Hasta La Ideas

Last week, we learned (or relearned) Dieter Rams’ Ten Principles of Good Design through a nicely-executed animation by Design Silesia. Today, we have a series of animated shorts from the Open University, a UK-based distance-learning institution. I can’t speak to the university’s academics, but it happens to be one of the world’s largest universities and is accredited in the States. In keeping with the nontraditional structure—students typically study remotely, whether they are in the UK or elsewhere—they’ve also taken to producing short educational videos on YouTube, and the latest series of shorts happens to be about “Design in a Nutshell.”

The Bauhaus segment is a gem—I learned that Gropius’s seminal school of thought marked the genesis of the “art school as an alternative way of life,” as well as a few fun facts about Marcel Breuer. Good stuff.

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