“Principles, not effects”

As a relatively new field, interior design is still writing its history. In this process, exploring the place where “interior design” emerges as a term, a profession, and a specific body of knowledge is key to understanding the developments that contributed to that. Although those factors and contexts are numerous and complex, one in particularly stands out – the influence of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). This essay considers how MoMA, from its position as an arbiter of modern art and design, under the direction of Edgar Kaufmann, jr. ¹ their curator of design, created a discourse around the subject of “Good Design” in the 1950s that helped shape interior design’s emergent identity. In his 1953 publication written for the museum “What is Modern Interior Design?” Kaufmann identified interior design as based in “principles, not effects” to establish its difference from interior decoration based in “taste.” ² This publication as well as Kaufmann’s efforts with the Good Design shows helped the public understand interior design as an occupation distinct from interior decorating and laid the foundations of its development as a profession.