Okay, so I love history...

Issues In Design History
October 23, 2004

Design history is all around us. We see it in our clothes, food, transportation, schools, work places, homes and more. The following are two examples of design history, items which were popluar items in the past, and continue to be in the present. The first design example, Levi's Jeans, is a pant design that has survived since its inception in 1873. The second example is the Volkswagen Beetle, which is an automobile design that originated in 1931, died out in 1975, and went on to be revived in 1994 with the unveiling of it's new adaptation, Concept 1. I chose these two designs as my topic of conversation, as I had personal history with and affection towards these items. I've been a Levi's wearer and maintained a sense of loyalty towards them through the years, especially the oldest and most faded ones. As well, my family owned a VW Beetle when I was about six years old. I can still recall the smell of the car, the feel of the hard, black leather interior, and remember sitting in the little storage space in the back, with my face pressed up against the window. Of course, at the age of six, I didn't mind that it wasn't a practical car for a family of six; I thought it was fun to sit in the back. As well, these two items are associated with an era that intrigues and interests me, the sixties.

Originally, both designs were a response to a practical need. Levi's jeans were initially the 'brain child' of a man called Jacob Davis. There are numerous recounts of Levi's beginnings. Mattox tells the story of Mr. Davis based on a press release by historian Lynn Downey. He tells us that Mr. Davis was a tailor and a customer of Levi Strauss. One of Mr Davis's customers kept ripping the pockets of the pants that he had made for him, so he (Mr. Davis) came up with the idea of putting rivets at the weak spots of the pants to strengthen them. This idea worked and these new pants were an instant hit with his customers, the labourers. This prompted Mr. Strauss, who had established his dry goods store (which included the sale of trousers) with a proposition for them to become business partners. Mr. Strauss accepted, a partnership resulted, and a patent was purchased. Mr. Strauss had come to San Francisco from Germany in 1853 to open a west coast branch of his brothers New York 'dried goods' business, as it was called at that time. May 20, 1873 was dubbed the official birthday of 'blue jeans (Mattox). According to Wagner, the original fabric of trousers for the gold miners of this era was heavy brown canvas until supplies ran out. When Strauss and Davis became partners in pants, the pants were made of dyed blue denim, with the ever-important rivets for strengthening. Their pant production began with 'wasit overalls', the old name for jeans (Wagner). On the other hand, the Volkswagen Beetle was designed in response to a request by the German government for a small, economical car. The car was small, and shaped like a lady-bug, with big, rounded fenders around the wheels. BBC tells the story, about the car, summoned by none other than the infamous Adolph Hitler. Hitler wanted a car that could be mass-produced, for as little money as possible. This vehicle was intended to enable people to be mobile, which would require a vehicle that was affordable and practical. As well, Hitler was interested in having transportation to his troops and to the public. He commissioned Ferdinand Porsche to design the economical, four-seater, family car. Not long after, a factory was built surrounding Wolfsburg castle, which was unfortunately devastated during World War II. After World War II, with the British in power, production was eventually again started up and by the end of 1945, Volkswagen was finally in full production (BBC). Hodges says it was Wolfsburg's good fortune to fall under British Military rule. It was likely that the Soviets, at that time, would merely have stripped watever remained of the plant, and there seemed to have been little of immediate value or interest to the American and the French. However, the British needed light transport for their occupation forces and it made sense to provide work for the local citizens (20). BBC affirms that the popularity of the Beetle grew and grew until 1974 when its last vehicle rolled off the production line. However, public demand got things rolling again and in 1994 the new 'Concept 1' was revealed. (BBC)

The periods connecting these designs from the past to the present are of great importance in understanding how they became so popular. In the fifties, during the Post War baby boom period, both of these items went through a transformation of sorts. They went from being practical necessities in an evolving community, to being objects of commodity fetishism, of mass consumption. They became items loved and bought by the masses. The social changes brought on by the Industrial Revolution, the influx of people moving from the country to the city to be nearer the factories, consequent anxiety, onset of mass media availability, increase in technology and resulting power of advertising, were all factors that influenced the popularity and success of these items. In both cases a notion of rebellion was created by the mass media, a feeling a conception associated with the products, which was adapted by society. According to Mattox, rebelliousness was a cultural landmark of this era. During the fifties stars like James Dean, Marilyn Munroe, and Marlon Brando endorsed the jeans image (Mattox). Further, Iohmann explains that in the fifties denim became popular with young people, a symbol of teenage rebellion in television prograns and movies (James Dean in 1955 Rebel Without A Cause) and that some schools banned students from wearing denim (Iohmann). Levi's were to go on to become an icon of American culture. The makers of the Volkswagen Beetle, however, took marketing strategies into their own hands according to Pasi. In 1959, Volkswagen hired an advertising company to promote the sale of the Beetle. "It wasn't until VW's legendarily clever and unconventional advertising campaigns that the car really became synonymous with the vibrant, unrestrained generation that made it their hallmark."(Pasi) Further, BBC asserted that 'America's love of the Bug overtook that of the 'Fatherlands' after a hugely successful ironic campaign, which mocked the quirky car and that by the end of the decade there were over 500,000 Beetles on US roads." (BBC) As David Ogilvie explains, 'Bill Bernbach and his merry men positioned Volkswagen as a protest against the vulgarity of Detroit cars in those days, thereby making the Beetle a cult among those Americans who eschew conspicuous consumption" (Ogilvie) The advertisement depicted a tiny photograph of the Beetle surrounded by a lot of white space. the title of the ad was 'Think Small'. Hodges reaffirms 'no (vehicle) inspired such owner loyalty or enjoyed such wide cult status, often in the faces of suspicions that image might be taking over from the realities of specification and capability." (34) Hodges was further quoted as saying, "that clever marketing played its part, especially in publicity in the United States through the Sixties when VW became a major force in the world's largest single market." (34)

The correlation to rebelliousness was well established with both products in the fifties, which positioned them well for popularity and success with the youth counter-culture of the sixties. The sixties were a period of rebellion. There was a rise in the attendance of upper class youth attending university, popularity in speaking out and taking action, particularly against disturbances like the highly unpopular Vietnam War. These combined issues manifested with the youth in a physical and mental state of rebellion against parents, the government, war, social conformities and other issues. During the sixties Levi's were very popular as they had been previously established as the clothing of the cool and rebellious and had become the clothing of choice for university students of the anti-war, hippie generation, Iohmann asserts that in the sixties and seventies different styles of jeans were made, to match the 60's fashions including embroidered jeans, painted jeans, and psychadelic jeans. In many non-Western countries, jeans became a symbol of 'Western Decadence' and difficult to get. (Iohmann) The same went for the Beetle, it was to become an icon of the sixties generation. BBC's articles reiterates that 'the sixties were a decade of huge change: while man walked on the moon, the Beetle got square bumpers, vertical headlights, larger taillights and double-jointed axles and as free love and anti-capitalism spread, the Beetle became the must-have for hippies everywhere, despite its Nazi origins." (BBC)

Even the harsh realities surrounding the manufacture of the items didn't stop the masses from buying them. During the fifties and sixties while all of the peace and love was going on, the conditions that the factory workers had to endure while assembling the beloved Levi's jeans and Beetles was unfathomable. In the case of Levi's jeans, the 'sweat shops', as they came to be known, employed women and children who were overworked and underpaid. The Beetle factories were also involved in unethical, in-humane acts. Laver quotes:

"In the German case, the passage of time has nothing to quell on the demands for retribution. In June, Klaus Von Mrunchhausen, a lecturer at the University of Bremen, announced plans to sue VW AG, the world's fourth largest automaker, on behalf of thirty Hungarian-born Jews. His clients, all now residents of Isreal were teenage prisoners at Auschwitz and in 1944 and 1945 they were sent to work as slave labourers in the VW plants. At the time VW was a major supplier to the Nazi war machine, building everything from trucks to rockets."(37)

With the Post-War economic boom, and the tumultuous sixties in the past, the success of both products was to change. Mattox indicates that in the seventies and eighties the blue jeans black market and collecting markets emerged worldwide, especially in Japan. However, in the nineties, oversize jeans rose and fell (pardon the pun) leaving Levi's behind, as new industry leaders emerged. (Mattox) Meanwhile, BBC says of the Beetle:

"the VW after enjoying the popularity of the sixties tries to improve on its popularity unsuccessfully and its successive attempts were failures. In desperation, VW called upon Italian designer Giorgetto Giuglaro to help. His solution was the water-cooled, front engine hatchback named Golf."

In 1974 the Golf was realeased with instant success. The same year the last VW Beetle rolled off the Wolfsburg production line. In 1975 the Beetle was no longer in production in North America although it continued to be built in other countries. However, due to public demand, the Beetle was revived in 1994 in the new production called Concept 1.

The notion, feeling, conception created around the original Beetle carried forward to Concept 1, albeit to a lesser degree. BBC qoutes "1994 saw the unveiling of Volkswagen's Concept 1, a Golf-based show car, which reinvented the Beetle's classic curves for a new breed of customer. The new Beetle was front-engined, luxurious, comfortable and expensive." (BBC) It's interesting to note that in our consumer society we have reinvented the same car, only with opposite principles. Perhaps the principles that might interest the same people who were loyal to the Beetles in the sixties? I expect so.

Levi's like the Beetle, live on. They were popular items in the past and are stil in the present. Rothenberg eloquently sums up the connection fromt he past to the present for both Levi's and the Beetle when he says about the Beetle

"Mr. Patton's book, from Simon & Schuster, brings the story up to date, recounting the development and marketing of the new Beetle that's become a generation Y icon. "The two models" Mr. Patton writes, "provide an object lesson in the way images and ideas mutate through culture". "The old and new Beetles show 'how an impersonal universal design' becomes an object of such personal attachment". Indeed, for marketing people, "Bug" is a case study that can accompany "The Tipping Point" or "The Cluetrain Manifesto" for it helps explain how we as consumers, in our own minds and hands, turn the ephemera of mass production into the stuff of individual affection.(24)