Today people love the mp3 player made by Apple company, the IPod. It is actually not so different in functionality than other types of mp3 players on the market. So why is the IPod so popular? I believe that it is because of its design which expresses simplicity. It is simple but has enough detail to attract people. Minimal design is a growing design trend all over the world and definitely the trend of this century. For examples, the IPod in product design, architectural works of international success of architects such as Tadao Ando, John Powson and Claudio Silverstrin. Giorgio Armani, Calvin Klein, Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto emerged in the field of fashion by simplifying clothing garments and in the case of the oriental designers introduced geometric shapes and a linearity that appeared to negate the body itself (Franco Bertony,10) . So what does it mean by simplicity in design? Does it mean the design which is just simple looking or the design without any unnecessary decoration? When people decide whether a design is simple or not they do not know exactly how to judge it. It is hard to recognize this style in design; the design contains a simple feeling that is not boring and should be interesting without complication. In this essay I will research what is simplicity in terms of design and why people have begun to love minimal design. Trends in design are always changing through its history. I will find out how and why minimalism has emerged in design today and what trends from the past has influenced it. Also I will investigate the reason why people have begun to love simple design and what if it contributes any meaning to the overall design.
Firstly I researched design history to find out when and how minimalism in design has occurred. Artists and designers in nineteenth century prefer the extravagant decoration in design which is why that Art Nouveau was the trend in this period. Art Nouveau means “the new art”. The artists and designers of this time created it because they thought that the aesthetics in design from the fine detail and craft had disappeared after mass production occurred. For this reason Art Nouveau designers used an organic form such as a plant to add beauty into their design. William Morris, was a famous art nouveau artist in nineteenth century. He opposed industrial mass production and thought aesthetic and social problems were inseparable. He claimed that the answer to these problems lay in a reform of commercial art that was to return to the spirit of the Middle ages when art and production were connected to one another. Artists fashioned goods that were both useful and beautiful(Thomas Hauffe, 41). His ideas have strongly influenced modern design. Designer and artists from art nouveau concentrated more on creating an organic form than making a function, therefore the form of design became decorated and complicated. There was no standardisation in design and the designs strongly expressed the individuality of its designer.
Modernism in the design appeared in twentieth century. The German Werkbund was established by a group of artists, architects, businessman, and public figures. The goal of Werkbund was to enable industrial work by the cooperation of art, industry, and handcrafts (Thomas Hauffe, 60). They agreed with that the industrial mass production is essential and inseparable to the world. It was opposite to the art nouveau style in nineteenth century. Therefore, they tried to make standardisation in designs which would act as rules for designing products. They also were trying to work out how industrialism and aesthetics of design could work together. While I researched the twentieth century design history I could find many evidences such as constructivism, De Still and Bauhaus showing that artists and designer began to have a positive attitude to the industrialisation in this period. The artistic aim for the constructivism was to just get the product with the technical principle and it was affected to the De Still group. The artists of De still thought pure abstraction and strict geometrical arrangement provided the true formal aesthetic for a modern technical and industrial society (Thomas Hauffe, 70). Bauhaus was a design school in
In 1920s new style emerged in
The main feature of this style is the combination of modernism and decoration (Thomas Hauffe, 88). Although Art Deco came out from the concept of Art Nouveau, Art Deco style had a geometric form and repeated pattern rather than using an organic form. Art Deco brought the decoration style back to the world again and applied it into the modern design.
In middle of 1950s Pop Art came into the world. Pop Art is one of the major art movements of the twentieth century. It was characterised by themes and techniques drawn from popular mass culture, such as advertising and comic books (Wikipedia). Pop art is like pop music, it targeted a broad audience. Artists and designers began to make their work popular in culture.
In 1960s Minimalism emerged into design and visual art. The works of minimal art was stripped down to its most fundamental features, reductive aspect of Modernism, and was a reaction against abstract expressionism. In addition, the work of De Still artists is a major source of references for this kind of work. It was a bridge to postmodern art practice. Since the Art Deco period, I believe that design has changed to be more aesthetic from too much of an industrial feeling. Designers tried to design a mass production product with beauty which attracted people with simple and elegant looking product. I believe that it was the start of the minimal design style. As I mentioned, Minimalism did not suddenly emerged in design and art. Art Nouveau design was over complicated and decorated because Art Nouveau artist worked on it against the industrial mass production so its design was more like an individual work. Art Nouveau disappeared when they designers recognised that the mass production was becoming essential to the world. The group of Werkbund, Bauhaus and De Still emerged in twentieth century and was the start of the modernism in design history. The artists of those groups were in favour of mass production to the world; therefore they tried to combine aesthetic and industrialism together. It was one of the reasons why that designs had to be simplified, because it was not possible to mass produce an organic form. Decoration in Art nouveau was too exaggerated but decoration was still needed in design. Art Deco brought the decoration back to the design. Art Deco artists combined decoration into the modern design style and they created decoration with geometric form rather than organic form. The decoration in design has developed and refined to more simple details. The quality of a design has risen up by this simplified decoration. In my research of design history from nineteenth century to twentieth century, design has been changed to a simple style from the decorative style. It is because of the historical environment influenced in the art and design field. The decorative organic design emerged in order to oppose mass production and then it became simpler because of the mass production which was becoming essential of the world. Furthermore, Werkbund set the design standardisation of products. It means the designer started to design their work with considering of the mass of people. By the occurrence of Pop art in 1950s, I can definitely say that designers have designed for the people and that design is involved in all our lives. People think that a design is a part of their life so they have a right and responsibility to judge which design style they like or do not like. As I mentioned in the first paragraph, minimalistic design is the design trend of today. It was one of existing design styles among many other design styles and it has been chosen by people to be the trend. People have wanted it so it is still involved in their lives. It emerged in 1960s and is still in favour today.
I believe that the IPod design is the representative work of the current minimal design. There are some features showing that the IPod design is minimalistic. The IPod is designed to look simple and easy to use. It is a rectangle with rounded corners. The click-wheel is the central input device. When the first model of it was created in 2001, it was a lot smaller and slimmer than the other mp3 players. From then till 2008 the size of the IPod is getting smaller and smaller all the time. This makes certain activities easier. For example, jogging with an IPod nano is much easier than with a first generation IPod. Apple keep trying to reduce the size of the device for its users, smaller size of the device keeps it looking simple. I think the click-wheel in the centre of device is the strongest feature to express simplicity in the design. This simple circular wheel contains all function keys such as play, pause, rewind, forward, volume and menu. It was a good choice to contain the function keys in just one circular button. However if these functions are placed in individual buttons then the overall design would be complicated and a lot more difficult to use. Another detail is that IPod models have multiple colours in each model, but it is a single colour. The most popular colour of the IPod are both white and black. These single colours are very elegant and also emphasis its simple feeling of the design. Small size, simple control button and elegant single colour are the features that make it looks simple and fresh. The simple design of the IPod is so that the users find it easy to operate which is the reason why people loves the IPod.
This simple design of mp3 player became a trend of the world. In April 9, 2007, Apple announced that the 100 millionth iPod has been sold, making the iPod the fastest selling music player in history. The first iPod was sold five and a half years ago in November 2001. Since then, Apple has introduced more than 10 new iPod models, including five generations of iPod, two generations of iPod mini, two generation of iPod nano and two generations of iPod shuffle (Apple Homepage). The sales of IPods is not the only evidence to show that it is the current trend of the world. I mentioned that the design of the IPod is the main reason is the trend of the world. There are already many products, furniture and interior design which are inspired by the IPod design. Also because of the popularity of the IPod, people started to invent other things where Ipods can be used. These designs still show the minimal design from the simple and sleek forms. For examples, Nicole Martinelli designed a coffee table inspired from the IPod which is located in the lobby of
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Also there is some other furniture inspired from the IPod. These are actually designed for the IPod and its users. The “Cushy Speaker Console” features modular set-up so you can arrange the lounge to fit in your space. The sleek consoles come outfitted with stereo-quality speakers and subwoofers. One console has audio controls and an iPod-friendly jack beneath a sliding panel (Shiny Shiny)
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Furthermore there is a vase that looks like an IPod. It is designed to look simple and easy to use. It is a rectangle with rounded corners. A beautiful vase for a modern home (Fresh Home). The simple colours and straight edges of the form contribute to its minimalistic style.
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Even world famous fashion designers like Gucci and Louis Vuitton have started to design an IPod case and pocket. The IPod is now considered as a fashion item from its huge popularity. This simple design of IPod has strongly impacted on many different design fields, it is unbelievable that the design of this small device have changed a lot of things in our culture.
“The idea of simplicity is a recurring idea shared by many cultures, all of them looking for a way of life free from the dead weight of an excess of possession. Minimal living has always offered a sense of existence, rather than distracted by trivial. Clearly simplicity has dimensions to it that go beyond the purely aesthetic. It can be seen as the reflection of some innate, inner quality, or the pursuit of philosophical or literary insight into the nature of harmony, reason and truth. Simplicity has a moral dimension, implying selflessness and unworldliness” (Franco Bertoni, 25 to 26). People like the minimal design style. They like things simple, pure and something natural like an IPod. In my opinion, the minimal design became a worldwide trend because it is elegant from the simple and user friendly design which has become familiar to people everywhere. It is an icon of simple design. If the design is complicated then people would be interested in it at first sight but the next time they would recognise that it is hard to read so it would be a product easy to be tired of.
Most of the minimal designs have a simple and geometric form, so it is not too difficult to understand the design at a first look. This feature makes the minimal design to be regarded as an intimate object. Familiar form is suitable enough to attract diverse ages, levels and kinds of people. Minimal design is simple but still has enough information and detail to function. It has a strong message inside of it and expresses everything on the face like a TV advertisement. I think that a TV advertisement is a good example to explain about the minimal design. They do not speak too much about what they want to introduce, they usually compress all information in one image or slogan. The popular Nike’s slogan ‘Just do it’ contains a message of a challenge and courage in a sports. They do not explain all but this simple slogan is way stronger and more understandable.
In conclusion, minimal design has developed through other design trends in history. The organic form of the design has stripped down because of the industrial mass production. The artists and designers tried to find out the aesthetic within the industrialism. The main feature of minimal design is its simplicity, the design express fundamentally only what it need to speak out, so it become easy to read and familiar to the people. I have found that minimalist design is the popular design style today and the current trend of the world. Minimalism has been attracting a large number of people because it is simple, strong and intimate and will continue to be in vogue as design has shifted towards user friendly design so that people can easily understand products and objects from its simplicity.
Thomas Hauffe, Design a Concise History. Laurence King Publishing, 1998
Erik Sherman, Business and technology for publication as Newsweek, us News and
Technology Review
Franco Bertoni, Minimalist Design. Biekhauser Publishing, 2004
Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page>
Apple Homepage,
Fresh Home, < http://freshome.com/tag/ipod/>
Shiny Shiny, <>
