The art of product design
“Only the marvellous is beautiful”, André Breton
- Art styles and record players – Jugendstil
- Art styles and record players – Surrealism
- Art styles and record players – Futurism
- Art styles and record players – Hightech
- Art styles and record players – Postmodernism
It is important for a designer to have a wide array of tools at their disposal as each project (and product) calls for its own unique approach. A product and its (re)design is more than the sum of problems that it solves: creativity can lead to inspiring and clever designs. Art is a perfect muse: it inspires and offers an infinite wealth of examples by free thinkers.
The past 300 years has seen a great development in art styles and movements. Styles and ideas merge or split up to take new directions, at a faster rate than ever before in human history. The evolution of art goes hand in hand with the ideas and morals of a generation, ultimately reflecting in the items they surround themselves with. In our current society of mass production and consumption, it is easy to overlook this point of view.
To acquire a deeper understanding of both the process in general as well as the characteristics of the art style, I have used art styles as a basis for a design analysis followed by a redesign. Record players were a perfect candidate for this study due to the product’s long existence and well recorded history (pun intended). You can see my redesign in the concept design section, hopefully it shows how valuable art can be as a tool for product design.