The Culture of Consumption

 

Designing the Modern Lifestyle

The polished image of the modern lifestyle was in part the creation of the graphic designers.  The production of each new product was the result of planned obsolescence on the part of the manufacturers.  However, not all was progress was as it appeared.  European countries were still recovering from the devastating effects of World War I and in the United States, uncontrolled financing contributed to the decline and subsequent economical crisis of the late 1920s.  Electricity was now available and reliable as well as petroleum products which now changed work routines, production parameters, transportation, communication, and entertainment habits.  Prior to the crash of the stock market in 1929, advertising campaigns equated style with currency and currency with success.  It became a new culture of consumer capitalism where cool, streamlined, and sophisticated images thrived.

1. Example of a 1920s fashion ad where the emphasis is on streamlined yet sophisticated looks, even in fashion.

Modern Style in Graphic Design

The previous movements had left an imprint on European graphic design.  Many of the characteristics was carried forward into the modern movement such as: asymmetrical typography, abstract forms, heave rule, black and red inks, strong shapes, and striking arrangements were just some of the innovation left by the previous designers.  European designers also used photography in many of their work making it a hallmark of modern design.  While the legacy of Constructivists was carried on in many of the cosmopolitan centers of Europe, the Russian counterparts had become isolated in their increasingly totalitarian regime.  The dream of the utopian socialist state disappeared in the mid-1930s because faith in this conviction had begun to wane.  

In America, the field of graphic design was being defined by a high profile innovator, William Addison Dwiggins.  His published works and lectures talked about the rules and elements of design.  Dwiggins helped bridge the gap and linking the technical aspects to the aesthetics and philosophy of design.  Many European designers emigrated to the United States and the advertising executives quickly hired them to provide the sophistication of European style.  

Consumer Culture

Graphic design promoted consumption as an ideal, not just something practical.  Advertising presented products as the solutions for problems that might have been emotional or social.  The visual metaphors of the American dream invited the vision of prosperity even during the Great Depression and while this fantasy may have been ironic, it provided a powerful image.  The notion that graphic design had a mission soon crept into the profession.  The designers were charged with a task of creating an aura that had little to do with the practical issues, rather the promotion of lifestyles as self realization and expression.  The fantasy channeled consumption into market driven patterns and the consumer was a concept, a generic figure who followed the trends with personal interest.

Glossary

Consumer capitalism - an economic system based on assumptions about the widespread development of markets, rather than on earlier models of production.

Moderne - a French term for a style that became popular after the 1925 Exposition des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris.  Associated with the cool, streamlined look of the 1920s in which the elaborate motifs of an earlier era were banished in favor of more industrial forms.

Planned obsolescence - a strategy for increasing sales by designing products that will quickly need to be replaced, either because they wear out or because they are surpassed by more effective or stylish models.