Streamline Moderne
ストリームライン・モダン / 1930s–1940s / Style / Modern Architecture
Gives even stationary things speed and machine-age optimism through streamlines, horizontals, rounded corners and metal.
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At a glance
Visual cues
- Streamlined forms
- Horizontal bands
- Rounded corners
- Chrome
Best used for
- Giving stationary buildings or equipment an impression of speed
- Shaping appliances or vehicle bodies as one mass with fewer joints
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Dictionary entry
- Type
- Wide horizontal letterforms carried sideways by speed lines
- Composition
- Run horizontal bands, round every corner, align openings wide
- Material
- Chrome, opal glass, curved metal panels with the joints hidden
- Caution
- Curves and horizontals added without any functional reason become a pattern that merely looks fast, no different from the ornament they replaced.
- Further study
- Raymond Loewy / Henry Dreyfuss / Norman Bel Geddes
Related entries
- Art Deco (アール・デコ)Shared effects: Luxury / Exhilaration.Compare Streamline Moderne and Art Deco
- Mid-Century Modern (ミッドセンチュリー・モダン)Editorially linked for a useful contrast.Compare Streamline Moderne and Mid-Century Modern
Often confused with
More from Modern Architecture
Continue through styles in the same Modern Architecture family, prioritised by shared effects.
- Metabolist Architecture (メタボリズム建築)Shared effects: Futurity / Exhilaration.
- High-Tech Architecture (ハイテック建築)Shared effects: Futurity / Exhilaration.
- Googie (グーギー建築)Shared effects: Exhilaration / Futurity.
Browse all Modern Architecture entries
Cite this entry
The dictionary is meant to be linked to. Take whichever form fits where you are writing.
- Link
- https://indexstyle.org/styles/streamline-moderne
- Markdown
- [Streamline Moderne — IndexStyle](https://indexstyle.org/styles/streamline-moderne)
- HTML
- <a href="https://indexstyle.org/styles/streamline-moderne">Streamline Moderne — IndexStyle</a>