g upward" - Raymond Loewy
Loewy understood that in such depressing times, consumers had to be motivated to make a purely discretionary purchase and this motivation needed to not only alleviate the pains of the grinding Depression of the moment but make her feel she was making an investment in a better future. Gone were the straight lines and functionalist ideals of Modernism and it was replaced with sensuous futuristic curves that signified prosperity, growth and a way of living previously unknown. Why does a toaster need to be aerodynamic and streamlined? Well if it is from the future it does.
Starting in the 1930s and continuing through the 40s, Loewy designed many iconic products that painted a vision of the future to American consumers. Among the iconic designs were the Pennsylvania Railroad S1 locomotive and the Sears Coldspot refrigerator. The Coldspot refrigerator not only introduced the trademark aerodynamic styling associated with Loewy into the kitchen, but also introduced practical innovations that improved the product’s serviceability and maintenance. In the year of its launch, Coldspot sales soared 300 percent. A beautiful sales curve Loewy undoubtedly approved of.
By the time the 1950s came around, American Industrial Design had entered its peak. The post-War boom years released a wave of pent-up consumption and for designers there were previously unparalleled opportunities to design and create products that not just catered to niche markets and well-to-do clientele but a new mass market that wanted, and more importantly, could afford luxury. The term 'populuxe' is sometimes used to describe popular American Industrial Design in the 1950s represented by the Herman Miller ball clock. The term simultaneously conveyed the ideas of popular luxury or luxury for all as a precursor to affordable luxury movement of today.
American Industrial Design did not just break with Modernism in that form did not follow function and in the use of synthetic plastics or colors. Instead it represented a refined aesthetic where the things you have did not "just" let you live well but instead, the things you have allow you to live in a way that you have never lived before.
At the height of Modernism and the American Industrial Design movement, Jay Doblin (the influential mid-century designer who went on to start the design consultancy Doblin, that is today a part of Deloitte) asked, "How do we make it more human"? Postmodernism in industrial design tried to fight back against the pervasive influence of functionalism by introducing elements of wit, irony and whimsical in everyday objects.
The cold lines of Modernism may have been futuristic but did not ultimately satisfy the very human interest in the grand, the humorous, the graphic and the disgusting.
The desire to make something that was more human is what probably drove Michael Graves to design the iconic 9093 kettle (popularly known as the ‘Alessi Kettle’) in 1985. It retained many of the clean lines and stainless steel outfittings of Modernist design but the flourish of blue and the addition of the bird on the spout which whistles when the water boils, clearly break with Modernist functionalism and were key to establishing the kettle as a postmodern design icon.
As Postmodernist principles have percolated through art, architecture, fashion and literature, it can be seen in retrospect as the approach that reinvigorated the dying idea of desire in consumption. An object of desire is not in demand just for its functionality. Nobody wants a Craig Green Moncler coat because it is any warmer than a down parka. Yet, the reductive approach of Modernism to distill everything to nothing but the essentials meant that consumer products needed a new language to communicate value that was more than purely functional. Postmodernism is that language.
Yet, the philosophy of Postmodernism and the relativistic interpretations it spawns has led to criticism from various quarters including from the very designers, architects and writers it was meant to help by liberating them from functionalist s