5 ms·

There was no design,as a subject, in Soviet Union. It all fell under industrial engineering blanket and the looks were just a part of the entire process to get

There was no design,as a subject, in Soviet Union. It all fell under industrial engineering blanket and the looks were just a part of the entire process to get a working product. Architecture, however,was somewhat unique in this aspect,as there was more expressiveness in some works(non residential only,though).

barrkel 6y ago
I don't think there's any such thing as "no design" (though I understand you to mean the academic subject). All design evokes something. Colours, font, margin and spacing, edges and borders - it all evokes some things that came before it more than others, and the relationship with the human body and its feeling of agoraphobia and claustrophobia, kinematics - whether controls are pointy or smooth, hard or soft, stiff or slick or springy, continuous or with detents - it all adds up to an aesthetic. You can't help but have design. You know when things don't "feel" right. When something feels flimsy instead of solid; when it's haphazard instead of regular. And when the design is exceptionally poor, chaotic, that too is a design - a kind of mad, insane design, or primitive and naive, unskilled - it always evokes something.
- cosmodisk 6y ago
  I meant it as an academic subject. In terms of colour,shape,form, function,and other,so called design properties, were well understood, however not always applied, especially in consumer products.
aasasd 6y ago
> the looks were just a part of the entire process to get a working product Well, that would be enough for ‘industrial design’ as a discipline—the question is whether ‘the product does not cause suffering from looking at it and touching it’ was considered a part of the criteria for ‘working’.
alde 6y ago
This is not true. There was a whole institute doing industrial design: the Soviet Scientific Research Institute of Industrial Aesthetics [1]. That institute was also publishing a monthly "Technical Aesthetics" magazine from 1964 to 1992. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VNIITE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VNIITE
- cosmodisk 6y ago
  Ok,fair enough, looks like they were taking it more serious than I ever thought. It's quite interesting that they called it Industrial Aesthetics. Also,the Russian Wikipedia article is extremely detail on what was going on there: https://ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%85%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D1%83%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%81%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%82_(%D0%92%D0%9D%D0%98%D0%98%D0%A2%D0%AD) https://ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%...
- aasasd 6y ago
  Oh heck, I've seen pics of the PT minivan back in the 90s, in the stash of either ‘Tech for the Youth’ or ‘Science and Life’. Its look has stuck with me as the embodiment of Soviet retrofuturism, which is what I actually remember as daring Soviet tech design. I kept wondering a bit if RAF-2203 took some cues from the PT. Other RAF minivans seem to be obviously inspired by VW Type 2.
romwell 6y ago
>There was no design,as a subject, in Soviet Union Plainly false [1]{RUS}. Reminds me of the infamous "There is no sex in the USSR!" blurb[2]. [1]https://profiok.com/news/detail.php?ID=5516 https://profiok.com/news/detail.php?ID=5516 [2]https://russiapedia.rt.com/on-this-day/july-17/ https://russiapedia.rt.com/on-this-day/july-17/

barrkel 6y ago

I don't think there's any such thing as "no design" (though I understand you to mean the academic subject). All design evokes something. Colours, font, margin and spacing, edges and borders - it all evokes some things that came before it more than others, and the relationship with the human body and its feeling of agoraphobia and claustrophobia, kinematics - whether controls are pointy or smooth, hard or soft, stiff or slick or springy, continuous or with detents - it all adds up to an aesthetic. You can't help but have design. You know when things don't "feel" right. When something feels flimsy instead of solid; when it's haphazard instead of regular. And when the design is exceptionally poor, chaotic, that too is a design - a kind of mad, insane design, or primitive and naive, unskilled - it always evokes something.

cosmodisk 6y ago
I meant it as an academic subject. In terms of colour,shape,form, function,and other,so called design properties, were well understood, however not always applied, especially in consumer products.

aasasd 6y ago

> the looks were just a part of the entire process to get a working product Well, that would be enough for ‘industrial design’ as a discipline—the question is whether ‘the product does not cause suffering from looking at it and touching it’ was considered a part of the criteria for ‘working’.

alde 6y ago

This is not true. There was a whole institute doing industrial design: the Soviet Scientific Research Institute of Industrial Aesthetics [1]. That institute was also publishing a monthly "Technical Aesthetics" magazine from 1964 to 1992. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VNIITE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VNIITE

cosmodisk 6y ago
Ok,fair enough, looks like they were taking it more serious than I ever thought. It's quite interesting that they called it Industrial Aesthetics. Also,the Russian Wikipedia article is extremely detail on what was going on there: https://ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%85%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D1%83%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%81%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%82_(%D0%92%D0%9D%D0%98%D0%98%D0%A2%D0%AD) https://ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%...
aasasd 6y ago
Oh heck, I've seen pics of the PT minivan back in the 90s, in the stash of either ‘Tech for the Youth’ or ‘Science and Life’. Its look has stuck with me as the embodiment of Soviet retrofuturism, which is what I actually remember as daring Soviet tech design. I kept wondering a bit if RAF-2203 took some cues from the PT. Other RAF minivans seem to be obviously inspired by VW Type 2.

romwell 6y ago

>There was no design,as a subject, in Soviet Union Plainly false [1]{RUS}. Reminds me of the infamous "There is no sex in the USSR!" blurb[2]. [1]https://profiok.com/news/detail.php?ID=5516 https://profiok.com/news/detail.php?ID=5516 [2]https://russiapedia.rt.com/on-this-day/july-17/ https://russiapedia.rt.com/on-this-day/july-17/