This movement came after the
Industrial Revolution by the time of the 1860’s in Britain
Augustus Pugin’s writings and
reforming ideas together with John Ruskin’s beliefs paved the way to change
this attitude and started giving importance to those aspects of craftsmanship
which had been lost. In fact, there was a theorist, William Morris who also
believed in these reforms. The first phase of Arts and Crafts was very
influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites and Medieval design which inspired Morris and
other designers. He believed that a product can be machine made only if it is
made of good quality while the worker enjoys doing it with pleasure and
dedication. There was also a motto going which says ‘for the people and by the
people, and a source of pleasure to the maker and the user’
William Morris (1834-1896)
Morris had also established
his own company ‘Morris Marshall, Faulkner and Co.’ where products were not
made by machines but hand crafted with, honesty, functionality and self pride when
doing it. In contrast, these decorative products where being made by using
expensive materials hence would be pricey for the middle class and only those
skilled craftsmen were able to produce such beautiful work for wealthiest.
At a later stage, other
designers such as Charles R. Ashbee and Charles Voysey, where influenced by
Morris. Ashbee who founded organizations also contributed in the production of
design reformation by promoting vernacularism in the same way as Morris did. In
fact, Ashbee was the designer who came the closest to understand the real
meaning of this movement and by the time of the early 20th century, production was mechanized, gaining quality and cheaper than before.
In the mean time, there was
also another designer Gustav Stickley from America
who had visited Europe were he met Ashbee and
Voysey and obviously got influnced by their way of designing. His furniture
designs started reflecting the vernacular aspects but with less decoration and
simpler forms. He also spread his ideas by publishing a magazine called ‘The
Craftsman’ which had been an influence to many other designers and the
customers who wanted to buy affordable and designed furniture. He also managed
to ally craftsmanship and mechanization by processing and working raw materials
in factories and then handcrafting when joining parts together. His factory
still exists nowadays in America
Gustav Stickley furniture design
If we take a look at nowadays
furniture, some designers are still seeking rectilinear forms and simple line designs which are clean and harmonious so it could fit with the other interiors. Basically, the Arts and
Crafts movement was aimed to reform design and re appraise the value of
craftsmanship within the society. Generally speaking, this procedure is
repeating itself every time we get bored of our contemporary design and want to
bring back older designs. Then, we get bored again and want the previous one
back so it’s like a pendulum which never stops oscillating.
The Metropolitan Museum America
Fiell, C. and Fiell, P. (1999). Design of the 20th Century. Ko¨ln: Taschen.
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