A summary of the documentary, “The Genius of Design- part 3 – Blueprints for war.”
Part 3 is all about the design world during the Second World War. A war pressure design to take a new direction, and through out this documentary we get a closer look at the design of tanks, Volkswagen Beetle, submarine guns, flying fortress, liberty ship and the design of Charles and Ray Earnes`s, Lounge Chair wood and the leg-splint, as well as how the rival war hardware/machines were built and design in Germany, USA, Britain and Russia (The USSR).
Tanks, is a luxury item, with great detailed design, a big gun, its fantastic and accurate, it is solid work with a secure shell. It is beautiful engineering! German Tank, is known as Tiger Tank 313, and in Germany a tank symbolized Nazi Germany. While the Tiger Tank 313 is powerful and the best, did Russia and the US also design a tank, known as the T34 Tank, with the mass-production of this tank, did the quantity of the T34 win over the Tiger Tank 313 in the largest 10 battles in the world. While Germany went for victory through quality, did Russia and the US go for victory through quantity.
Volkswagen Beetle is the most successful car in the world, where every detail follows the famous saying, Form Follows Function. It was all about the quality.
The most famous Submarine guns from the Second World War were the Sten Gun (1940) and the Mark 2 & 3. The Sten Guns was all punched and fabricated, but it was not simple enough and the development of simplifying the gun resulted in the submarine gun, Mark 2. Mark 2 is a manufactured flat-pack gun that did exactly what it was suppose to, with a very smart design for war.
This types of guns were produced in toy factories around Britain during the war.
Liberty ship, was another mass-production of the USA, just like the T34 Tank and the Model T car. The liberty ship was produced faster and cheaper than other war machineries. And working in the shipyards become a popular job, American looked at it as their way to help win WWII.
A war creates a secret army of toys- and fabric factories.
The Lounge Chair wood by Charles and Ray Earnes. This chair was a design furniture for the post-war world, it was also design as an experience to bend wood. the result become a success!
The Leg-Splint by Charles and Ray Earnes is also a design made of 3d plywood and were designed to help war victims to support and stabilize the whole leg that has been injured. over 100 000 leg-splint were made for the US Navy after the war.
THE DESIGN WORLD WOULD NEVER BE THE SAME AFTER A WAR, THE DESIGN DEVELOPED DURING A WAR IS THE DESIGN OF THE WORLD TO COME!
