Designed in the USSR: 1950-1989

by Moscow Design Museum

A fascinating glimpse into design behind the Iron Curtain, revealed through the products and graphics of everyday Soviet life

This captivating survey of Soviet design from 1950 to 1989 features more than 350 items from the Moscow Design Museum's unique collection. From children's toys, homewares, and fashion to posters, electronics, and space-race ephemera, each object reveals something of life in a planned economy during a fascinating time in Russia's history. Organized into three chapters - Citizen, State, and World - the book is a micro-to-macro tour of the functional, kitsch, politicized, and often avant-garde designs from this largely undocumented period.

The Moscow Design Museum was founded in 2012 and is the first cultural institution in Russia specifically dedicated to design. Its main objective is to preserve and popularize Russian design heritage at home and abroad. In September 2016 the Museum's Russian exhibition at the first London Design Biennale was awarded the Utopia Medal for their entry, Utopia: Lost Archives of Soviet Design.

"Explores a period in the history of design that has been largely overlooked."—Crafts

"Following on from its recent book delving into Nicholas Bonner's personal collection of graphic ephemera from North Korea, publisher Phaidon has its sights set on the visual history of the Soviet Union with its latest release. Drawing from the collection of the Moscow Design Museum, the book features over 350 images of products and graphics that offer a glimpse into what everyday life looked like behind the Iron curtain."—DesignWeek.co.uk

"The book serves as a tour through the 'landscape of everyday life in the USSR.'"—Hyperallergic

"Richly illustrated... A procession of colourful pages reveals the real ingenuity in the design of chocolate wrappers, vodka labels, matchboxes, fabrics, magazines and posters... although the clichéd potted history of Soviet design goes like this - short-lived avant-garde era from 1917 to Stalin, followed by nothing much except slavish copying of Western products, followed by the collapse of the USSR and the triumph of global brands and bling - there is another story hinted at in this book: that Soviet public design could be truly Impressive."—Daily Telegraph

Genres: Design, Art, History, Nonfiction, Russia, Reference

240 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2018

Reviews

[Keen Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

We see a culture which largely through necessity became masters of function and utility, and often with an emphasis on durability – a lesson that far too many corporations in the west should be learning from. This provides a truly fascinating insight into the heart of Soviet culture, the images at times so foreign and yet retaining an occasional residual familiarity, often instils them with an uncanny feel. I have to confess this contains some of the most harrowing children’s toys I have ever set eyes on.

By far my favourite era of design in here is found in the 80s, this is when they seemed to really let loose coming up with all sorts of intriguing designs and prototypes, like the closed cabin snowmobile, those primary coloured TV sets and or what about those delightful phones in all sorts of experimental shapes, all biomorphic and futuristic creations courtesy of VNIIITE. And of course we can’t forget the Sphinx super-functional integrated communicative system from 1986, which looks suspiciously 21st century in many ways. The paraphernalia and ephemera around the 1980 Moscow Olympics was also a bit of a treat.

It makes you think about consumerist choice, and how everything is relative, on one hand you have these seemingly limited and simple designs which in spite of being ridiculed now, especially by westerners, clearly still brought years of pleasure to millions. Yet as Russians have now discovered for themselves, there are many insidious traps hidden within consumerism and capitalism writ large, such as planned obsolescence and the paradox of choice, which simply didn’t exist in Soviet times under communism.

[Wendelle]

paraphernalia of everyday life in the USSR

[Frederic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of interesting design objects here, and I like the design of the book as well (matte paper, slightly off-realistic bright colors). But not a lot of cultural or historical context, or design information. The result would grace a fashionable coffee table, but instead of learning something about Soviet design it becomes more something to look at and wonder over, almost joking at points. Still interesting to see the objects though.

[Zachariah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book about post-war Soviet design. As one might expect from a book produced by the curators of a museum of design, the presentation is top-notch. The book is almost entirely photos, however. I would have appreciated more textual explanation of the disparate objects presented, but if you're looking for a mainly visual experience that won't be a drawback for you.

[Mr Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting delve into the world of Soviet domestic products. A look at the every-day life of a past era.
The book is more like a portable museum exhibition with snatches of detail to put some items in context with the rest simply labeled with names, dates and places of manufacture. There are some interesting surprises inside such as a whole page spread on Soviet electric guitars and it kept me going. It would have been nice if there was more commentary on the design culture and movements that inspired the designs shown and mentioned in the book though.
The tributes at the end are a lovely closure to commemorate the men and women who fought for the importance of ergonomics and design innovation that we take for granted today.

The book itself is well made, medium sized hardback with nice raised letting on the front and a fabric spine. The bold colours and geometric design on the front and back are striking and would look good on any display bookshelf or coffee table.

[Stanley · Rating 5 out of 5]

zbierka grafik, plagatov, vyrobkov, "motivacnych citatov", elektroniky, aut a inych veci ktore boli nadizajnovane v USSR a mozno by ste ich nasli este u svojich rodicov alebo starych rodicov. Popisy a pribehy uskutocnenich projektov alebo prototypov k jednotlivym produktom dotvaraju atmosferu ako to bolo s dizajnom v sovietskom zvaze. Fun fact: slovo dizajn sa dlhu dobu ani nemohlo pouzivat.

[Shayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun to leaf through, a visual delight!

[Kirsti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully presented examples of candy wrappers, cars, electronic devices, toys, coffee cans, and propaganda posters.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Как работал, так и заработал.

Мы растем под солнцем нашей страны.

выполним план великих работ.

Да здравствует нерушимая дружба и сотрудничество.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

For some reason, I found this book oddly soothing - many designs seem un-ironic and straightforward, others are somewhat avant-garde in inspiration. Some are great - such as many of the movie posters, but others seem to be what must have survived a collective design process, they are rather bland albeit modern. There are some stand-out product designs - from many decades ago - such as a cigarette tin from the 1960s called White Night, a city skyline in dark blue, black on a light blue background with gold and black streaks.

Since there were chronic shortages of this or that material, there was an emphasis on sustainability - which was ahead of its time - out of necessity, whereas for us in the West, planned obsolescence, convenience, disposable items, were the watchword. In the USSR, people would carry string bags which could be stuffed in one's pocket & which were also washable, up until the 1980s, when they were replaced by disposable plastic bags. The lack of materials also led to ingenuity, and adapting available materials for novel uses.

I think the copies/echoes of Western designs - sometimes overt, sometimes faint - also were soothing somehow, in that they humanize a country that was perceived as a rather menacing threat at the time. It's possible that there were always many pro American or at least pro Western people in the USSR the whole time - or that they were more like us than the leadership of either country would have wanted to admit, despite the extremely different socio economic systems.

Some designs even appear to be overt homages to signature American product designs - such as the Yava cigarette packaging of the 1980s, which is eerily similar to that of Lucky Strikes. Also, a popular car model (the Volga GAZ-M21, 1956-70) was "In the spirit of American cruisers ...such as Ford... and Chevrolet..." It would not have been out of place on an American street since it seems a carbon copy of a streamlined, chrome-laden 50s Ford or Chevy. A rather nice ceramic sugar bowl design with abstract geometric pattern of the 1960s, or something very much like it, probably could be found today in Ikea stores globally. There's also an especially simple yet cute reel-to-reel tape recorder design of 1965-8 - the Kometa MG-201. An export promotional poster of the 1970s-80s for a Soviet SLR camera called the Zenith-E shows a young woman with long straight hair and a far-away look in her eyes, holding the product - surrounded by flowers - echoing the worldwide counter-cultural trend of the era. The idea that design trends in the West were also diffusing into the East is somehow soothing. Although it's true that many product designs were different they weren't that different.

Here are a couple of quotes from the Foreword by Justin McGuirk:

"It is true that Communism as manifested in the USSR - centralized, bureaucratic and un-conducive to competition - was not fertile ground for a rich material culture. It is also true that many Soviet products were copies of Western models."

"This parallel world of ersatz knock-offs was encouraged by Party dignitaries returning from foreign trips with souvenirs that they would drop off a the konstruktorskoe buro (design department) of the relevant factory so they could be reverse engineered."

"One might argue that the system had its virtues. After all, Western materialism depends on a culture of disposability, bewildering choice, rapid obsolescence and keeping up with the Joneses. By comparison, the Soviet system was admirably sustainable: avos'ki fish-net shopping bags are vastly preferable to plastic ones, as are collapsible cups for use in drinking fountains compared to the insanity of plastic bottles."