The maturity of modern design mentioned in the book actually refers to the 1930s-1950s. Although World War II, the greatest disaster suffered by mankind in the 20th century, occurred in these 30 years, neither the rulers who started the war nor the people who participated in the war gave up economic development. They either regard economic development as the economic pillar of the war or take economic development as the backing against the war. Especially after the war, in order to restore the social economy, the victorious countries and the defeated countries have taken a series of measures to develop the social economy. So in the 1930s and 1950s, although wars were frequent, the social economy continued to develop. Under this socio-economic condition, modern design has entered a mature stage after long-term accumulation. During this period, modern design developed from streamlined movement in the United States in 1930s and industrial design in Germany and Italy to industrial design in western countries in 1940s and 1950s. Modern design in eastern countries such as Japan came late, which not only greatly broadened the breadth of modern design, but also explored many laws in the degree of design modernization.

Section 1 German Industrial Design in 1930s-1950s

First, the standardization and standardization movement of design

Germany in 1930s was a period of Nazi rule headed by Hitler. Since the German National Socialist Workers' Party seized the state power in 1933, the first viewpoint put forward by the German National Socialist Workers' Party in politics and economy is that they declared "strong nationalism", which has an absolute advantage, but there are few viewpoints on expanding culture in the cultural field. At that time, people used Italian fascism to perfunctory themselves. The Italian fascists under Mussolini not only tolerated the artistic trend of thought at that time, but also supported its development. In the field of design, on the one hand, the Nazi government resolutely attacked Bauhaus's modernism and advocated reviving the neoclassicism of the empire; On the other hand, in order to unify and integrate, the Nazi government vigorously promoted the standardization movement. This standardization coincides with the rationalism content of Bauhaus's modern design, and in a sense, it turns Bauhaus's rationalism ideal into reality. Standardization and standardization are conducive to mass production, improving the national economic level and establishing a powerful Nazi empire. Therefore, the Nazi government set up a new department to standardize product design standards, promulgated a series of new standardization laws and regulations, and soon standardized and standardized all industrial products, utensils, houses and architectural designs in Germany and even the German-occupied areas through a series of policies and measures. Through standardization and standardization, the production level and product quality in Germany have been improved, and the development of modern design represented by industrial design has been promoted. In particular, this strict standardization and standardization movement of government behavior is consistent with the spirit of rigor, rationality and thinking of the German nation, which makes the design of Germany in the 1930 s show the characteristics of indifference, rationality and science, which is mainly reflected in the design of vehicles and household appliances.

Second, the design of Nazi period

The most important design in Nazi period was Volkswagen, which was designed by ferdinand porsche in 1934. This is one of Volkswagen's earliest cars. When designing, Bosch tried to compress the shape of the car body and adopted a simple streamlined style, like a beetle, so it was called "VWBeetle". This design makes the car body layout compact and reasonable, the processing technology simple, firm and durable, which is beneficial to mass production. Because the design of the car pays attention to the unity of details and the whole, it is unique, so its prototype has been widely welcomed as soon as it is launched (Figure 7- 1). Unfortunately, due to the war, it was not until the end of World War II that this "Volkswagen Shell" was put into mass production, becoming one of the most practical and popular cars in Europe and one of the models of German rationalism design.

The Adler car designed by Gropes, the founder of Bauhaus, became one of the most famous models in Germany in 1930s. On the one hand, the design is based on German rationalism, on the other hand, it is obviously influenced by American streamlined style (Figure 7-2).

In addition to automobile design, in 1930s, due to Germany's vigorous development of transportation network, roads, railways and air routes developed rapidly, and the design of related trains also improved significantly. Influenced by American streamlined movement, the railway company designed and developed streamlined locomotives and air-conditioned trains with German style, which is the most obvious example.

Germany made great contributions to the design of household appliances in 1930s. At that time, many household appliances designed and produced established the basic characteristics of this kind of products, and have remained so far. For example, the "Weicon 125WZ" radio designed and launched by Telephon Company greatly influenced the modeling of vacuum tube radios in the 20th century. Another example is the chrome-plated hair dryer designed and produced by Siemens in Germany, which basically constitutes the basic modeling characteristics of today's hair dryer (Figure 7-3).

Third, Ulm College and the formation of German design style

1933 Nazi's ban on Bauhaus caused a large number of designers to flee to Germany, and the devastating attack on Germany by the Allied forces in World War II made German design suffer an unprecedented retrogression. For a time, due to the decline of industrial production, the design was in a state where the skin did not exist and the hair was attached. Therefore, German design experienced a difficult recovery process after World War II. However, the profound influence of Bauhaus's design and teaching practice on German design, as well as the rational design character of Germany, not only made German design recover rapidly after the war, but also made the recovery process colorful and quickly formed its own unique design style. Although it has gone through the exploration of the design style of pursuing "organic form" and "natural material", there has been a design theory that strongly advocates technical aesthetics. It was Ulm College and its cooperation with Braun Company that finally turned rational design and technical aesthetics into reality and formed a system, which became an important milestone in the history of modern German design.

1949 graphic designer otl aicher (1922 ~) put forward the proposal of establishing a new German post-war design education center, which was widely supported by the society. Later, with the support of some important figures, 1950 Inge Aicher-scholl founded the Ulm School of Design, which is located in Ulm, Germany. 1953, the college began to teach design art. Albert, Eaton, Mies and Van der Rohe of Bauhaus all served as visiting professors here. 1955, Bauhaus graduate, famous Swiss sculptor, architect and graphic design master Max Beer (1908 ~) served as the dean. As an official institution, the college has carried out a series of teaching work. Bill was determined to make the college the most outstanding design education center in West Germany at that time. In the aspect of running a school, he advocates balancing individual creativity and aesthetic value with modern industry through design. In his concept, art and design are based on rational principles, and logical thinking and artist-like work are the theoretical pillars represented by Max Bill. Under the influence of his thoughts, the teaching essence of Ulm College became the continuation of Bauhaus, and the harmonious relationship between product form, function and technology was discussed in teaching. Design emphasizes the obedience of form to function, requires the authenticity and credibility of product design, and advocates the simplification of product design form while advocating function. Obviously, Ulm College has made great progress in the integration of art and design compared with Bauhaus.

However, it was not until Thomas Murdo (1922 ~) became the second dean in 1956 that Ulm School of Design really developed to a new height and formed a strict teaching system. Murdo Nado, an architect, believes that design should and must be rational, scientific and technical, and the college should be entirely based on science and train scientific designers to serve the development of German industry. Under the control of this idea, Ulm's teaching changed from focusing on formal teaching to the fields of humanities and science and technology related to design, and social science, mathematics and semiotics were added to the teaching. Basic courses basically abandon pure art courses, but also pay attention to the cultivation of students' rational visual thinking, which is very depressing for personality, but emphasize the characteristics of enterprise character, industrial character and mass production of design. Murdo Nado requires students to receive training in science and technology, industrial production and social politics, which has become an important part of the enterprise. In addition, Murdo Nado paid special attention to the role of new technology in design development. Emphasized positivism as the scientific basis, thus developed a rigorous and systematic design system, and established a highly rational design method system, namely system design. On this basis, the college still follows the aesthetic principle of functionalism, emphasizing that beauty comes from logical structure, which clearly reflects the functional relationship. This has formed a cool, concise and well-organized design style, which has become a distinctive feature of Ulm School of Design.

Ulm School of Design has completely established industrial design on the basis of science and technology, which has become a major conceptual turning point in the history of design development, initiated the research of modern design rationality and science, led the development of design systematization, modularization and interdisciplinary, and played a positive role in promoting the formation of design rationality style represented by Germany. The brand-new visual system developed in the teaching reform, including fonts, graphics, color plans, charts and electronic display terminals, has become a model to be followed by all countries in the world.

Of course, we should also see that the design principles advocated by Ulm School of Design will make design enter a single alley when the industrial economy develops to a certain stage, and many products will be suppressed because of functional limitations. Especially in product modeling design, functional factors are too prominent, which hinders the design art theory, that is, following the free design thought of humanity and sensibility and abandoning the functional design art theory.

1968, Ulm College was forced to close due to financial problems. Although this design school has only existed for more than ten years, it has had a great influence on industrial design in Germany and even the world. Its educational system, educational ideas and design concepts are still the core components of German design theory teaching and design philosophy. It laid the foundation of German rationalist design style, and had unusual significance for the development of industrial design in the late 20th century.

Section 2 American Design during and after World War II

From the fifth chapter, we know that although American design has developed rapidly in the modernist design movement, the professionalization of industrial design and the appearance of designers have formed a wave of stylized design and simplification, and a series of designs called "four veterans of industrial design" are world-renowned. However, with the 194 1 Pearl Harbor incident, the status and role of the United States in the international arena became increasingly important after it was involved in the war. In this process, with its strong economic strength, the United States not only tried to inspire its allies to defeat fascism and militarism through design in the war, but also tried its best to develop modernist design into an internationalist style and spread it all over the world.

First of all, the large-scale migration of European designers and the design in wartime.

Due to the rampage of the German Nazi government in Europe, the largest transnational migration of intelligence and creativity occurred in the late 1930s. European scientists, writers, architects, artists and designers came to America from Europe. Among them, artists include max ernst, marcel duchamp and mondriaan. As mentioned in the previous chapter, after the Nazis closed Bauhaus in 1933, Gropes, Hendro and Massek Bougel transplanted the functional architecture movement to the American coast. Beye and Mohole Naji brought their innovative treatment to visual communication design. Others came to the United States and made great efforts to design in this country.

Other visual communication designers include Herbert Mattler, Jean Karoo, Radislav Suttner and Will Burding.

After the above-mentioned European designers arrived in the United States, on the one hand, they tried to establish a Bauhaus-like design school in Germany, on the other hand, they carried out a series of design activities in combination with American politics, social economy and culture. As for the former, Mohole Naji founded the new Bauhaus after 1937 arrived in Chicago. However, due to lack of financial support, it was closed one year later. 1939, Moholenaji managed to open a design school. This design school is supported by imagination and spirit rather than economic resources. Because the college's main source of income comes from Mohonaghi and other members, many of them agree that teaching fees should not be paid if necessary. This college was later merged into the Illinois Institute of Technology and renamed the School of Design. The Bauhaus teaching system was fully implemented in the college, which changed the previous art education model in Chicago.

In addition to setting up design schools like Moholai Naji, most foreign designers adapt to American society, engage in design creation, and gradually explore the design art style with American local cultural characteristics and adapt to the times. This style is very prominent in graphic design during the war years.

If the First World War was mainly fought in trenches far away from the urban population, then the Second World War bombed industries and cities from the air through lightning attacks by mechanized troops. Therefore, the destruction of this war interrupted the ability of many governments to create visual communication propaganda. In the United States, for example, various collective groups composed of painters, illustrators and designers have been accepted by the American War Information Office in large numbers to make up for the government's lack of ability to create visual communication and publicity after being interrupted, and engage in various visual communication designs serving the war.

194 1 year, the United States began a massive national defense rally, and the federal government held a poster contest with the theme of production. Jean Carlu, who immigrated from France to the United States and was known as one of the "Three Musketeers" of graphic design in the 1940s (the other two were Cassandra and Charles Lupo), designed a poster of "promoting productivity". In the poster, a hand wearing gloves was holding a wrench hard and turning a 0-shaped screw-the head of "production". Visual elements and text elements are inseparably combined into a powerful universal working symbol (Figure 7-6). More than100,000 posters were printed and distributed all over the country. Carlo is famous for being awarded the highest prize in the exhibition of new york Art Direction Club.

Strong feelings for Hitler, Pearl Harbor and the war seem to have produced powerful communication works of visual communication designers, illustrators and painters entrusted by the War Information Office to create posters. The poster designed by the illustrator Aceiton in 1943 contains a rectangle with two lines of titles. The white cross symmetrically tilted to the left in the rectangle is creative in that casual conversation, chatting and discussion about the actions of troops will be the source of enemy intelligence and go deep into the essence of the problem (Figure 7 -7). The poster designed by Peng De at 194 1 for US Army Aviation shows the change of the ratio between the wing and the aircraft formation at close range, which has achieved great symbolic enlightenment (Figure 7–8). Mcknight Kauffer was commissioned to design an excellent and concise poster to boost the morale of the allied forces in the occupied area. 1940, he tried to combine two different symbolic shapes, a flag and a classical head, into a unified whole in a poster designed for Greece. There is a title in Greek, which means "We fight for everyone's freedom". The combination of classical Greek head and American flag becomes a powerful visual communication title (Figure 7-9).

If the designers of Noel Group pay special attention to the treatment of new materials and new shapes in furniture design, then the design of Miller Company is more reflected in practice and gradually forms its own design concept. Generally speaking, its design concept is mainly manifested in the following five aspects:

First, design is an integral part of an enterprise and indispensable.

Second, the design should stand the test of market competition and conform to economic laws.

Third, products must be honest and oppose copying and imitating the works of others and the ancients.

Fourthly, the designer decides what to design and fully respects the initiative of the designer, which is the biggest feature of Miller Company.

Fifth, I believe that good products must have a market and support designers not to be influenced by temporary "fashion".

A series of achievements in American furniture design after the war are almost closely related to Noel Group and Miller Company. They have done pioneering work in the application of materials, mass production and the close combination of furniture and life in modern furniture design. In addition, the new york Museum of Modern Art has also played a great role in the publicity and promotion of American modern furniture design. A series of modern furniture design exhibitions and design art competitions organized by the museum have become an important way for consumers to understand modern furniture and make some designers stand out. If Raymond Lowe and others are called the first generation American designers, then the second generation American designers are represented by Charles Eames and Elo saarinen.

3. The design of Boeing 707 and the application of ergonomics.

The application of ergonomics principle in industrial design and its positive production effect can be regarded as a major feature of the development of American industrial design in the 1950s. Leavers, a famous American designer, has made outstanding contributions to the formation and theoretical propaganda of ergonomics. The successful design of Boeing 707 in 1950s became a successful example of ergonomics applied to large-scale industrial design projects, which was a great achievement of American industrial design in 1950s.

1955, Boeing invited famous designer Teague to design the inner cabin of Boeing 707. With the joint participation of designers such as Dreyfus, they designed the most advanced, comfortable and safest civil airliner in the world at that time. They used a lot of ergonomic data, including plastic plates, embedded hidden lights, high backs, spacious and comfortable seats with contoured edges, passenger service-related systems and quiet colors. It provides a quiet, comfortable and convenient environment for passengers and staff. This design not only creates a model of successful cooperation between big enterprises and big designers, but also is a representative design with ergonomics widely used in industrial design. Its significance not only provides a basis for the design of Boeing 737, Boeing 747, Boeing 767 and dual-engine Boeing 777 in the future, but also promotes the wide application of ergonomics principles in other industrial design fields, making ergonomics a special discipline that must be followed in industrial design, especially in product design, and making the idea of "designing for the people" deeply rooted in people's hearts.

The rapidly developing postwar American design art education system formed a relatively complete teaching system in the 1960s. As far as the course is concerned, it basically forms three sections:

1, design basis: plane and solid analysis, design sketch, color, font, materials and computer aided design (CAD), etc.

2. Design theory: design history and design theory, materials science, engineering foundation, electrotechnics, ergonomics, marketing, psychology, sociology, design aesthetics, art history, etc.

3. Theme design.

In the above design topics, some majors involve a lot of science and engineering contents, such as furniture design including the design of automobile interior seats, which is closely related to automobile design.

Among many design schools, Illinois Institute of Technology can be said to represent the American-style design art education model. Its courses are divided into three categories:

The first category, visual communication: inheriting the Bauhaus teaching system, including the basic course of art design, with plane composition, three-dimensional composition and color as the main body.

The second category, product design related disciplines: including product mechanical performance research, ergonomics, ecology, sociology, economics, product design comprehensive research courses.

The third category, system design: this content is a systematic and comprehensive training course for students according to the needs of social reality. In teaching, according to the specific factors and requirements of modern social life, such as environment, transportation, communication, food, and the needs of special groups (such as children, the elderly, the disabled), certain topics are put forward for students to conduct comprehensive and serialized system research and design.

In the American design art education system, California Institute of Design Art is the most successful combination of school and enterprise. As the most important post-war design art school in America, the school was founded by the advertiser Edward. A. Tink Adams, 1930, located in Pasadena, California. In teaching, the school takes "art to industry" as the pursuit goal. On the one hand, science and engineering courses occupy a considerable proportion in teaching. On the other hand, the school has close cooperation with Ford Motor Company, BMW Motor Company, Kodak Company, General Motors Company, Honda, Toyota and other big companies. These companies provide internship places or equipment for the school, and the school provides professionals for the enterprise. For example, General Motors has built a computer-aided automobile drawing laboratory of 1 1000 square meters in this school, equipped with advanced computer-aided design system. The Los Angeles Times Multimedia Center is also built in this school.