Rise of the Decorator

Dorothy Draper was a well known female interior designer.  She established her own company Dorothy Draper and Company.  At the time it was considered strange for a woman to go into business.  She revolutionized the concept of design by breaking away from historical interiors.  She invented Modern Baroque.  She loved public space.  Most of her interiors were public spaces.  To her public spaces represented a place for people to come and feel elevated in the presence of great beauty, where the senses could look and feel and absorb the meaning of a quality life.

Today's Interiors Inspired By Draper

Extra Credit Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjlEHsDPi1w

Peer Reviews: 

Lisa: I really like how you went into detail about Dorothy Draper and Elsie de Wolfe.  I also really liked your video.  It really elaborated on Draper.

Erin Kelly: I really enjoyed learning more about Tessa Kennedy.  Since we had not talked about her in class I found it very interesting.

Art Deco

Art Deco is a kind of design that is easily distinguishable.  It has sharp edge looks and geometric patterns.  This style was the first to look forward and not back.  Art Deco was part of the Modern Movement in architecture.

Donald Deskey played a major part in the Art Deco era.  He had a degree in architecture and studied painting before he worked in advertising.  From 1922 to 1924 he was the head of the art department at Juniata College.  In 1926-1927 he created the first modern window displays for the Franklin Simon and Saks department stores.  He eventually expanded into designing interiors, furniture, lamps, and textiles.  He designed the interiors for an apartment that was shown at the American Designers' Gallery.  The apartment had cork-lined walls, copper ceiling, movable walls, pigskin covered furniture and linoleum floor.  He was one of the first American designers to use Bakelite, Formica, Fabrikoid, brushed aluminum and chromium plated brass.  In 1931 he created the interiors for the Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Center, New York.  When he created the interiors he introduced aluminum foil wallpaper to the men's smoking lounge.

Current Applications

E.C. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSIlBbc54sM

Peer Reviews:

Megan: I love how you explained what Art Deco looked like and how you even threw in several designers from that time period and showed what their furniture looked like.

Kendra: I liked how above all of your pictures you wrote how the picture fit in to Art Deco.