Bauhaus Design

History

1.       Established by Walter Gropius in Weimar in 1919. The school functioned until 1933 before it shifted to other cities due to war and politics.

2.       Gropius in 1923, mentioned that he wanted an art form that adapts to the world of machines, radio and cars.  He created a form of design that will unite arts and craft to produce stylish and functional.

Influences

1.       English designer William Morries - art should meet the need and demand of a society and there should be no difference between form and function.

2.       Modernism – incorporation of abstract and new ideas that are current

Style

1.       Logical and functional.

2.       Minimal and cuts through clutter.

3.       Designed with the idea of mass production in mind.

Design elements

1.       Excellent use of lines and shape as the design should be simple yet practical

2.       Geometric shapes such as squares and rounds dominates the Bauhaus design over natural shapes such the curve of branches and leaves.

3.       Color - It seems that Bauhaus prefer to use 1 color for one part or one object. Little to no gradients.

4.        Texture – Very little attention paid to texture other than smooth texture. It would be trickier for mass production to ensure a consistent texture to the designs if its not a smooth like surface.

Principles of design

1.       Proportion – Bauhaus manipulates proportion to gather attention at certain parts of the design.

2.       Unity – Unity is quite an important principle of design as the whole design need to look like it belongs to one entity

3.       Closure – the unique thing about Bauhaus is a lot of design manipulates closure with spaces and gaps in design.

Familiar example would be the iPhone

Buttons are clutter and so they opted for a touchscreen 

Minimal design, one button at the front, round edges, classic example of bauhaus.

Bluetooth design, one piece design with no clips or external wiring and even has a charging dock that you can fit into like a stone. Again, a minimal roundish design with smooth edges.

Bauhaus artwork similiarities

1.Geometry shapes and overlaps or shapes
2. Solid colours (no gradients)

Reference for principles and elements of design

http://www.getty.edu/education/teachers/building_lessons/formal_analysis.html

http://www.digital-web.com/articles/principles_of_design/

Reference for Bauhaus history

http://designhistory.org/Bauhaus3.html

Images obtained from Google Image search and are not created by me.

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