Designers – shapers of our everyday lives
Their name is Achille Castiglioni, Arne Jacobsen, Ettore Sottass Jr., Gunnar Aagaard Andersen, Poul Henningsen, Philippe Starck or Studio DDL, to name just a few examples, and have established themselves in TAGWERC Design STORE is brought together because they all have or had two professions: Designer and visionary pioneers in interior design.
Designers are the architects of our everyday lives. Sometimes their designs are simple, almost understated; other times eccentric, perfectly formed, or functional, and always somehow special and a reflection of their individual personality. In the field of interior design, the development of designs is often embedded in the context of specific stylistic movements. Bauhaus, Pop Art, Functionalism, and Radical Design are some of these design styles that have influenced designers in their work. One particularly noteworthy designer in the development of lighting was Poul Henningsen. Using mathematical formulas, the Dane, who had left his architecture studies without graduating, calculated a so-called three-shade lighting concept that provided completely glare-free light and, for the first time, could be used with almost all light sources available at the time.
Visions that see the light of day
A lamp means something different to everyone. Lighting requirements can vary widely. Some use it as practical ambient lighting or orientation lighting, as functional lighting, for purely aesthetic reasons, or as an eye-catcher in a room. Designers, on the other hand, create lamps that consider all these aspects and are much more than mere light sources. As beautifully illustrated in the film "The Devil Wears Prada" using fashion design as an example, it is the designers who first bring visions to life that later reappear on the bargain bins of the mass market. Take, for example, the "YaYaHo" cable system by Ingo Maurer. The lighting designer developed a cable system equipped with low-voltage technology. The special feature: a wide variety of light objects could simply be placed on the cable system and illuminated. At the time, this was an absolute novelty. It has since been copied many times.
Aesthetics in everyday life
Of course, a simple floor lamp or any old folding chair will do the job. But design usually aims for much more. Designers look beyond mere functionality and give objects a special design language, a unique style: aesthetics in everyday life.
Different approaches
Verner Panton He believed that it was more comfortable to sit in a chair whose color one liked and incorporated the findings of color psychology into the design of mostly entire restaurants, living spaces and other rooms – largely commissioned work – the best example being: the Visiona 2 A materials exhibition for the chemical company Bayer. Gunnar Aagaard Andersen had discovered colors and forms for himself long before, but was more of a free spirit, an artist whose work emerged from himself and his experimentation with new materials. Thus, in the early 1960s, he developed what he called a "portrait of his mother's Chesterfield chair" based on polyurethane foam—an armchair assembled from layers of brown foam. Unusual, unique, each chair is one of a kind and can be admired in the permanent design collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Design is in the air
But where do designers get their inspiration? Sometimes it's art, a cultural context, an everyday experience, perhaps furthered by industrial and technological advancements that make mass production possible, even though the design form itself is no longer new. Design never arises in isolation from time and space; rather, it's sometimes "in the air" or the logical consequence of a particular era, embedded within a cultural context. Occasionally, it's simply commissions or competitions that promise further commissions, which in turn generate design. After all, designers also have utility bills to pay, need a steady income, and shouldn't be allowed to die in a state of aesthetic inactivity.
„"The details are not just details."“
Ray and Charles Eames did not see their design mission during their lifetime as furnishing the homes of the elite. Rather, the American design duo wanted to make the masses happy with their creative ideas. "The role of the designer is that of a good, considerate host who appreciates the needs of his guests," Charles Eames was convinced. And so, the designers approached the process of redesigning, for example, the Lounge Chair or the fiberglass chairs, now also known in modified form as the Plastic Sidechair and Plastic Armchair, in a very classic way, taking into account and defining the problem and the target audience, at the end of which a model or prototype with all its details was created. Charles Eames: "The details are not merely details. They make the design." Perhaps it was precisely because of their universally appealing and practical approach that Ray and Charles Eames' designs became so popular and remain in many homes today – albeit in those of the more affluent. These days, you have to shell out a good 200 euros for the entry-level model of a plastic side chair. The price for a lounge chair is even in the mid-four-figure range.
Investment Design
Design has long since become a new form of investment, a boom from which many deceased designers of legendary design classics will certainly no longer benefit. And yet, designers live on in their designs – even if these are sometimes altered or adapted in size and color to the needs of a changing society. Nevertheless, these adaptations seem to do nothing to diminish the actual design that the designer created. "Good design is like the possibility of going to the moon. Few will ever be able to do it directly, but the awareness of this possibility has changed the lives of millions of people.", Ettore Sottsass Jr. He summed it up perfectly.
Designer living room
At TAGWERC, several exceptional designers have been given their own living room. Here, their ideas can be experienced firsthand, providing inspiration for your own home. Therefore, we conclude this short essay with a quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."„