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Setting the scene

In 1907 artists and those working in industry set up the

Deutsche Werkbund in Munich. It’s aim to improve the economy

by improving design.

Designers and Architects took into consideration new

production processes

Designers and industry worked closely during the design

process in order to produce both well designed and well made

mass produced goods.

A young architect, Walter Gropius became a leading figure in

the Werkbund.

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Principles behind the Bauhaus

Walter Gropius (the young Architect) founded the design school

in 1919 in Weimar, Germany. It was to be:

• A design school which brought together all of the Arts to create a

‘total’ work of art

• Encompass all types of design, decorative arts and fine art

• Opposed to the Arts and Crafts movement - Bauhaus wanted to

produce cheap but well made mass produced objects that looked

good

• Form follows function

• The artist and craftsman are one

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The Bauhaus was based in three German cities

Weimar 1919-25

Forced to close due to state funding being halved

Dessau -1925-32

A politically socialist school, Bauhaus closed when the

Nazi party gained control of Dessau council

Berlin 1932-33

Operated for 10 months before the Gestapo closed

them down

Every student completed a compulsory preliminary course and then

entered a workshop of their own choice

And they were taught by instructors at the highest level of skill and

understanding in their given genre

Wassily Kandisky and Paul Klee

The Bauhaus's curriculum was organised on the understanding that crafts

and arts had equal importance - as they had in medieval times.

Students were taught by masters of the subject.

Klee and Kandinsky were among the school's first teachers at the

Bauhaus.

Naum Slutzky - Russian jewellery designer

Slutsky Led the Bauhaus metal workshop

His work was based on function and pure form without decoration

His interests were machine technology and the new Modernist movement

Due to the price of gold he used base metals and new combinations of

cheaper metals in his work - brass with chromium plating.

Marcel Breuer - Hungarian architect and furniture

designer

• Marcel Breuer studied at the Bauhaus in Weimar,

Germany

• Noticed as having great talent Gropius put him in charge

of the furniture workshop

• Marcel Brauer worked on the public housing designed by

Walter Gropius’ Architects practice

• 1927 he designed the "Type B3 steel Club Chair". Later

this model was renamed “Wassily" because Kandinsky

admired its design

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Renamed the “Wassily chair” because Kandinsky admired the

design

Only made possible by brand new manufacturing processes able to

produce seamless tubular steel

“Type B3 steel club chair”

Tubular steel and

canvas, 1927

designer by Marcel

Breuer

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe - German-American Architect

Director of the Bauhaus 1930-33

His architectural designs had extreme clarity and simplicity

They made use of new materials:

• Industrial Steel

• Plate glass

The framework was minimal and the spaces were open and airy

He said ‘less is more’

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Stolzl was the only female master at the

Bauhaus. She became the senior master of

the weaving department in 1927.

Gunta Stolzl - German Textile Artist

Herbert Bayer

designed the

signage for the

Bauhaus, Art and

Design College,

building in Dessau

Graphic DesignBauhaus poster designs often included geometric shapes and often used

sans serif lettering (fonts without decoration)

A popular sans serif type face is Futura designed by Paul Renner in

1927.

In 1937 former instructor Laszlo Moholy-Nagy founded the New Bauhaus in Chicago,

America. It was based on the exact same principles

It is now named the Illinois Institute of Technology - Institute of Design

The New Bauhaus

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The Memphis Group

• Founded in 1981 in Milan, Italy

• Aim - to shake up the design world

• Reaction against the slick, black, minimalist and

humourless design of the 1970’s

• Designs were in your face - big, bold, bright, shocking

• Named after a Dylan song that was playing during a

meeting

• Inspiration was taken from Art Deco, Pop art, African

symbols, comic strips and the kitsch designs of the

1950’s

• Objects were to intentionally clash or mesh with other

objects

Memphis Group

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A leading member of the group Ettore Sottsass called Memphis

design the ‘New International Style’

Carlton Bookcase

Designed by Sottsass, 1981

Wood and laminated plastic

Memphis Furniture

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Watch straps and faces designed for the Swatch Watch

company in the Memphis style

Memphis Patterndesigned by, Nathalie du Pasquier

21Miu Miu 2006 Spring Collection

Ceramics

Lights

Jewellery

Memphis design influenced Dior’s design collection in 2012