History of the Ulm School of Design

Summary. The Ulm School of Design has a special place in the history of German design, and it is called the "New Bauhaus", which hints at its noble cultural origins.

The Ulm School of Design has a special place in the history of German design, and it is called the "New Bauhaus", which hints at its noble cultural origins.

During World War II, the school did not want to cater to the re-education of Germany by the United States, believing that only the "German spirit" and not the Allied program could produce young people. But on the other hand, in order to emphasize the difference from the Nazis, we had to think about how to effectively integrate into the Western world. To this end, the founders proposed a "universal education" program that included the study of the arts (political repentance, magazines, radio, and film) and the teaching of the arts (photography, painting, and industrial design).

The contribution of the Ulm School of Design is as follows:

1.In terms of design thinking, the priority design principle of rationality and sociality is established, and the design of objects for the sake of pure beauty is opposed. As a result, the functionalist ideas advocated by Ulm were more rational than those of the Bauhaus.

The Ulm Academy abandoned the Bauhaus' compromise position between art and technology.

It has firmly moved towards the development path guided by science and technology and rational principles, contributed to an important turning point in the concept of design, created a precedent for rational and scientific research in the history of modern design, and realized the diversified development of systematic, fuzzy, multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary design.

2.In terms of design teaching, the design education adopted by the Ulm Academy is a modern, open and experimental education. It has always adhered to an open attitude towards new theoretical topics and design development, and at the same time actively encourages the collision and exchange of different academic ideas.

These teaching methods of the Ulm School of Design have since become the basic model for the design profession in various countries around the world.

3.Career orientation of designers: Ulm Academy has a clear understanding of design and the role and responsibilities of designers, and puts forward a new view that "design is not a performance, but a service", which is also one of the core of the Ulm education model.

Summary: The Ulm Academy embodies the new idealism of the intellectuals of the post-war industrial period, emphasizing the technical factor, the industrial characteristics of Bina, and the scientific process, while ignoring the psychological needs of human beings, and thus presenting the stylistic characteristics of indifference, monotony, lack of personality and human touch.

The influence of the Ulm School of Modeling is very extensive, and a large number of design talents he has cultivated have achieved significant economic benefits in their work, which has promoted the popularization and implementation of the Ulm design method, and the result is that the design of the former Federal Republic of Germany has a reasonable and unified performance, and he truly reflects the developed technical culture of Germany. Another milestone in the history of design in the Federal Republic of Germany is the dissemination and promotion of the systematic design method, which is also due in large part to the design science pioneered by the Ulm Academy of Fine Arts.

The impact of the Ulm School of Design's collaboration with Braun on contemporary campuses is as follows.

1. The Ulm School of Design completely builds design on the basis of scientific rationality, which is called a turning point in the history of design development and creates the beginning of modern design rationality and science. Its second president, Maldonado, believed that the college was based entirely on science, and that the college's curriculum largely abandoned the arts in favor of a variety of social and technical science courses.

2. A group of designers trained by the Ulm Design Institute have infiltrated their design ideas into the field of German industrial design, and under the influence of the Ulm model, German products are known for their rational, reliable, high-quality and functional characteristics.

3. The design of industrial products, tools, and vehicles and the design of communication systems are particularly far-reaching, and the typical style of the school - the matt finish of pearl gray, the adjustable support frame, the minimum decoration, and the very pure geometry of the school, through the cooperation with Braun, not only influenced the design style of the entire post-war Federal Republic of Germany's industrial products, but also had a profound impact on the contemporary electronic product design, for example, Apple's minimalist design and Braun's product design are based on the design philosophy of the Ulm School of Design.

4. Its systematic design principles formed on the basis of scientific rationality in design theory have not only set a milestone for German industrial design, but also a milestone for modern design in the world. The principle of system design is to rectify the chaotic man-made environment with a highly orderly design, and by integrating the chaotic objective objects into an interrelated environment, it is the product that establishes a connection in some aspects, so that the chaotic environment becomes relevant and systematic. This design theory was also put into practice in collaboration with Braun, the most famous of which was the SK4 combo designed by Gogolot and Rams, which combined the two units of radio and record player into a new product.

The Ulm School of Design existed in 1953 and 1967. The greatest achievement of the Ulm School of Design is that it has completely and resolutely moved modern design, including industrial product design, architectural design, interior design, graphic design, etc., from the previous plausible oscillating position between art and technology to the basis of science and technology, and firmly trained designers from the direction of science and technology, and design has become a pure engineering discipline in this college. As a result, it has led to the development of systematic, modular, and multidisciplinary design.

By establishing a new design science based on sociology, semiotics, and political participation, the Academy celebrates the humanism of the Bauhaus and fundamentally reflects on the social significance of aesthetics and design in modern industrial society. In this way, the history of Ulm shows the relationship between aesthetics and politics, functionalism and liberalism, which were more widely sold during the Cold War. In addition, the drawn up list of teachers in Ulm quickly propelled the little-known Ulm to the forefront of international democratic politics and culture.

The gestation process at the Ulm Academy was much longer than that of the Bauhaus. In 1946, in memory of their brother and sister killed by the Nazis in World War II, Inge Schol and Otto Escher established an academy in the small German town of Ulm. In this way, the two wanted to reflect on Germany's performance in World War II and reconcile the long-standing contradictions between German culture and civilization.