Industrial Revolution: Cause and Effect on product design and designers in Emerging 20th Century - Essay Example

In an attempt to meet the huge demand at the time for design products, product designers were forced to take the path of mass production. This paper examines the impact that industrial revolution had on product design in emerging twentieth century. According to Kauffman (56), human equality, scientific progress and popular education are the major ideas that contributed to the conditioning of design. Products that were made in the nineteenth century were made and also used with a spirit as well as the means which was different from the one used in the nineteenth century.

These differences were brought about by scientific development, human equality as well as education advancement that characterized the twentieth century. Similarly, these changes have led to changes in the spirit of using these products. The industrial revolution introduced machines and mechanization of work. Division of labor and specialization that was necessary to support mass production did not spare design. In an effort to produce design goods on an industrial scale, entrepreneurs began looking for ways of transferring much of skills of craftsmen to machines.

Mechanical systems were to be made that would pretty much do the work of designers but at a much quicker rate. This pursuit would also see people working like machines; that is, specializing in only one area of production and working long hours per day. Among the most significant scientific and industrial developments of the twentieth century that produced a tremendous boost to design was the huge leaps made in printing technology. New machines were invented that greatly aided printing and publishing.

One such machine was the typewriter (“Industrial Revolution” 65). In addition, technology enabled remarkable advancements in lithography. Color lithography was introduced during this time and found wide application in advertising. New printing materials such as synthetic die were developed as well, which made industrial design and mass reproduction much more feasible and similarly efficient. As the gains of industrial revolution began to stabilize beginning early twentieth century, entrepreneurs and managers started to shift their attention from mass production to ways of making workers more productive in the work place.

Consequently scientific management theories were born. These theories had a profound effect on designers as they significantly restored the earlier practice of focusing on the craftsman as the driver of production as opposed to mass products (“The Genius of Design - Designs for Living” pt. 1). During this period, managers sought to create conducive environment for designers to advance their design skills. Despite the tremendous changes in the design industry of the contemporary world, there was a high level of imitation of the previous products.

For instance, most of the products of the twentieth century were an imitation of the nineteenth century products (Kaufmann 57). As is common in the field of fashion and design, designers tended to go back in history and bring to life some design forms. However, most of twentieth century design changes were as expected characterized by many modifications to reflect cultural and socioeconomic context of the contemporary society as well as to improve on product quality. Furthermore, designers began utilizing scientific methods in their work as a way of increasing