All it takes is a piece of packaging, a poster or an object to take a flashback in time. Whether a positive or a negative experience from years back, you can revisit an emotion at the snap of a finger based on a visual item.
It happened to me as I walked into the V&A British Design 1948-2012 Innovation in the Modern Age exhibition. It explores the changes of architecture, everyday objects and ideas produced by designers and artists born, trained or based in Britain, celebrating some of the most inventive, striking objects and technology of the modern world.
Remember when you had to pop your finger into a plastic hole and turn the dial clockwise? Every digit of a telephone number took the turn of the dial… Ahhh those were the days.
How about when the television took up most of the space in your living room and a ‘remote control’ was asking someone else to get up to turn the TV onto another channel…
Isn’t it something, when you reflect on what has been witnessed in just our life time?! Amazing huge leaps in the design of everyday objects, which have morphed right before our eyes.
I went to the exhibition expecting to be blown away by the contrast of ‘what was’ to ‘what is’. Although it was an inspirational experience walking around the exhibition, I did feel a little short-changed with some of the iconic items not featured. Maybe this was due to cost, space, who knows. However, just for my satisfaction, taking that snap back in time just had to be done. (Some of the objects shown below can be seen at the exhibition)
From this…
To this…
Taking a necessary object and then making it into something so ergonomically pleasing not only to the eye but the bottom as well:
What on earth was he thinking? I questioned why this was in the exhibition when there are more powerful statements of fashion:
The concept of folding a bike… Why has it only been within the last few years that this has just been truly appreciated?
Dangerous but so cool…
A timeless beauty!
(don’t tell anyone, but this is the car I’ll be driving when I retire)
How style/fashion continues to revolve. I can understand the concept of hoarding, who knows when things will come back into fashion. At the age of 14 I had a ‘Harrington’ jacket, only the other day I saw one for sale for the whacking sum of £165!
Elegantly strong but beautiful…
Good old vinyl records and the amazing contraption that played them, remember when you had to walk very carefully, so you wouldn’t make the needle jump.
Now this is what you call bling!
The evolution of simple everyday items, which we take for granted all designed and created over the last 60 years.
So simple yet so effective.
Images featured on this blog can be seen: http://www.vam.ac.uk/
The rest are from various sites:
