Arts & Crafts Movement

While the Industrial Revolution was in full throttle, between 1800s into early 1900s, designers were 19ginning to transition away from he Victorian period and into what is now known as the Arts and Crafts Movement. Specifically, William Morris was the founding designer responsible for this movement. This movement can be characterized by a few things; they pride themselves in being completely handmade, joints in the wood are visible, the designs are strongly based off of medieval/gothic design, also influence by shaker furniture, and finally the use of high grain wood is used throughout the Arts and Crafts design. This movement was born with ideal, the idea that one gets satisfaction and respect by putting time and effort in the handmade aspect of their work. This is seen by an emphasis on all elements of a product. For example the use of high grain wood, large hardware and hinges. The name in and of itself, Arts and Crafts Movement, can tell you that they put a lot of thought and consideration into their design because it was more of craft to them. 

Hill House - 1902

Morris Chair 


Later on in the design community came the second generation of this movement, by founder Charles Voysey. This generation was gothic inspired as well, however, their was along Japanese inspiration paired along side with it. The second generation can be seen possessing characteristics of; the use of void areas and negative space, as well as possessing the same characteristics as the first generation with minor changes. Some of these changes can be seen with a more delicate touch, by using the negative space discussed above, the use of Japanese inspired characteristics, emphasis on hardware is not as defined but still prevalent.

Now a days we can still see an impact on the design community because of this Arts and Crafts Movement. One of these, which was discussed in class, is that of the Green Movement. The reason what this is true is because it was desired to improve our design for the better with the resources at hand. And with new technology, this Green movement is a change for the better, using out resources. Also, we can see this in homes specifically in kitchens, dens, libraries, and also in built-ins. Finally, this movement inspired what is known as Bungalow home.   





Influence of Arts and Crafts on furniture



Modern Influence of Arts and Craft

Click here to see an informative artivle by Emily Zaiden which goes a little more I depth on this topic.