First Thoughts

 We were given a brief for this term's project, focused on our progression route. This brief included three themes to choose from for the project; primitivism, pop art and industrial. In this post I will be discussing the three themes and how I could apply these to product design. 

 

 Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907) - Pablo Picasso

The first theme is primitivism, which refers to going back to the basics of mother nature or the early stages of revolution in humanity. This means tribal artworks, using materials such as wood and flowers and using simple and organic shapes. In product design I could use natural materials such as wood, stone and clay to make a product. In addition I could use floral patterns or branches as designs together with organic shapes such as ovals or spheres. 

 

Shot Sage Blue Marilyn (1964) - Andy Warhol

The second theme is pop art, an art form that uses popular or commercial culture as its main influence. It usually includes bright colours and takes its inspiration from comic books, movies or other well-known cultural phenomena. Andy Warhol used every day commercial items and made them into artworks, stacking them on top of each other and painting them in bright colours or photographing them. For product design I could use the bright colours, newspaper clippings and abstract patterns as a symbol of pop art. 

 

Old School Chain Char - Bob Campbell

The third and last theme is industrial, a response to the industrial revolution. It includes sustainability, technology and social changes. It introduced new materials and ways of creating art, such as mass production. In product design I could use 3D printing, metals and glass with patterns that resemble the industrial revolution, for example cogs and muted colours. 

Currently I am most drawn to primitivism as I prefer the selection of usable materials and colours to the other themes. My style is simplistic with natural colours and shapes, which fits perfectly with primitivism. It gave me the most doable ideas out of all the themes since the materials are easier to work with for me.