Judith Gura

Good Design Revisited

We're still talking about mid-century modern design. After all these years and all those pronouncements about the death of modernism, the standards of International Style architecture still seem relevant. That should reassure fans of Mies, Corbusier, and company, and give pause to those who think that quirkiness trumps timelessness. On the other hand, as we decided in class discussion, design that looks radical at first becomes less, so the more we see it familiarity is likelier to breed fondness than contempt.

Next discussions came after going through the MoMA retrospective of the 1950's Good Design exhibitions, where the students found little to scoff at decades later. To them, most of the designs still looked good. Each chose a favorite, and explained why; some focused on ingenuity of concept, some on good use of materials, and some on efficiency of function or practicality. What it boiled down to, for the most part, was individual taste.

Once it fulfills the basic requirements, isn't that what good design boils down to: appealing to individual taste?

Posted by Judith Gura on October 30, 2009 | Comments (0)