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Michael Cannell, a designer writer and founder of "The Design Vote," dissects the state of American design, and possibilities rent by austerity during the Depression (then) and the not-Depression (now) in a New York Times piece, "Design Loves A Depression."
We have only good things to look forward to in American design, if history is a guide - if only we will accept the fact that this is a new Depression. Mr. Cannell very adroitly sums up some of the more preposterous seating arrangements of the old prosperity. Vis a vis "The Design Vote," populism=Depression=patriotism. Perhaps the government can start issuing books of stamps for the purchase of elegant folding bicycles and contemporary pendant lighting.
People love a party, and parties love a brawl. Murray Moss, a Manhattan shopkeeper whose shop, Moss, has for many years meant to be a self-appointed Mecca for all things well-designed, responds to Mr. Cannell in a post on Design Observer, "Design Hates A Depression." Note the D word again. The items Mr. Moss is getting bothered about are, of course, for sale in his shop.
Full disclosure: I was once asked by a Moss shop assistant - you can tell by the improbably expensive clothing - to stop taking notes in the shop while I was looking at the tchochkes and recording my thoughts for an article in the New York Times. He had no idea I was a reporter. On whose authority was I prohibited from making notes while walking through the shop? It was Mr. Moss's policy, the assistant told me.
"We have a 'no-note-taking' policy," he said. The fear, a publicist for Mr. Moss explained in a follow-up call on 'the policy,' was shopkeepers' espionage, not reporters. God bless.
In a stone thrown from across the puddle, architecture and design critic Stephen Bayley addresses design and challenge in The Observer. The great economic collapse will take place in an Italian bakery in Soho, like a feathery chocolate souffle cake falling. Pudding!
The recession will actually be a repression, typically of the English.
Thank you for listening, ma'am.
1 comments:
This past September, on our honeymoon, we stayed in the beautiful Indian Lodge, Davis Mountains State Park, TX. It's a depression-era hostelry whose buildings, grounds, and furniture were designed and built by civilian members of FDR's CCC work crew. The authentic beauty of it is stunning-- and proof for me that embracing the truth (and limitations) of the times produces design that lasts.
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