Streamline 1930-1950
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ST R E A 2
MLINE 3
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Contents 8
Introduction Overview of sections and topics to cover
14 Genesis
When it started
What it evolved from
20 Materials and Elements 24 Men of Streamline
Who were the leading thinkers
Raymond Loewy
Walter Dorwin Teague
Norman Nel Geddes
Gilbert Rohde
36 Key Examples From 1930 - 1950
1930-50 style of tansport
1930-50 style of product
Graphic design
Typography
52 Household Appliances 58 Rounding our Surroundings Influential building design
Interior Desing
70 Design of Today and Tomorrow The Maglev
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New York World Fair Futurama Norman Bel Geddes (1939)
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Introduction 9
The Great Depression (1929)
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America was hit by the great depression during the summer of 1929. The infamous Wall Street Crash, also known as Black Tuesday, was the beginning of the most devastating economic crisis in the entire history of the United States. Stocks had lost 90 percent of their value and jobs were at an all-time low. Customer demand had shrunken to the bare necessities and the future of companies and businesses was looking bleak.
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Manufacturers needed new ways to increase consumerism and so formed an alliance with new modern product designers that created household items that were functional and practical but, unlike the other home appliances of the 1930’s, were also stylish works of art.
People wanted modern appliances in their homes as they represented progress and gave them an optimistic view of the future. Style became equally as important as function and advertisers now had lots to talk about, promoting desirable lifestyles from new designs and giving the consumer the impression that by buying these products they were participating in economic progress.
Heat king fan heater. Designed by Dave Chapman (1948)
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The great depression was still ongoing, but the economic innovations brought in by designers had made products affordable for everyone.
By
using stamping and moulding they had the opportunity to use cheap but efficient materials, such as chrome, aluminium, stainless steel. vinyl, bakelite and plywood. Industrial products began to “receive a Machine Age makeover.� (Steven Heller & Louise Fili – Streamline.)
Lamps, hairdryers and staplers began to be characterised by curvaceous shapes that shouted speed and progress; everything was being designed with an optimistic vision of the future in mind. The Streamline movement had a huge influence on the American architecture of this time, giving birth to vast curvaceous buildings that presented little to no right angles.
Consumers started to embrace the modern day living and styling of their homes with products they may not have needed, but that served as an emotional pick up from the Great Depression.
This book explores the characteristics of Streamline design at its best, the powerful effect that it had on America during the depression and how it still has an effect on modern design today.
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Genesis 15
New York, Chrysler building (1928)
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The Art Deco movement came to light soon after the end of World War I, in a time of rapid urbanisation and industrialisation. The movement began in France and then flourished internationally reaching England and as far as America and India.
Lee Lawrie, Louis Lcart and Adolphe Cassandre were the lead thinkers of the movement and began to use distinctive bright colours, large bold geometric shapes and lavish ornamentation, avoiding any organic or floral figurations from Art Nouveau, the precedent movement. Art Deco was extravagant and flamboyant and gave off an aura of glamour and luxury.
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Although the Streamline movement rebelled against the feminine, natural methodology of Art Nouveau, the two movements still showed similarities; they are both driven by the invention of new technology and they were both incredibly contagious styles, making there way into Graphic design, film, photography, architecture and transport design. The main difference between the two movements was that Streamliners wanted to strip back the exaggerated ornamentation of Art Deco; they felt that the ornamentation was purely aesthetic and had no purpose. American Industrial designers saw art deco as an “effete and falsely modern art movement�.
The difference between Art Deco and Streamline Moderne can be shown with examples of clocks designed from both movements; On the left, the Art Deco designer has used angular shapes to create a brightly coloured static geometric pattern. The clock on the right is dominated by the horizontal lines used commonly in Streamlined Design to express speed. In this case the design contradicts the ethos of Streamlined design that says that ornamentation should have a function as clocks have no need for aerodynamic features.
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Executive office desk by Mauser Werke, Waldeck
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Materials factory. Iran (1933)
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Materials and Elements 21
The streamlining of transport in the 1930‘s made the shipping of materials to the USA more efficient and affordable, allowing American designers to use a range of materials that they wouldn’t usually have had access to. Aluminium, stainless steel, chromium, plywood and vinyl were used to make everyday objects, novelties. Everyone wanted to be a part of the exciting new future that these products symbolized.
One of the most popular materials used in this period was Chromium, also known as Chrome. Chrome is a hard and brittle, silver metal that is used to manufacture stainless steel by hardening it and preventing rust and corrosion. Stainless steel was another popular choice of the streamliner designers as steel was used in creating aerospace structures and large sleek buildings during the Art Deco period. The most common material used in streamline designs is aluminium, a light, silver metal that is vital to the aerospace industry due to its durability and lightness. Products made from aluminium were extremely popular in the 1920’s as they were known to have been made from the same durable material as airplanes and therefore were considered trustworthy.
The materials were used in geometric designs similar to those used in Art Deco, designs that were quick and easy to produce.
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Plastic materials such as Bakelite, Plexiglas, vinyl and polystyrene were all invented in this period and immediately caught the attention of streamline designers. Bakelite was particularly useful in the electrical and automobile industries because of its extraordinary high resistance to heat and electricity. The plastic could be poured into, or injected into, moulds that created rounded corners, creating the sleek and clean appearance that was sought after by streamline designers. The materials were used in geometric designs similar to those used in Art Deco, designs that were quick and easy to produce.
Plastic materials such as Bakelite, Plexiglas, vinyl and polystyrene were all invented in this period and immediately caught the attention of streamline designers. Bakelite was particularly useful in the electrical and automobile industries because of its extraordinary high resistance to heat and electricity. The plastic could be poured into, or injected into, moulds that created rounded corners, creating the sleek and clean appearance that was sought after by streamline designers.
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Men of Streamline
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Leading Thinkers
Raymond Loewy, Walter Dorwin Teague, Norman Bel Geddes and Gilbert Rohde, were the leading creators behind the streamline design movement and built the foundations of its dynamics and aesthetics.
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Raymond Loewy
Gilbert Rohde
Walter Dorwin Teague
Norman Bel Geddes
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Raymond Lowey 1893 -1986
Raymond Loewy was a French-born American industrial designer, known as the father of streamline design. Loewy was responsible for the establishment of industrial design as a profession and his influence extended over 50 years. Loewy was an artist, a business man and an inventor. He began his career as a designer by simplifying household appliances, consequently making them safer, easier to use and more aesthetically pleasing. However, his true passion rested with train design as evidenced by his book, Locomotive, in which he comments on a series of steam engine trains from various parts of the world.
“My youth was charmed by the glamour of the Locomotive. I am still under its spell and in this volume I would rather write about the beauty of the magnificent creature to whom I owe some of my most cherished souvenirs.� Raymond Loewy.
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Loewy’s design of the streamlined, Art Deco styled, S1 locomotive train, at 42.74m was the longest reciprocating locomotive ever made.
In 1945, alongside five other designers, he established the corporation, Loewy Associates, which was soon to become the largest industrial design firm in the world. “Loewy has probably affected the daily life of more americans than any other man of his time�. Cosmopolitan magazine, 1950
Raymond Loewy (1953)
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Walter Dorwin Teague 1883 -1960
Walter Dorwin Teague was an industrial designer, architect, illustrator, graphic designer, writer, and entrepreneur. While Raymond Loewy was known as the “father of Streamline design”, Dorwin was referred to as the ‘Dean of Industrial Design”.
His profession within industrial design began alongside Norman Bel Geddes, Raymond Loewy and Henry Dreyfuss, who, together, founded the ‘The society of industrial design’ in 1914. His work was well known for its traditional concepts despite later evolving to more modernistic values. Throughout America he was recognised as a critical figure in the spread of mid-century Modernism and Streamline Design. One of his most well known designs was the ‘Tiny Baby Brownie’ camera he created for Kodak. Using plastic he managed to warp and mould the camera into a sleek, minimal and stylish shape.
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Brownie Camera Designed by Walter Dorwin Teague (1934) 31
Norman Bel Geddes 1893 - 1958
Norman Bel Geddes’ work mainly focused on aerodynamics and vehicles. Over the years he produced a number of futuristic concepts concerning the designs of trains, ocean liners, airplanes and cars. His ‘teardrop-shaped automobile’ was a prime example of Streamline Design. The unique characteristics of the car not only served as a bold manifestation of Streamline Design but also provided excellent visibility, thanks to its enlarged curves, rounded windshield and arched windows. The vehicle was without doubt a masterpiece of its time. Geddes had great confidence in the Streamline movement, his slogan was ‘I can see the future’.
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Norman Bel Geddes (1937)
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Gilbert Rohde (1940)
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Gilbert Rohde 1894 - 1944
Gilbert Rohde was an industrial designer and marketing adviser for important companies like the Heywood-Wakefield Company, the Widdicomb Company, and the Troy Sunshade Company, the most influential businesses of their time. Rohde was considered to be more of an engineer than an artist, using a thought process as a means to produce his work instead of visuals and pre fabricated ideas. When fusing tradition with innovation he created entirely original designs. He experimented with different materials and styles to create a wide variety of chair designs, which resulted in huge interest and popularity.
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Key Examples From
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BMW ‘R7’ prototype (1934)
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Graphic Design
By the late 1930s, Streamline design had become so popular that it had developed its own modernistic style in Graphic Design.
The access to colour printers gave graphic designers new ways to change their tired, old fashioned looking advertisements, increasing visibility and giving product packaging a greater function by radiating an aura of excitement. Ziggurats and lightning bolts, borrowed from the Art Deco movement, were streamlined into icons and colour palettes were simple yet eye catching, using yellows, reds and oranges against grey tones. Posters were being characterised by symmetrical and curvaceous shapes accompanied by a contrasting mixture of flourished scripts and bold, condensed typefaces.
This particular style of Graphic Design was used in posters promoting streamlined trains or in advertisements for aluminium, brass and magnesium suppliers. Minimalistic horizontal lines were used to express speed whilst trains were depicted in huge disproportion to their surroundings, emphasising the growing demand for these particular materials.
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Memories of the furture. Designed by Arthur RadeboughBOHN (1947)
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Huxley The Huxley Vertical font was designed by the American typographer, Walter Huxley, for the American Type Founders. The font has no hard angles but smooth rounded tips. The long straight lines resemble those of the body of an aircraft of a train.
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Transport
The Streamline movement was born after aerodynamic studies proved that, by adopting a teardrop shape, means of transportation were able to reduce resistance from water and wind, enabling them to move more effortlessly. Streamline Design has been vital in the development of aeroplanes, which are Streamlined to reduce drag, the aerodynamic force that opposes an aircraft’s motion through the air, to minimise noiseemissions and to increase their stability.
The First major Aeroplane was named the Douglas DST which took its first flight in 1935. Built in Southern California by the Douglas Aircraft Company, the plane was built for military purposes and flew Allied soldiers and supplies into combat. Its range, power and speed revolutionised air transport in the 1930s and 1940s. It was eventually sold to American Air Lines in Chicago and was approved for national flights, transporting people across America day and night.
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American DST Airplane (1935)
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Zephyr Logo (1934) The first ever streamlined train to ride the tracks was called the Burlington Zephyr, also known as the Silver Streak. Built in 1934, it travelled from Denver to Chicago in less than 14 hours, making it twice as fast as other, regular trains. The exterior of the locomotive was smoothened down by covering up any protrusions with stainless steel, creating less resistance to water and wind.
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 Burlington Zephyr Train (1934)
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A good example of streamlining in locomotives is the Duchess of Hamilton, which was built in Britain in 1938 where it was then exported to the United States for a 3,000 mile tour. This steam locomotive shows the key characteristics of streamline modern such as long horizontal lines which are painted onto the streamlining plates. It also shows the tear drop shape at the front of the train which breaks through the air cleanly reducing drag through its aerodynamic properties. The use of curved lines instead of harsh angles in the body work helps reduce the turbulence of the air passing over them which reduces the drag factor.
The Duchess of Hamilton then returned in 1942 after its tour and visit to the 1939 New York World’s Fair. The streamlining was removed from the fitted locomotives from 1946 onwards. It had been found to be of little value at speeds below 90mph and was unpopular with running shed employees as it caused difficulty of access to maintenance staff.  In 2009 they re-streamlined it so it could be displayed at the national railway museum in York.
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Duchess of Hamilton Built by Central New England Railway (1938)
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It didn’t take long for the idea to be repeated and, within ten years, the style had travelled to England, Germany, France, Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark, Canada, Japan and China. The streamline idea then went on to radically change the shape of cars. The Hupmobile, designed by Raymond Loewy in 1932,
Loewy was not able to convince his management of the success that the car would attain and had to fund the making of the vehicle himself, spending over twenty thousand dollars. His gamble payed off, as the Hupmobile won first prize at all of the car shows in which it was entered- Norman Bel Geddes’ automobile designs focused more on the aim of transporting as many people as possible, the model below was named Car no.8, a design that would have seated up to 8 people.
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Hupmobile by Loewy.R (1930)
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The model, created in 1933, featured six wheels, large windows, no tail fin and a flattened underside. Ironically, there were issues with the aerodynamics of the vehicle concerning the flow pattern around the back and underside which would cause a drag effect, slowing it down, reducing it’s potential speed.
Bel Geddes later incorporated key features from airplane designs to his Streamlined car, allowing better airflow and aerodynamics.
A tail fin was added, which would slice through the air, cutting friction and two more front wheels were built into the front of the car to level out the weight. The car was wrapped in chrome, to make it look even more similar to an aeroplane. Although the models were never realised, they inspired later streamlined designs; the ‘fishtail’ bottom started to appear on various cars in the mid 1940′s.
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Image caption goes here
Motor Car No.9 Designed by Norman Bel Geddes (1933) 51
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Household Appliances 53
Zephyr fan. Designed by Robert Davit Budlong (1936)
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Appliances
The streamline movement was becoming a symbol of progression and started to influence industrial designers making household products. The notion was that these new streamlined appliances would make housework easier and less time consuming, as well as giving people a chance to fight the depression through the act of consuming.
As the movement took off, designers started to streamline everything and anything they could get their hands on, from irons to staplers to underwear Vintage streamlined products can be found in the Museum of Design in Plastics, at the Arts University in Bournemouth.
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Morpyh Richards Electric Iorn Arts University Bournemouth, MODIP Photography by Etty Flynn
This Morphy Richards electric iron is a perfect example of how the design of a household product can be inspired by the architecture of a train.
The teardrop shape of the metal is identical to that of a locomotive. It’s easy to imagine how the consumer would have been seduced by the idea that the teardrop shape would have made their housework swift and more time effective.
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Salter Kitchen Scale Arts University Bournemouth, MODIP Photography by Etty Flynn
These Salter kitchen scales were made towards the end of the streamline movement, in 1950, but still ooze an aura of excitement for progression; The plastic container sat on top of the scales is a literal interpretation of the famous teardrop, but in this case the shape is logical, making it easier to pour the content being measured into the next container. The scales wouldn’t express optimism so effectively without their phosphorescent yellow body, complete with slanted edges, resembling those of a train’s engine.
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Rounding our Surroundings
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Interior Design
Before Streamline spread onto interior design of homes and furniture in the late 1930’s, the average American interior design mainly adopted sharp angles, servilely lacking elegance. The design transition, towards Streamline, modernized the homes of the upper and middle classes and established a design consistency within homes, offices and industrial products- a look that became a symbol of American modernity.
During the 30’s it became more expensive to purchase homes because dining rooms that were used only three times a day meant rise in property prices due to an extra room in the house, leaving many average Americans reluctant to invest in property or in modernizing interiors. However, the evolution of design continued. The ideas of, Streamline pioneer, Donald Deskey for the interiors of deluxe dining rooms stretched out beyond the confines of city apartments and led the way in innovative domestic arrangement design, open plan living.
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Auditorium. New School for Social Research New York City (1930)
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Deskeys streamlined styling eliminated the dining room and it encouraged interest in apartment and interior refurbishment. As the fashion developed and grew, many avertage Americans began to invest in these designed interiors for the sake of having spacious modern apartments and rooms, for a cheaper price.
Interior Design by Deskey for socialite Eleanor Hutton Rand set a trend which encouraged appearance conscious families into similarly Streamlined homes. The luxuries of having open plan living expanding from the confines of the living room suddenly made homes modern, cool and spacious - propelling Rand’s living room design into the 30’s mainstream.
Highly durable linoleum flooring with double lines stretch across the room whilst complementary furniture evoke the elegant yet informal lifestyle concept of the modern apartment. It illustrates Deskeys fascination for Streamlined shapes and new materials.
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Donald Deskey Living ..room designs (1934)
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Living room at Raymond Lowey’s pent house (1934)
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Another example of an Streamlined interior design is Lowey’s living room in Lowey’s Penthouse, which transformed the ‘conventional’ box room via Streamline into open plan living room, living and dining room combined.
The decorated fireplace mantel was rectangular on the left and rounded on the right and above it a circular mirror replaced the traditional rectangular mirror which neighbored a vase-shaped sconce. Low line furniture following the lines of the fireplace mantel allowed a Streamlined characteristic to be achieved.
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Architecture Design
Streamline Design’s influence on the architecture of the 1930‘s was inevitable and architects soon began to design buildings with rounded edges and cornered windows that gradually started to resemble streamlined ships.
Streamlined buildings wore subdued, light, earthy tones, beiges and bright metals, which contrasted with the Art Decoesque features that were usually painted dark shades of blue or grey. Notable examples include The Daily Express Building in Manchester, built in 1939 and designed by the modernist architect Owen Williams. Williams used rounded edges and large amounts of curved glass to streamline his designs. The black, silver and azure are used to smoothen out the exterior and as a whole, although static, the building gives off an aura of movement and speed.
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Daily Express Building. Designed by Sir Owen Williams (1939)
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The art deco style Odeon at Kingstanding (1935)
The Odeon streamlined cinema was designed by Harry Weedon and Cecil Clavering and commissioned by Oscar Deutsh in 1924. The cinema was built between 1935-36 and presents all of the streamlined characteristics including a nautical theme with rounded walls, rounded glass and small windows.
The design of the Odeon Cinema became a template for Streamline Architects including those in England.
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Coca-Cola building. Designed by Robert V. Derrah in Los Angeles (1939)
The Coca-Cola building, designed by Robert V. Derrah in Los Angeles, 1939, is the most ship-like building to have been designed in this period. The coca-cola bottling plant is complete with portholes, a catwalk and a bridge connecting it to five existing industrial buildings that surrounded it at the time it was built. The painted on black and red strips at the bottom of the building resemble those of the hull of a ship, making the building look like it has sunken into the pavement, as if the pavement were the sea.
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Maglev
As mentioned previously, the Streamline movement has contributed enormously to modern design. Aerodynamics, modernism and efficiency still take priority in the foundations of contemporary design and the teardrop, or bullet shape, has now become a common feature within transport and household appliances.
Today ’s trains still adopt the shape that characterized the Streamlined trains of the 1920’s; Vanja Valencak’s Maglev train, for example, which runs on electromagnets allowing us to travel at more than 300 miles per hour, is almost a caricature of one of Raymond Loewy ’s Streamlined locomotives. Whilst Loewy tried to hide the engines and inner workings of his trains with bullet shaped exteriors, the Maglev doesn’t even have an engine, emitting zero pollution.
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The concepts used in the design of the train have even been applied to space travel, an idea that was regularly mentioned in Sci-Fi literature during the height of the Streamline movement. It is as if the designers of today take inspiration, not only from the 1920‘s Streamliners’ work, but also from their futuristic dreams.
Maglev, Bullet train (2008)
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Furniture Design
It is evident that industrial designers incorporated a futuristic and aerodynamic appearance into the style of products for the home and office. Executive chair design by Mauser in Germany 1939 features a smooth table top and, just, two rounded legs decorated with elongated lines, resembling shape of a Streamlined ocean liner. Taking this example, we may notice that contemporary furniture shares a full breath of Streamline.
ICON desk by Arco/ Michele, it is simple, rounded, smooth and takes the form of a teardrop. The ICON desk’s appearance also stems from 1950’s Cadillac car designs characterized by the long arrow shape tails which epitomized the classic style of the US automobile from the 30’s to the 50’s. Michele’s design approach was to give the ICON Desk a hovering, futuristic, appearance that pretended the desk was a vehicle in itself, like a hover craft.
Efficiency being a major factor of Streamline, Michele designed the ICON desk to tackle ergonomic problems that restrict speed of work whilst also appearing elegant and cool. The width of the table and units eliminated wires from the surface to provide optimum space and thus, it was believed, reduce clutter and provide an efficient workspace. Because of the influence of efficiency, via Streamline, the majority of contemporary office desks are designed to be less dramatic in form- and economic.
It could be speculated that modern day furniture not only takes inspiration from the forms of Streamline but crucially from it’s focus on efficiency also.
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Executive office desk by Mauser Werke, Waldeck
ICON Desk Designed by Michele. A (2011)
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Performance Wear
Characteristics of the 30’s movement
not only inspire
architecture, commercial products and travel, but also appear to have influenced developments in contemporary clothing fashions e.g. sports apparel and day wear. Examples like the LZR Racer suit by Speedo, (2008) and the Light Suits costume design of TRON Legacy sci-fi film (2010) evidence continued interests in Streamline.
Whilst streamline ideas have been influential in changing the appearance and function of sports gear, futuristic costume design in film has created a demand in high street fashion for smooth air tight clothing.
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“I felt like a rocket wearing the suit” Michael Phelps
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The LZR Racer swim suit by Speedo is notable for it’s futuristic, Avant Garde appearance and crucially it’s Streamline/ aerodynamic performance characteristics from strategically placed patches that reduce drag and an elastic suit material which provides an air tight fit. The suit was checked in wind test facilities at NASA and was released in 2008 for the Beijing Olympics. The advantages provided by the suit resulted in it’s wearers winning Gold medals and setting new world records regularly. Just like any performance enhancing drug, this performance enhancing suit was later banned from the Olympic Games. It was too well designed.
The suit was later dubbed ‘the rubber suit’ because it provided a ‘rubber skin’ that repels water on contact with the surface of the suit increasing the Streamline effect, function & form of the swimmer- allowing him to travel more efficiently and faster. The technological advancements of the Streamlined suits are still in use in other sports to provide increased performance, such as in cycling for heavy, windy, conditions and on football jerseys for less tug and pull.
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TRON Legacy, 2010. A Streamline influenced film about a synthesised world and concept of the future. Outfits used in the film went on to inspire leading fashion brand Versace to release a clothing range that takes the Streamline light suit fashion approach – giving high street fashion a new genre of clothing.
For the synthesised world, the light suits, powered by lithium batteries, are cut very close to the body giving them an industrial look. Even though the costumes were produced for a film, the idea of air tight Streamlined fashion draws from the smooth surface and line work found in Streamline architecture and travel, which later also inspired Versace and high street fashion.
It is clear that Streamline fashion is here to stay because it gives a futuristic look, reveals the curvature lines of the body and ultimately makes an outfit look sleek and attractive. Skinny Jeans, laceless shoes, slim ties, and discrete cuff links- the Streamline fashion of today.
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Light suits. TROM legacy (2010)
Versace – TRON inspired fashion show (2010) TRON Legacy, 2010 – Light suits
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Apple IPhone 5s Range (2013)
Apple IPhone 5s Range (2013)
Apple iPhone 5s The Apple iPhone 5S could be an example of modern day Streamlining. The curved edges and use of aluminium in its construction are classic characteristics of the Streamline movement, especially in its later stages when static objects were being given the same aerodynamic characteristics as those designed as means of transport. The design is persuasive, provocative and futuristic; again reflecting the synthesis and ethos of Streamline design while meeting industrial aims to increase consumerism.
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Streamline Timeline by Nicholas Smith, 2014
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Conclusion
As shown in previous chapters, the Streamline movement began after the discovery that, by adopting a teardrop shape, a means of transportation shows less resistance to water and wind, enabling it to move more rapidly than otherwise. It’s astonishing to think of how such a discovery can affect such a vast number of Design genres; Product Design, Graphic Design, Interior Design, Architecture and Fashion all began to mimic the shapes of trains, boats and aeroplanes. Streamline Design is not just a critical movement in the History of Design, but is also a reminder that, no matter how severely an economy can crash, there is always hope for recovery and progress.
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"New Streamlined Appearance of New Lambretta Li Series 1 taken from the 22 January 1959 issue of The Motor Cycle Magazine"
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MOD 88
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