Assignment Week Three

The JC Penny Tree Table Lamp

Decoration constructed, Construction Decorated and the JC Penny Tree Lamp

In The Grammar of Ornament (1856), Owen Jones is quoted as saying “Construction should be decorated. Decoration should never be purposely constructed.” Explaining his views on decoration in the design industry, what Jones is saying is that there is absolutely nothing wrong with decoration as long as it is designed around and complementing the construction. Nothing should ever be constructed for the single purpose of accommodating a design.

 I personally agree with Jones, but only on certain levels. I definitely think that construction should be allowed decoration and that you should never add function to something meant to be decorative. However if that function is to highlight the decoration as an art piece and the decoration is constructed as a form of art, then I think decoration constructed can be necessary. But if constructed for other purposes I, like Jones, do not see the point.

 The JC Penny Tree Table Lamp is a perfect example of how a construction can be decoration in a simple way that does not over power the function, This simple decorated lamp was not built around its design, its basic tree structure was designed as a more interesting and artistic way of supporting the properties of a lamp. The lamps design isn’t too over the top and when you look at it the first thing you see is a lamp and not a tree. This is a valuable example of construction decorated and in Jones’s eyes would have been an acceptable piece of design.

Assignment Week Two

The 'S Chair' designed by Tom Dixon

The 'S Chair'

Designed in 1991 by Tom Dixon, the ‘S Chair’ is elegant, flowing and an example of the continuing curve that is most definitely a result of what in design is called the “sensuous impulse”.

The Term “sensuous impulse” in generally used to describe the influence of seductive flow, natural curvature and organic smooth feminine shapes in a style of design. The Rococo Era in the eighteenth century was greatly influenced by this ‘sensuous impulse’, though the name was not given to this thought process back then.

The ‘S chair’ - designed for the company cappellini - I believe, is clearly influenced by the continuing curve and the flow of the feminine form. The smooth flow of the chair gently runs from start to finish in a never-ending cycle that portrays the sensuous curvature of the female form. This I believe is done as to relieve the chair of its dominance and give it a relaxed feel about it that in the end relates back to the ‘sensuous impulse’.

Assignment Week One

Modern day basic plastic toothbrush

The Toothbrush

After a history of frayed twigs and salt and soot covered rags, the Toothbrush revolutionised the world’s way of cleaning teeth. While in prison, William Addis of England drilled holes in a bone and filled them with bristles to scrape unwanted plaque and food from his teeth, creating the toothbrush. In 1870 he mass-produced his innovative range of ‘toothbrushes’ that provided an efficient clean and reached those harder to reach places. From then on the world has never looked back and In 2003 the toothbrush was selected as the number one invention Americans could not live without according to the Lemelson-MIT Invention Index.