Anti Design and Pop

In the 1950s, an art movement developed independently in the United Kingdom and in the United States: pop art. It queried the value system of the (consumer) societies of the time and turned it upside down by using seemingly trivial motives.

A significant technique of pop artists was the blow-up. This means that an everyday small object – for example a soup can – was presented in giant size as a silkscreen print or hand-painted on canvas.

Starting in Italy, the anti-design and radical design movements formed in the late 1960s. Both styles, between which the transitions were fluid, turned against pure purpose orientation and tried to transfer the methods of pop art to the design context.

Good examples are the Capitello lounge chair by the Italian design and architecture practice Studio 65 and the Cactus coat stand, which was designed by Guido Drocco and Franco Mello. The Capitello bears reference to a marble Ionian column capital, but is made of flexible polyurethane foam; the Cactus uses the blow-up effect with regard to prickly decorative plants – and also proves to be of limited use as a coat stand.