Influences Of Technology And Cultral Changes On Design Flashcards
How Technology and Cultural changes can impact on the work of designers?
• The supply of materials (if they aren’t available, you can’t design with them)
• Climate Change/Environment Focus (products should be sustainable/last longer)
• Influencers/Trends
• The economy (if there is a depression, less budget for materials)
• Industrial Revolution
• Disasters/Unexpected Events, ie. COVID (changes in public awareness)
What are Social-Economic Influences?
Understanding how society and the economy interact
Recognise the opportunities that exist for successful development and marketing of products. Understand how things change: Demographic trends i.e. starting families later, aging population.
Case Studies For Social-Economic Influences on Design
• Post-First World War
• The Second World War
• Contemporary Times
Affect of Post-First World War on Design - Bauhaus
• Metal tubing was adopted as a replacement for wood
• Tubular steel doesn’t suffer from the problem of inconsistent strength
• Famous furniture designs were inspired by Breuer’s B3 and many Bauhaus designs
• Furniture could be made without requiring any traditional handcrafting skills
Affect of The Second World War on Design
• Due to WW2, there was a severe shortage of many goods and materials
• Rationing was introduced to ensure the fair distribution of essentials.
• Various utility schemes introduced to target shortages, i,e clothing, footwear.
What was the Utility Furniture Scheme
• Lead by Gordon Russel
• Fulfilled basics furniture requirements
• Prioritised helping newly married couples and people made homeless due to the bombing
• Design were influenced by the arts and crafts movement - strong, simple, and for purpose.
• Employed traditions, vernacular manufacturing methods and materials
• Approved items displayed an official CC41 logo.
Explain What Utility Furniture is?
The Utility Furniture scheme was made to help newly married couples as well as homeless people during WW2 due to the bombing and destruction of houses. This left many people (especially those who were homeless or newly married) to be searching for new homes, which in turn, needed to be furnished. As a result, this scheme was made to allow basic pieces of furniture to be sold cheaper, making it more accessible to the general public due to selling the furniture for lower prices.
Utility furniture was also heavily influenced by the arts and crafts movement, as many of the items were made to be strong and simple, placing function over form. This also would’ve helped to keep the costs of the items down, as materials such as basic pieces timber would’ve been cheaper and more readily available at the time to make the furniture with, compared to the metal tubing used by the likes of the Bauhaus, for example.
Name and briefly Explain the Impact of 2 technological advances affecting product design after WW2
WW2 led to the rapid advancement of microelectronics. This was a huge advancement in design, as microelectronics essentially facilitated many technological advancements that made designing things even easier. An example of this would be the developments of CAD (computer aided design). This would’ve made it easier for designers to quickly create designs on the fly by using a piece of computer software. The improvement aids designers, allowing them to create more iterations, and therefore quicker advancements in product design.
What is a Focus Group
A focus group is a panel of potential customers who represent the target market. They are used to obtain qualitative data like opinions about existing products, or to obtain feedback on prototypes.
What were 2 major technological advances after WW2
- Invention of the Transistor
- Development of Polymer Manufacture
What is COID
COID is a post WW2 organisation set up to improve design standards and competitiveness
How was Bauhaus influenced by WW1
WW1 led to increased use of tubular steel, as well as the ability to mass manufacturing things more effectively. Bauhaus utilised both of these things and made them a hallmark of many of their products.
What was Utility Furniture
Utility furniture was introduced during and after WW2. The furniture was produced under a governing by scheme, designed to cope with raw material shortages. It involved a set of modern designs, using the most economical materials available.
