Design in Israel

The field of design in Israel touches all areas of society, from the daily life of the citizens to local industry. Design contains within it a variety of specializations, the main ones being product design for individuals and for industry, interior design, environmental design, textile design, jewelry design, fashion design, image design, print design and visual communication.

In Israel, the design field developed along three main axes: the first was the establishment, in the early 20th century, of institutions for the training of artists, professionals and later, industrial designers. These institutions formed the infrastructure for the academic institutions teaching design in Israel today. Concurrently, on a parallel axis, individual and family-owned manufacturers promoted local design, the latter relying on the professional knowledge, designs and traditions they had brought with them as new immigrants from their countries of origin. The third axis—the designer as manufacturer of a mass production model—dates to the mid-1950s, and with government encouragement led to the establishment of mechanical production industries, mainly in development areas.

These key axes are reflected in the National Digital Collection of Design Archives, which houses archives of designers from a variety of design fields. In each of the archives, one can find sketches, sample materials, personal, professional and business correspondence between manufacturers and suppliers, newspaper clippings, policy documents, historical photographs and recent photographs documenting the archive collection activity. The archive materials provide a unique glimpse into the work processes behind the final product and the various actors that influenced the development of the design field in Israel.

Work Processes and Sketches

Store windows, display shelves, websites, the home, the workspace and the public space are some of the locations where we encounter the products of designers’ work. Behind the finished product is a lengthy process that involves matters of need and use, target markets, economic constraints, production options, style and image, systemic considerations and more. The design process requires a designer’s professional skill, initiative, innovation, creativity and a host of other considerations before reaching the finished product. The items in the National Digital Collection of Design Archives illuminate and reflect the importance of these work processes, revealing surprising sources of inspiration and diverse design methods. Among the items are sketches and final drawings of production-ready products, photographs, samples of materials, and documentation of production techniques used by the designers in the creative process.

Tradition and Designing a National Image

“Fashion inspired by Bar Kochba” reads a headline in the Haaretz newspaper from summer 1963. Following a conversation with archaeologist Yigal Yadin, fashion designer Pini Leitersdorf and textile designer Neora Warshawski went to the Ein Gedi Caves to seek inspiration: “An interesting attempt is being made here to create fashion based on the models and colors of ancient Hebrew clothing.” The designers’ expedition is one example of the search for visual sources and materials in order to create an “Israeli style.” The development of design fields in Israel is characterized by attempts to fashion a national image while searching for sources of inspiration and diverse and surprising contexts: archeological finds, biblical figures, handicrafts of Jewish communities in the Diaspora and traditional Palestinian crafts. At the same time, the design of the national image was marked as modernist and international, and also bore influences from labor movements from around the world. The work of Israeli designers is documented in the National Digital Collection of Design Archives through photographs of utilitarian items and fashion, sketches, press clippings and documents. The archive materials reflect the role of design in the search for the unique characteristics of the Israeli environment and the attempt to create a national identity and style.

Studies, Teaching and Academia

God-given talent or intensive training? It is customary to view talent and creativity as innate and not as skills acquired in an institutional setting. Institutions of higher education in the fields of design grapple with this built-in tension and over the years have developed teaching methods aimed at cultivating creativity and uniqueness, alongside instruction in practical matters of planning and execution. The strenuous training process is often perceived as foundational in the development of a young designer’s professional and personal identity. Curricula for the training of designers are an expression of the essence of the concept of design and its place on the daily social agenda. Design schools have a major impact not only on the student community and teachers, but also on industry and the social and cultural discourse in Israel. Graduates of these educational institutions, who later became leading designers and teachers themselves, aware of the importance of this period of study, have continued to reshape the training experience of future generations of designers in order to meet the challenges of the changing times. In many of the personal archives of the designers in the National Digital Collection of Design Archives you can find materials from these designers’ days as students and as teachers in Israel’s academic institutions for design.

Brand and Industry

Not many people know that the Hebrew term for brand, mutag, is a combination of the words for product mutsar, and tag (tag or label). This combined word reflects the need to mark and differentiate certain products through unique branding. Branding’s inclusion in product design represents, among other things, the transition from small-scale to mass production. Brand design dates back to the first packaging and labels created specifically to distinguish a product from other similar ones. Since then the field has developed and been perfected, and today is an essential component in the development, production and marketing processes of products and services. The branding process involves summarizing the messages and attitudes commercial companies and social and political groups seek to convey to a particular audience. Visual and verbal means are part of the brand design process and include the symbol, brand name, fonts, shapes and colors, all of which convey a message to the consumer. A review of the archival materials in the National Digital Collection of Design Archives makes it possible to examine the creative process behind many Israeli brands, including rejected designs and others that have become iconic.

Product Design and Production

“Form follows function,” a saying attributed to the architect Lewis Henry Sullivan, one of the early fathers of modernism, expresses one of the major tenets in the field of product design in the west in the 20th century. It is interesting to examine this statement in light of the variety of trends reflected in the history of Israeli product design. Prominent among them: design as craft, bespoke design and design for local and international mass production. As part of these trends, products including housewares, furniture, packaging, textiles and fashion items, as well as industrial products and tools for uniform mass production were designed in a variety of materials and utilized diverse manufacturing technologies. The items in the National Digital Collection of Design Archives shed light on various trends in product design, the many histories of the design fields in Israel and the economic, cultural and social changes that drove them.