2.3 Technology and Cultural Changes Flashcards
(106 cards)
What is socio-economics?
It provides understanding of how society and the economy interact, which enables designers to recognise more effectively the opportunities that exist for the successful development and marketing of products.
What are some demographic trends that affect demand for certain products?
1 couples starting families later in life than they did formerly
2 larger number of young people going to university
3 ageing population
When was the Bauhaus design school?
post first world war
1919-1932
What was the main beliefs in the Bauhaus design school?
They believed in uniting art and industrial designs, and had a revolutionary approach to designing, which dispended with the normal barriers surrounding different crafts and skills, and encouraged experimentation.
What is the significance of Marcel Breuer?
Marcel Breuer is the Bauhaus designer most associated with experimentation with the use of steel tubing for furniture.
How did the Second World War affect design?
It brought about a sever shortage of many goods. Rationing was therefore introduced in Britain to provide fair distribution of essentials such as furniture. The shortage of timber for furniture manufacture was further exacerbated by the destruction of many houses and their contents during bombing raids, and the switching of a great deal of manufacturing capacity towards the war effort.
What was the significance of Gordon Russell during the second world war?
Furniture rationing was accompanied by the setting up of a committee, led by the furniture designer Gordon Russell. His remit was to ensure that scarce resources were used in an optimal way by designing and manufacturing a range if appropriate items. The utility furniture scheme designed to ensure that basic, simply designed products were available in response to the shortages being experienced.
Who was Gordon Russell influenced by during the utility schemes?
He was influenced by William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. He welcomed the opportunity some of the ‘fitness to purpose’ ideas that he had admired in the designs promoted by Morris 40 years earlier.
What were products like in the aftermath of the Second World War?
Products designed in the aftermath of the Second World War bore the hallmarks of the utility programme, in that they were well made but lacked the excitement and the design ‘touches’ that people craved following a period of enforced drabness. However, in the USA, designers were beginning to incorporate new ideas into the design of their products, to appeal to an eager public.
What does COID stand for and what was its significance in the post second world war?
The Government was concerned that competition from other countries and the legacy of wartime utility design would result in Britain being left behind as a designing and manufacturing nation, so the Council of Industrial Design (COID) was set up in 1944, and was successful in introducing a programme of training, assessment and information to improve the standards of design.
Why didn’t British consumers like the idea of streamlining after WW2?
They were wary of the consumerism that was gaining momentum is the USA, and there still existed a desire to get back to pre-war normality.
What was the streamlining opportunity that arose after WW2?
A significance opportunity arose because of the potential market created by teenagers’ insatiable appetite for novel products and their willingness to embrace anything new. This included products such as miniaturised radios and record players.
What material was being used more in the 1940-50s and what effect did this have?
The rapid development of polymers and related moulding techniques gave designers new opportunities for product ideas that can be seen being adopted later in the output of designers such as Robin Day.
During the 1940-50s, what was the main influence to furniture design?
The influence of Scandinavian design at this time was very significant, so the Lovet table was made in 1956. This table, with simple removeable legs, was revolutionary as it was the first example of furniture that could be dismantled for each of transportation and storage.
What was the significance of Lundgren with furniture during 1940-50s?
Lundgren designed the Lovet table for Ikea and then went on to design the billy bookcase. This revolution in the furniture industry made it possible for consumers to buy reasonably priced, fashionable furniture without worrying about what they will do about replacing it when fashions change. This new approach to furniture offered consumers a more enjoyable and affordable experience and the opportunity to make changes as fashions came and went.
What is a thermionic valve and when was it invented?
It is the invention of the vacuum tube at the beginning of the 20th century that allowed electronics to take off. It could control and amplify the flow of an electric current.
What is the significance of semi-conducting devices?
The invention of the semi-conducting devices was pivotal to the development of the information technology on which we now rely. The discovered that the semi-conducting properties of materials such as silicone could be employed to create electronic switched and amplifiers, and this opened up a new world of miniaturisation that was given a major impetus by the development of integrated circuits in the 1950s.
Who invented semi-conducting devices and when?
William Shockley and his team at Bell Laboratories in the USA
What is one of the biggest major developments in technology?
Microelectronics
What did the developments in integrated circuits lead to?
The miniaturisation that ICs facilitate introduced the term microelectronics, since they made massive reductions to the size of components, circuits and products. This then led to ultra-large-scale-integration and has made it possible for computers and mobile devices to proliferate.
What does it mean by Moore’s Law with regard to microelectronics?
Moore’s Law correctly predicted in 1965 that every year, ICs would contain twice as many transistors as they had the year before. He changed his production in 11975 to a doubling of transistors to every 2 years. This may need to be considered by designers in planning future products, although developments in nanotechnology could become a significant factor.
What have been the impacts of microelectronics on designing and manufacturing techniques?
They have made it possible to incorporate powerful microprocessors ICs in CNC machines.
They have made the computers themselves capable of carrying out, at high speed, the millions of calculations required to manipulating designs in a CAD programme.
What have been the impacts of microelectronics on products?
It has provided the essential components at the heart of a new generation of product that had either never previously exited or had been very inconvenient, bulky and energy intensive.
Also led to the development of wireless communication.
What is glulam?
Glulam is the use of several pieces of timber that are glued together to create strong, composite components for use in buildings, bridges and other structure. It is stringer than using solid timber because the careful choice of laminates enables the natural defects found in timber, such as knots and shakes, to be almost eliminated.
