he was still a teenager and used to mainly provide details from this style to be used by other designers. Eventually, he was hired to design the royal silver and did so from 1828 on-wards. He would later go back to these designs when he would design the Palace of Westminster, more commonly known as the Houses of Parliament in London. 

Another Englishman by the name of John Ruskin also contributed to this era by writing two majorly influential works of theory in which he echoed and added to Pugin's ideals. In his book The Stones of Venice Ruskin suggested that no other buildings be as grand as the Gothic pieces because, in his opinion, of the great work and sacrifice the stonemasons did in order to finish the individual pieces of the buildings. Indeed, he had declared the Doge's Palace in Venice "the central building of the world," and thus opened the flood gates for every architect to copy the designs of the palace which he later turned to despise. 

Contrary to Ruskin, Viollet-le-Duc, whilst restoring the great Gothic buildings around Paris, removed most of the original stone work, and remade it completely as he believed in a total restoration, so much so that whoever was looking at the piece would not be able to tell whether it was originally built in the middle-ages or more recently.

A.W.N Pugin 

Eugene Viollet-le-Duc

John Ruskin

References:

Gothic Revival - New World Encyclopedia. 2013. Gothic Revival - New World Encyclopedia. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Gothic_Revival. [Accessed 22 October 2013].

sarahlevin, (2011), Palace of Westminster [ONLINE]. Available at: http://sarahlevin.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/westminster-palace.jpg [Accessed 22 October 13].

Athena Review, (2005), Abbey of Saint Denis [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.athenapub.com/wfront-P7260004b.GIF [Accessed 22 October 13].

Laura Brooks , (2006), Gothic Detailing [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/File:Architectural_details_on_Tribune_Tower_(Chicago).JPG[Accessed 22 October 13].

N/A, (2006), A.W.N Pugin [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.communigate.co.uk/dorset/clhs/phpubHcFq[Accessed 22 October 13].

N/A, (2013), John Ruskin [ONLINE]. Available at:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3e/John_Ruskin_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_13103.jpg/220px-John_Ruskin_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_13103.jpg[Accessed 22 October 13].

N/A, (1860), Eugene Viollet-le-Duc [ONLINE]. Available at:http://chateauroquetaillade.free.fr/Anciens/Viollet%20le%20Duc.jpg [Accessed 22 October 13].

What is Design?!?!?

“Design is everywhere - and that's why looking for a definition may

not help you grasp what it is.

Design is everywhere. It's what drew you to the last piece of

furniture you bought and it's what made online banking possible.

It's made London taxi cabs easier to get in and out of and it made

Stella McCartney's name. It's driving whole business cultures and

making sure environments from hospitals to airports are easier to

navigate.”

- http://www.mech.hku.hk/bse/interdisciplinary/what_is_design.pdf. [Accessed 4 October 2013].

 The above quote is perhaps the most accurate definition of design I have found. My own personal definition of design has always been that design is art with a function.

 From William Morris to Bauhaus and up to this very day, designers and artists struggle to create something aesthetically appealing and at the same time make it functional enough that people will want to buy it to use it.

 Design is a part of someone’s culture, much like language, religion and history. Each every single person has a different culture than everyone else in the world, therefore the design aesthetic which attracts each person is different; while I might like flowers and bright colours another person might like skulls and dark colours, while some people like contemporary design others like more historically inspired designs which is why it is important for designers to be aware of styles which came before them.

 Below is a list of some of the topics which I will be covering in my future blogs:

 

1.      Gothic Revival
2.      Victorian Classicism
3.      Neo-Classicism
4.      Romanticism
5.      The Industrial Revolution
6.      Crystal Palace
7.      Arts & Crafts Movement (1850-1914)
8.      Art Noveau (1880-1910)
9.      German Association of Workshops (Deutscher Werkbund) (1907-1935)
10.    Constructivism (1917-1935)
11.    De Stijl (1917-1931)
12.    Bauhaus (1919-1933)
13.    International Style (1920-1980)
14.    Art Deco (1920-1939)
15.    Organic Design (1930-1960, 1990-present)
16.    Streamlining (1930-1950)
17.    Post War Design (1945- 1948)
18.    Pop Design (1958-1972)
19.    Radical Design (1968-1978)
20.    Hi-Tech (1972-1985)
21.    Post Modernism (1978-present)