The Impact of Joe Colombos Design - Essay Example

Joe Cesare Colombo was an Italian designer. He was born in Milan in 1930. He has a great interest and urge for knowledge. At secondary school, after studying science he changed his subjects to arts. Later he joined the academy of fine arts, the Accademia di Belle Arti di Bera, in Milano, as a painter. Afterwards he studied Architecture at Politecnico di Milano University. He started as a painter and sculptor of the abstract expressionism and exhibited his work. After working independently on sculpture and painting, he joined the nuclear painting movement. He sketched fantastical visions of a futuristic nuclear city, where man would exploit advances in atomic science to create a new way of living. Later became a founding member of the art concrete group. His father has inherited a ribbon factory, which he turned into an electrical conductor manufactory. In the factory he experiment with the modern production processes and latest developed plastics such as fiberglass and polyethylene in order to create good domestic designs. Later he gave up his work on paintings and focus on his designs to promote his design career. He ventured into design by creating a ceiling for a Milan jazz club. He designed three open-air rest areas featuring television shrines in which TV sets were used to construct mini theaters or shrines. He opened a design factory in Milan. He has his own design office. He worked on conception and architecture. His early designs were mostly for lodges and hotels. He also worked on many designs using plastic. He created the first chair molded from a single material. In his mission to furnish this world with new type of habitat, he applied new production processes and materials to existing types of furniture. His Elda armchair was made from fiberglass. He made furniture with aluminum, then ABS and, finally, polypropylene. Stackable and easy to clean, the universal chair is also adjustable because its legs can be unscrewed and replaced with longer ones. He was intent to reinvent the furniture as new concepts, which would definitely be better suited to a mobile lifestyle. He also designed a Combi-Centre container, which consists of cylindrical units to store things like books, tools and drinks etc. He also designed a Man-Woman container, a futuristic version of a 19th century trunk in which shelves, drawers and mirrors are hidden. The tube chair, Ragno outdoor light, two in one drinking glasses and a self-supporting smoking pipe, which did not require a stand, are remarkable creations of Colombo. Inspired by his designs, a Boby trolley was created, which has rotating drawers and shelves. It is still in production today. His original sketches, plans, brochures, architectural models, several films and contemporary photos are a source of inspiration for the designers of today and tomorrow. His designs are possibilities of improving everyday life. He has excellent inventive skills and imagination. He produced an extra ordinary work in his tragically short career because he died young of heart failure at the age of 41 years and also started designing very late as he was busy in painting and sculpture in his early twenties. Yet he was an exceptionally prolific designer. His years of work, was a rich period for product design, especially in Italy and his very effective designs helped them to market products internationally. He was not only one of the most successful designers of this day but also one of the most important visionaries of the 1960’s. With his interiors, he aimed to anticipate the environment of the future. The impact of design on our society is a big step toward sustainability. Humans have several advantages when it comes to understand designing. Intelligent designing provides a high quality of life without applying pressure on the world. Designers continue to explore to create a brighter future for ourselves. Better designing analysis can improve the standards and sustainability of society. Especially, designs that perform well at a reasonable cost, improve standards of life. Smarter designing and redesigning is very important and it dramatically affects the environment. In order to seek to develop the very best and most efficient designs, the designers need the backing of citizens and the support of policy makers. During the process of design, designers attempt to draw connections between markets and the users. Before the designers begin designing, they make their chaotic mess of research in order. They gather a large quantity of data that can be a platform for generating a new model. Design is the creation of a representational dialogue between people and products, services and systems, especially those that are unplanned in everyday human activities. It is a formal approach towards solving problems that society face in everyday experience. This process remains quite similar even if the scope or scale of the problem remains the same like creating a simple vase or building a complicated aircraft may involve the same steps to solve. Design is a blend of applied science and art. Weight, line, gravity, placement, texture, material and composition of any new model created are not only the frames of science but also come in context of art. Designs are the part of the culture and culture reflects the society. Society and culture provides a structural framework for the design solutions. Once design constraints are identified, and established then the design itself begins to become better defined. Sometimes a design may force a designer into a position of conceptual thinking about the design. He moves in, out or around the design with regard to geography, time or even subject matter. For example, when making a design for coffee maker, he zoom out to examine its use in the countertop, the kitchen, a residential location or even a city. Here designer can finds new ways to interact with consumers, find new ideas to form the design and explore new cultural requirements. In the same way, the designer zooms in to examine the details of freshly ground coffee or even the grinder. A coffee maker is a small thing to design. An industrial designer may consider the problem of coffee making in the home by exploring many physical structures and shapes that can make coffee making more useful and usable. Thus in attempt to structure a coffee solution, the designer gets an opportunity to create an old design in a new light. Designers create how society approaches life. Instead of appreciating aesthetics in the design, the designers are more concern about technology and material because most of the people are least concern about the aesthetics rather they want a subject of practical in everyday life and how the new created design meets their daily requirements in their jobs, religion, community and their family. Human life activities have a great influence on structure of buildings and their interiors. The modern designers of today study design history to know the practices of old creations and to explore the past living style. They redesign and create spaces in them for the modern lifestyle. Early generations of designers has set a platform for them to create new geometric forms and helped them to introduce exaggerated proportions. One of the past famous designer and architect was Alvar Aalto. He is the father of modern Scandinavian Architecture. He became famous because of his buildings, paintings, glassware and furniture designs. He developed a unique architectural style by using color, texture, and light to create collage-like landscapes. He also designed a Paimio chair, which assisted patient breathing. By designing the patient’s room, with their especially designed heating, lighting and furniture, he did a great work for the society. Le Corbusier is the leader of the international style. He designed many buildings. His earlier buildings were pure prisms because they were smooth, white concrete and glass structures. He is famous for his style “New Brutalism”, in which he used rough, heavy forms of stone, concrete and glass. He also designs simple streamlined furniture. Imitations of his chrome plated tubular shaped steel chairs are still made today. There are many dominant architectural styles found in the history that continue to shape the world of design. There are historic preservations, collections of photos, geography and landscape studies of all types and styles of buildings and structures. Exterior styles and building forms are a product of cultural taste and values. Styles in clothing may fade, but architectural styles remained for multiple decades. By the Victorian Era, multiple styles became simultaneously popular and readily available throughout the United States. American modern era was dominated by historic environment. Historic styles became gradually popular once again. Post modern architecture is generally characterized by exaggerated use of historical style. It is an imitated production of older buildings. The current use of postmodern architecture is reflected in traditional town planning practices known as neo traditional development or New Urbanism. Modern architecture and design is based on its history. They are developed as a reaction of designs of the Victorian and Edwardian period. The new designs are created on the social and political development of a new age. Architects and designers made changes in old historical themes according to the present day requirements. They implement new design ideas as result of new technologies and engineering developments. Materials like steel, glass, iron and concrete is being widely used. Modern designs gain popularity after the Second World War. Designers worked in the international style. They wanted to break the typical traditional work so they created simple and unornamented designs. They used glass for the face of the building, steel for exterior support and concrete for floor and interior supports. This became the most appropriate design of skyscrapers. Future designs are modified designs based on historical creations especially Italian designs. New designs are created by machine aesthetics. Some designs have simplified the forms by eliminating unnecessary details. There is an endless collection of Italian designs in modern furniture design. The Valentinox dining table is designed to add the touch of brilliance to the Cattelan Italian collection. Another modern day creation based on Italian history of design is Boston bookcase and TV stand. It has an unusual arrangement for the upper shelf units that slide laterally. The Ca Nova Design Studio adds its own touch with glass. They have redefined the coffee table with an elan becoming of Italian designers. Their Brio coffee table is a single elegant stainless steel support that balances a circle of glass top. Another tribute to Italian design is the rectangular TV unit operates as a bookcase and storage as well. It adds sparkle to any living area and provides utility and comfort as well. Critics of modern architecture argued that aesthetics and accessibility were as important as functionality. Furthermore, the insistence on rectilinear forms was stifling creativity. Disenchanted with the modern style, many architects began to move towards the more organic designs of post modernism. MacKay argues that in a poor culture people cannot afford to what all a designer have to build. He further claimed that these professionals have lost contact with common sense. He believes that the designers must use the materials that are renewable and from the local area. Joe Colombo’s design is most influential on the world of design today. A collection of his marvelous products has made history in the design world. Some futuristic pieces, like ceiling-fitted TV’s, subterranean nuclear cities and walls incorporating rotating fridges are his fabulous art and architectural creations that continue to shape the world of design today. Work Cited Colombo Joe C. Joe Colombo: Inventing the Future. Vitra Design Stiftung, 2005. http://www.jonkolko.com/writingInfoArchDesignStrategy.php http://www.spacify.com/modern-contemporary-design.htm http://www.fourthdoor.co.uk/review/images/articles/BP_DECMacKay_Lyons.pdf Read More