Final Exam

Question 1

What method will we use when studying design history?

Answer 1

We will consider links between objects and their context of creation: the morals, values, political structures, belief paradigms, economic conditions and technical advances of specific times and places

Question 2

What can today’s designers learn by studying the history of design?

Answer 2

• This study teaches students to make links between critical reflection, contextual sensitivity and creativity innovation in order to create a platform for thoughtful, future-oriented design work.
• This study prepares designers in the development of specific design skills, such as: interdisciplinary problem definition; creative, contextualized problem solving.
• Studying the history of design provides experience in gathering precedent studies from a variety of sources

Question 3

In ancient China, during the reign of Qin Shi Huang (221-209 BCE), there are several pieces of evidence in material culture that point to the existence of an exemplary and forward thinking design method. One of these is the directive given to the Qin’s army to standardize their bows and arrows - rather than have each archer with his own design - to facilitate the ready supply of weapons usable by all. Which of the following example demonstrates the same attitude to standardization in Chinese design at this time?

Answer 3

Using standardized moulds, government labourers mass-produced thousands of clay legs torsos, arms, fingers, and head, to be fired and assembled and installed in the tomb of Qin Shi Huang as his army in the afterlife.

Question 4

What impact did Egyptian cultural beliefs and funerary practices have on the production of material goods?

Answer 4

Ancient Egyptian belief in everlasting afterlife not only ensured the preservation of material culture, but also ensured the appreciation of high quality and long lasting craft techniques.

Question 5

Ancient Egyptian furniture demonstrates which technical and material qualities?

Answer 5

• the application of wood veneer and symbolic decorative elements
• advanced carpentry techniques such as the use of mortise and tenon joints
• access to a diverse selection of woodworking tools, including the bow drill

Question 6

By the Classical Period (c.480-400 BCE), ancient Greek artisans had developed the ceramics industry to a high level and a number of city-states were known for their pottery production. What was the function of these items?

Answer 6

Painted vases were made in specific shapes for specific daily uses and for special, often ritual occasions

Question 7

Which part of the kiln firing process had the result of blackening specially-treated areas of ceramic pots?

Answer 7

The second stage, when an oxygen-poor and carbon-rich environment is created

Question 8

What raw material used in the manufacture of ceramics might have had limited availability and thus could have

Answer 8

The large amounts of wood needed to fire the kilns, which may have led to local de-forestation

Question 9

Renaissance Scholar coined the term “Middle Ages” because:

Answer 9

Renaissance scholars saw them as a long barbaric period separating them from the great civilizations of Rome and Greece

Question 10

The Roman Banquet was not merely a meal. What other functions did it serve?

Answer 10

It was also a calculated spectacle of display that was intended to demonstrate the host’s wealth, status, and sophistication to his guests.

Question 11

How did German-born cabinet-maker Michael Thonet exemplify manufacturing expansion and the use of new materials for furniture in the early 19th century?

Answer 11

Thonet used a process of steaming beech wood rods into curved shapes to be used for a variety of lightweight, bentwood furniture pieces.

Question 12

Why was papier-mâché used for furniture in the first half of the 19th century?

Answer 12

Broad surfaces of papier-mâché made with wood pulp baked and hardened – would not warp or check in the same manner as wood, so it was a good substrate for fragile decorative surface treatments such as lacquer.

Question 13

Similar to the expansion of manufacturing in the early to mid-19th century, visual communication systems via the printed page were rapidly expanding at this time. How did this affect the urban landscape?

Answer 13

Without civic controls, large-scale advertising posters quickly covered all surfaces in large cities, turning the city into a screen for print communication

Question 14

In the early 1800s, the ‘American System’ of manufacturing was of great interest for British and European industrialist. Why?

Answer 14

It featured extensive use of interchangeable parts and extensive use of mechanization to produce those parts, and resulted in more efficient use of labour when compared to hand methods of manufacturing

Question 15

Adam Smiths “rational approach to production was described by which example?

Answer 15

The pin factory

Question 16

Who was A.W.N. (Augustus Welby Northmore) Pugin?

Answer 16

A British architect, designer and author, Pugin was one of the strongest advocates for standards or principles of design.

Question 17

Pugin wrote convincingly about the need to reform design by clarifying aesthetic guidelines for the public good. What principle(s) did he promote?

Answer 17

• There should be no features about a building that which are not necessary for convenience, construction or property.
• All adornment should enrich the essential construction of the building.
• Observe the propriety of material; even the construction may vary with the
material employed

Question 18

Despite the well-documented critical complaints about the quality of product design and decoration exhibited at The Great Exhibition in London, 1851, the masses of visitors to the event loved what they saw. What can we learn from this apparent contradiction?

Answer 18

This was a watershed event for design in that it emphatically confirmed the reality of heterogeneous middle-class consumer who associated designed commodities with ideas of progress, abundance, individual identity, and social transformation

Question 19

With his 1856 richly illustrated chromolithography publication ‘ The Grammar of Ornament’, Owen Jones created an extensive resource for mass-produced decoration. What sources did he use for his illustrations?

Answer 19

Non-industrial sources from a broad selection of exotic cultures

Question 20

John Ruskin was…?

Answer 20

A Social Critic who condemned capitalistic industrialism

Question 21

1925 Paris World’s Fair – the Exposition des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels – was intended to showcase objects, rooms and interior design in a new, post-World War I style that came to be known as Art Deco. Which characteristics did this show exemplify?

Answer 21

Exhibits featured decorated surfaces, sharply angled and cubistic forms, and the use of exotic veneers, aluminum, black lacquer, and glass

Question 22

Can Art Deco properly be called a unified style?

Answer 22

No, because the style is characterized by a synthesis of industrial and fine arts materials used to create a wide variety of both hand-crafted and mass-produced objects, often with an emphasis on rectilinear motifs, vibrant colors, and elegant, abstracted simplified forms.

Question 23

What did the French modern architect Le Corbusier contribute to the Exposition des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels in Paris, 1925?

Answer 23

Pavilion l’Espirit Nouveau, a model housing unit showing a sparse interior of a modern home that he called ‘the machine for living in.’

Question 24

The Wassily Chair was designed by a Professor at the Bauhaus and was conceived when the designer was riding his bicycle – who was the designer?

Answer 24

Marcel Breuer

Question 25

In 1929 in France, a group of designers including Le Corbusier broke with the dominant S.A.D. (Societé des artistes décorateurs) and formed their own design organization known as the Union des Artistes Modernes (U.A.M.). What qualities did this new French group support?

Answer 25

They were interested in assembled rather than crafted furniture, involving experimentation with industrial materials motivated by social concerns rather than individual expression.

Question 26

Working under the leadership of Frank Pick, what change did Henry Beck make to the map of London Underground in the 1930s?

Answer 26

• Rather than represent the plan geographically, he devised a new diagrammatic means of representations.
• Basing his map on an electrical circuit, Beck represented each line in a different colour and interchange stations as diamonds.
• The crowded central area was enlarged for legibility and the course of each route was simplified into the form of a vertical, horizontal or diagonal line.

Question 27

Which designer was a well-known proponent of Scandinavian Modern design style – characterized by functional simplicity, but using natural woods, finishes, and fabrics in a craft tradition giving it a sense of warmth lacking in Bauhaus- inspired modernism.

Answer 27

Alvar Aalto

Question 28

In the late 1920s and early 1930s early Industrial Designers – such as Raymond Lowey and Walter Dorwin Teague – spoke to their clients not so much about aesthetic goals but about strictly commercial goals. They presented the idea that new design forms and materials could lead to improved sales. Which statement best describes the visual characteristic of their early work?

Answer 28

A blend of Art Deco ornamentation with the slick forms of streamlining.

Question 29

The Schroder House in Utrecht Holland was designed in the “De Stijl” manner and had sliding panels that allowed the interior to be changed as required. Who design the home?

Answer 29

Gerrit Reitveld

Question 30

Before launching their careers in Industrial Design, what formal training was shared by many of the ‘first generation’ of American Industrial Designers (such as Walter Dorwin Teague, Norman Bel Geddes, and Henry Dryfuss)?

Answer 30

Fine Arts, Commercial Graphics and Advertising

Question 31

Which one of the ‘first generation’ industrial designers started his career a stage set designer and then later was responsible for the ‘Futurama’ exhibit that presented a miniature world of tomorrow – called ‘Democracity’ – at the 1939 World’s Fair?

Answer 31

Norman Bel Geddes

Question 32

How did Walter Dorwin Teagues’s design for Bantam Special camera for the Eastman Kodak Co. (1936) demonstrate a desire for balance between novelty and functional improvement

Answer 32

The Shell of the product is unified with stacked horizontal ribs in contrasting silver against a black lacquer body, thus providing a styling detail that both enhanced the modern effect and helped to reduce cracking.

Question 33

Raymond Loewy designed many many products and vehicles which included:

Answer 33

• The Lucky Strike Cigarette logo
• The Studebaker Avanti
• The Pennsylvania Railroad’s S1 Steam Locomotive

Question 34

What term refers to a process of forming that involves the contouring of objects into rounded, smoothly finished and often teardrop-shaped aerodynamic forms so as to reduce drag or resistance to motion through air? While initially used to improve transit speed, by the 1930s industrial designers were using this “style” to help sell products.

Answer 34

Streamling

Question 35

How did the 1939 New York World’s Fair influence the design for the decade to come?

Answer 35

• The Fair provided opportunity for industrial designers to extend the range of their practice beyond products and appliances, to present a unified concept for the future in which design transformed and improved upon the conditions of everyday life.
• The Fair’s “trylon and perisphere” motif signaled the aesthetic style of the time that favoured regular geometry and smooth surfaces.
• Norman Bel Geddes’s “Futurama” exhibit showed suburbs connected to city by networks of multi-lane highways, and automobiles defining the patterns of modern living.

Question 36

Walter Teague’s design for the Boeing 707 focused on

Answer 36

Indirect lighting and curved molded surfaces to produce a calming effect

Question 37

In 1941-42, Charles and Ray Eames developed a product for the US Navy that allowed them to experiment with a specific material. After the War they were able to apply this material knowledge to designs for furniture. What was the earlier product?

Answer 37

Molded plywood splints

Question 38

What is the name of the structural material consisting of sheets of wood- usually in odd numbers- glued together with the grains of adjacent layers arranged at right angles?

Answer 38

Plywood

Question 39

What is the noteworthy manufacturing aspect of Eero Saarinen’s Womb Chair (1947; Mfr: Knoll)?

Answer 39

It was the first chair with a plastic shell produced in large quantities; shell is molded fiberglass, covered in latex-foam padding and loose seat and back cushions.

Question 40

Earl Tupper invented a new pliable plastic called Poly-T in 1942, manufactured by DuPont and other chemical companies as part of the war effort in America. In 1947, he began to market Tupperware, a line of flexible plastic storage and serving containers with self-sealing airtight lids to prevent spilling and preserve freshness. Beyond material and design innovation, how did Tupper contribute to modern design in the marketplace?

Answer 40

After 1951, Tupperware was available exclusively through catalogues supplied at neighbourhood home parties, thus creating strong community links between buyers and users. This merchandising method reduced the resistance to industrial materials being used in the home

Question 41

One of Henry Dreyfuss’s post-war industrial design ‘classics’ is the round, wall-mounted thermostat that he designed for the Honeywell Corporation. Given that Honeywell already dominated the market for square-shaped products of this type, what aspect made their support for the new round design significant?

Answer 41

It required that the company invest heavily in product development. The round housing concept necessitated significant engineering invention to ensure that the thermostat workings would fit. Following that investment, however, the new product was cheaper to manufacture.

Question 42

As exemplified by Charles and Ray Eames’s “Eames storage Unit (ESU),” 1950, manufactured by Herman Miller Co, what was another feature of postware modern design in furniture manufacturing?

Answer 42

Modularity

Question 43

What aspect of post-war design language is shown by Eero Saarinen’s “Tulip Chair” for Knowll (mfr. 1956)?

Answer 43

Designers’ interest in the organic possibilities of modern industrial materials.

Question 44

One of the key aspects of Henry Dreyfuss’ design practice was:

Answer 44

Measurement and research to contribute to encourage safety and reduce users fatigue

Question 45

Prior to being rebranded the “Styling Department.”, Harley Earl ran a department called:

Answer 45

Art and Colour

Question 46

The “tailfin” was first introduced by Harley Early on this model:

Answer 46

The 1948 Cadillac

Question 47

“Good Design” formed the basis of policy and identity for Corporations such as:

Answer 47

Braun and IBM

Question 48

The term ‘planned obsolescence’ was coined by the Milwaukee-based industrial designer Brooks Stevens (1911-1995). What is the best description of this term?

Answer 48

Planned obsolescence describes the calculated efforts of manufacturers to generate demand with a seemingly unending supply of ‘new’ products. This term acknowledges the connection between design, consumer desire, and continuous novelty.

Question 49

What qualities make Verner Panton’s Chair (shape designed 1960; manufactured 1967) especially significant in the history of modern furniture?

Answer 49

It is significant because it was conceived as the first chair to be made entirely as a single piece.

Question 50

The American Industrial Designer Brooks Stevens was a defender of:

Answer 50

Planned obsolescence