U N I T 3 DESIGN IS LIFE In this Unit we will look all around us, because design is in our homes, products, movies, television, clothes, cars, architecture and much more. The world could not function without designers and artists. Without them, everything would be plain and boring. A. THE MADE IN ITALY Corradino D Ascanio, Vespa motorscooter. In the 1950s industrial objects became a symbol of a new renaissance period after the Second World War. Italy suddenly found out that modernity means welfare, comfort and a better quality of life. So besides home appliances we could now find furniture, lamps, a large range of objects for the home and free time, including radios and television sets that gave life to a typical 1950 s happy home image. Italian design reached its peak in the 1960s, when there was a rapidly increasing national and international market demand. In these years many designers were of great importance; among them we can mention Mario Bellini, Vico Magistretti, Gae Aulenti, Rodolfo Bonetto and Marco Zanuso. Massimo and Lella Vignelli met with great success in the United States as representatives of the pure Italian design. In the second half of the 70 s the post-modern or neo-modern became the most significant movement in Italy. The new phenomenon emerged thanks to innovative designers, such as Andrea Branzi, Paolo Deganello, Michele De Lucchi and Ettore Sottsass and above all thanks to the Alchimia Group, founded in 1976 by Alessandro Guerriero, and Memphis Group founded in 1980 by Ettore Sottsass with a group of architects and designers who produced unusual objects that didn t belong to any style. In a short time, style became the dominant feature of new Italian design. Examples of great Italian product design include Corradino d Ascanio s Vespa motor scooters (1946-48); Carlo Mollino s sensuous Arabesque Table (1950); Vico Magistretti s lacquered aluminum Eclisse Lamp (1965) (which resembles a space helmet); Joe Colombo s innovative moulded-plastic furniture, such as the 4867 Chair (1965) and the popular Boby Trolley (1970); Mario Bellini s calculators for the Olivetti Company; Alessandro Mendini s kitchen accessories designed for the Italian factory Alessi in the 1980s, Ettore Sottsass s lifelong contributions to design for Olivetti (1958-80) and his multicoloured Carlton Bookcase (1981). Today Italy is the worldwide leader in furniture design, to which we can also add fashion design, automotive design, interior design, and the emerging motion graphics and web design, landscape design and also food design. Cartlon Bookcase. Joe Colombo Boby Trolley. 176