4 ms·

Moscow Design Museum has some more examples too http://moscowdesignmuseum.ru/en/exhibitions/1/ http://moscowdesignmuseum.ru/en/exhibitions/1/. Those that grew u

by rdtsc 9y ago

Moscow Design Museum has some more examples too http://moscowdesignmuseum.ru/en/exhibitions/1/ http://moscowdesignmuseum.ru/en/exhibitions/1/. Those that grew up in Soviet Union will recognize familiar objects. I recognized the phones, the "basketball" game, and the portable checkers game. Well and of course the Moskvitch 408 car. I don't remember really thinking about design back then. Maybe because we didn't have many choices. You wanted a tape player you picked between 4 models, cars - same thing, and so on. And there is probably an effect here of finding the best stuff and displaying it. But that wasn't the average. Most of the stuff remember being unreliable and needing repair. Electronic equipment came with nice diagrams of how everything worked, but it wasn't from the goodness of their hearts, environmental concerns, or trying to foster a "maker" culture, it was because it would actually be unreliable and break down quite often.

walrus01 9y ago
there's a whole genre of art defined in the west as "soviet futurism". Lots of the early space race era public propaganda posters and such fall into this category. https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&hs=n9w&channel=fs&biw=1634&bih=1632&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=GtvSWomUD42p8AOAkYS4Aw&q=soviet+futurism&oq=soviet+futurism&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0l2j0i8i30k1.9560.10650.0.10712.9.9.0.0.0.0.88.586.9.9.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..0.9.584...0i67k1.0.YKUpDyEgdbI https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&hs=n9w&channel=f... https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&hs=y9w&channel=fs&biw=1634&bih=1632&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=JdvSWoHZKqaB0wKOr7KIAQ&q=soviet+space+propaganda&oq=soviet+space+propaganda&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0l3j0i8i30k1l4.45932.49338.0.49420.18.14.1.3.3.0.82.834.13.13.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..1.17.872....0.6wLhS_Tl9tE https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&hs=y9w&channel=f...
markvdb 9y ago
One thing always strikes me in terms of design when I'm in Latvia (USSR republic in 1940 and 1945-1990). It is how modular, repairable, and in that way "simple" things that have survived from the Soviet era look. Ingeniously built wooden ironing boards for example, the older generations of trams of Riga, the "Minsk" folding bicycles that you still see around very often, the trains (no new ones since 1991!), even many of the "Chrushchovkas" appartment blocks... Contrary to my previous western bias, some things were clearly being built very sturdily. In comparison, a lot of things built in the '90s and 2000's seem to be crumbling already. It all smells of inferior materials, quick and dirty fixes... I don't know if that is survivor bias kicking in though...
- paganel 9y ago
  > older generations of trams of Riga A quick google search confirmed what I had already suspected, that is that those trams are Tatra trams, built in former Czechoslovakia. I’m a big fan of them, I think they are the main reason why I immediately became a tram-lover as a student almost 20 years ago when I moved to Bucharest in order to study. Of course, the newer trams look and are often times a lot more comfortable, but those Tatra trams have something of a “timeless design” about them that is hard to pin down but which you can still feel. Ever since I’ve become a tram lover I starting seeing cities without electric public transport (trams or trolleys) as belonging to an “inferior” stage of civilization.
  - prolepunk 9y ago
    I don't think this is something particular to Warsaw bloc countries. For example I love GM new look buses that were running around refurbished up until early 2000s, and the main reason they were replaced not because last of them broke down but because they weren't accessible. I bet it's the same situation with Tatra streetcars. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=gm+new+look+bus&t=ffab&atb=v112-4&iax=images&ia=images https://duckduckgo.com/?q=gm+new+look+bus&t=ffab&atb=v112-4&...
    - watersb 9y ago
      "accessible" here meaning "able to be used by people in wheelchairs. (I guess almost all HN readers are familiar with this term from software "accessibility" design. USA English is my native (and at present, only) language but I find these terms odd.)
      - deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]
- flohofwoe 9y ago
  Good example of this are the Simson bikes from Eastern Germany, small 50cc motor cycles going up to 70 km/h. Their technical design is extremely simple, and they are being repaired and are in normal daily use all over the country (not just by nostalgia nerds or hipster city dwellers). Many owners are most likely younger than the bike they're riding.
hnarn 9y ago
>Electronic equipment came with nice diagrams of how everything worked, but it wasn't from the goodness of their hearts, environmental concerns, or trying to foster a "maker" culture, it was because it would actually be unreliable and break down quite often. I'm not trying to be a political apologist here, but it doesn't have to be just one of them, right? I mean, the products could be inferior because of some factors, and there could be attempts to foster a "maker" culture because of other factors.
caf 9y ago
I think in that era electronic equipment often came with schematics in the West, too. I'm pretty sure our TRS-80 manuals had a schematic, and I remember opening up a few transistor radios to find the schematic screen-printed on the inside of the case.
- lb1lf 9y ago
  I remember poring over the C64 schematic for hours on end back in the eighties. I believe it was printed as a fold-out at the back of the programmer's reference guide. That schematic probably more than anything else influenced my later career as an electronics engineer - I really, really wanted to be able to figure out how it all came together and actually made a useful product.
- digi_owl 9y ago
  The family (CRT) TV in the 80s came with a fold out schematic tucked in a pocket on the inside of the back cover. And a CRT is not something to take lightly, as there is a sizable transformer in there to drive the electron gun and the magnets that deflect the beam. What happened, imo, is the increasing used of ICs (first standardized ones, and later ASICs). This made it much harder to troubleshoot a device without access to an oscilloscope and the ability to order up OEM parts. Before that a multimeter and some basic understanding of electric circuits could get you a long way.
cema 9y ago
Most of the stuff remember being unreliable and needing repair. Also looking pretty drab most of the time.

by rdtsc 9y ago

walrus01 9y ago

there's a whole genre of art defined in the west as "soviet futurism". Lots of the early space race era public propaganda posters and such fall into this category. https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&hs=n9w&channel=fs&biw=1634&bih=1632&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=GtvSWomUD42p8AOAkYS4Aw&q=soviet+futurism&oq=soviet+futurism&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0l2j0i8i30k1.9560.10650.0.10712.9.9.0.0.0.0.88.586.9.9.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..0.9.584...0i67k1.0.YKUpDyEgdbI https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&hs=n9w&channel=f... https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&hs=y9w&channel=fs&biw=1634&bih=1632&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=JdvSWoHZKqaB0wKOr7KIAQ&q=soviet+space+propaganda&oq=soviet+space+propaganda&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0l3j0i8i30k1l4.45932.49338.0.49420.18.14.1.3.3.0.82.834.13.13.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..1.17.872....0.6wLhS_Tl9tE https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&hs=y9w&channel=f...

markvdb 9y ago

One thing always strikes me in terms of design when I'm in Latvia (USSR republic in 1940 and 1945-1990). It is how modular, repairable, and in that way "simple" things that have survived from the Soviet era look. Ingeniously built wooden ironing boards for example, the older generations of trams of Riga, the "Minsk" folding bicycles that you still see around very often, the trains (no new ones since 1991!), even many of the "Chrushchovkas" appartment blocks... Contrary to my previous western bias, some things were clearly being built very sturdily. In comparison, a lot of things built in the '90s and 2000's seem to be crumbling already. It all smells of inferior materials, quick and dirty fixes... I don't know if that is survivor bias kicking in though...

paganel 9y ago
> older generations of trams of Riga A quick google search confirmed what I had already suspected, that is that those trams are Tatra trams, built in former Czechoslovakia. I’m a big fan of them, I think they are the main reason why I immediately became a tram-lover as a student almost 20 years ago when I moved to Bucharest in order to study. Of course, the newer trams look and are often times a lot more comfortable, but those Tatra trams have something of a “timeless design” about them that is hard to pin down but which you can still feel. Ever since I’ve become a tram lover I starting seeing cities without electric public transport (trams or trolleys) as belonging to an “inferior” stage of civilization.
- prolepunk 9y ago
  I don't think this is something particular to Warsaw bloc countries. For example I love GM new look buses that were running around refurbished up until early 2000s, and the main reason they were replaced not because last of them broke down but because they weren't accessible. I bet it's the same situation with Tatra streetcars. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=gm+new+look+bus&t=ffab&atb=v112-4&iax=images&ia=images https://duckduckgo.com/?q=gm+new+look+bus&t=ffab&atb=v112-4&...
  - watersb 9y ago
    "accessible" here meaning "able to be used by people in wheelchairs. (I guess almost all HN readers are familiar with this term from software "accessibility" design. USA English is my native (and at present, only) language but I find these terms odd.)
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
flohofwoe 9y ago
Good example of this are the Simson bikes from Eastern Germany, small 50cc motor cycles going up to 70 km/h. Their technical design is extremely simple, and they are being repaired and are in normal daily use all over the country (not just by nostalgia nerds or hipster city dwellers). Many owners are most likely younger than the bike they're riding.

hnarn 9y ago

>Electronic equipment came with nice diagrams of how everything worked, but it wasn't from the goodness of their hearts, environmental concerns, or trying to foster a "maker" culture, it was because it would actually be unreliable and break down quite often. I'm not trying to be a political apologist here, but it doesn't have to be just one of them, right? I mean, the products could be inferior because of some factors, and there could be attempts to foster a "maker" culture because of other factors.

caf 9y ago

I think in that era electronic equipment often came with schematics in the West, too. I'm pretty sure our TRS-80 manuals had a schematic, and I remember opening up a few transistor radios to find the schematic screen-printed on the inside of the case.

lb1lf 9y ago
I remember poring over the C64 schematic for hours on end back in the eighties. I believe it was printed as a fold-out at the back of the programmer's reference guide. That schematic probably more than anything else influenced my later career as an electronics engineer - I really, really wanted to be able to figure out how it all came together and actually made a useful product.
digi_owl 9y ago
The family (CRT) TV in the 80s came with a fold out schematic tucked in a pocket on the inside of the back cover. And a CRT is not something to take lightly, as there is a sizable transformer in there to drive the electron gun and the magnets that deflect the beam. What happened, imo, is the increasing used of ICs (first standardized ones, and later ASICs). This made it much harder to troubleshoot a device without access to an oscilloscope and the ability to order up OEM parts. Before that a multimeter and some basic understanding of electric circuits could get you a long way.

cema 9y ago

Most of the stuff remember being unreliable and needing repair. Also looking pretty drab most of the time.