CHARLES RENNIE MACKINTOSH

“ A genius ahead of his time”

The life of Charles Rennie Mackintosh

1868 - 1928•Born in Glasgow in 1868 Charles grew up to be a designer and artist who’s work ranged from jewellery to architecture.

• He was the only British designer to use the Art Nouveau style, which consisted of romantic and geometrical designs.

• His most important and singular design is the one he executed for the Glasgow School of Art built between 1898 and 1907.

The building is dramatic yet stark.due to simple geometric shapes. It symbolised 20th century European Architecture with its unique design and dominating windows.

•Apart from the Glasgow school of Art he designed several domestic buildings including country houses such as Windy Hill at Kilmalcolm and Hillhouse in Helensburgh.

Hillhouse, built 1902-1903 at Helensburgh

•Between 1898 and 1904 he designed furniture for the houses in an ivory white colour in order to kill off the colour of traditional connotations of wood.

•He also designed four tea rooms, one of

which is shown opposite which is known as The Willow Tea Rooms. It a study of crafted asymmetrical composition which is evident throughout most of his work.

BUILDINGS

INTERIOR DESIGNS

MacKintosh designed all the interior of the houses he built, from fireplaces, dining rooms and lighting. On this page are examples of his famous work. He used neutral colours as bases and light to emphasise his work. He liked high ceilings and spacious environments to draw attention to the main feature of the room, for example the piano(top right), and the fireplace (top left).

•He designed furniture for 30 years, including one very familiar piece known as the ladder back chair.

•His designs included straight, clean cut lines as illustrated by the ladder chair. He also used lots of repetition in his designs, which eventually became his ‘signature’ which which enabled his work to be distinguished from other architects and designers.

•We incorporated Mackintosh’s repeated design into our page border, which originally came from the ladder back chair. This reinforced his unique style throughout our presentation.

SIGNATURE DESIGNS

The design shown to the left represents Mackintosh's recognisable design technique using his simple flower drawings. It shows a person holding a flower in their hands, although this is not immediately noticeable.

His work is used everywhere, from the decoration on windows to the design on tea towels.

The flowers are bold, strong, and colourful, which use strong black lines to outline them.

SIGNATURE DESIGNS

This slide shows you some examples of Mackintosh's designs applied to many everyday items, from greeting cards to jewellery.

Jewellery Greeting Cards

The floral design we used on our border is also used on a pair of cufflinks.Vase, clock

and beer tankard.

•He joined the firm of Honeymoon and Keppie which allowed him to practice his architectural skills and also become recognised as a talented designer.

•He won the competition to design a new art school in 1896 and in 1897-1899 he built the first section of the Glasgow School of Art.

• In 1900, Charles married Margaret MacDonald, A woman he met whilst studying(shown bottom right) in the Glasgow school of Art.

•In 1907-1909 the second section of the Glasgow School of Art is built.

• From 1914 to 1927 travelled to France and throughout Britain, allowing his designs to be more widely recognised.

•In 1900, Charles married Margaret MacDonald, A woman he met whilst studying in the Glasgow school of Art.

•Charles Rennie MacKIntosh dies in London on December 10.

A timeline of his life’s events