U N I T 2 DESIGN IS TECHNOLOGY In this Unit we will focus on Industrial Design and how this has become a professional service which creates products and systems that optimize function, value and appearance for the mutual benefit of both user and manufacturer. A. WHAT IS INDUSTRIAL DESIGN? Industrial design is a 20th-century phenomenon. It can be considered as an applied art, where design aspects may include the complete form of the object, the details, colours, textures, sounds, and ergonomics. Industrial designers try to make products attractive, efficient and safe, developing products through collection, analysis and synthesis of data guided by the special requirements of their clients and producers. Industrial designers improve as well as create objects, and they often work within multi-disciplinary groups that include management, marketing and production. Early developments in industrial design took place in Germany. The Deutscher Werkbund, founded in 1907 and a precursor to the Bauhaus, was a state-sponsored effort to integrate traditional crafts and industrial mass-production techniques. In the first decades of the 20th century, architects and designers in other countries were also creating distinctively designed consumer products. These included items such as the undulating Savoy vase (1936) by the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, the avantgarde geometric porcelain teapots and cups (1923) by Russian painter Kazimir Malevich, the classic doublearms corkscrew (1930) by Italian designer Dominick Rosati, and the highly flexible Anglepoise desk lamp (1932) by the British automotive engineer George Carwardine. In the USA, after the Great Depression of 1929, several dozen creative people from a variety of artistic fields, including theatre, advertising, graphics, fashion and furniture design, initiated a new profession. Deutscher Werkbund. These artists entered the industrial world during what was called the Machine Age to introduce modern design of mass-produced and functional objects. The post-war era saw a boom in industrial design throughout the world. This was particularly evident in the United States, where factories were not damaged or destroyed by wartime bombing. Alvar Aalto: Savoy vase. 170