After Class, Chapter 12: The Genesis of Twentieth Century Design

In class today we saw a presentation given on the genesis of twentieth century design. During this time, writers and artists started to question the status quo. All of this took place mostly in Europe but and very little in the U.S. thanks to Frank Lloyd Wright. Frank Lloyd Wright was a huge architect that was way ahead of his time. He designed Prairie style housing and "The Beautiful House". Although he was a fantastic architecture, he also was a good graphic designer.

Frank Lloyd Wright wasn't the only genesis of the twentieth century. The Glasgow School consisted of four scottish student artists that created geometric designs with accents of floral elements along with curuilinear elements with strong rectilinear structure. Two people, Jesse Marion King and Tawlin Morris, were very influenced by the Glasgow School. King made designs that consisted of medieval style fantasy and Morris became the director of publishing for the Glasgow School.

The Vienna Secession was a very important movement in design history. This movement came about when art students at the reowned Kunstlerhaus resigned due to the disgust of new ideas. Ver Sacrum was a magazine that was produced during this time. It was created in 1898 and ran to 1903. It was a magazine for designers to explore different designs and types to inspire new ideas. Too bad this magazine isn't still around today!

One thing that I found interesting was how Wright designed his homes around nature, thus preserving nature the best he could. I like that and I wish architects today could follow his lead.

One question I have is why weren't more designers subscribed to Ver Sacrum? Was it too expensive? I would think more designers would be subscribed,,,instead only 300 copies were printed!