Fifties Design...

The fifties was the beginning of the post-war period, the majority of the world had recovered from the harship and deprivation, and everyone just wanted to put the past behind them and move on. 'Blue skies design' was a phrase coined by American designer Raymond Loewy to describe an optimistic beginning. This is where 'modern design' came in, and there was a boom in the interior design world where people threw out the old and brought in the new. The houses were smaller than the build of the ones before the war, and so it came about that furniture had to be lighter and portable, it was in the fifties that the ironing board and sofa beds were invented.

An advertisement for Crane Radiators 1952 (taken from the book Design in the Fifties by George H. Marcus)... This is how a 'modern' fifties living room may look:

This is an advertisement for Kelvinator appliances (1955) showing a woman in a fitted kitchen with all the latest 'colour matched' appliances, which was the domain for wives in that era. A lot of the advertisements for kitchens had a common focus, women, it showed the attitude of them staying at home, cooking, cleaning and looking after the children while the husband would be at work. Very rarely in these advertisements would the women actually look directly into the camera showing their innocent and weak side, those who did look at the camera were portrayed showing naivety and silence, in the form of a closed mouth smile or plain expression to emphasise that women should 'be seen and not heard', they were merely objects to be looked at under the male's gaze.


The colour scheme of the advert is pastel and very feminine, which suits the domain the advert is based around. Unlike advertising today, there is quite a lot of text included, and it isn't readable either, when I first looked at the advert I read the text in bold, and moved straight to the eight colours at the bottom.

This is another example showing how women are used in the advertising industry of that time, there is no face shown just a hand showing their weakened postition in society. A veriety of fonts have been used in this advert, and a combination between serif and sans serif fonts, which altogether it looks a little bit chaotic. I do like the scripted font used at the top for 'Quality by Zenith' and then the description of what product is being advertised in a clearer serif font. Again, the colour scheme is quite soft, the colours aren't bright and vivid.


Things I need to consider when producing my fifties designs:
- Font - scripted? accompanied by serif type?
- Colour scheme - pastel in the style of fifties or with a modern twist?
- Imagery - the illustration type image that is so commonly used in these adverts?
- Women - do I need to 'follow suit' and show females in my advertising?

The Fifties...

Like with my seventies research, I need to research into the fifties to help me produce a well informed collection of designs to suit the fifties era...

Brief overview of the situation in the 1950's:
By its end, the world had largely recovered from World War II and the Cold War developed from its modest beginning in the late 1940s to a hot competition between the United States and the Soviet Union by the beginning of the 1960s.

Clashes between communism and capitalism dominated the decade, especially in the Northern Hemisphere. The conflicts included the Korean War and the beginning of the Space Race with the launch of Sputnik I. Along with increased testing of nuclear weapons (such as RDS-37 and Upshot-Knothole), this created a politically conservative climate.^{[citation needed]} In the United States, the Red Scare (fear of communism) caused public Congressional hearings by both houses in Congress and Anti-Communism was the prevailing sentiment in the United States throughout the decade (this is what primarily led the country to intervene in the Korean War and later the Vietnam War). The beginning of decolonization in Africa and Asia occurred in this decade and accelerated in the following decade, the 1960s. The 1950 congressional seminar gave way to the new focus of contention between communist and capitalist ideology. Through which multiple instances of terminal interests, but never became an open conflict.

Natural Disasters that occurred in that decade:

- On 15 August 1950 an earthquake and floods in Assam, India kill 574 and leave 5,000,000 homeless. Mount Lamington erupted in Papua New Guinea on 18 January 1951, killing 3,000 people.
- On 31 January 1953 the North Sea flood of 1953 kills 1,835 people in the southwestern Netherlands (especially Zeeland) and 307 in the United Kingdom^[1]On 9 September 1954 an earthquake centered on the city of Orleansville, Algeria killed 1,500 and left thousands homeless.
- On 11 October 1954 Hurricane Hazel crosses over Haiti, killing 1,000.
- On 19 August 1955 Hurricane Diane hits the northeastern United States, killing over 200 people, and causing over $1.0 billion in damage.
- On 27 June 1957 Hurricane Audrey demolishes Cameron, Louisiana, US, killing 400 people.
- Typhoon Vera hit central Honshū on 26 September 1959, killing an estimated 5,098, injuring another 38,921, and leaving 1,533,000 homeless. Most of the victims and damage are centered in the Nagoya area.

Science and Technology:



- The United States conducts its first hydrogen bomb explosion test (Operation Castle).
- The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to orbit the earth on October 4, 1957.
- The invention of the Transistor.
- The invention of the Solar cell.
- Passenger jets enter service.
- Francis Crick and James Watson discovered the spiral structure of DNA.
- An immunization vaccine is produced for polio.
- The first successful ultrasound test of the heart activity.
- The CERN was established.
- The world's first nuclear power plant was opened in Obninsk near Moscow.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950s

After all the trouble from the wars, there was a much more optimistic feeling in the air, here are some of the optimisms from the 1950's: (taken from Retro Style by Marion Haslam)

-1951 - Sir Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister.
-1953 - Edmund Hillary and his team conquered Everest.
-1953 - The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.
-1953 - Dwight Eisenhower becomes president of the US.
-1954 - The end of rationing.
-1954 - The four minute mile was broken by Roger Bannister.
-1955 - The Guggenheim in New York opened.

Other exciting things that happened:
-1951 - The first supermarket chain opened.
-1951 - Andy Pandy aired on the BBC.
-1952 - Tetley tea was launched.
-1952 - The first British single chart was launched.
-1953 - The James Bond era began.
-1955 - Birds Eye Fish Fingers launched 'heat and serve'.
-1955 - Disneyland California opened.
-1958 - Blue Peter began on the BBC.
-1959 - Austin Mini car launched.
-1959 - The birth of Barbie.
-1959 - Soviet rocket photographed the far side of the moon.