Anti-Design practitioners felt that design should fit in with humanity, not the other way round. Modernists had used design to reform lifestyles in order to make people healthier, more productive and so on. Anti-Design had a more modest, self-effacing conception of the role design. They wanted to make objects that would fit in with modern lifestyles and be useful, but unobtrusive. They were defying the cult of the object.

Selene Chair

Vico Magistretti (1966)

The Selene chair by Vico Magistretti (1966) was made of reinforced polyester [Fig. 1]. Within Anti-Design, there was a major preoccupation with space and storage. They often tried to make their designs collapsible or stackable and easy to store. This chair could be stacked in order to save space. With radical design like this, the challenge was always to find a manufacturer that would take the risk of producing it. This piece was manufactured by Artemide.

Modernist designers were often treated as heroic figures, and they encouraged that by publishing manifestos and autobiographies. Anti-Design tried to break down the image of the heroic designer. One way of doing that was to allow the user to participate in the design.

Boalum Flexible Lamp

Gianfranco Frattini and Livio Castiglioni (1969)

The Boalum flexible lamp (1969) by Gianfranco Frattini and Livio Castiglioni is an example. This was manufactured by Artemide. It consisted of a long plastic tube with light bulbs wired up inside, so it formed a luminous tube. The form is indeterminate – it can be manipulated by the owner. This helps to break down the persona of the heroic designer by allowing the user to determine the form, at least to some extent.

Anti-Design responded to the ways in which Modernist designs were consumed and discussed in the design press. They were worshipped almost, and there was a sense that people had to adapt to suit the design, not the other way around. Anti-Design tried to break down that excessive veneration of the object.

Reversible Vase

Enzo Mari (1969)

Another example is a Reversible Vase by Enzo Mari (1969). It was made of ABS plastic and manufactured by Domese. It can be displayed upside down, which makes the form adaptable. This suggests that the Modernist idea of the type-form – the perfect design solution – is impossible to achieve. It was typical for anti-design to demonstrate manoeuvrablility and flexibility, so that they would be compatible with modern lifestyles.

I Sassi

Piero Gilardi (1967)

Piero Gilardi produced a piece called I Sassi(1967), which means “the rocks.” These are actually chairs made of polyurethane. They were manufactured by Gufram. Here the form disguises the function – they look like rocks. So they’re imitating a natural object. Now obviously, a rock is hard and durable. These qualities are totally at odds with the function of a chair, which is supposed to be soft and comfortable. So again this is defying Modernist functionalism. It makes the function illegible.

Cupboards

Ettore Sottsass (1966)

Ettore Sottsass designed a series of cupboards (1966). Sottsass was a young designer, who was then at the start of his career. These cupboards are made of plywood. They’re paradoxical: they look like strange, inscrutable monoliths, like obelisks, but they’re covered with deliberately tacky plastic laminates. The decorative surface seems to undermine the stern form. This challenges the pomposity of Modernist design.

Joe Sofa

Paolo Lomazzi (1970)

The famous Joe Sofa (1970) was designed by Paolo Lomazzi and named after Joe Colombo, a legendary Italian designer. It was made of polyurethane and covered with leather. This was manufactured by Poltronova. It looks like a giant baseball catcher’s mitt. Like postmodernist design, it’s an overblown symbol designed to communicate on a very basic level. It suggests that forms don’t have to be invented, they can just be recycled.