Mid-Century Modern

I've been working on my CB project (seeing as how the presentation is in nine hours), and I've gotten to look through a lot of books about modern furniture, and I've realized that I love modern furniture. I love the lines, the materials, the form. It's so simple, and yet so elegant. I've always known that I've loved it, but spending several days pouring over books of modern furniture reaffirms that fact.

What this really brings me to in relation to objects is how I judge people who don't furnish their homes with furniture that I would approve of. I don't have many opportunities to interact with purposefully finished homes, mostly just college student apartments, where the furniture choices are more happenstance than purposeful. But, when I come across places that are furnished with highly ornate, almost Chippendale-styled pieces, I tend to perceive them as less progressive and less modern, regardless of the appropriateness of that particular style in context. I am very judgmental towards people with furniture that I find antiquated and unattractive—despite the fact that I recognize that it serves the same function.

The other thing was that I was reminded about design that solves problems—while I was reading through the book Herman Miller: The Purpose of Design, I got very excited about how HM approaches design problems, and the type of problems they could address with furniture. I was reminded of my table that I'm writing about, and how Heywood Wakefield was able to solve problems of availability, affordability and modularity by producing lines that were interchangeable, and being consistent in production quality and in other features such as color. Other issues, such as fitting tables into small spaces, and being able to be flexible in set up, were addressed with features like the strong drop-leafs on my table in particular.