A design movement is a group of designers, architects, craftspeople and theorists who share a common set of ideas about how objects, buildings and interiors should look and be made, during a particular period. Unlike a general style, a movement usually has identifiable leaders, written principles, exhibitions or publications, and often a reforming purpose.
In British and European decorative arts, important movements include Neo-Classicism in the eighteenth century, the Gothic Revival championed by Pugin, the Aesthetic Movement, the Arts and Crafts movement led by William Morris and his followers, Art Nouveau, the Vienna Secession, Art Deco, the Bauhaus and post-war modernism. Each produced recognisable furniture, ceramics, metalwork, textiles and lighting, and many involved close collaboration between designers and manufacturers. Understanding the movement behind an object helps collectors date and attribute it, assess its originality and appreciate the ideas it expresses. Pieces designed by leading figures or made by firms closely associated with a movement, and those which clearly embody its principles, tend to attract the strongest interest, while later revivals or commercial adaptations are valued more modestly.
