Josef Frank’s design language
Josef Frank considered steel frame furniture to be a threat to humanity. Instead, he wanted to incorporate colours and shapes of nature in his designs, which would create serenity and freedom even in closed rooms. For the same reason, he preferred furniture you could see right through. A chair should have an open back, and a cabinet ought to be placed on legs that were tall enough to allow the viewer to see the line between floor and wall.
Even his fabric pattern designs were based on the same ethos. From his childhood, Josef Frank had a strong interest in botany and by the 1920s, he conjured an entire flora of his own into his pattern designs. He would mix his favourite blooms like daisies, tulips, roses, morning glories, forget-me-nots, violets, lilies of the valley, crocuses and muscari with fantasy species, often drawn in an expressionist style.
“The plain surface feels uneasy, a patterned one feels calm – as you are subconsciously affected by the slow process. Decorated surfaces demand time for observation, whereas a plain surface is quickly registered, and just as fast, you lose interest in it.”
