Design & Desire in the Twentieth Century

Design and Desire in the Twentieth Century is celebrating its first birthday. The blog began as part of a class assignment for an online course in Social Media at Syracuse University’s iSchool. I had so much fun researching and writing about my love for Twentieth Century design that I kept on posting after the course ended.

In the past year D&D has covered topics as diverse as architecture of the Arts and Crafts Movement to the origins of the Coca Cola Santa Claus. Some of the artists and designers featured were: architect Louis Kahn, sculptor Isamu Noguchi, photographer Julius Shulman and film production designer Ken Adam, among others. I hope I’ve been successful in adding a human dimension to the design greats discussed.

Design and Desire has given me the opportunity to connect with some very interesting folks who share my passion for great design. I strongly suggest you take some time to check out their excellent and informative blogs:

•    Designslinger
•    DesignCrave
•    Aqua Velvet
•    Frank Lloyd Wright Newsblog
•    Josh Taylor Design
•    Fin de Siecle
•    Wood and Light

You may want to follow the additional blogs listed in the Blogroll on the right.
Sorry there’s no cake to celebrate with but here’s a photo of one that comes to us via Edward Lifson; it’s from the celebration held earlier this year, sponsored by the Mies van der Rohe Society, to commemorate the architect’s 125th birthday on March 28, 2011.

Source: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-J6wXxksjLWs/TZLhDS3X7BI/AAAAAAAANqw/4dnFut-MGNk/s400/Mies+birthday+cake.jpg

I sincerely want to thank all of you who’ve followed Design and Desire and enjoyed my blog. Please don’t hesitate to suggest ideas for future posts or just connect and say “Hello.” I’m so looking forward to another year of looking back at great design of the past century.

“Kaufmann House” photographed by Julius Shulman (1947) from VISUAL ACOUSTICS, an Arthouse Films release 2009. Copyright J. Paul Getty Trust.
Source: http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/uponsun/assets_c/2010/03/4KaufmannHouse-thumb-500x396.jpg

Eric Bricker’s documentary, “Visual Acoustics: the Modernism of Julius Shulman,” covers the importance of Shulman and his photography during the development of Modern Architecture in the United States during the Twentieth Century. Five points discussed in the film:

1. Julius Shulman was not only instrumental in recording the development of Modern Architecture in the United States, but his vision also influenced how people the world over perceived those buildings. He created iconic images of the most important buildings of Richard Neutra, Rudolf Schindler and Frank Lloyd Wright, among many others.
   
   
   Photographer Julius Shulman (left) with Richard Neutra circa 1950.
   Source: http://www.trianglemodernisthouses.com/neutra306.jpg
   
   
2. Through the publication of his photographs Shulman became a “tastemaker,” introducing the public to rising architectural stars.  John Lautner, Albert Frey, Pierre Koenig, Harwell Harris, Oscar Niemeyer, Abraham Zabludovsky and E. Stewart Williams were several of the architects whose reputations Shulman helped to establish. In bonus material on the “Visual Acoustics” DVD Frank Gehry admits that while Shulman was unsuccessful in getting photographs of the architect’s early work published, the photographer did find Gehry his first client.
3. Shulman’s work “introduced an innovative lifestyle to the post-war public”(1). For each person who had the opportunity to visit one of these elegant private homes there may have been another 10,000 or more who saw Shulman’s photo of it in a magazine.
   
   
   “Case Study House #22 - Two Girls” photographed by Julius Shulman (1960). Copyright J. Paul Getty Trust.
   Source: http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/uponsun/assets_c/2010/03/1CSHTwoGirls-thumb-300x371.jpg
   

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