How Did The Biggest Influence Of Modernism On The World?

Due to strong advances within technology, modernism began to break through at the end of the 19th century into the beginning to the 20th century. The modern movement came as a result of the industrial revolution and urbanisation caused by westernised society which began to develop new ways to shape human culture and improve the constructed environment. Within this shaping, modernism covered many creative disciplines from art and design to influencing architecture, music and the idea of conceptual and well thought through design. One could argue that the biggest influence modernism had on the world is the impact it had on the way designers comply with social needs and present these needs through visual communication.

1. Gropius, Walter. Programm

With the idea of art serving the needs of people, Gropius took over an existing art school in Weimar and turned it into The Bauhaus. He went on to write his first manifesto in 1919 and within this he wrote about the philosophies of the Bauhaus and what it strived to ambitiously achieve. ‘The Bauhaus strives to bring together all creative effort into one whole, to reunify all the disciplines of practical art-sculpture, painting, handicrafts, and the crafts-as inseparable components of a new architecture.’(Gropius, W. 1919. Open Culture. 26 Nov. 2015 http://www.openculture.com) Contrasting with other design establishments where art was purely elitist groups, taught to a select few and where it was popularly ‘a craft learnt trough apprenticeship models’ (Gropius, W. 1919. Open Culture. 26 Nov. 2015 http://www.openculture.com) Gropius intended to go down a different route and create an environment that was affordable for

Modernist education within design and its birthplace in 20th century modernism encourage students to be passive and objective communicators. Over time, these words have become strongly associated with the idea that these are the characteristics needed to being a ‘professional.’ However, with this there becomes the question of how one can be a professional, yet still aim to keep one’s individual voice and root principles. McCoy suggests that by choosing to regularly work with the corporate world you should accept that fact that it is an active job due to the way it prioritises the demand for large businesses over all else, and therefore begins to encourage designers to carefully think about the purpose or subject matter of their projects, something of which was a mass part of the modernism movement. -“A design has no more integrity than its purpose or subject matter. Garbage in, garbage out.” (McCoy, K. 1993:6) She believes that this new ideal way of thinking, inspired by modernism, must start through education with projects that have a vast range of content that extends past ‘professional’ needs and has emphasis on social, political and economical problems. Designers must clarify their beliefs and values, and not hide away from