Blog 10:

Streamlining 

Streamlining began in the 20th century, date exactly was the 1930 and lasted till the 1950. This style was very popular in America and its main characteristics where the tear-drop shape, smooth finishings and the curvatures. The streamlining style firstly merged into transportation such as: shipping, aircraft and auto mobiles mainly for speed. This reduced the amount of air friction and so the machine would move faster. 

Later on, in the 1930s this style had changed, rather than making a product streamlined for its function, making it for it appearance. This helped the manufacturing of the products and good to regain their strength and eventually their profit would increase. 

While in America, the Wall Street Crash which happened to be in 1929, made manufacturers renewed their products by hiring a designer in which he would streamline the object and sell it as new, instead of having to reinvent a new product.

Materials such as clay where used  to produce models for these sleek designs, this is because that it was easy to manage curvatures in products. Some of the manufacturing good included the refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, radios, cameras and telephones. Along with this materials, backalite was highly recommended this is because its a thermoset and highly protective, which was also suitable for curvature forms. 

Surprisingly enough, Streamlining grew out of Art Deco, but with less decorative ornaments,  so it was simplified and included dynamism which was great for commercial products and furniture. It was also considered as: 'Art Deco on the move'. 

The Jumo Brevte company which is located in Paris had it contributions in designing the streamlined post-war product which is the Jumo Bakelite lamp. This was designed by Gustave Miklos and was originally available in three different colors which are the black, white and maroon. Along with the Bakelite material, the copper and chrome played an important role in the swivel joints of the lamp. The swivel joint where there so that it could adjust easily by the user. This interesting lamp had a Bakelite button in which when it opens the light would turn on automatically. This is a great example of streamlined products in which most of the characteristics are visible, such as the curves and the tear drop shape. 

Jumo Bakelite lamp - Gustave Miklos 

Compared to the Jumo Bakelite lamp, there is the Cobra lamp which was done with the same style and designed by Norman Bel Geddes. This lamp was normally considered art deco, and since streamlining had emerged from Art Deco, some characteristics of this style are still visable. For example the use of nature in the product. compared with the Jumo lamp this has more organic shape and cannot swivel, since it has no joints to do so. 

Cobra lamp -Norman Bel Geddes 

Architecture.knoji.com. (2016). Streamlined Design: Modernity in America. [online] Available at: https://architecture.knoji.com/streamlined-design-modernity-in-america/ [Accessed 27 May 2016].

Fiell, C. and Fiell, P. (1999). Design of the 20th century. Köln: Taschen.

Bersoantik.com. (2016). «BersoАнтик» - 1960 Ben Bowden Spacelander. [online] Available at: http://bersoantik.com/en/blog/2015/07/01/1960-ben-bowden-spacelander-/ [Accessed 27 May 2016].