MINIMALISM
For my Design Theory and Research CA2 Seminar & Research, I had to get in groups of minimum 4, students and present a selected seminar topic pertaining to our Session Groups. We are expected to hold a 25 – 30-minute presentation. Seminar topics involve an investigative research project. My group decided to research further on the topic of 'Minimalism'.
Minimalism is an art movement that began in the post–World War II Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s.
De Stijl consisted of artists and architects. In a narrower sense, the term De Stijl is used to refer to a body of work from 1917 to 1931 found in the Netherlands. Proponents of De Stijl advocated pure abstraction and universality by a reduction to the essentials of form and color; they simplified visual compositions to vertical and horizontal, using only black, white and primary colors.
The pioneers of De Stijl are Jacobus Oud, Theo van Doesburg, Bart van der Leck, Gerrit Rietveld, Piet Mondrian, and Vilmos Huszár.
De Stijl was clearly a popular art movement. If buildings and furniture are inspired by it, fashion can do the same thing. It is exactly what Yves Saint Laurent did. He drew designs of his famous Mondrian collection directly from the ideas of De Stijl artist with their clean-cut lines, geometric patterns and the use of primary colors. This led to the creation of one of the most well-known dress collections in fashion. Even Katy Perry was spotted wearing pieces inspired by De Stijl in her “This Is How We Do” music video.
Moving on from minimalism in art, the trend of minimalism in design has picked up over the years. Before minimalism was popular as an art style in America, the Japanese like have already used the concepts of minimalism, but in a way, people never expected to be. Zen concepts of simplicity transmit the ideas of freedom and essence of living. Take the Katsura Imperial Villa), built in the late 16th century - early 17th century. The Villa combines principles usually used in early Shinto shrines and merges it with the aesthetics and philosophy of Zen Buddhism.
Moving on to minimalism in products. Dieter Rams one of the designers who use minimalism in his products. A firm believer in ‘Functionalism’ - Designer Dieter Rams brought minimalist design into the design of consumer products. He believes that one of the most significant design principles is to omit the unimportant to emphasize the important because less is better. It creates simplicity by taking away everything until what is left are only the bare essentials. It is about finding out how much can be stripped away from the product without compromising its intended functionality. He is closely associated with a consumer product company called Braun. To him, what makes a good design, are the 10 good design principles. Minimalist product design has features that do not look like they are competing with each other and the beauty of the product does not distract you from the user experience. The design is often in basic shapes and they have a monochromatic color palette. Minimalist product design has features that do not look like they are competing with each other and the beauty of the product does not distract you from the user experience. The design is often in basic shapes and they have a monochromatic color palette. One designer who follows the 10 principles of design is Steve Job. Steve strongly believes in minimalism, it is his philosophy. He does not only incorporate minimalism into the design of Apple’s products but also in his life. Apple Inc. is one of the few companies that design products according to Dieter Ram's principles. Jobs’ love of simplicity in design was honed when he became a practitioner of Buddhism. After dropping out of college, he made a long pilgrimage through India seeking enlightenment, but it was mainly the Japanese path of Zen Buddhism that stirred his sensibilities.
