The notion of design is seen as an autonomous process intimately associated to the Industrial Revolution, Modernism, mass production and consumerism. According to this notion design means the creation of objects with a view to mass reproduction.

The notion of design is seen as an autonomous process intimately associated to the Industrial Revolution, Modernism, mass production and consumerism. According to this notion design means the creation of objects with a view to mass reproduction.

This notion implies the separation between the artist and the designer. Contemporary artists want to please themselves rather than having to take commissions and also they feel that they do not have to be in tune with the values widely accepted in society. By contrast designers feel that they have to please other people and thus have to be in tune with society in general also taking into account methods and production costs. As opposed to artists, the careers of designers would be more conservative in particular due to the fact that they have to satisfy their client and the public in general. Innovation is always limited and personal recognition is achieved through an immediate identification of a particular style.

Since we live in a post-industrial transitional society, are these notions still applicable?

If we look back in time we realise that post-war Italian design circa 1955, also known as «Italian Line», was the result of a particular cultural tradition that did not make a distinction between art, design and economics. Quite the contrary, it promoted the interaction between these elements.

The coming down of barriers between fine art and commercial art opened new possibilities. A significant number of artists, British artists in particular, became interested in consumer products and the use of advertising, the media in general (film, television, pop music, comics and magazines) seeking inspiration in all forms of what became known as Pop Art.

Immediate sensorial gratification, novelty, irreverence and the ephemeral were the main elements of the «Pop Revolution» that so much influenced fashion, graphics, furniture and interior design. These in turn were being fed by the desires of an emerging middle class composed mainly of a young urban audience full of ambition and optimism. Renouncing the values of previous generations represented by what was widely accepted as «Good Modernist Design» the approach adopted by this new generation of designers favoured democratic values associated to that era. Throughout the Sixties fashion not only reinforced the importance of what was ephemeral but also questioned the values that were so dear to Modernism. Art provided graphic design and product design with a limitless number of possibilities that went beyond the boundaries of Pop. The graphic quality and strong colours of paintings by Ellsworth Kelly, Morris Louis and Frank Stella found an equivalent in the world of product design. The moulded plastic objects issued by Italian companies such as Kartell, Danese and Artemide share these characteristics. The desire to abolish the distance between the work of art and the public led to other proposals such as Situationist Art that converted the 3D work of art in a kind of happening. This is clear from the work of designers like Verner Panton (installation at Visiona II of Bayer AG, 1970). The recognition of Op Art in 1964-65 through the paintings of Bridget Riley marked work of graphic designers, textiles and even products as is the case with Achille Castiglioni's RR 126 stereo hi-fi for Brionvega in 1965.

The blurring of distinctions between traditional art, in particular between art and design, went a step further when in 1966 architect and painter Roberto Matta created Malitte for Gavina. This seating piece of furniture consisted of sculptural organic forms cut in foam blocks and covered in tissue. This piece created a sort of a «residential landscape» that corresponded to life in communes that was usual at the time. Let's us also not forget that these were also the principles behind Verner Panton's seating sculpture Pantower. This piece of furniture consisted of a micro-environment that promoted interaction and sociability.

In the mid-Sixties consumer society reached its peak due to an uninterrupted period of economic and industrial growth. Since then Italian design entered into a crisis. This crisis was founded in higher inflation and empty formalism that affected production. It was also a symbol for the values defended by advanced capitalism. This crisis rendered the idealism behind the objects void of their initial democratic purposes, the same ones that inspired production. Objects were now subject to the rules of «Good Taste» characteristic of Modernist functionalism. This was the opposite of the principles defended by the «Pop Revolution». The crisis in Italian design in the second half of the Sixties was also the expression of a wider economical, social and cultural crisis that dominated not just Italy but the rest of the world. Other expressions of this crisis were events such as the war in Vietnam, the Spring of Prague and the proliferation of counter-cultural movements such as the hippie movement and the student movements that affected Europe and the United States.

It is in Italy that the Anti-Design movement takes root in a more explicit way. Ettore Sottsass was one of the main figures behind this movement, itself a reaction to materialistic bourgeois culture. His extensive travelling in the United States in 1956 and at the beginning of the Sixties as well as a trip to India in 1961 where he first got in contact with Tantric art allowed him a different perspective on design. Sottsass sees design as means to express sensuality and communication. His aim was to free design from the legacy of good craftsmanship and to replace it by image itself. The conceptual projects of Ettore Sottsass shifted the attention towards meaning over function focusing on receptivity and interaction of the public with the objects. Sottsass inspired a new generation of Italian architects and designers that shared a common ideology against the neo-modern movement. This generation wanted to separate themselves from industrial manufacture using design as a political weapon. This was the ethos behind groups of designers such as Superstudio (Florence, 1966), Archizoom Associati (Florence, 1966), Gruppo Strum (Turin, 1966) and Studio 65 (Turin, 1968). All these groups rejected modernist conventional «Good Taste» and resorted to kitsch, revivalism, Pop, mystical metaphor, ephemera and irony as ways of repositioning the mission of design. This movement became known as Anti-Design.

The various experiences within the domains of Pop and Anti-Design constituted a challenge to neo-modernism demonstrating clearly the need for a new system of values and attitudes in the field of design. By the end of the Sixties anti-modernism became an international concept due to the expansion of the various radical movements that originated in England and Italy and spread to Germany and the United States. It was also in this country that architect Roberto Venturi criticised the rigid formalism of Modernism and functionalism in his book «Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture» issued in 1966. This was also an Anti-Modernist manifesto that constituted an alternative as well as prepared the ground for Post-Modernism, a movement that stressed the symbolic as well as practical elements of Architecture. American architect Michael Graves also defended the need for design to go beyond the boundaries imposed by Modernism stressing the importance of colour, form, texture and pattern as the means to reach those objectives.

The alternatives to Modernism were now a reality and Pluralism took over. This notion consisted in the understanding that both in architecture and design no single theory would be prevalent over others. Since the beginning of the 70's that design was thought of as involving social responsibility. Issues such as nuclear proliferation, consumerism, the environment and events like the Italian design exhibition «Italy: The New Domestic Landscape» promoted by the New York Museum of Modern Art were decisive points of reference. The oil crisis of 1973 and the economical and ecological vulnerability that followed made plastic a less desirable material shifting the focus from new to recyclable materials. This also marked a shift in the discourse. Until then style in one way or another was the most important issue. However, designers were now accountable before the manufacturing industry. And on the other hand the growing disappointment with technology destroyed the basis upon which modern design rested.

All this led 70's design into a myriad of different expressions. Some were conformist, others revolutionary. The possibility of post-modernist aesthetics erupted in Italy as one of the strongest directions in the period that included the end of the 70's and beginning of the 80's. This possibility was heavily inspired in the Anti-Design experiments that were now reinvigorated. This post-modern design resulted in architectural objects that were colourful and whose surfaces were now totally independent from function. The look of objects was now being reinterpreted in relation to their usefulness, historical elements were now being combined; minimalist forms and ornaments mixed with noble materials and kitsch.

All this constituted a reaction to formalism and functionalism. Studio Alchimia (1976) in Milan launched in 1978 the first collection of post-modernist objects according to the principles of «new craftsmanship». This allowed for a new emotional and sensorial relationship between public and the object. A piece of furniture re-designed that evoked a past such as the Proust Chair (1978) by Alessandro Mendini clearly illustrates the lack of interest in the usefulness of the object evoking at the same time expression, irony, playfulness, poetry and imagination as the dominant concepts.

Ettore Sottsass, himself a dissident from Studio Alchimia, created in Milan the Memphis Group (1980-1988) expressing his continued interest in the fusion of elements from contemporary pop culture and older cultures. The work of the Memphis Group was in fact the last successful attempt at establishing a concept of design. Since the beginning that the work of this group referred directly to mass media society. The adopted approach supported the view that any object can only be contemporary if like any other media carries a message. For Memphis designers objects should reflect the cultural and social values of a society where mass media determines all forms of communication and social relationships. Quality or functions were then less important than the meaning and therefore colour, pattern, texture and form encouraged instant communication that is independent from the practical quality of objects.

Memphis design resorted to ingenious abstract ways and surface decoration as a means to provoke the observer creating objects where art and kitsch mix in equal measure. These objects were oriented towards consumption and the use of mass media. Plastic materials could now be rehabilitated and transferred to the domestic sphere. Other influences were comic books, film and even punk music. The resulting work is ironic, playful and symbolic, some are similar to toys, others are inspired by exotic cultures suggesting variety and mobility in the post-modern world. The antidote against functionalism was the sensorial relationship between the object and the user as proposed by the Memphis Group. Contrary to Studio Alchimia the intentions of the Memphis designers were favourable to the industry, advertising and all practical aspects of day-to-day living. Although the products were not directed towards the mass market the work of Memphis designers was clearly destined to mass production.

For the first time design was in fact free from the constraints of Modernism and in tune with post-industrial principles. This movement introduced a new understanding of design, both from an aesthetic as a conceptual point of view. The immediate success of this phenomenon — Sottsass named it «New Design» — re-ignited interest in Italian design. It was clear that in the current Post-Modernist environment Italy played a major role, as in fact was the case for the past decade. The Memphis Group avoided the «Post-Modernist» tag describing their work as «New International Style».

This movement was acclaimed in the United States, Japan and Europe. The Memphis Group spread their influence through various commissions attributed to some of its members. The style of Memphis was imitated and named as «New Design» in countries such as France, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Japan and Portugal. It also influenced fashion, graphic design and advertising thus confirming the role of «New Design» in mass media and mass culture.

In a universe that was now funded in technological progress, namely computers, personal success and individual well-being the social and political issues of 1968 are now less relevant and design became part of personal lifestyle and a symbol of status. This brought new and diverse attitudes towards design namely in terms of individual aesthetics. Designers became stars in their own right. Some examples are Philippe Starck, Elizabeth Garouste and Mattia Bonetti, André Dubreuil, Ron Arad, Danny Lane, Tom Dixon, Frank Gehry, Dan Friedman, Shiro Kuramata and Jasper Morrison. New currents were hardly identified. At best amongst the pluralism of forms it was possible to identify some trends underlined by the production of one-off objects or limited edition series. In this way designers sought to reinforce the artistic side of design. Thanks to the work of the Memphis Group the dogmas of Modernism and Functionalism were definitely eradicated from 80's design. The prevalence of different styles helped to establish design during this decade. The 80's were also described as the decade of design due to the new-found prosperity and the growth of consumerism. Design played a role in the fields of advertising and marketing but more important than that was the definition of lifestyles and its role within consumer society and social relations.

Before this attitude took root various designers, such as Gaetano Pesce, himself a pioneer of radicalism and pluralism, continued to explore the possibilities of Anti-Design. By using the tactile and irrational aspects of objects Pesce sought to provoke the spectator with spontaneous and random elements. The Pratt Chair (1983) represents the latent ambiguity between art and mass-production. Another designer, Andrea Branzi, a previous member of Archizoom, Studio Alchimia and Memphis, produced in 1985 a collection of furniture for Zabro that included the Animali Domestici Chair, a mix of Arte Povera and precision design combining technical possibilities with ecological concerns. Alessandro Mendini continued to work within the parameters of Anti-Design according to the principles laid out in Studio Alchimia. Mendini never loses sight of artisans' techniques that promote the talent of artists (Zabro Chair, 1984).

It is possible to detect some parallels between the work of Mendini and that of Portuguese architect Tomás Taveira. The Rick Chair created by Taveira in 1985 is a playful approach to colour, form and decoration. The work of Tomás Taveira puts Portuguese design in tune with international trends. It succeeds a generation of designers such as Daciano Costa, Sena da Silva and António da Silva. During the 60's and 70's these designers had struggled against the lack of industrial development and therefore could not develop their lines of furniture beyond the strict lines imposed by post-war principles. The only exception is Daciano Costa whose work for Longra enabled him to develop innovative ranges of metallic office furniture.

The historical constraints of design in Portugal — lack of industrial and technological development, political, economical and social crisis during the 70's and 80's — limited the influence of post-modernism in a country where consumerism was a recent achievement. Portuguese design and designers soon expressed a desire to catch up with the international scene. The multidisciplinary approach previously adopted by Conceição Silva and translated into a pop environment (Boutique Rita, 1967) or the post-modernist approach of Tomás Taveira (Valentim de Carvalho shop in Cascais, 1967) resulted in the progressive erosion of boundaries between traditional artistic approaches. Apart from designers that came out from the schools of Lisbon and Oporto, artists from the fields of painting (Daciano da Costa, Cabrita Reis), sculpture (João Machado, José Santa-Bárbara, Francisco Rocha) and mainly architecture (Sena da Silva, A. Siza Vieira, E. Souto Moura, Miguel Arruda, Fernando Sanchez Salvador, Margarida Grácio Nunes, M. Graça Dias, Egas J. Vieira) also created works of design. Other domains such as New Jewellery were also very receptive to processes coming from other fields including Fashion.

During the 90's one of the most important trends was recycling and reusing materials for the creation of furniture and objects. A more responsible, rigorous, sober and pragmatic type of design replaced the excesses made during the previous decade. The designer of the 90's went back to consider matters such as economics and the ethical edge of products. All this happens within the wider context of a society that is dominated by information technology and where ideologies have been shaken to their roots. It is then in this context that design becomes a tool for communication and a paradigm of this decade. However, pluralism and the crumbling down of barriers between traditional art forms enables the designer to adopt approaches associated with other fields. This is the case with art installations and the incorporation of designers' methods into the work of other artists. This is the rationale behind Intersections of Design, itself an exploration of new directions within design.

Rui Afonso Santos