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TIME: Almanac (Reference Edition)
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Time Almanac Reference Edition (COMPACT Publishing)(1994)(Mac 4 TM-030).iso
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^January 4, 1982DESIGNBEST OF '81
Creating Good-Looking Objects That Work
A store, a gas station or a typewriter can raise the spirits and
make life easier
Most of 1981 design was not bad. It was awful.
But the few new urban places, buildings, industrial
products and graphics that were good, were very, very good. The
awfulness was not just a matter of bad taste. A little kitsch in
dull surroundings can be as endearing as a whiff of horse manure
in the city. The dismaying pollution of the cityscape, like that
of the language, stems from illiterate and, worse, semiliterate
pretentiousness.
The result is visual gobbledygook. An example is the new
crop of "post-modern" buildings. They are three-dimensional
collages of discrepant ornament and styles. The design of most
new interiors, furniture, cars, appliances and printed matter
also continues to follow ill-mannered fads rather than good
form. A confusion of design with mere styling, packaging or
form-giving still haunts our culture.
The successful designs of which the American public has
become aware during the year were not the ones to scream for
attention in an already all too noisy world. They stand out
because, like all first-rate design, they raise the human spirit
and make life a little easier.
Good design is essentially a matter of problem solving.
Engineers solve mechanical problems. Designers solve human
problems--or should. If the design does not work well, it may be
art, but it is not good design.
To make an object work, functionally and aesthetically, it
must be placed in its proper context. A chair must fit into the
room. The room must fit into the house. The house must fit into
the street. The street must fit into the city.
Good design, furthermore, politely takes its place in the
context of historic continuity. It does not parade in either a
"traditional" or futuristic costume. As time goes by, the
context keeps changing. That is why, as each new generation of
designers must learn, even the best design does not seem to
bring us closer to utopia. But, as Sir Henry Wotton observed
some 350 years ago, the best design gives us "commodity,
firmness and delight."
Here are the five best architectural and the five best
industrial or graphic designs of the past year:
Bullock's Northern California department store, San Mateo,
Calif. L. Gene Zellmer Associates, architects: Geiger Berger
Associates, P.C., structural engineers. A soaring, translucent
tent structure provides shoppers with daylight and a festive
atmosphere.
San Antonio Museum of Art, Texas. Cambridge Seven
Associates, Inc., architects. A creative yet respectful
transformation has turned the slightly loony Lone Star brewery
into an imposing museum building.
Thorncrown Chapel, Eureka Springs, Ark. Fay Jones &
Associates, architects. A simple but evocative structure of pine
boards, glass ingenuity, designed by a student of Frank Lloyd
Wright's. It is one of the few buildings that advance the
master's concept of organic architecture.
Viet Nam Veterans Memorial, Washington, D.C. Maya Y. Lin.
designer. A brilliantly simple solution to the emotion-charged
problem of honoring 57,709 victims of the controversial war.
Wainwright State Office Complex, St. Louis.
Mitchell/Giurgola in association with Hastings & Chivetta,
architects. A self-negating structure that is almost
"non-architecture" adds usable space to Louis Sullivan's famed
building.
Bass guitar, Ned Steinberger, designer; Steinberger Sound
corp., manufacturer. An award-winning industrial design. This
handsome reinforced plastic instrument recognizes that there is
as much difference between the classic wood guitar and the
electric guitar as there is between the horse-drawn carriage and
the combustion engine. Rock musicians seem to dig the
Steinberger.
Burdick Group, Bruce Burdick, designer; Herman Miller,
manufacturer. One of the first flexible office-furniture systems
to come to terms with computer terminals and other electronic
office machines.
Exxon service stations, Saul Bass, Herb Yager, Howard York
and Richard Huppertz, principal designers. All elements,
including architecture, graphics and gasoline pumps are
integrated into one quietly assertive unit that should help calm
America's roadside clutter.
Minnesota Zoo Logo and Sign System, Apple Valley, Minn.
Lance Wyman, Ltd., designer. Graphic communication that informs
with delightful directness, charm and humor.
Olivetti Electronic Typewriter ET221, Mario Bellini,
designer. This is in the best Olivetti tradition--clean,
elegant, no-nonsense.
-- By Wolf Von Eckardt