 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 straightjackets. The architecture critic Martin Filler notes that “Postmodernism came nowhere close in quality to Modernism at its apogee, not least because that later style wholly lacked the social impetus that animated the designs most emblematic of the Modern Movement.”. The primary criticism of Postmodernism stems from its apparent vacuousness and lack of a coherent underpinning principle. In some ways, anything could be called Postmodern.
“This is the postmodern desert inhabited by people who are, in effect, consuming themselves in the form of images and abstractions through which their desires, sense of identity, and memories are replicated and then sold back to them as products” - Larry McCaffrey
But beyond criticism of its social impact and lack of apparent cohesion lies a more fundamental criticism of Postmodernism. If Classical Victorian design prioritized ornamentation over practicality, Modernism reduced form to its core functional elements and Postmodernism elevates style to the same level as functionality, can a distinctive new style ever truly emerge in the future? Is Postmodernism the twilight zone for the evolution of design where form and functionality have converged to enable multiple interpretations? And in the myriad abstract shapes and forms of Postmodernism can everything said to be Postmodern thus negating the philosophical foundation of any future trend? It will take a true design icon to emerge from the philosophical vortex of Postmodernism and assert a new path.