As noted here, amoeba-like shapes had a huge upturn in the forties and fifties. It probably had something to do with their very abstractness. Amoebae themselves can only be seen under microscopes, and the similarity is just suggestive. So this shape belonged entirely to design, abstract art, kooky animation, etc.
If you're about my age you've almost certainly seen amoeba patterns on Formica, and maybe porcelain as well. The actual practice of making them is long gone, but the artifacts themselves lasted a substantial amount of time after they were in vogue. Kind of like, if you look at the link, that little starburst shape behind the "k" in "Skylark."
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Not only do I remember the amoeba shapes on our chrome kitchen table and chairs but Jer does too. New high tech materials developed for the war effort became very popular after it ended. Once ww2 was over, in the aftermath of that horrific destruction, people looked forward to a modern age and the futuristic designs it promised.
What followed soon after was the Space Age and the Atomic Age. Clean curving lines and bold modern shapes reflected the optimism of the times - at least the optimism of the designers and architects. It was also the age of Brutalism in architecture. Le Corbusier wanted to replace a whole neighborhood in Paris with skyscrapers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_Voisin
Sputnik-shaped light fixtures captured the excitement of the period, as did neon and futuristic drive-in diners. It's a style that lasted a while and was definitely what influenced Hanna-Barberra's Jetson's. The future would surely be ever more wonderful - cue starbursts.
That makes sense. World War II--to say nothing of both world wars as a cumulative force--was a harrowing experience. What it did have in compensation was a lot of people working on scientific and engineering projects. Why not apply the benefits of that science to products for the domestic realm, something to make people's lives easier? Thus came new themes in design as well.
The Space Age and Atomic Age are complicated eras. Yes there was a kind of optimism, but it involved wild swings in the national and global mood, since humanity was playing with things that could really lead to global destruction. Brutalism was visually striking but forbidding. Le Corbusier, being a painter as well, seemed to yearn for that painterly control in real life as well, which doesn't always do right by the residents of the buildings. The Villa Fallet he built for his parents when he was eighteen looks very nice, though.
Sputnik chandeliers do look very fun. And the attendees of those old drive-in movies looked like they were having fun. The Googie vision of the future wasn't necessarily perfect but did make room for humans and what they needed more than the current crop of futurists do.
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