Pop Design

Pop Design was invented in the 1950's and by the word pop they meant popular design. It grew upon the affluence of the post war society in the 1950s and 60s. It started in the USA but also grew in England. People were bored with buildings and couldn’t be bothered to have more straight boring stuff/objects. The Independent group was formed in London 1952 and its members were; Richard Hamilton - an artist, Eduardo Paolozzi - a sculptor, Reyner Banham - an art critic and architects Peter and Alison Smithson, they were the first to explore and celebrate this movement in America.

In the 1960s ‘low art’ such as advertising, packaging, comics and television were inspiring artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Litchtenstein and Claes Oldenburg. Pop design also began to show in design objects of everyday use. They came up with the saying “use it today sling it tomorrow”. They didn’t want to follow traditional norms and behavior they wanted something new unique and totally different. Designers mixed different eras with each other in design, it was a youth based design – rock peace and love.

Before pop design in the 1960s functionalism and good design were popular in Germany and Italy which then produced Bel (beautiful) design. Development of artificial materials such as polypropylene gave designers the possibility to experiment with design and colours. This is how plastics became very popular in design and it aimed at the youth market which was cheap, fun but without doubt poor quality.

Some designers were inspired by hippies, pop music, flower power and their own culture such as foods in diners.

Designs which were handmade and good such as Marcel Breuer’s and etc. were all looked at as inhuman, cold and outdated. Colour and ‘ephemerality’ were the new aspects of design. Pop design drew from many sources such as; art nouveau, art deco, futurism, surrealism, Op Art – blocks of colour Bridget Riley, eastern mysticism, kitsch and space age.

‘Less is more’ was no more something they believed in they did the total opposite which then led to Radical design. Designs were popular, transient, expendable, low-cost, mass produced, young, witty, sexy, gimmicky and glamorous. Designers also designed dresses out of paper which was called ‘throwaway fashion’, which truly began in the 20^th century in Germany but then the idea was brought back to life in the 60s. In the hopeful, optimistic 60s, paper was the clothing "textile" of the future. At a time more and more goods were becoming "disposable" (plates, cups, cutlery, plastics in packaging, tissues, etc.), disposable clothing seemed like the next big thing.

20s:

 60s:

Till this day we still use things which were invented/designed during the pop design movement we still have Tupperware and it still is something most of us will find in our kitchen cupboards and we also are still inspired by Andy Warhol's work as you can see below.

Warhol's work:

Screenshots I took from a music video which reminded me of his work:

Wine packaging inspired by Warhol: 

Beginning of Tupperware to today's Tupperware, more variety of shapes and designs:

 Beginning:

 Today:

idealog. 2010. the die line. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.idealog.co.nz/blog/2010/07/website-review-dieline. [Accessed 27 December 13].

v&a. 2012. paper dresses. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.vam.ac.uk/users/node/6419. [Accessed 27 December 13].

mental_floss. 2009. Disposable Suits and Paper Underpants. [ONLINE] Available at: http://mentalfloss.com/article/21361/disposable-suits-and-paper-underpants. [Accessed 27 December 13].

creative glossary. 2011. pop art. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.creativeglossary.com/art-stylesmovements/pop-art.html. [Accessed 27 December 13].

Fiell, C & P F, 1999. design of the 20th century. 2nd ed. china: ISBN.

Thames & Hudson, T&H, 2004. design since 1900. 2nd ed. singapore: C.C Graphics.