Vienna Secession vs Wiener Werkstätte
ウィーン分離派 / ウィーン工房
Vienna Secession comes from Fin de Siècle Art and Wiener Werkstätte from Modern Design Movements. Both are read here as style. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.
Vienna Secession
Tightens organic ornament with geometry and flat composition, erasing the border between art and design.
Wiener Werkstätte
The workshop founded by Hoffmann and Moser designed buildings, furniture, tableware and clothing to a single geometry and a single standard of handwork. It practiced the total work of art, treating all of daily life as one piece, inside a commercial enterprise.
| Vienna Secession | Wiener Werkstätte | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 1897–1910s | 1903–1932 |
| Family | Fin de Siècle Art | Modern Design Movements |
| Kind | Style | Style |
| Cues | Square skeletons / Repeating pattern / Gold and black / Flattened figures and plants | Squares and grids / Black-and-white contrast / Luxurious handcraft / Whole lives designed |
| Best used for | Intelligent ornament for cultural venues and premium goods · Showing the tension between classical and modern | A small brand designing tableware, packaging and interior by one hand · Building a high priced craft line where geometry and handwork coexist |
| Type | Tall serifs or geometric hand-lettering | Geometric letterforms drawn from the square for this use alone |
| Composition | Build on the square and a central axis; gather imagery at the top | Elements on grid intersections, white space measured in the same square |
| Material | Off-white, black, gold; control fine repetition with large margins | Black and white as the ground, with silver, wood and leather in small doses |
| Caution | Don't lump it with Art Nouveau's plant curves. Keep the straight line, the grid, the flatness. | Reproducing the grid and the black and white by machine alone, where the absence of hand precision leaves nothing but stiff decoration. |