Before Class: Chapter Twelve

1. Sum up the reading in your own words in 1 paragraph.
Chapter 12 started out talking about "the four" and Frank Lloyd Wright. "The four" were four distinct artist, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, J. Herbert Mcnair, and the sisters Margaret and Frances Macdonald, who created the Glasgow School, and developed a unique style of lyrical originality and symbolic complexity. They worked with geometric styles and combined tempered floral and curvilinear elements with strong rectilinear structure into their designs. They also influenced architecture along with their influence in graphic design, Mackintosh had more of an influence on architecture. Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, who saw space as the essence of design. Wright defined organic design as having entity, "something in which the part is to the whole as the whole is to the part, and which is all devoted to a purpose..." Another artist from this time period was Peter Behrens, a German artist, architect, and designer who played a major role in charting a course for design in the first decade of the new century. He has been called "the first industrial designer" , he worked for the Allgemeine Elektrizitats-Gesellschaft or AEG, ans he designed their logo. And the remainder of the chapter discussed the the design of the London Underground, which was the first underground electric railway system that opened in 1890. The design of the logo was a white background with a red circle in the middle, a blue rectangle going through the center of the circle, that read UNDERGROUND in white sans serifs. This is a very geometric, basic logo which is still being used today.

2. Name the one thing (or person) you found most interesting from the reading.
The design for the London Underground was very interesting, just the thought that a design from when the railway system was opened is still being used today is really cool. It just shows that a good design can last for a long time if it is done in good taste and is well liked.

3. State at least one question you have after the reading. (if you state none here, you’d better have more detail done above to offset the work.)
Why were teakettles such a big deal for AEG? Why were they talked about so much, regarding different materials, components, and designs?