What Makes Design “Modern”?
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Something you’ve more than likely heard a thousand times, “modern design” is a term given as a label to so many different facets in current culture. From Architecture and Interior Design to Sculpture and even Fashion. The words are now used so ambiguously that I feel we’re losing touch of what it means and if it’s even the way of the future, let’s discuss.
The term “modern design” became popular and refers to a historical aesthetic movement that took place during the early to mid-twentieth century by architects like Louis Henri Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier, and Mies van der Rohe. It’s a style characterized by a monochromatic color palette, clean lines, minimalism, natural materials, and natural light. As time has passed, what can be and is considered modern now and how minimalistic that has to be has varied greatly.
The reason this topic was chosen is to ask the question of what “modern” design means to you. It is a questioning of the values it holds especially with how so much has turned against the ideas of artistic design and has been stripped down to necessity and purpose, which certainly isn’t always a bad thing.
Considering how dominant the trend is in society, like all waves of infatuation, over time it’s almost destined to become saturated to some extent as it gets easier and easier to take the easy road and follow the trend. From whitewashed exteriors, open floor plans, rectangular forms and elements of asymmetry, It seems the “modern” home has taken over culture.
That’s where I find it is the job of the artist, to break free from whatever the existing trend is and find new ways to shed light and give power to different sides of culture. With all the beauty that comes from the “modern” style to the beauty it has left out since its popularization. It’s going to be a spectacle to see where design goes in this next decade.
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