Without a doubt Bauhaus was more than just a school. As we looked at the history and the manifesto of Bauhaus and what effects the industrial revolution had on design there were many questions we discussed: what should an art school look like? Who is a designer? What should design focus on?
I think there are lots of interesting questions that have been raised in relation to Bauhaus but there is one in particular that I would like to focus on. We talked about the relationship between designers and the industry: ‘If designers continue as enablers of the industry, they will be synonymous with ‘stylists.’’ How much are we letting the industry to shape the designers and not doing it the other way around: the designers shaping the industy?
Most of us would agree that the graphic design industry is very much dominated by products from Apple and Adobe. What would happen with the designers of today if we would take these tools away from them? Would they be still designers without these? Computers changed the way how we live just as much as industrial revolution changed the world in the 1900s. It is very obvious that there is no way back.
What bauhaus was doing is that they did not let the industry shape them. If Herbert Bayer would apply to a job in 2019 stating that he can’t use these softwares would he even receive a job in the industry? Does Apple or Adobe enable the designers to create anything they want or does it restrict them?
Are these tools in the way of our creativity and our thoughts? Do they restrict and imprison us by unconsciously limiting the creative process? Are they becoming more than just tools? Also how inclusive is an industry where you need to pay a certain amount to be even able to participate? How many percent of the world population can actually afford that? Is money that makes us designers? Or Apple? Or a software? Are we stylist or a designers?
We can quickly see that this can become a very exclusive group if designers create designs using the computer to be viewed on a computer for people having access to all these tools and I wonder how meaningful this is if a good proportion of the world is left out?
Photographs:
Bauhaus Dessau Exterior (1990) photo Erik Bohr
Bauhaus Dessau (1925-6,) view up studio block stairs.
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