THIS IS THE BLOGGING OF THE FRIDGE OF AQUARIUS...

Sometimes don't you just think you'll fall asleep if you see another stainless steel kitchen appliance?  Of course the greatest threat of such an acute and décor-triggered case of narcolepsy is hitting one's head on an equally ubiquitous granite counter top.  Last month I had to replace my old refrigerator and found the choices wanting: black or white (which apparently in any other form I love) and of course good old stainless steel.  It brought to mind the Eighties when I thought it was beyond stylish to have commercial grade stainless in the kitchen, especially glass-doored refrigeration units.  Clearly a far cry from the dulled-silver hell that constitutes the American middle class kitchen of today.

Of course what I really wanted was a mustard yellow fridge: please do think sunny Provence and please do not think Harvest Gold - although we did just watch Super 8 and were charmed to see its inclusion in the period kitchen sets. (Still, I am short
a macramé owl hanging to really pull it off...)  What I actually did end up getting was yet another stainless steel model - because, simply, neither black nor white worked with the existent scheme and the last thing I wanted to do was initiate a domino chain of kitchen redecorating.  Stainless steel really is nothing if not neutral. Yawn...

I guess I just didn't know that what I really ought to have done was this: travel back in time and pick myself up a "Match Your Mood" number from Westinghouse! 

I hope you enjoy this most compelling promotional film, one that vividly illustrates the decorative benefits of the company's "Complete Refrigerator," circa the late Sixties.  You'll see it starts off slow and moody as Young Mrs. Homemaker contemplates the winter landscape.  But then, like all groovy things, the electric organ kicks in.  And although it's not documented in the film, perhaps she's paid a call to her M.D. on the way home, since from the looks of her abrupt bout of uncontrolled shake dancing and home decorating, I myself am led to believe she's just gotten a needle of B12 and speed in her butt.  And then soon enough everyone's joining the party.  You will have, too, before all is said and (re)done...

Well, it's a terrific blast from the past - great visual and musical fun.  But on a realistic note, it's a good reminder of what Interior Design can and should be: a world of stimulating customization, a world of expression and license.  Face it, no one gets into the trade for the thrill of spec'ing one of three standardized finishes.  And I think this is one of the reasons I am so often keen on Sixties design - it really oozes optimism, possibility, and a certain kind of freshness and freedom - virtues which are always in style, if you ask me.  And there's something that's definitely out for 2012, and that's neutrality.

And as a matter of fact, I really do want a Mrs. Robinson zebra-striped fridge to match my Mrs. Robinson zebra-striped shift.  More than you know...

Enjoy! xo

Westinghouse ... "The Complete Refrigerator"

BRANIFF AIRLINES' BOLD VISION OF ... 1975 (1968)

 
 
 

#23: YESTERDAY'S TOMORROW IS SELDOM TODAY.

There's a certain charm to the dated vision of the future.  A quaint naiveté one doesn't find in the once-conjectured reality we currently occupy nor recognizable (by ourselves,  not yet) in the visions of tomorrow and the life futuristic we as a culture are producing.  Frankly it's easier to look back on the past and guffaw.  Well, we saw a bit of this charm in the previous post -  a staging of André Courrèges' spring '68 fashions - and so here again I'm posting another little issue from the same year: a Braniff Airlines commercial prophetizing the space age thrill of air travel ... circa 1975. Pretty ambitious for seven years, one has to admit.

Clearly in the scheme of things, 1975 was going to be a great year for hoods and streamlined fashion helmets!  Though I have to ask, what's the story with that lady in the crinkled metallic number scratching her ass?  Guess the future was going to be itchy.  And with all those rather jerky, hard-finished means of conveyance to which the modern traveler is subjected, I would say it's kind of whiplash-y, too...

Enjoy!



PSYCHEDELIC IHOP COMMERCIAL (1969)

 
 

#18: JUST FOR THE FUN OF IT? YES, WHY NOT.

Of course much of the fun of the vintage media here on The Social Design is the great design components found within - while often more or less ancillary to the original intent of production, these details certainly warrant a more starring role in our current, light-hearted consideration. And then of course there is also the pleasure of nostalgia: little, inviting windows to other times and other places, somehow the same world we exist in today yet hardly recognizable, lost but relived in memory for just a moment...

For your consideration today, a very groovy commercial for The International House of Pancakes from 1969.  Talk about a time, a place, an ethos one is hard pressed to find today.  There's sooo much to love here: The unabashed psychedelia. The trippy early-synthesizer soundtrack. The brilliantly fresh orange/blue complementary color scheme. The contemporary California family that dispenses with the car and prefers to run free across the landscape with great bouquets of colorful balloons...

Well, it's a world that is fresh, expansive, optimistic and free. Of course the food looks like hell, so in regard to actually promoting the IHOP product, the commercial is a complete failure. But in shaping the perceived IHOP experience, that's another story. Though I have to wonder how this little jewel ever got the green light to go beyond a sketch in an ad firm and actually make it onto the American airwaves - probably more of a reflection of the freshness, expansiveness, optimism, and freedom of today, I suspect. So really, America, lighten up. TUNE IN, TURN ON, AND DINE OUT!