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Streamlining

Norman Bel Geddes: 'Patriot', radio, model 400	Kem Weber (born in Germany): airline chair	Cigarette lighter

The 1930s witnessed the emergence of streamlining. Rapidly identified as an American phenomenon, it transformed the look of everything, from factories and cinemas to transport, film, fashion and product design.

Manufacturers, hit hard by the Depression, sought new ways of producing cheap products. Responding to their demands, a group of American designers developed an innovative approach known as 'styling'.

They encased products with contoured shells, notionally based on the principle of 'minimum drag'. These forms lent themselves to mechanized mass-production processes and new materials such as plastics.

Derived from machines that most powerfully symbolized the modern world – trains, automobiles and ocean liners – streamlining lent style and glamour to the most mundane of domestic products.

Streamlining was applied for symbolic and decorative purposes, to stimulate consumption rather than facilitate function. As such, it can be seen as yet another strategy to renew decoration. It marks the last phase of Art Deco's rich story.

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