Blog 11:

Anti-Design Movement

This movement started off in Italy as a rebellion towards the lack of social reliance of design only for the sake of profit and greed. This caused the movement to act on such occurrences and from the 1966 this group started as an art movement which had a different direction. As for architecture this was known as the Radical Movement. 

Anti-design Movement created such objects which had a unique approach and being away from embracing styles, mass production which was resulting as a complete destruction to the traditional media, consumerism, sales and more greed. This movement agreed on having objects which are functional and not necessary having a good aesthetic. Objects here had to be used temporary and then thrown away to buy new and fresh designs and objects. This objective meant consumerism and more profit but the real message was this: Anti-design people wanted to make the client, people that are going to buy the object, think about on what they are going to buy, even if will soon be thrown away.

Some comparisons between the Modernist Design and the Anti-Design movement. Modernist movement incorporated a lot of blacks, whites and greys in their colour palette whereas Anti-Design involved more bright and rich colours, more vibrant and added decorative elements. Modernist chose the right material for its durability while the Anti-designers had little care on materials and focused more on the function.  The Anti-designers wanted to create irony in their products such as distortion of scales, and unusual forms. While the modernist movement kept with the phrase: 'Form Follows Function'.

Ettore Sottsass is a key model in this particular movement and made a lot of products within the same group. He is an eclectic designer and industrial designer. Some of which are the series of cupboards which where all made out of plywood and made a complete paradoxical image. They all looked strange, were obelisks and covered with deliberately designs which also lead to the beginning of the new era: Post Modernism. The idea of having functional objects is not enough but it has to be sensual and exciting. 

 

Cupboards (1966) - Ettore Sottsass

Piero Gilardi had also great influence from this movement and one of his designs was a chair which looks exactly like large rocks. These chairs are made out of polyurethane and were manufactured by Gufram. This is the greatest example one could have of form misguided its function. A rock is normally uncomfortable, hard and durable while a chair is supposedly be the other way round, being comfortable and soft. An example where the form and the function are illegible. 

Sassi (1967) The Rocks - Piero Gilardi

Reference: 

Design Museum. (2015). Ettore Sottsass. [online] Available at: http://designmuseum.org/designers/ettore-sottsass [Accessed 1 Jun. 2016].

Arthistoryarchive.com. (2016). Anti-Design - The Art History Archive. [online] Available at: http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/antidesign/ [Accessed 1 Jun. 2016].

Oxfordreference.com. (2016). Anti-Design - Oxford Reference. [online] Available at: http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095416737 [Accessed 1 Jun. 2016].

Mesi, R. (2016). Ettore Sottsass | Austria's Anti-Design Hero. [online] The Culture Trip. Available at: http://theculturetrip.com/europe/austria/articles/ettore-sottsass-austria-s-anti-design-hero/ [Accessed 1 Jun. 2016].