Chart

In my visual chart, I chose 5 designers from different movements and placed them from top to bottom on the left hand side of my chart. I research products, architecture and world news that linked the 5 designers together.

1 - Le corbusier (Modern Movement)

2 - Gerrit Rietveld (De Stijl Movement)

3- Marcel Breauer            (Bauhaus Movement)

4- Charles& Ray Eames   (Organic Design)

5- Ettore Sottsass             (Memphis Group)

I linked their products which had something in common and news with colours.
I linked:

-Tubular Steel Furniture
-Lounge Chairs
-Style-inspired
-Space-related news
-Hitler-realted news and
-War.

Sustainable Design

The meaning of Sustainable design can be broken down in a few characteristics, which are: 

-miniaturization
-economic profit
-resource limitation
-space limitation

One of the most common examples of sustainable design is without any doubt the famous 'Smart For Two' car. It is a two-seater car, less than nine feet long;  it fits in nearly any parking space. It is very fuel-efficient due to its small body and engine. 

Designer Masada thinks that our society is no longer sustainable, and people need to re-think and respect nature more. That is why he designed the above chair and table from recycled materials that are not available to be used in a product.

Tejo Remy's Rag Chair is another environmental-friendly design made from used fabrics.

The highchair designed by Maartje Steenkamp can be used for a small infant aged a few months to few years old kid. This is possible by when it's needed, the legs of the chair are cut. It has the advantage of cutting how much you want the chair to be long. The designer thought that recycling is one of the most important things to do to save the environment. Individuals should start thinking before designing because one chair is not going to change anything.

not mentioned. (/). Sustainable design for furniture.. Available: http://skohei.typepad.com/blog/2010/02/sustainable-design-japan-and-netherlands.html. Last accessed 18th january 2014.

Environmental-Friendly design

-Keeping in mind the building's operating and maintenance issues while still in the designing process gives you improved working environment, higher productivity, minimized energy and resource costs and prevention from system failure.

Over the past decades, some changes had to be made. In the past, not a lot of attention was given to our planet, and this made a huge negative impact many years later. Today, a lot of education and awareness is given to pay attention and respect to our environment. 
 Designers and architects came up with a different range of inventions and disciplines to design environmental-friendly landscapes, buildings, products and much more.

Some characteristics that one should keep in mind when designing for environmental-friendly are ;

Optimizing Site Potential
-One should always select the best site. Maybe even reusing or rehabilitating existing buildings. The landscape and location of a building effect transportation methods and energy use. 

Optimizing Energy Use
-The designer also has to keep in mind the decreasing demand for fossil fuels and the impacts of global climate changes. It is essential to find a way to reduce the energy load as much as possible, and increase the efficiency and the use of renewable energy.

Protecting and conserving Water
-In a number of countries including Malta, fresh water is scarce. A sustainable building should have a system to treat and store rain water, and also re-use it if possible. The effort to get reverse osmosis or government-provided water on site consumes a lof of energy in pumping, transporting and treating. 

Optimizing Building Space and Material Use
-It is also important to choose wisely the materials needed for construction. They need to minimize as much as possible the environmental impacts such as global warming and human toxicity. Health and safety on site is also an important issue for the worker.
Enhancing Indoor Environment Qualities
-The indoor environment effects a number of qualities on a human being, such as comfort, health and also productivity. The indoors also have to be properly light up by daylight, good ventilation and moisture control.

Optimizing Operating and Maintenance Practices

A facade of a sustainable designed building with closed windows that open automatically every hour, depending on the sunlight to save light.

The same facade but with some of the windows opened.Solar-Panels, a common energy-saver to decrease the use of electricity.The use of huge windows was initially used in the Bauhaus movement, and is still used today to get in as much daylight as possible, almost like having a sky-light.

not mentioned. (2013). Warm and Household Pleasant Residence with Sustainable Characteristics in Venice Read more http://www.bestofinteriors.com/other/warm-and-household-pleasant-residence-with-sustainable-characteristics-. Available: http://www.bestofinteriors.com/other/warm-and-household-pleasant-residence-with-sustainable-characteristics-in-venice/. Last accessed 14th january 2014.

Streamlining

A couple of years following the end of World War 1, a financial problem was created. It was known as the 'Great Depression'. To solve this problem,designers stepped in and acted by designing eye-catching products, things that as soon as customers saw them, they wanted to buy and own them, even if they didn't really need them or had one already but was less attractive. Consumerism was born to lift the economy back on its feet.
Later, designers came up with the concept of streamlining. This style was originally influenced by Art Deco, but unlike this movement which mostly consisted of upwards movements and geometric and angular shapes, streamlining was more simplified yet infused a sense of dynamism, it was much more curved and organic.
It's thought that streamlining is Art Deco on the move. This is because this particular movement makes the object look like it is moving when it's not. This idea was not applied to transportation vehicles only, but to every product designed.

Add caption

Plane interiors over the years, second picture from the streamlining era.

A common influence was the teardrop, its curves unconsciously show movement. This tear-drop shape helped when it came to transportation vehicles. Due to this smooth, pointy shape, it helped vehicles go faster without any extra fuel consumption.

Crossley streamline car 1930s

Da LaLee and his teardrop shape car 1938

After the 1920's, America started to look at the streamlining movement as modern and as a new profession of industrial design.

This new movement was all about speed lines and repeated horizontal lines to suggest the product streaks through space. The shapes and forms rarely followed any function. Aesthetics was more important at the time. It gave technology a better look and feel. This helped to sell consumer goods, especially technological products.

Streamlining nowadays

The Exelero Car, a modern interpretation of a legendary sports car from the 1930's which disappeared in WW11

Budd Steinhilber. (2011). /. Available: http://www.industrialdesignhistory.com/node/1022. Last accessed 14th january 2014.

Design for Sports

Sports design is a very specific type of design, because it pushes the technologies and materials to their limits and tests their abilities. Sporting good depend on extensive research on the human body, safety, ergonomics and aesthetics. After research and multiple developments, the product is usually designed on a computer software and later tested and multi-produced.

An example of a sporting good is the Nike's lightweight shoe which was inspired from a sock. This shoe took four years of research and development to create. A team of designers, engineers and programmers collaborated to produce this shoe that has the properties of a sock. It's upper body is made in one piece and is a combination of yarn and fabric. The materials are said to be "precisely engineered only where they are needed", and this produced a 5.6 ounces shoe, 19% less then a popular Nike's marathon shoes. The design process was described to be a "mission of micro-engineering".

A nike running shoes that allows you to listen to your music

A motorcycle helmet, featuring all the important safety features such as hard outer shell, polyester foam liner underneath the outer shell, comfort liner for the head to rest on, face shield and face/chin protector, a chin strap and also strong rivets.

not mentioned. (2013). Nike Unveils Its Big New Paradigm: Shoes Knit Like Socks. Available: http://www.fastcodesign.com/1669098/nike-unveils-its-big-new-paradigm-shoes-knit-like-socks. Last accessed 11th january 2014.

JONATHAN DILLON. (2014). Best Motorcycle Helmet Guide. Available: http://bestmotorcyclehelmetguide.net/. Last accessed 11th january 2014.

The Model T

Henry Ford wanted to design a practical and affordable transportation for the common crowd,  and came up with the famous Model T. From 1908 till 1927, the automobile named "Model T" was built by the Ford Motor Company on Henry's design. Against his will, it soon became prized for its durability, versatility, low cost running and lack of maintenance. It soon had become increasingly popular. 

When assembly-line production was introduced, it allowed the price to drop drastically from $850 in 1908 to less then $300 in 1925. This first car ever produced became one of America's folkloric symbols. It realized Henry Ford's dream to "demoralize the automobile". 
From 1913 to 1925 the car was only sold in black. The engine was simple yet effective, and the cylinder head was detachable for easy access and repair. Later, Ford thought that if he mass-produced the car in different body styles and a different range of colours, it would interest and satisfy a larger mass of people. So, after a while, the Model T started to be offered as a 5-seat touring car, a 2-seat runabout and a 7-seat town card. All models were uni-formally mounted on a 100-inch wheelbase chassis. 

1916 5-seat touring car

1911 2-seat runabout car

Manufacturing the Model T

The car's engine had a maximum speed of 65 to 70 km|hr. After the 1920's, some of the engines even had battery-powered starters. It had only two gears and another one for reverse; 3 in all. The gears were controlled by foot pedals, nothing like the hand-lever we all know of today. It also had a 10-gallon fuel tank, which was located under the front seat.

Some interesting facts about the Model T:

-Its reverse gear was much more powerful than the two front ones, and this sometimes resulted in climbing a steep hill backwards.

-Between 1913 and 1917, more then 15 million Model Ts were manufactured and sold by Ford Motor Company.

-It had numerous deficiencies, some of which were;

  ~It's uncomfortable ride at higher speeds

  ~Rattling noises

  ~Not such a visually-pleasing appearance.

not mentioned. (1996-2014). Model T. Available: http://www.history.com/topics/model-t. Last accessed 8th january 2014.

Design for the Third World

When I hear the phrase "third world countries", the first thing that comes to mind is the thought of multiple organizations encouraging the public to donate money to the poor. But sometimes that's not enough. The aim of Design for the third world is to design products that make use of locally available components and making use of the few environmental sources they have or even put to work manually.   

One of the existing products is the pedal-powered washing machine. It only costs forty dollars and is perfect for developing countries that lack electricity or don't have the money to buy modern and expensive washing machines. This particular washer is a combination of both a washer and a spin-dryer, powered by a foot pedal. Designers thought that it was too much of a time-consuming and effort to wash clothes manually, so they came up with this perfect design that eases the burden of manually washing and spinning the clothes. The container has a plastic lid that the user can sit on and just paddles. 


This thoughtful product was designed to transport water. Instead of carrying a heavy container on the user's shoulders or head, the innovative water-transporter was designed in the form of a wheel, so one can just pull it after him while it turns around.


The 'Big Boda Bike' is another product designed to ease the weight when travelling things. It allows the user to carry a number of unusual heavy loads on a bicycle.

This is a mobile personal water purification tool, that can be carried around anywhere and allows less unfortunate people that don't have clean water to purify the less-clean water before drinking it.

Brit Liggett. (2012). Cooper-Hewitt Receives 600K to Continue Design for the Other 90% Exhibit Read more: Cooper-Hewitt Receives 600K to Continue Design for the Other 90% Exhibit | Inhabitat - Sustainable Design Innovatio. Available: http://inhabitat.com/cooper-hewitt-receives-600k-to-continue-design-for-the-other-90-exhibit/. Last accessed 7th january 2014.