The Sale of Office Interiors: Gender, Affect, and Modernism

• In Event: Historicizing Feeling: Affect, Emotion, and the Making of Communication

Abstract

This paper considers the role of affect and gender in the sale of modern American office interiors from 1950 to 1970. The general view holds that office interiors were modernized due to a societal shift to information work and changes in the exterior of office buildings. However, a close examination of two iconic designers, Florence Knoll and Robert Propst, illustrates the popularization of modern office interiors was not teleological - the designers had to expand considerable effort to convince clients accustomed to other designs that modernism was superior. To get clients to like their designs, they needed to transform a sales pitch into something visceral. Therefore, affective communicate techniques like showrooms, textile designs and information seminars were crucial to the uptake of modern office interiors. Furthermore, the difference in gender of the designers guided the different affective techniques used.

Author

• Renyi Hong, U of Southern California - Annenberg School for Communication