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and automation have meant that a
number of craftsmen who used to
play an important role in the field of
applied art have now been deprived
of their functions of creation and
design or even that the crafts have
gone out of existence. There are
signs that, besides the lithographer,
process engraver and engraver,
not to mention the sign-writer,
cabinet‐maker, art metal-worker,
etc., other typical representatives
of the applied arts group, such as
the compositor and letterpress
printer, will also be overtaken
by mechanization. The changes
within these trades, or even their
disappearance, have given rise to
a new situation. The creative side
of the trades mentioned has now
been largely handed over to the
designer and the mechanical side
increasingly to the machine. This
radical alteration in the structure
of the applied arts means that the
designer of today must combine a
knowledge of photography, industrial
design, typography, drawing,
spatial representation, reproduction
techniques, language and others.
It is urgent, therefore, that educators
should stop thinking in terms of
results and thus clear the way for an
outlook which embraces a wider field
of activities and is more alert to their
finer and deeper interrelationships.
(3)
Armin Hofmann/Wolgang Weingart