Mass Production and Consumerism
Mass production afforded consumers with more choice at more of an affordable cost than previously experienced in their everyday lives. With specialized machinery, it made for creating at higher volume achievable and kept production cost low. As a result of mass production and availability, competition became the driving force of consumerism and the free-market system. With more options, better and more specialized design became available. Production needs also affected design choices. With the simplicity of organic design and the simplicity of machine operated production it became an effective design style to produce at a larger scale. To quote a review of MoMA’s Organic Design in Home Furnishings Exhibition in 1941 by the New York Times, “Since the new furniture makes much of simplification, its development fits neatly into the defense agencies’ program for simplification through industry.”(MoMA, 1941)