*

These criteria might be regarded as being associated with 'good design'.  Functional products perhaps should be expected to be practical and lacking unnecessary 'flourishes' and such products have appeared frequently to cater for changes in attitude to technology or social needs.  In 1936 Nicolas Pevsner discussed functional design and resolved, for his review of architectural styles, that the functional movement was 'the genuine and legitimate style of the century'. (" Pioneers of Modern Movement ")

The Bauhaus School of Industrial design established in Weimar, Germany during 1919, promoted design that reflected and even emphasised, the materials from which products were constructed.  Glass, re-enforced concrete, tubular steel - all came to epitomise 'modernist design'.   Much of what is created today might fit well into the ranges of products originating in the 1930's and being continued through those developed during the 1950's and

A 1958 design for this Philco television looks particularly simple - The 'James Johnson' angular interlocking trays from the 1980's could just as easily be 1950's.