The word Design means planning objects, taking into account their functionality, the aesthetics of the materials with which they are made and their in series reproduction. Design is certainly a relatively young art that started with the industrial revolution when the artist began to study and design objects of everyday life such as furniture, pottery, cutlery, clothes. Design is not a secondary art, indeed it’s something else. Industrial design should lead to a form-function relationship, without prioritizing only one, but evaluating and developing them in parallel so that they are fully integrated into the final product.
The study of everyday life objects established by artists is an ancient tradition. Design stems from its roots in artistic motion, which historically arise in the period of industrial revolution, such as Arts and Crafts, which developed in England around 1880. Another artistic movement was the Wiener Secession, with Gustav Klimt, Kolo Moser and Max Fabiani from Trieste, who deals with upholstery, clothes, furniture, on the model of Arts and Crafts. Very important is the experience of the Bauhaus school, founded in Germany by Walter Gropius in 1919 and closed down by the Nazi regime in 1933. One of the main purposes of the Bauhaus was to design quality products produced in series, taking into account aspects of aesthetic-artistic character, functionality and technological aspects regarding the choice of materials and the costs of production processes.
In Scandinavian countries, however, thanks to the research of the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, a design was created that aimed at the use of natural materials and the creation of easy-to-use items. In the second postwar period in Germany, Functionalism spread out, it was based on the search for practicality, rationality, simplicity and economy. Today Design has to face the globalization of the market and has taken on an increasingly important role in allowing producers to reach different markets with more and more attractive and competitive items. One of the main reasons for the continuous innovation that characterizes the design of recent years is the increasing availability of new generation materials, largely from scientific research.
