UnitLevel 1Undergraduate

TDN1002 Design and the avant-garde

Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture

TDN1002 Design and the avant-garde is a level 1, 6-credit-point, undergraduate unit from the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, offered in 2027 in Semester 2 and Summer B at Caulfield. It has no prerequisites and unlocks 1 unit, leading on to 2 units in all.

Credit points
6
Offered in 2027
Semester 2, Summer B
Caulfield
Assessment
No exam
3 tasks

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Requisites

Before TDN1002

Corequisites

Pass these before, or take them in the same semester.

Prohibitions

You can't enrol if you have passed any of these.

After TDN1002

1 unit list TDN1002 as a prerequisite or corequisite.

Enrolment rules

Prohibitions: AHT1102, TAD1102, TAD2101, TAD2214

Overview

In this unit, you will explore the history of European Modernism and its influence on visual communication, industrial design, and spatial design, recognising key movements and their ideological, political, and cultural foundations. You will develop critical frameworks to analyse Modernist design works, examining the social, cultural, and historical factors shaping them, and will practise applying these insights to your discipline. By integrating perspectives from various design fields, you will form a holistic view of Modernism’s legacy and its impact on the social role of design. You will reflect on how design can shape societal values, recognising the designer's potential as a social actor and fostering an appreciation for understanding design within its historical and cultural contexts. This unit will encourage you to value the responsibility embedded in design work and to develop strategies for ongoing learning, historical analysis, and critical thinking, equipping you with skills for both your practice and lifelong learning in the field of design.

Offerings in 2027

Teaching periodCampusMode
Second semesterCaulfieldOn campus
Summer semester BCaulfieldOnline

Assessment

  • Artefact analysisExercise
    20%
  • Oral presentationArtefact
    30%
  • Artefact analysis and researchProject
    50%

Assessment details may change. Please refer to the assessment information in Moodle closer to the start of the teaching period.

Learning outcomes

When you finish this unit, you should be able to:

  1. 1

    Identify the socio-political and cultural contexts of major modernist movements and how they influenced design practices;

  2. 2

    Use design principles to address real-world challenges for diverse audiences and contexts;

  3. 3

    Combine design knowledge with insights from fields like technology, culture, and sociology for a broader impact;

  4. 4

    Reflect on designers' social and ethical roles in shaping human experiences and values;

  5. 5

    Appreciate design as a force for social change and commit to ethical, inclusive practices;

  6. 6

    Create a research approach to explore design questions, fostering skills in self-directed learning.

Workload and teaching

  • Tutorials24 hours
  • Lectures12 hours
  • Teaching approachActive learning

12 hours per week including 3 contact hours plus 9 hours of independent study. In Summer Semester B, the workload includes 9 contact hours per week for 4 weeks.

Learning resources

Required resources

Pier Vittorio Aureli, ‘Autonomy and History’ in The Project of Autonomy: Politics and Architecture within and against Capitalism (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2008), pp. 4–14.

Christina Lodder, 'Liubov Popova: From Painting to Textile Design', Tate Papers , no.14, Autumn 2010, http://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers/14/liubov-popova-from-painting-to-textile-design, accessed 19 May 2017.

Mary Guyatt, 'The Wedgewood Slave Medallion: Values in Eighteenth Century Design,' Journal of Design History, Vol. 13, no.2, 2000, p.93-105.

Richard Hollis, ‘Germany’ in Graphic Design: A Concise History (London: Thames & Hudson, 1994), pp. 52–67.

Richard Hollis, ‘The Beginnings of Design in Europe’ in Graphic Design: A Concise History (London: Thames & Hudson, 1994), pp. 25–31.

Christopher Breward, British design from 1948 : innovation in the modern age, ( London : V&A Publishing, 2008).

Marin Sullivan, 'Materialising Modernism in Postwar Italy' Art History, Vol. 39, 2016 p.720-743

Pat Kirkham, 'Reassessing the Saul Bass and Alfred Hitchcock Collaboration', West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture , Vol. 18, No. 1 (Spring-Summer 2011), pp. 50-85

Thomas Hine, ‘Populuxe’ in Grace Lees-Maffei & Rebecca Houze (eds), The Design History Reader (Oxford & New York: Berg),152-157.

Richard Hollis, ‘The Netherlands’ in Graphic Design: A Concise History (London: Thames & Hudson, 1994), pp. 68–75.

Hal Foster, 'Some Uses and Abuses of Russian Constructivism' in Art Into Life: Russian Constructivism 1914-1932, (New York: Rizzoli, 1990).

Friedrich Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), pp. 36–44.

Art Deco & American Modernism

Frederic Schwarz, ‘Commodity Signs: Peter Behrens, the AEG and the Trademark, Journal of Design History , Vol.9:3, 1996, 153-184.

David Crowley, Cold War modern : design 1945-1970, ( London : V&A Publishing, 2008)

Lucius Burckhardt, The Werkbund : studies in the history and ideology of the Deutscher Werkbund 1907-1933, ( London : Design Council, 1980).

Dennis P. Doordan, 'The Advertising Architecture of Fortunato Depero' The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, Vol. 12 1989, 46-55.

Richard Hollis, Swiss graphic design : the origins and growth of an international style , 1920-1965, (New Haven : Yale University Press , 2006).

Rebecca Houze, ' From Wiener Kunst im Hause to the Wiener Werkstätte: Marketing Domesticity with Fashionable Interior Design' Design Issues , Vol. 18, No. 1 (Winter, 2002), pp. 3-23.

Elaine Hochman, ‘A Fragile Moment: Weimar, Gropius, and the Avant-Garde’ in Bauhaus: Crucible of Modernism (New York: Fromm, 1997), pp. 45–57.

Charlotte Ashby, Modernism in Scandanavia : art, architecture and design, (London: Bloomsbury 2017).

Sarah Alford, 'Ellen Gates Starr and Frank Lloyd Write at Hull House: The Machine as the Will of Life' Journal of Design History, 2017, epx012. doi: 10.1093/jdh/epx012.

Isabelle Anscombe, ‘The Rational Woman’ in A Woman’s Touch: Women in Design from 1860 to the Present Day , (London: Virago, 1984), 131-144.

Filippo Marinetti, ‘The founding and manifesto of Futurism’ in Umbro Apollonio (ed.), Futurist manifestos (Boston: MFA Publications, 2001), pp. 19–24.

Erika Doss, 'Revolutionary art is a tool for liberation: Emory Douglass and Protest Aesthetics at the Black Panther' New Political Science , Vol. 21, No.2 , 245- 259.

Christina Lodder, Russian Constructivism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985).

Jan Thompson, ‘The Role of Women in the Iconography of Art Nouveau,’ Art Journal, Vol. 1:2, 1972, pp.158-167.

Richard Hollis, ‘Soviet Russia’ in Graphic Design: A Concise History (London: Thames & Hudson, 1994), pp. 44–51.

Philip Meggs, ‘The Arts and Crafts Movement and Its Heritage’ in Meggs’ History of Graphic Design , fifth edition, Philip B. Meggs and Alston W. Purvis (New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2012), pp. 176–195

Ghislaine Wood, Art Deco 1910-1939, ( Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria, 2008).

William Morris, ‘The Ideal Book’ in Grace Lees-Maffei & Rebecca Houze (eds), The Design History Reader (Oxford & New York: Berg), pp. 65–69.

Tim Benton, ‘Dreams of Machines: Futurism and l’Espirit Nouveau’, Journal of Design History , Vol.3:1, 1990, pp.19-34.

Frank Colebrook, William Morris: Master Printer (Council Bluffs, Iowa: Yellow Barn Press, 1989).

The Arts & Crafts Movement

Jeremy Aynsley, Art Deco Graphic Design and Typography, in Art Deco 1910-1939 , edited by Charlotte Benton, Tim Benton and Ghislain Wood, V&A Publications, London 2005, pp. 297-303.

John Heskett, ‘The American System and Mass Production – from Industrial Design', Grace Lees-Maffei & Rebecca Houze (eds), The Design History Reader (Oxford & New York: Berg), 70-74.

Varvara Stepanova, ‘Constructivism: The General Theory of Constructivism’ in Aleksandr Rodchenko, Varvara Stepanova and Peter Noever (eds), The future is our only goal (New York: Neues Pub. Co, 1991).

The Industrial Revolution & The Birth of Design

Gillian Naylor ‘From Workshop to Laboratory, From the Bauhaus Reassessed’ in Grace Lees-Maffei & Rebecca Houze (eds), The Design History Reader (Oxford & New York: Berg), 115-119.

Jan Tschichold, ‘The Principles of the New Typography’ in The New Typography (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995), pp. 64–85.

Richard Huelsenbeck, ‘En Avant Dada: a history of Dadaism’ in Will Bradley and Charles Esche (eds), Art and Social Change: A Critical Reader (London: Tate Publishing, 2008), pp. 60–67.

Nicolas Maffei, ‘The Search for an American Design Aesthetic: From Art Deco to Streamlining in Grace Lees-Maffei & Rebecca Houze (eds), The Design History Reader (Oxford & New York: Berg), pp120-126

Tilmann. Buddensieg Industriekultur : Peter Behrens and the AEG , 1907-1914, ( Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, 1984).

Philip Meggs, ‘The Genesis of Twentieth-Century Design’ in Meggs’ History of Graphic Design , fifth edition, Philip B. Meggs and Alston W. Purvis (New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2012), pp. 232–251.

Vance Packard, ‘How to outmode a $4000 Vehicle in Two Years- From the Wastemakers’ in Grace Lees-Maffei & Rebecca Houze (eds), The Design History Reader (Oxford & New York: Berg) pp. 226-230.

Walter Benjamin, ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ in Illuminations, Hannah Arendt (ed) (London: Fontana, 1973) pp. 211-35.

De Stijl /Bauhaus/The New Typography

Debora Silverman, ‘Introduction: Transformation of Art Nouveau 1890-1900, in Art Nouveau in Fin-de-Siecle Frances: Politics, Psychology and Style, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989), pp. 1-13.

Adolf Loos ‘Ornament & Crime’ (1908), in Adolf Loos, Adolf Opel (eds), Michael Mitchell (trans.), Ornament and Crime: selected essays (Riverside: Ariadne Press, 1998).

Nigel Whitely, 'Pop Consumerism and the Design Shift', Design Issues, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Autumn, 1985), pp. 31-45

David Hanks , American streamlined design : the world of tomorrow , (New York : Thames and Hudson, 2005).

Philip Meggs, ‘The Influence of Modern Art’ in Meggs’ History of Graphic Design , fifth edition, Philip B. Meggs and Alston W. Purvis (New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2012), pp. 256–275.

Futurism/ WWI Political Posters/Dada

Alan Crawford, 'Ideas and Objects: The Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain', Design Issues, Vol. 13, No1, 1997, 15-26.

Suprematism and Constructivism

Contacts

Unit Coordinators
Dr Jess Berry
Ms Sara Daly
Chief Examiners
Dr Jess Berry
Ms Sara Daly

Common questions

What are the prerequisites for TDN1002?

None, but you must take OHS1000 before or alongside it.

What can I take after TDN1002?

TDN1002 is a prerequisite or corequisite for 1 unit, including TDN2001. Those lead on to 2 units in all.

When is TDN1002 offered?

In 2027, TDN1002 runs in Semester 2 and Summer B at Caulfield, with an online option.

Does TDN1002 have an exam?

No. TDN1002 has 3 assessment tasks and no exam.

More details

Credit points
6
Level
1
Study level
Undergraduate
Faculty
Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture
Organisational unit
Department of Design
Type
Coursework
EFTSL
0.125
Student contribution
SCA Band 2
Study abroad
Available