Good shape
The term Gute Form was coined in the 1950s and stands for a design that should be timeless: A functional, objective and yet aesthetically valid design should create a durability of things that goes beyond the fashionable zeitgeist. The book “Die Gute Form” by Max Bill , published in 1952, was characteristic for the term .
The pure theory of forms was accompanied by the idea that good form , i.e. good taste , can be learned. For example, the Deutscher Werkbund released a Werkbund box with objects that students should use to learn the design principles of good form . Overall, the Gute Form was aimed at every consumer and thus stands in contrast to today's popular understanding that successful design is to be equated with expensive luxury items that only a few can afford.
The contemporary discussion even went so far as to speak of standard forms: forms that will forever remain valid for their intended purpose. Even if this concept was controversial at the time, it shows that the Gute Form also had dogmatic traits.
With the criticism of functionalism that began in the late 1960s, however, the dominant position of the Guten Form , which was sharply criticized in the 1980s by a new generation of artists and designers (including New German Design ), dwindled .
In the context of Guten Form , numerous so-called design classics were created that continue to be produced (for example the “Arzberg 2000” service from Heinrichakenöffelhardt or clocks from Max Bill ), reissued and traded among collectors and enthusiasts, such as many designs by Wilhelm Wagenfeld .
Good form design award
The Federal Good Form Award was the annual official design award of the Federal Republic of Germany , awarded by the Federal Ministry of Economics from 1969 to 2001. From 2002 until it was closed in 2014, the award was called the Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany .
The selection and award was made by the German Design Council . For a nomination, which could only be made by the ministries of economics of the federal states and the federal government, only products and works were allowed that had already been awarded at least one regionally or nationally renowned design prize. As a result of increased reviews in 2006 about the fee-based conditions of participation, which served the organizer more for self-financing and the manufacturing industry for self-promotion than for recognizing independent designers and their pioneering design achievements, the Federal Ministry of Economics awarded this federal prize to the little Berliner from 2012 Private company DMY , which emerged from the Berlin design student initiative Designmai Youngsters . Since its bankruptcy in 2014, the federal award has not been advertised again.
The competition The good form in the craft - craftsmanship design
There has also been a handicraft since? a competition based on the concept of good form coined by Max Bill . The newly acquitted journeymen of the creative trades take part with their journeyman's pieces. The decisive criterion is the quality of the design.
The annual competition takes place separately according to trades, first at the level of the guild and the Chamber of Crafts, then at the state and finally at the federal level. The best designed pieces each reach the following selection round. The highlight of every trade is the national competition, to which the winners from the federal states are invited. The carpenters, for example, traditionally organize an exhibition for the national competition. It is shown alternately every year at the international trade fair for forestry and wood industry Ligna + and the international trade fair (IHM). A jury of experts will choose the three national winners in this trade.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bill, Max: Form. A balance of the form development around the middle of the XX. Century, K. Werner: Basel 1952, http://d-nb.info/572285248 .
- ↑ "Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany - The Price You Have to Pay" (article on the federal award in the Süddeutsche Zeitung of July 6, 2006), last accessed on October 1, 2018
- ↑ Interview with the former organizer of the Federal Prize, the former DMY managing director Jörg Suermann (Spiegel online from June 5, 2012), Memento in the Internet Archive from August 6, 2016
- ^ "The price of prizes" , open letter from Federal Prize Winner Juli Gudehus to the Federal Ministry of Economics, 2006, (published on their website), last accessed on October 1, 2018
- ↑ GUIDELINES for the implementation of the competition "The good form in the craft - design craftsmen". (PDF; 545 KB) Central Association of German Crafts, April 2017, accessed on October 7, 2018 .