Reflection and Analysis in Design Object-The Red and Blue Chair

Designs are always containing the ideologies, briefs or values of designers and if people happen to share the similar thinking ways with the designers, the public will find the resonance in his works. The Red and Blue Chair (as shown in Figure 1) is exactly the media or trigger, which makes me strike a chord with the designer Gerrit Rietveld because I think it symbolizes the way I think. The chair, designed in 1918, is a masterpiece of the representative of Gerrit Rietveld.

Watson-Smyth (2013) believes that it was on purpose designed in a simple pattern, making it easy for people to understand its components, which is exactly the intention of Rietveld. The structure and color show its simplicity. The chair is made up of 13 wooden strips, which are perpendicular to each other. All parts are fastened with screws to form a non-traditional mortise structure.

In order to prevent damage to the structure, the frame body is accurately calculated and presents a simple structure.

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It primary color, namely the red and blue was not added on it until 1923 (MoMA Highlights 2013). Thus，the red backrest and a blue cushion were produced. The three primary colors of red, yellow and blue are the source of any other mixed colors. Therefore, no matter in the structure or in the color, Red and Blue Chair has realized its design concept of simplicity. This kind of simplicity is the lifestyle I pursue. I’m characterized by out-going and forthright. For example, I prefer face-to-face communication to an online message and I also apply the simplicity into my designing.

Actually, the production of Red and Blue Chair results from certain historical factors. The Red and Blue Chair can be seen as the famous representations of the De Stijl (Cai 2016). Paul (1991) points out that Rietveld’s Red and Blue Chair can express the ideas of De Stijl most. First and foremost, the mechanical and socialist thoughts brought about by the development of industrial society promoted the emergence of De Stijl, whose style has been consistent with this development. The new possibilities of mechanics have created an aesthetic view of people’s time, which can be called the mechanical aesthetics. Furthermore, the dramatic changes in the social pattern of the outbreak of World War I directly contributed to the emergence of De Stijl.

In 1917, the year before the end of World War I, Netherlands, as a neutral country, attracted artists and designers from all over the world and provided them the relatively peaceful social environment. Meanwhile, the environment was relatively closed, so that the artist began to pay attention to the Dutch artistic tradition, thus creating a modernist style with Dutch cultural characteristics. Jirousek (1995) states that it is a kind of Utopian philosophical approach to aesthetics. In the Stijl movement, Rietveld pursued a kind of utopia model (MoMA Highlights 2013). Its emergence can be seen as a reaction to the fear of WWI and the hopeful vision to rebuild the society and make everything return to normal. (The Art Story 2018). Tielman (2014) claims that the design of the chair has shown abstraction concept and modernism because of its application of horizontals, verticals and primary colors. From the perspective of its background, I can know it exercises reasoning, which can be proved by the severe horizontals and verticals and well-knit structure. Apart from that, advocating independence is another reason I choose it to reflect who am I. One of the most basic features of this chair is to arrange and combine the most basic geometric shapes to form a simple structure.

However, in the new structural combination, individuals still maintain relative independence. Even if the chair is disassembled, the wooden strips or the red backrest is still complete. This relationship between the whole and the part is more like the relationship between society and me. I admire individual independence, just like the red and blue chairs. Although I can coordinate with others constitute one whole, I still maintain my own personality. To conclude, the Red and Blue Chair is the epitome of that era, which is believed to be a significant symbol and the beginning of the modernist design. However, it is also the epitome of me because I find who I’m and what I hold in this great work: the simplicity, reason，and independence.