The Creator's Words

"The boundless evil, caused by shoddy mass-produced goods and by the uncritical imitation of earlier styles, is like a tidal wave sweeping across the world. We have been cut adrift from the culture of our forefathers and are cast hither and thither by a thousand desires and considerations. The machine has largely replaced the hand and the businessman has supplanted the craftsman. To attempt to stem this torrent would seem like madness.

"...We wish to create an inner relationship linking public, designer and worker and we want to produce good and simple articles of everyday use. Our guiding principle is function, utility our first condition, our strength must lie in good proportions and the proper treatment of material. We shall seek to decorate when it seems required but we do not feel obliged to adorn at any price....

"We cannot and will not compete with cheap work, which has succeeded largely at the expense of the worker. We have made it our foremost duty to help the worker recover pleasure in his task and obtain humane conditions in which to carry it out, but this can only be achieved step by step."

— Josef Hoffmann. from Josef Hoffmann. Josef Hoffmann: Architect and Designer 1870-1956. p7-8.