The main figure associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement is William Morris -designer, writer and poet. A Victorian, also a Romantic, he was a man idealising the traditional life of England while all around him raged the Industrial Revolution; a totally new phenomenon, his being the first nation to experience rapid industrialization.
1851 was the year of the Great Exhibition
a celebration of the product of the Industrial Revolution in England. Sponsored by Prince Albert and held in the Crystal Palace, a huge building of iron and glass built especially for the occasion, this exhibition was a stylistic anarchy, with most objects displaying ornament for ornaments’ sake.
Ornament was seen as exotic, giving an object status, making it look more expensive than it was, and disguising its often banal function as well as poor construction. Handmade decorated objects were expensive so new machining and casting processes simulated these. But ornament was often arbitrary, drawn from ornamental pattern books of the period, which were collections of engravings illustrating decorative forms.
Great Exhibition piece
from the catalogue
Product design was driven by technology and was treated as a process of decorating the surface of the product, an afterthought rather than incorporating its essential design. This was anathema to Morris and his contemporaries, who rejected this use of unnecessary decoration, seeing instead the need for a new design ethos to clearly express the function of the thing itself, and to emphasise the materials and quality of construction. Decoration, when used, was to be in harmony with these principles.
In 1861, William Morris formed the Arts and Crafts company, The Firm (Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.), to create a new aesthetic for design, substituting well-made, well-designed products for the mass-produced goods of the factories. They described themselves as 'fine art workmen in painting, carving, furniture and metals'.
Note that they called themselves ‘workmen’ and not ‘artists’. To them, the most impressive objects in the Great Exhibition were the machines and utensils because they were designs of absolute utility, lacking ornament and achieving a ‘noble simplicity’ as a result.
In industry, the intensive use of machines and breaking up of the production of goods into specialised factory areas led to a fragmentation of the design and fabrication activities. This separated design from the making of the product and meant that the skilled artisan no longer created and designed the product as a craftsman. With industrialisation, skilled jobs were replaced by semi- and unskilled machine operators.
Voysey chair
William Morris saw the over-ornamentation of mass produced goods as symptomatic of the alienation of workers from the products they made. In the factories, designs were drawn from pattern books and workers and designers had no individual control over the finished article, so quality suffered The answer, Morris believed, lay in a return to the crafts traditions of old England. He wanted to return to the mediaeval tradition of the Guild, the association of craftsmen working together.
He was influenced in this belief by John Ruskin, whose book The Stones of Venice had a profound influence on him. In this book, Ruskin viewed the development of Gothic architecture and its beauty in terms of the simple moral virtues of mediaeval society that produced it. Ruskin despised the new industrial era pioneered in England and in his writings pushed the concept that decoration had to be based on stylised natural forms.
He declared the Gothic style was the model to follow, designers needing to re-establish the forms indigenous to Britain. Rejecting what he saw as the ‘fatal newness of the furniture’ displayed at the Great Exhibition, he saw it all as ‘machine-made ornament’. To him, true design lay in making things by hand, and this gave joy in work to the craftsman.
While he didn’t want to do away with machines, in his printing activities William Morris followed a policy of excluding all machinery in favour of tools immediately controlled by hand. Seeking a new aesthetic based on handcraft but using machines to assist its production, he said:
"It is not this or that tangible steel or brass machine which we want to get rid of, but the great intangible machine of commercial tyranny which oppresses the lives of us all."
Morris wallpaper design
His greatest achievement, apart from an enduring influence on designers was in the field of wallpapers, book design and textile design; which were influenced by his knowledge of Mediaeval works and observation of forms in nature.
Some William Morris wallpapers are still in production, in their original colours.
His legacy lay in his idea that any design for living -a chair, wallpapers, book or building should be an artistic product- an object designed, not merely a manufactured one.
For as he said:
"If you want a golden rule..this is it: have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful."
Morris and his followers in the Arts and Crafts movement believed that each material incorporated its own value (eg: the natural colour and pattern of the grain in wood). And the first principle of good design was to respect the properties of the materials used. This respect also was transferred to the workers producing the goods; craftsmanship and pride in work leading to the survival of humanism and high standards. For as he said:
"it is eyeless vulgarity which has destroyed art, the one certain solace of labour."
While William Morris is the figure we most associate with the Arts and Crafts Movement, this movement was in fact a collection of craft societies or guilds, whose members followed to a large extent the design theories of Morris.
Philip Webb table
Other significant designers associated with the Arts and Crafts movement at this time were: Philip Webb; Walter Crane; W R Lethaby; Charles Voysey; William Benson; A H Mackmurdo; Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
Philip Webb followed the Gothic tradition in his furniture design, with simple, sturdy forms. An architect and interior designer, he designed 'The Red House' for Morris in 1860, and was the main furniture designer for ‘The Firm’.
Walter Crane was an illustrator and designer of books, textiles, wallpapers and ceramic tiles; and his flowing style full of rythm and movement influenced the development of Art Nouveau in Europe where his work was popular. His style of book design served to unify the text and illustration, the lettering having the same weight and spacing as the image, harmonising them in a way reminiscent of mediaeval illuminated manuscripts with their exquisitely hand painted text and image interwoven. But designed instead for mass production.
William Lethaby was an associate of Walter Crane and in his furniture designs he epitomised the simple forms of the Arts and Crafts Movement. In this way his furniture emphasised the construction and materials used, with minimal embellishment.
Charles Voysey, an architect, first designed wallpapers, textiles and books, later furniture and metalwork. His work was inspired by the traditions of Gothic designs and by the swirling patterns of Morris and Mackmurdo, using lighter colours in his own patterns, often based on plant forms. Voysey’s domesticware was simple in his limiting of decoration to minimal forms, such as his recurring ‘heart’ and ‘flowerhead’ motifs. The work he produced with timber followed Arts and Crafts ideals about celebrating the properties of the material used.
William Benson was an associate of William Morris, an architect who designed metalwork, furniture and wallpapers, and worked closely with ‘The Firm’ of Morris. In his furniture he combined metalwork and wood inlays with rich woods such as mahogany. Unlike most of his colleagues, he embraced modern technology, using machinery extensively and manufacturing domestic metalwares.
Arthur Mackmurdo, an architect and designer, followed the fluid style of Morris in his designs for furniture, textiles and books. Derived from natural plant forms, his work had a stronger sense of movement than Morris’ and its dynamic quality and restless curves influenced Art Nouveau. However, like Voysey, he rejected the curvilinear design of Art Nouveau, calling it a ‘strange decorative disease’
Charles Rennie Mackintosh was an architect, a member of The Glasgow Four group of designers who developed their own style of furniture and interior design based on the Arts and Crafts principles. His furniture was more like sculpture than domesticware, emphasising architectural forms with elongated backs reminiscent of Voysey, but extended to exaggerated proportions.
Design icons they undoubtedly were, but solidly constructed they weren’t. Far removed from the useful function of a fireside chair -having a coat thrown over it to keep the sitter warm... a coat thrown over a Mackintosh chair would probably have destroyed it.
The chairs designed by Mackintosh incorporated Japanese design, then becoming known in Europe, especially in their grid motifs and patterns formed from parallel lines.
In its emphasis on being a thing of beauty, its linear angularity, painted surfaces, and unusual abstract references to natural forms, Mackintosh’s style was a primary element in the development of Art Nouveau.
The main figure associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement is William Morris -designer, writer and poet. A Victorian, also a Romantic, he was a man idealising the traditional life of England while all around him raged the Industrial Revolution; a totally new phenomenon, his being the first nation to experience rapid industrialization.
1851 was the year of the Great Exhibition
a celebration of the product of the Industrial Revolution in England. Sponsored by Prince Albert and held in the Crystal Palace, a huge building of iron and glass built especially for the occasion, this exhibition was a stylistic anarchy, with most objects displaying ornament for ornaments’ sake.
Ornament was seen as exotic, giving an object status, making it look more expensive than it was, and disguising its often banal function as well as poor construction. Handmade decorated objects were expensive so new machining and casting processes simulated these. But ornament was often arbitrary, drawn from ornamental pattern by FunDeals" style="border: none !important; display: inline-block !important; text-indent: 0px !important; float: none !important; font-weight: bold !important; height: auto !important; margin: 0px !important; min-height: 0px !important; min-width: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; text-transform: uppercase !important; text-decoration: underline !important; vertical-align: baseline !important; width: auto !important; background: transparent !important;">books of the period, which were collections of engravings illustrating decorative forms.
Great Exhibition piece
from the catalogue
Product design was driven by technology and was treated as a process of decorating the surface of the product, an afterthought rather than incorporating its essential design. This was anathema to Morris and his contemporaries, who rejected this use of unnecessary decoration, seeing instead the need for a new design ethos to clearly express the function of the thing itself, and to emphasise the materials and quality of construction. Decoration, when used, was to be in harmony with these principles.
In 1861, William Morris formed the Arts and Crafts company, The Firm (Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.), to create a new aesthetic for design, substituting well-made, well-designed products for the mass-produced goods of the factories. They described themselves as 'fine art workmen in painting, carving, furniture and metals'.
Note that they called themselves ‘workmen’ and not ‘artists’. To them, the most impressive objects in the Great Exhibition were the machines and utensils because they were designs of absolute utility, lacking ornament and achieving a ‘noble simplicity’ as a result.
In industry, the intensive use of machines and breaking up of the production of goods into specialised factory areas led to a fragmentation of the design and fabrication activities. This separated design from the making of the product and meant that the skilled artisan no longer created and designed the product as a craftsman. With industrialisation, skilled jobs were replaced by semi- and unskilled machine operators.
Voysey chair
William Morris saw the over-ornamentation of mass produced goods as symptomatic of the alienation of workers from the products they made. In the factories, designs were drawn from pattern books and workers and designers had no individual control over the finished article, so quality suffered The answer, Morris believed, lay in a return to the crafts traditions of old England. He wanted to return to the mediaeval tradition of the Guild, the association of craftsmen working together.
He was influenced in this belief by John Ruskin, whose by FunDeals" style="border: none !important; display: inline-block !important; text-indent: 0px !important; float: none !important; font-weight: bold !important; height: auto !important; margin: 0px !important; min-height: 0px !important; min-width: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; text-transform: uppercase !important; text-decoration: underline !important; vertical-align: baseline !important; width: auto !important; background: transparent !important;">book The Stones of Venice had a profound influence on him. In this book, Ruskin viewed the development of Gothic architecture and its beauty in terms of the simple moral virtues of mediaeval society that produced it. Ruskin despised the new industrial era pioneered in England and in his writings pushed the concept that decoration had to be based on stylised natural forms.
He declared the Gothic style was the model to follow, designers needing to re-establish the forms indigenous to Britain. Rejecting what he saw as the ‘fatal newness of the furniture’ displayed at the Great Exhibition, he saw it all as ‘machine-made ornament’. To him, true design lay in making things by hand, and this gave joy in work to the craftsman.
While he didn’t want to do away with machines, in his printing activities William Morris followed a policy of excluding all machinery in favour of tools immediately controlled by hand. Seeking a new aesthetic based on handcraft but using machines to assist its production, he said:
"It is not this or that tangible steel or brass machine which we want to get rid of, but the great intangible machine of commercial tyranny which oppresses the lives of us all."
Morris wallpaper design
His greatest achievement, apart from an enduring influence on designers was in the field of wallpapers, book design and textile design; which were influenced by his knowledge of Mediaeval works and observation of forms in nature.
Some William Morris wallpapers are still in production, in their original colours.
His legacy lay in his idea that any design for living -a chair, wallpapers, book or building should be an artistic product- an object designed, not merely a manufactured one.
For as he said:
"If you want a golden rule..this is it: have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful."
Morris and his followers in the Arts and Crafts movement believed that each material incorporated its own value (eg: the natural colour and pattern of the grain in wood). And the first principle of good design was to respect the properties of the materials used. This respect also was transferred to the workers producing the goods; craftsmanship and pride in work leading to the survival of humanism and high standards. For as he said:
"it is eyeless vulgarity which has destroyed art, the one certain solace of labour."
While William Morris is the figure we most associate with the Arts and Crafts Movement, this movement was in fact a collection of craft societies or guilds, whose members followed to a large extent the design theories of Morris.
Philip Webb table
Other significant designers associated with the Arts and Crafts movement at this time were: Philip Webb; Walter Crane; W R Lethaby; Charles Voysey; William Benson; A H Mackmurdo; Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
Philip Webb followed the Gothic tradition in his furniture design, with simple, sturdy forms. An architect and interior designer, he designed 'The Red House' for Morris in 1860, and was the main furniture designer for ‘The Firm’.
Walter Crane was an illustrator and designer of books, textiles, wallpapers and ceramic tiles; and his flowing style full of rythm and movement influenced the development of Art Nouveau in Europe where his work was popular. His style of book design served to unify the text and illustration, the lettering having the same weight and spacing as the image, harmonising them in a way reminiscent of mediaeval illuminated manuscripts with their exquisitely hand painted text and image interwoven. But designed instead for mass production.
William Lethaby was an associate of Walter Crane and in his furniture designs he epitomised the simple forms of the Arts and Crafts Movement. In this way his furniture emphasised the construction and materials used, with minimal embellishment.
Charles Voysey, an architect, first designed wallpapers, textiles and books, later furniture and metalwork. His work was inspired by the traditions of Gothic designs and by the swirling patterns of Morris and Mackmurdo, using lighter colours in his own patterns, often based on plant forms. Voysey’s domesticware was simple in his limiting of decoration to minimal forms, such as his recurring ‘heart’ and ‘flowerhead’ motifs. The work he produced with timber followed Arts and Crafts ideals about celebrating the properties of the material used.
William Benson was an associate of William Morris, an architect who designed metalwork, furniture and wallpapers, and worked closely with ‘The Firm’ of Morris. In his furniture he combined metalwork and wood inlays with rich woods such as mahogany. Unlike most of his colleagues, he embraced modern technology, using machinery extensively and manufacturing domestic metalwares.
Arthur Mackmurdo, an architect and designer, followed the fluid style of Morris in his designs for furniture, textiles and books. Derived from natural plant forms, his work had a stronger sense of movement than Morris’ and its dynamic quality and restless curves influenced Art Nouveau. However, like Voysey, he rejected the curvilinear design of Art Nouveau, calling it a ‘strange decorative disease’
Charles Rennie Mackintosh was an architect, a member of The Glasgow Four group of designers who developed their own style of furniture and interior design based on the Arts and Crafts principles. His furniture was more like sculpture than domesticware, emphasising architectural forms with elongated backs reminiscent of Voysey, but extended to exaggerated proportions.
Design icons they undoubtedly were, but solidly constructed they weren’t. Far removed from the useful function of a fireside chair -having a coat thrown over it to keep the sitter warm... a coat thrown over a Mackintosh chair would probably have destroyed it.
The chairs designed by Mackintosh incorporated Japanese design, then becoming known in Europe, especially in their grid motifs and patterns formed from parallel lines.
In its emphasis on being a thing of beauty, its linear angularity, painted surfaces, and unusual abstract references to natural forms, Mackintosh’s style was a primary element in the development of Art Nouveau.
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