Cedric Gibbons (1893-1960) was an American film set designer. He was born in Dublin.
Biography
Gibbons became a set dresser for films assisting art director Hugo Ballin at Edison Studios, New York, in 1914. He soon accompanied Ballin to Hollywood, where Samuel Goldwyn hired him. Ballin resigned as art director to direct and produce, and Gibbons replaced him, assuming the novel title ‘supervising art director.’ Gibbons replaced painted backdrops with three-dimensional sets and was dubbed the person who put the glove on the mantelpiece.’ He managed a staff of talented unit art directors, not always recognised in screen credits, including Ben Carré, Merrill Pye, and Richard Day, and Arnold Gillespie.
He signed a contract with MGM that gave him sole credit for every film the studio made in the USA. He controlled the wardrobe and set-dressing, Matte painting, special effects, and photography sections of the studio.
The 1925 Paris ‘Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industrials Modernes profoundly influenced his approach, as seen in sets for Our Dancing Daughters (1928) with its expansive Art Deco interiors. Other glamorous films popularising Art Déco followed, including Our Modern Maidens (1929) and Our Blushing Brides (1930), creating a craze for affectations that included Venetian blinds, dancing figurines, and indirect lighting in middle-class décors of the time.
Sources
Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing. https://amzn.to/3ElmSlL
More on Interior Design
-
The Journey of Alexis Mabille: Haute Couture to Interior Design
Buoyed by his thriving business as a designer of restaurants, including Le Boeuf sur le Toit in Paris and Cipriani in Saint-Tropez, Mabille has produced a mix of one-of-a-kind pieces and limited-edition items under his own Beaubow Editions imprint.Read More →
-
A Yuletide Journey: Christmas Magic at Galeries Lafayette
The author describes the magical Christmas experience at Galeries Lafayette in Paris, marveling at the grand decorations, city views, and the shared connection with the city and its festive spirit.Read More →
-
These 6 Furniture Trends Will Be Huge in 2024, Design Experts
In 2024, furniture trends will focus on aesthetics and sustainability with subtle patterns, sustainable and ethically produced pieces, deeper color hues, personalized designs, multi-functional items, and incorporation of natural elements.Read More →
-
Exploring the Influence of Pierre Chareau: Architect Designer
Pierre Chareau was a crucial figure in the French avant-garde movement, best known for his Maison de Verre design. He masterfully fused architecture with design, using modern ideas about lighting and space and incorporating industrial materials. His journey started at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, where he learned key principles that shaped his distinct unornamented, minimalist…
-
The Evolution and Impact of Colour Blocking in Design
Colour blocking, a practice rooted in early 20th-century modernist art, involves using contrasting or complementary colours to create dynamic visual effects. It’s heavily applied in fashion and interior design, offering a fresh approach to personal style and vibrant spaces. Despite differing opinions on its origins and future, colour blocking remains a transformative and timeless element…
-
“Modern Scandinavian Design” by Charlotte and Peter Fiell
“Modern Scandinavian Design” by Charlotte and Peter Fiell is an authoritative guide on Nordic design, emphasizing its commitment to social equality and quality of life. The in-depth book covers various design disciplines, making it an essential resource for design enthusiasts and practitioners. Read More →
-
Scandinavia Dreaming: An Ode to Dualism in Nordic Design
“Scandinavia Dreaming: Nordic Homes, Interiors and Design” delve into Nordic design’s unique blend of austerity and comfort, openness and privacy, presenting a variety of principles and practices. Highlighting craftsmanship, material selection, inclusiveness, and its global influences, it insightfully demonstrates Scandinavian culture and lifestyle.Read More →
-
How Lighting Affects Consumer Behavior Across Cultures
Lighting hugely influences interior design, impacting emotional states and consumer behaviour. Cultural background also affects lighting preferences, with American customers favoring warmer light and Korean consumers preferring cooler tones. Therefore, a diverse and multicultural approach to lighting design is critical.Read More →
-
Exposed Kitchen Painting it White – Best Method
The post provides instructions for painting exposed brick walls white. It involves cleaning, preparation, priming, painting, applying a second coat if necessary, and applying a sealant. Additionally, the type of white and paint finish can significantly affect the room’s atmosphere, and since painting brick is more or less permanent, the decision to paint should be…
-
Andrée Putnam (1925 – 2013), French Interior Designer
Andrée Putman was a French interior designer, furniture designer, and entrepreneur. She was born in Paris. Putman was probably best known internationally for her black and white palette, illustrated by the 1985 interior of Morgans Hotel in New York. It was commissioned by the entrepreneurs Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell.Read More →
-
Distinctly retro furniture by Masquespacio
Because of the studio’s trademark lively aesthetic, its hospitality and retail fit-outs are the stuff of design bloggers and Instagrammers’ dreams.Read More →
-
Classic Elegance Revived: Home Countryside High Back Spindle Dining Chair,
Experience timeless charm and modern comfort with the Christopher Knight Home Countryside High Back Spindle Dining Chair. Influenced by the iconic design of Thonet’s Chair No. 14, this antique white chair showcases a high backrest with intricate spindle detailing. With its blend of classic elegance and contemporary appeal, it’s the perfect addition to any dining…
-
Modern Americana (Hardcover)
Do-it-yourself décor inspired by iconic patterns, classic fabrics, sentimental items, and the Americana style.Read More →
-
Introducing the Lexicon Elle Accent Chair: Elevate Your Living Room with Style and Comfort
Discover the Lexicon Elle Accent Chair in Blue. This rustic-style chair combines elegance and comfort, with its cushioned back, armrests, and solid pattern. Crafted with high-quality materials, including wood, foam, and polyester upholstery, this chair offers durability and easy maintenance. Perfectly sized and designed for relaxation, it’s an ideal addition to any living room. Order…
-
The Île-de-France: Floating Ambassador of French Decorative Arts
The Île-de-France, launched in 1926, was a grand dame of French ocean liners, showcasing elegance and craftsmanship. Designed by top designers, it showcased French decorative arts, opulence, and practicality, making it a symbol of the golden age of transatlantic travel.Read More →
-
La La Land a must-see for designers
I saw La La Land this weekend and Damien Chazelle musical is brilliant and emotional tribute to the 1950’s musical. Visually stunning eye candy for my inner graphic designer. Not so much a visual re-imaging of Los Angeles as a opportunity to see it through an artists eye. Chazelles last film, “Whiplash”used Jazz as a…
-
High-Tech: Exploring the Architectural and Decorating Style
High-Tech architecture emerged in the 1970s, focusing on technological innovation, industrial aesthetics, and functionalism, reshaping the built environment. High-Tech architecture emphasized utilitarian aesthetics, flexibility, and adaptability, influencing interior design and sustainability, and influencing modern green and minimalist styles.Read More →
-
William Haines (1900 – 1973) American Interior Designer
William Haines, an American film actor and interior designer, retired from acting in 1933 and opened his own firm in Los Angeles, paving the way for LGBTQ+ actors and designers. Haines Foster founded an interior design company in 1930, creating iconic Beverly Hills homes and collaborating with architects like William Haines Designs.Read More →
-
Room Divider 6FT Portable Room Dividers
Our Room Partitions and Dividers are made of a strong steel frame with powder coating, with Extra Longer and Wider Feet pads to improve stability and privacy. The fabric of the room divider screen is 240g polyester with PA coating, which maximizes secrecy, wrinkle resistance, wear resistance and water resistance. The panels are connected by…
-
Designing Liners: A History of Interior Design Afloat
This book shows how the insides of ocean liners have changed from the middle of the 19th century to the 21st century. It is the first book to give a history and analysis of this vital part of interior design, which reflects and reinforces cultural ideas about national identity, gender, class, and ethnicity. Anne Massey’s…
-
Modern Rustic Hardcover – Create a Rustic Cozy Home
Rustic isn’t the same as it once was. The days of fusty dried flower arrangements, antlers over a stone fireplace, and acres of plaid are long gone.Read More →
-
Live Beautiful |Learn How to Create and Curate a Space
Athena Calderone is a renowned design expert and interior designer who shares her knowledge and connections with interior decorators, fashion designers, and tastemakers from around the world in her book Live Beautiful. Calderone delves into the inspiration behind each homeowner’s design journey and provides practical tips on how to incorporate these sophisticated elements into your…
-
Designing Coffee: New Coffee Places and Branding
The coffee industry has ignited a cultural and creative movement, leading to the creation of unique and imaginative coffee shops. “Designing Coffee” provides guidance on how to create a unique space that reflects individuality.Read More →
-
Noguchi lamp space without clutter
Isamu Noguchi designed the first of his lamps to be produced by traditional construction methods in Gifu, Japan, known for its manufacture of lanterns and parasols made from mulberry bark paper and bamboo. Akari is handcrafted with washi paper from the inside bark of the mulberry tree and bamboo ribbing stretched across sculptural moulded wood…
-
Buro Happold on How are offices evolving?
Due to the pandemic, there has been a change in office layout, with hybrid working providing a means of lowering carbon footprints and enhancing work-life balance. Teams of multidisciplinary experts from Buro Happold are assisting clients in reimagining their workspaces. Companies are investing in their offices to encourage employees to spend time with their teams,…
-
What is traditional Interior Design? (Architectural Digest)
Traditional interior design is a style that began in Europe between the 18th and 19th centuries. Classic, elegant, timeless, and formal are words that describe it. It takes ideas from this time in history and reinterprets them in a modern way, making a polished and well-curated home that feels timeless and has no expiration date.…
-
Made for Living: Collected Interiors for All Sorts of Styles
This Book will help you plan a home that’s made to be lived in. NATIONAL BESTSELLER With more than 250Read More →
-
How Cubicles and the Open-Plan Office Came to Be
Open-plan offices did not work out as well as their utopian creators had hoped, leading to the shift back to cubicles or pods to increase employee productivity and well-being. READ MORERead More →
-
Alastair J.F. Morton (1910 – 1963) British textile Manufacturer
Morton joined his family’s Morton Sundour Fabrics in 1931 and oversaw the company’s first screen-printed fabrics. He was the artistic director and principal designer of Edinburgh Weavers in Carlisle, which was established in 1928 as Morton Sundour’s creative design unit from 1932 to 1935. From the 1930s, he was a supporter of the Modern movement,…
-
Charles Pfister (1938 – 1990) American interior designer
Charles Pfister (1939 to 1990) was an American interior and furniture designer and architect. He was professionally active in San Francisco.Read More →
-
Midcentury Modern: 15 Interior Design Ideas
Master midcentury modern design principles with this simple and snappy interior design handbook. Do you love rich and vibrant timeless design? Are you on a budget and planning a new project based on this hot trend? Are you excited to find out how to create the midcentury modern look for your home, hotel or motel?Read…
-
Modern Interior Design – a guide
The modernism movement began to unfold as it moved away from using the traditional building and design materials like wood, stone and brick and instead began to focus on industrial materials including glass, steel and concrete.Read More →
-
The Interior Design Handbook Kindle Edition
Frida Ramstedt, a design consultant, owns Scandinavia’s most popular interior design blog. In The Interior Design Handbook she reveals the secrets of effective interior design and styling in this book to help you design a home that suits your space, taste, and lifestyle.Read More →
-
Kurt Versen (1901 – 1997), Swedish lighting designer
In the 1940s and 1950s, executed many assignments from architects for flexible lighting appropriate to Modern interiors.Read More →
-
Dorothy Draper (1889 – 1969) Rediscovering a Legend
Dorothy Draper (1889 – 1969) was an American interior designer. She was born in Tuxedo Park, New York. Draper’s upper-crust upbringing, Tuxedo Park was one of the first gated communities in the United States. Dorothy’s parents were part of an old New England family with longstanding social connections. Dorothy’s childhood was spent playing in high-ceilinged…
-
8 Interior Design Trends from 1966
The 1960s was a period of rediscovery in interior design – an opportune reawakening to the merits of forgotten favourites that were abandoned, perhaps not because they had become cliches. Interior Designers returned to past design, materials and ideas not because they evoked nostalgia but solely because they are good and contribute something of value…
-
The 10 Best Bar Stools for socialising
Bar stools are comfortable, use space well, have unique styles, and offer more ways to make a home feel like a home. READ MORERead More →
-
Robert Bonfils (1886 – 1972) French Graphic Artist
Born in Paris, Robert Bonfils was a French graphic artist, painter, and designer. He studied at the École Germain-Pilon in 1903 and at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1906. He worked for Henri Hamm, a furniture designer. His work included paintings, bookbindings, ceramics for Sèvres, Bianchini-Frerier silk, wallpaper and interior design layouts.…
-
Kaare Klint (1888 – 1954) Danish furniture designer
Kaare Klint – Danish furniture designer. The Danes were greatly influenced by Germany’s Bauhaus movement in the early part of the twentieth century. Read More →
-
1950s bathroom designed by Marcel Breuer
This classic mid-century interior is roomy, with clay tile countertops designed to take suds, wear and water. The clay tile tub and recessed shelf, dramatically reflected in the mirrored storage wall, are sparkling and bright.Read More →
-
John Eberson (1875 – 1954) American Designer famous for the atmospheric theatre
John Eberson was an american designer who was known for his cinema décors. One of his earliest, the 1923 Majestic Theatre in Houston, Texas, was a loosely recreated garden of a late-Renaissance palazzo in Italy. Through his workshop Michelangelo Studios, he was was successful at producing elaborate plasterwork for his theatre décors in Spanish, Moorish,…
-
Emeco and Naoto Fukasawa introduce “Za”
The name “Za” was chosen by Naoto Fukasawa, an industrial designer from Tokyo, and it means “a place to sit” in Japanese. It is a term that alludes to the multi-functionality of a simple stool that can be used anywhere, indoors and outdoors, an object that people will intuitively choose to sit on.Read More →
-
Kwok Hoi Chan (1939 – 1987) Chinese architect and interior designer
Interior design projects included furniture for Air India and the IBM offices in Hong Kong. 1966-68, Chan worked in a design studio, London, contributing to the interiors of the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth II. He subsequently, designed for Spectrum, the Netherlands. Read More →
-
Eero Aarnio (b. 1932 ) Finnish interior and industrial designer
Finnish designer Eero Aarnio (b. 1932) is a great innovator of twentieth-century furniture. His plastic chairs from the 1960s are pop culture icons that continue to be in demand, which is why Aarnio Originals began manufacturing them again in 2017 after launching at the Stockholm Furniture Fair.Read More →
-
Brian O’Rorke (1901 – 1974) New Zealand architect and interior designer
Brian O’Rorke was a New Zealand architect and interior designer. He was professionally active in Britain. He studied architecture, Cambridge University and Architectural Association, London. His style was uncompromisingly Modern. The 1932 music room he designed for Mrs Robert Solomon in London included a swirl-motif rug by Marion Dorn. Read More →
-
Best Of Indian Home Window Grill Design
Windows are an introduction to the world beyond. They are an invincible part of any home since it brings in air, sunlight, views, sounds that could be music to ears or noise to irritate, weather… inside the house to make and keep it fresh and vibrant. More the windows better ventilated is the home. Moreover, windows…
-
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886 – 1969) German architect and designer
Between 1905 and 1907, he worked as an apprentice to architect and furniture designer Bruno Paul in Berlin, where he studied wooden furniture design. He created furniture for all of his early homes, including the Werner residence.Read More →
-
Sibyl Colefax (1875 – 1950) British collector and interior designer
Sibyl Colefax was a prominent British collector, interior designer, and socialite active in 1930s London. She co-founded Colefax and Co. with John Fowler, creating detailed and uniquely colored interior designs.Read More →
-
10 Creative Ideas for Dining Room Walls
The article provides ten decorative ideas for dining room walls, such as textured wallpapers, artisanal shelving, abstract art, murals, exotic tapestries, architectural accents, themed photo walls, geometric patterns, vintage signage, and collector’s corner displays. It emphasizes creative personalization and enhancement of the room’s ambiance.Read More →
-
Andrés Reisinger’s Explorative, Pastel 3D Renderings
Barcelona-based multidisciplinary graphic designer Andrés Reisinger renders still lifes, interiors and design objects in 3D with a clean, modern aesthetic.Read More →