Happy Bastille Day! Iconic French Designs
In honor of the French version of the Fourth of July, I thought I’d feature three iconic French Designs. They all, at least to me, immediately say France. The first isn’t a design, per se. It’s a baguette. But it says France doesn’t it?
The second is one of Hector Guimard’s emblematic signs for the Paris Metro. While he may not have invented Art Nouveau, and while Art Nouveau is certainly not solely French, I don’t think you’d mistake this for any other city’s subways.
The third is one of the most radical automobile designs in history. And to me, this could not be anything but a French car. It’s a Citroen DS-21. In case you didn’t know, the letters “DS” are pronounced “DayEss” in French, which is a homonym for D?©esse, the French word for Goddess. Nice pun, huh?
I think that these days globalism has sort of wrecked national design styles. Particularly, as my husband reminds me, with cars. French cars used to look French. American cars looked American. Italian Cars looked Italian. Now they all look like they come from one international design center. Do you think so, too?
Can you think of an iconic English, Swedish, Italian, or German design? (For American, I’d pick a car with fins and a Emeco chair.)
One Response to “Happy Bastille Day! Iconic French Designs”
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It’s a DS-21, but not a standard one. It’s a Chapron-modified DS. But it’s still tres French.