Good Design Never Goes Out of Fashion
While flipping through a Design Within Reach catalogue recently, I came across some chairs designed in 1859 by Michael Thonet called the Era Collection. As someone who’s interested in history and always drawn to classic aesthetics, I marveled at the fact that a chair designed more than 150 years ago could still be sought-after by today’s consumers. In reading the description, however, it’s no wonder that Thonet’s bentwood design is still thriving today; the chair is characterized as dependable, simple, graceful, and strong.
This got me thinking about design that stands the test of time. In today’s fast-paced world, we can often get caught up in the “next new thing,” but we can sometimes forget about those “oldies but goodies.” When I reflect on what makes certain design -- whether industrial, graphic, or fashion -- timeless and iconic, I always come back to the tenets of beauty and function. When these two principles are artfully married, the result is something lasting that resonates with people at the most basic and instinctual level. Human beings crave both function and beauty to enrich our lives -- function for our bodies and beauty for the soul.
To quote Holger Nielsen, who designed the timeless Vipp Bin trashcan in 1939, I believe it's true that “good design never goes out of fashion.”
