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Why the World Is Obsessed with Midcentury Modern Design

83 points by Thevet 12y ago

hristov 12y ago
I would like to congratulate curbed.com for finding a new level of annoyingness in ads. They have a sound ad that does not have a corresponding video window (at least i could not find any) where you can kill the sound or pause the whole thing. So while I am reading the article I get to hear the same inane chatter about barbecuing every couple of minutes. Thanks so much!
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- visarga 12y ago
  That's easy. All computers have a mute button.
detaro 12y ago
"The World"? Is it just me, or is it largely a US thing? I mostly see it from US sources, but that could easily be selection bias... Anyone any insights?
- analog31 12y ago
  Perhaps one thing about the US is that we were in the right place at the right time to experience a residential building boom just when MCM was the thing. Disclaimer: I live in one of those houses, and enjoy the aesthetic. I've even carefully maintained the Nelson bubble lamps.
- timc3 12y ago
  It’s been really popular recently in Scandinavia, more so than normal. Personally most American furniture I see in real life is not up to the standard of design I see in and around Stockholm.
dgreensp 12y ago
Did anyone hang in there long enough to get to the "Why?"
- marincounty 12y ago
  no
- Brakenshire 12y ago
  Tl;dr timeless design and familiarity.
  - sliverstorm 12y ago
    Also that they were made for a certain kind of living, and we still generally live in the same kind of places.
TechNewb 12y ago
The term "midcentury" does not seem appropriate anymore. Y2K.
- possibilistic 12y ago
  I wasn't born in that era, yet I am immediately conscious of the style being described. I think this is owed to both the cultural preservation afforded by film and photography as well as the nostalgia of the previous generation (there are undoubtably a disproportionate number of films set during this period).
_cudgel 12y ago
Isn't this entirely off-topic for HN?
- moron4hire 12y ago
  Why does it matter? If it makes it to the front page, isn't it de facto on topic?
Brakenshire 12y ago
I think, the reason why it is enduringly popular is that the designs are not just aesthetic, they are also intertwined with developments in technology, industry and the economy. 'Modern' design is essentially 'throw out all previous ideas, start with a blank piece of paper, and remake things using modern industrial methods and materials'. That isn't just a design or a fashion, it is the embracing of a new reality.
grandalf 12y ago
Rather than "mid-century", it's actually high modernism. Subsequent so-called "modernism" ads needless, structually questionable adornment and archaic features. Similarly, high modernist poetry peaked in the 1940s and 1950s. Since then we've had some good poetry but nothing that attempts to meld form and function in the same way that modernist poets like Eliot and Stein were able to. IOW there is nothing dated about it -- which is why we still love it. Until furniture starts being made out of more space-age fabrics (or perhaps poetry out of emoji) it's unlikely that modernity will have much more to offer to furniture design or poetry... Postmodernism is the realization that modern ideals have been met and that some objective other than design and functionality can become the focal point. Often, ironically, it's nostalgia of some kind. There is nothing nostalgic about choosing modern designs. They simply optimize form and function with current materials and technology. That materials and tech for furniture have plateaued is a separate issue. Largely, the innovations have been in production, distribution, and manufacturing. Someone is far more likely today to live in a space adorned by modern designs mass-produced by Ikea or Target. On a separate note I just discovered startup furniture company "Joybird". Pretty nice stuff, mostly so-called 'mid-century modern'.
- TheOtherHobbes 12y ago
  "IOW there is nothing dated about it" I'm surprised someone thinks this. To me most of it looks obviously dated, and very much a spindly and kitschy consumer product of Cold War suburbia. It has very little of the purity of real modernism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_furniture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_furniture As for Stein - not everyone was impressed by her contribution: http://www.romanianculture.org/downloads/testimony_against_g_stein.pdf http://www.romanianculture.org/downloads/testimony_against_g...
  - grandalf 12y ago
    > I'm surprised someone thinks this. To me most of it looks obviously dated. I think this is mostly in the eye of the beholder. Is there really much difference in the use of materials and form/function? I'd argue it's a minor aesthetic difference. Also, I'd also argue that a chair like this is postmodern in the same way as designing a server case out of wood would be: Nostalgia for wood and desire for modern structure, where other materials would do a far better job. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eames_Lounge_Chair_Wood#/media/File:Eames_Wood_Chair.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eames_Lounge_Chair_Wood#/media/...
joshontheweb 12y ago
Eames, one of the most important pioneers of the mid-century modern design had a great motto: "The best for the most for the least." It was aimed merging great design with mass production so the everyday man could have affordably priced, well designed furniture. Not sure what happened, but these items are now priced for the wealthy.
- Brakenshire 12y ago
  It is interesting how modern, industrial arts seem to fall back on the old model of value. I feel the same with modern art, the way that it is still being bought and sold and exhibited in the same way as the old master, rather than an idea, or in general something which is not technically difficult to reproduce. I feel by now we should be having many more famous artists that solely produce prints, or works which are designed to be mass produced, not single pieces to go in a gallery or on an oligarch's wall.
- brc 12y ago
  I'd have to check but I bet, in real terms, those wanes chairs are around the same price as they were, adjusted for inflation. What has happened is the production of even cheaper mass produced furniture. What you're not looking at is the extinct hand made, ornate expensive furniture from the decades prior. Things that would be, if sold now, even more pricey than an eames chair. Properly cared for, one of those chairs will last a lifetime. That cannot be applied to cheaper furniture.
sobbybutter 12y ago
I wonder why so many people love midcentury design. It's uncomfortable, angular, fragile, cold, expensive, inhuman...you name it. Perhaps the items are just social vectors into the design world, conferring a status of "social elite" onto its participants. Any thoughts?
- msandford 12y ago
  I'm a huge minimalist, and there's basically nothing else that embraces the minimal aesthetic. I paid a lot of money (as a college kid) for a pair of dressers that were made by Komfort and are very similar to this dresser: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Danish-Modern-Teak-Bedroom-Dresser-by-Komfort-Bedroom-MCM-Eames-Credenza-/381221507439 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Danish-Modern-Teak-Bedroom-Dresser-b... As a programmer and a reductionist it's very appealing to me. It's about as simple as it can be with no extraneous ornamentation. The drawer pulls don't stick out, and the glides are hidden too. For some reason this really, really resonates with me in the same way that Maxwell's equations are incredibly elegant or a Fourier transform explains so much of the world in such a compact way. At risk of sounding like a hipster, I liked "midcentury modern" before Mad Men was cool. I think that my brain has worked the way it does for quite a while. I'm predisposed to liking midcentury stuff because I'm always trying to find the most compact, minimal form. In my mind the whole mapper/packer article that made the rounds a while ago helps explain it; I'm always looking for a more compact truth and that's bled over into the way I look at the physical world too. http://the-programmers-stone.com/the-original-talks/day-1-thinking-about-thinking/ http://the-programmers-stone.com/the-original-talks/day-1-th...
  - prawn 12y ago
    That dresser might be somewhat minimalist (curved bevel on the drawer faces, going by the photo), but a lot of MCM isn't to my eye. It's angled legs and curved tables and spindly frames that complicate the look IMO. There's a lot of contemporary furniture that I consider far closer to a minimal aesthetic.
    - slantedview 12y ago
partition 12y ago
AKA Why the [white world] is obsessed with midcentury [white] modern design. It's exceedingly popular because it allows white people to vicariously live out their racist/classist fantasies, so that they can feel comfortable in an increasingly globalized economy.
- moron4hire 12y ago
  "Lucy, you got some 'splainin' to do".
possibilistic 12y ago
I find this style wholly garish. Thank you for giving me the vocabulary to describe it. Mid-century modernism is whimsical, busy, distracting. More than anything, it belongs to our grandparent's generation; it's an admission that we didn't reach the sought after future of robots and space travel. I would take sleek lines and monochromatic shades over this any day. This is just my personal opinion, of course. I'm very cognizant of the fact that many people appreciate this style and find my own to be bland and drab.
- prawn 12y ago
  I think more parents-and-grandparents' generation. Grandparents' generation is a bit more decorative IMO.
- coldtea 12y ago
  >it's an admission that we didn't reach the sought after future of robots and space travel. Sought after by whom? It's not something people particularly want (heck, most people don't even care for sci-fi enough to have a couple TV channels and quality Hollywood genre movies made)...
nkozyra 12y ago
Trends come and go, this is a fruitless thing to worry about. Stick to what works for you, don't worry about things that don't and eventually the stars will align.
pnathan 12y ago
I would like to see the design world move on from modernism. It tends towards the spare and geometric, and frequently divorced from the general concerns and oriented towards the artistic aspirations of the designer. As a simple example, consider the the 'flat' stylings. In a number of cases in my experience, the flat style made it harder to use the program. That is aggravating - it was art change for the sake of art change, adhering to the tired old modernist ideas. It's quite worth reading this debate: http://www.katarxis3.com/Alexander_Eisenman_Debate.htm http://www.katarxis3.com/Alexander_Eisenman_Debate.htm And I find I am wholly on Alexander's kind of side.
bootload 12y ago
"Some midcentury furniture designs, like the iconic Eames Lounge Chair, never went out of production, but many others had fallen out of production by the mid 90s." A startup founder I worked with in the 90's filled the office with Charles Eames chairs and tables. A bit sparse but functional. The pieces were not that expensive, more expensive than say IKEA, this was a legal startup.
kazinator 12y ago
A lot of this can be explained by China. They are kind of in their 1960's in some ways. And China is where most of this stuff is made, so ...
- calbear81 12y ago
  Actually, the higher end mid-century furniture makers are pretty committed to US manufacturing. In particular, Herman Miller manufactures in Michigan and furniture from places like Room & Board are mostly sourced from Virginia, North Carolina and other traditional woodworking areas.
oliv__ 12y ago
".php" Hadn't seen one of those in a while.
beat 12y ago
The article completely failed on the "why". It focused almost entirely on the "what". So why? First, the post-WWII era was a tremendously successful one. The world was forward-looking and optimistic. Then, our pop culture was looking to a peaceful, hi-tech future in space. What are we looking at in pop culture today? Zombie apocalypse. It was also the last strongly defined aesthetic. After its rococo climax in late 1960s psychedelia, art lost direction. The gloom and negativity of the 1970s didn't find much shape in any art form but cinema, and ultimately the Sex Pistols came along in 1977, pronounced modernism dead, and kicked its corpse. After punk, the world of high art aesthetics turned to postmodernism, reassembling bits and bobs of history and multiculturalism into a shape that reflected the past, not the future. Then the Internet came along, and design focus shifted to the web. Out in the physical world, postmodernism degenerated into mere hipsterdom. I'm kind of hoping that hipsters are to postmodernism what psychedelia was to modernism, and a new, popular aesthetic can rise - something that recognizes the constraints and strengths of the 21st century. A lot of new art styles come from new technologies, so maybe 3D printing will lead us somewhere magical. One can only hope.
mmaldacker 12y ago
The barcelona chair is a classic furniture from the bauhaus period designed in 1929, which is not even close to the "midcentury" period defined in the article.

83 points by Thevet 12y ago

I would like to congratulate curbed.com for finding a new level of annoyingness in ads. They have a sound ad that does not have a corresponding video window (at least i could not find any) where you can kill the sound or pause the whole thing. So while I am reading the article I get to hear the same inane chatter about barbecuing every couple of minutes. Thanks so much!

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
visarga 12y ago
That's easy. All computers have a mute button.

detaro 12y ago

"The World"? Is it just me, or is it largely a US thing? I mostly see it from US sources, but that could easily be selection bias... Anyone any insights?

analog31 12y ago
Perhaps one thing about the US is that we were in the right place at the right time to experience a residential building boom just when MCM was the thing. Disclaimer: I live in one of those houses, and enjoy the aesthetic. I've even carefully maintained the Nelson bubble lamps.
timc3 12y ago
It’s been really popular recently in Scandinavia, more so than normal. Personally most American furniture I see in real life is not up to the standard of design I see in and around Stockholm.

dgreensp 12y ago

Did anyone hang in there long enough to get to the "Why?"

marincounty 12y ago
no
Brakenshire 12y ago
Tl;dr timeless design and familiarity.
- sliverstorm 12y ago
  Also that they were made for a certain kind of living, and we still generally live in the same kind of places.

TechNewb 12y ago

The term "midcentury" does not seem appropriate anymore. Y2K.

possibilistic 12y ago
I wasn't born in that era, yet I am immediately conscious of the style being described. I think this is owed to both the cultural preservation afforded by film and photography as well as the nostalgia of the previous generation (there are undoubtably a disproportionate number of films set during this period).

_cudgel 12y ago

Isn't this entirely off-topic for HN?

moron4hire 12y ago
Why does it matter? If it makes it to the front page, isn't it de facto on topic?

Brakenshire 12y ago

I think, the reason why it is enduringly popular is that the designs are not just aesthetic, they are also intertwined with developments in technology, industry and the economy. 'Modern' design is essentially 'throw out all previous ideas, start with a blank piece of paper, and remake things using modern industrial methods and materials'. That isn't just a design or a fashion, it is the embracing of a new reality.

grandalf 12y ago

Rather than "mid-century", it's actually high modernism. Subsequent so-called "modernism" ads needless, structually questionable adornment and archaic features. Similarly, high modernist poetry peaked in the 1940s and 1950s. Since then we've had some good poetry but nothing that attempts to meld form and function in the same way that modernist poets like Eliot and Stein were able to. IOW there is nothing dated about it -- which is why we still love it. Until furniture starts being made out of more space-age fabrics (or perhaps poetry out of emoji) it's unlikely that modernity will have much more to offer to furniture design or poetry... Postmodernism is the realization that modern ideals have been met and that some objective other than design and functionality can become the focal point. Often, ironically, it's nostalgia of some kind. There is nothing nostalgic about choosing modern designs. They simply optimize form and function with current materials and technology. That materials and tech for furniture have plateaued is a separate issue. Largely, the innovations have been in production, distribution, and manufacturing. Someone is far more likely today to live in a space adorned by modern designs mass-produced by Ikea or Target. On a separate note I just discovered startup furniture company "Joybird". Pretty nice stuff, mostly so-called 'mid-century modern'.

TheOtherHobbes 12y ago
"IOW there is nothing dated about it" I'm surprised someone thinks this. To me most of it looks obviously dated, and very much a spindly and kitschy consumer product of Cold War suburbia. It has very little of the purity of real modernism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_furniture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_furniture As for Stein - not everyone was impressed by her contribution: http://www.romanianculture.org/downloads/testimony_against_g_stein.pdf http://www.romanianculture.org/downloads/testimony_against_g...
- grandalf 12y ago
  > I'm surprised someone thinks this. To me most of it looks obviously dated. I think this is mostly in the eye of the beholder. Is there really much difference in the use of materials and form/function? I'd argue it's a minor aesthetic difference. Also, I'd also argue that a chair like this is postmodern in the same way as designing a server case out of wood would be: Nostalgia for wood and desire for modern structure, where other materials would do a far better job. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eames_Lounge_Chair_Wood#/media/File:Eames_Wood_Chair.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eames_Lounge_Chair_Wood#/media/...

joshontheweb 12y ago

Eames, one of the most important pioneers of the mid-century modern design had a great motto: "The best for the most for the least." It was aimed merging great design with mass production so the everyday man could have affordably priced, well designed furniture. Not sure what happened, but these items are now priced for the wealthy.

Brakenshire 12y ago
It is interesting how modern, industrial arts seem to fall back on the old model of value. I feel the same with modern art, the way that it is still being bought and sold and exhibited in the same way as the old master, rather than an idea, or in general something which is not technically difficult to reproduce. I feel by now we should be having many more famous artists that solely produce prints, or works which are designed to be mass produced, not single pieces to go in a gallery or on an oligarch's wall.
brc 12y ago
I'd have to check but I bet, in real terms, those wanes chairs are around the same price as they were, adjusted for inflation. What has happened is the production of even cheaper mass produced furniture. What you're not looking at is the extinct hand made, ornate expensive furniture from the decades prior. Things that would be, if sold now, even more pricey than an eames chair. Properly cared for, one of those chairs will last a lifetime. That cannot be applied to cheaper furniture.

sobbybutter 12y ago

I wonder why so many people love midcentury design. It's uncomfortable, angular, fragile, cold, expensive, inhuman...you name it. Perhaps the items are just social vectors into the design world, conferring a status of "social elite" onto its participants. Any thoughts?

msandford 12y ago
I'm a huge minimalist, and there's basically nothing else that embraces the minimal aesthetic. I paid a lot of money (as a college kid) for a pair of dressers that were made by Komfort and are very similar to this dresser: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Danish-Modern-Teak-Bedroom-Dresser-by-Komfort-Bedroom-MCM-Eames-Credenza-/381221507439 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Danish-Modern-Teak-Bedroom-Dresser-b... As a programmer and a reductionist it's very appealing to me. It's about as simple as it can be with no extraneous ornamentation. The drawer pulls don't stick out, and the glides are hidden too. For some reason this really, really resonates with me in the same way that Maxwell's equations are incredibly elegant or a Fourier transform explains so much of the world in such a compact way. At risk of sounding like a hipster, I liked "midcentury modern" before Mad Men was cool. I think that my brain has worked the way it does for quite a while. I'm predisposed to liking midcentury stuff because I'm always trying to find the most compact, minimal form. In my mind the whole mapper/packer article that made the rounds a while ago helps explain it; I'm always looking for a more compact truth and that's bled over into the way I look at the physical world too. http://the-programmers-stone.com/the-original-talks/day-1-thinking-about-thinking/ http://the-programmers-stone.com/the-original-talks/day-1-th...
- prawn 12y ago
  That dresser might be somewhat minimalist (curved bevel on the drawer faces, going by the photo), but a lot of MCM isn't to my eye. It's angled legs and curved tables and spindly frames that complicate the look IMO. There's a lot of contemporary furniture that I consider far closer to a minimal aesthetic.
  - slantedview 12y ago

partition 12y ago

AKA Why the [white world] is obsessed with midcentury [white] modern design. It's exceedingly popular because it allows white people to vicariously live out their racist/classist fantasies, so that they can feel comfortable in an increasingly globalized economy.

moron4hire 12y ago
"Lucy, you got some 'splainin' to do".

possibilistic 12y ago

I find this style wholly garish. Thank you for giving me the vocabulary to describe it. Mid-century modernism is whimsical, busy, distracting. More than anything, it belongs to our grandparent's generation; it's an admission that we didn't reach the sought after future of robots and space travel. I would take sleek lines and monochromatic shades over this any day. This is just my personal opinion, of course. I'm very cognizant of the fact that many people appreciate this style and find my own to be bland and drab.

prawn 12y ago
I think more parents-and-grandparents' generation. Grandparents' generation is a bit more decorative IMO.
coldtea 12y ago
>it's an admission that we didn't reach the sought after future of robots and space travel. Sought after by whom? It's not something people particularly want (heck, most people don't even care for sci-fi enough to have a couple TV channels and quality Hollywood genre movies made)...

nkozyra 12y ago

Trends come and go, this is a fruitless thing to worry about. Stick to what works for you, don't worry about things that don't and eventually the stars will align.

pnathan 12y ago

I would like to see the design world move on from modernism. It tends towards the spare and geometric, and frequently divorced from the general concerns and oriented towards the artistic aspirations of the designer. As a simple example, consider the the 'flat' stylings. In a number of cases in my experience, the flat style made it harder to use the program. That is aggravating - it was art change for the sake of art change, adhering to the tired old modernist ideas. It's quite worth reading this debate: http://www.katarxis3.com/Alexander_Eisenman_Debate.htm http://www.katarxis3.com/Alexander_Eisenman_Debate.htm And I find I am wholly on Alexander's kind of side.

bootload 12y ago

"Some midcentury furniture designs, like the iconic Eames Lounge Chair, never went out of production, but many others had fallen out of production by the mid 90s." A startup founder I worked with in the 90's filled the office with Charles Eames chairs and tables. A bit sparse but functional. The pieces were not that expensive, more expensive than say IKEA, this was a legal startup.

kazinator 12y ago

A lot of this can be explained by China. They are kind of in their 1960's in some ways. And China is where most of this stuff is made, so ...

calbear81 12y ago
Actually, the higher end mid-century furniture makers are pretty committed to US manufacturing. In particular, Herman Miller manufactures in Michigan and furniture from places like Room & Board are mostly sourced from Virginia, North Carolina and other traditional woodworking areas.

oliv__ 12y ago

".php" Hadn't seen one of those in a while.

beat 12y ago

The article completely failed on the "why". It focused almost entirely on the "what". So why? First, the post-WWII era was a tremendously successful one. The world was forward-looking and optimistic. Then, our pop culture was looking to a peaceful, hi-tech future in space. What are we looking at in pop culture today? Zombie apocalypse. It was also the last strongly defined aesthetic. After its rococo climax in late 1960s psychedelia, art lost direction. The gloom and negativity of the 1970s didn't find much shape in any art form but cinema, and ultimately the Sex Pistols came along in 1977, pronounced modernism dead, and kicked its corpse. After punk, the world of high art aesthetics turned to postmodernism, reassembling bits and bobs of history and multiculturalism into a shape that reflected the past, not the future. Then the Internet came along, and design focus shifted to the web. Out in the physical world, postmodernism degenerated into mere hipsterdom. I'm kind of hoping that hipsters are to postmodernism what psychedelia was to modernism, and a new, popular aesthetic can rise - something that recognizes the constraints and strengths of the 21st century. A lot of new art styles come from new technologies, so maybe 3D printing will lead us somewhere magical. One can only hope.

mmaldacker 12y ago

The barcelona chair is a classic furniture from the bauhaus period designed in 1929, which is not even close to the "midcentury" period defined in the article.