Three years have passed since you made this superb video for your students, and for the wider world. Those of us who love design, and here, with this video art deco, please accept our sincere appreciation.

As someone who can’t afford traditional education thank you for making your knowledge accessible!!!!!

Thank you, I am not student just someone who likes Art Deco. I found your presentation so interesting and I have learned a lot. : )

What a treasure chest of knowledge. I am not one of your students, but an old guy trying to learn about design. I have never encountered videos of a similar breadth and depth. Thank you for doing it even when you seem to think nobody is watching - I will be. Greetings from Denmark, Europe.

This presentation was so absolutely informative..wow. I am 80 years old...and I am a former high school teacher. Your ability to instruct, inform, and present such detailed information is a real gift. I can well imagine your students are so delighted to be in your classes. I thoroughly enjoyed this one presentation and I learned so much. Thank you for sharing.

I'm only 5 minutes in and I can tell you're a great teacher. I came for just a presentation on Art Deco but I am subscribing because of your attitude and look forward to seeing more content!

Please don’t be so hard on your production values. You are an educator.... a teacher.... And by God you can teach! I not only stayed for the entire program I was fascinated.

Please don't feel like you are going on too long, this is all very fascinating.

I hope this comment is read. I just wanted to say that these videos have helped me get through one of the worst periods of depression I've ever experienced. Thank you for posting them. It's been very nice hearing your take on a specific and paramount part of the ongoing human endeavor. It's nice seeing beautiful things and learning about their creation and contribution to the story of humanity and our progression. Thank you.

Hi there -- Hey, I just want to say that I am one of the "outsiders" (not in your class) who stumbled across your video and found it fascinating. Honestly, the content you provide here is of such value -- available nowhere else on KZfaq -- that you really don't need to make apologies for the lack of slickness. I think there are many of us who enjoy watching academic-level lectures on everything from the Napoleonic Wars to the history of industrial design. Honestly, the apologies get a little distracting and they really aren't needed. It is rare that I learn something new in a field I already know plenty about. Where art deco is concerned, I've loved the style all my life, and I am currently furnishing a vintage-1935 house entirely in art deco furnishings. I find that the angular style of 1925-1935 mates very well with the later streamline moderne style of about 1936-1952. (I hate that so many call this "midcentury modern," as late-50s styles really are quite different than what came before.) One other thing I have noticed, in looking at what is readily available in my region, the Pacific Northwest, shopping via Craigslist and FB Marketplace, is that about half of what survives was originally available at some point in the Sears catalog. This shows us the inordinate influence of department stores in promoting the new style, something you note in your script, and a point that often is overlooked. Anyway, I think your video is a great service to the general public, not just the students in your class. If slickness is a concern, your PowerPoint slides and your core script are so good and so spot-on that I think this might be worth redoing. I am fascinated by the history of industrial design, and there is really no one on KZfaq who describes it with the authority, detail and level of academic knowledge that you do here. A little tweaking and I think you could establish preeminence in the field. A friendly suggestion from someone who enjoyed your presentation immensely. (P.S. -- My hometown is Spokane, Wash., and I loved seeing the slide of our fabulous vintage-1931 Fox Theater, where I saw many a Disney movie and became acquainted with art deco as a kid. I think that's where I got hooked.)

OK I'm a doctor from Brussels so I have no idea how I got here but I am passionate about Art Nouveau and Art Deco and this is just such a lovely class. Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge. Cheers !

Thank you for this. I am a writer jumping into a 1920s film noir based project and I wanted to get a quick-n-dirty feel for the times. Instead, I got a nuanced, eclectic, informative perspective on American manufacture and world history. And a handsomely-voiced teacher to boot! Thank you 🙏🏾

This was really interesting - not a 'hot mess' at all! Thank you for sharing beyond your students.

I was obsessed with Art Deco as a child and have always been a Design aficionado. Including industrial design. Thank you for the rich, deep research and illuminating lecture!

Professor Bird , I want to assure you that I am enthralled by all of this information . Thank you so very much for making this happen. Cheers from California !

hello, I am also not a student, This channel is an absolute gold mine of knowledge! thank you for making it public!

This is a fantastic lecture. Thank you so much for posting this on KZfaq for all of us to listen to! With your knowledge, personality, and voice I think you’d make an excellent podcaster or KZfaqr. Would love to see more content about design from you. Thanks again!

I started to watch this to relax before going to bed and ended up going to sleep at 2AM because I couldn't stop watching. You are an amazing teacher. Thank you for sharing this with us!

I’m so glad KZfaq recommended your lecture. You definitely didn’t waste time and you can be assured it was worth the donning off coat and tie. This stuff is my jam.

This is incredible. What an amazing resource! I also love your teaching style and sense of humor & adaptability in light of the contemporary situation. As a fellow teacher during the pandemic, I really and truly appreciate this.

Just what I needed! Thank you, Matthew! (And your KZfaq audience isn't wearing pants either!)

Your students are SO LUCKY to have you. The video is full of amazing information and your humour is making it even more pleasurable. Thank you for sharing it with us.

I'm a plumber and a student at the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen. I work in some of the most incredible old buildings in new York City. I've seen art deco bathrooms so spectacular, beyond description!. This is such a wonderful presentation, thank you for posting this for all to enjoy. -Eric Monaco

I'm watching this from Umea Institute of Design in Sweden as we're in the same boat regarding student presence. I love your presentation and now I wish I had access to the previous weeks. :-)

I wish I had a professor like Matthew Bird!!! Lucky students!! Super explanation, clear and also full of interesting details. I hope his students valued the amazing work he did.

I am a Latvian living in France and being a member of Toulouse Art Deco association. Your lecture was so informative, gave an opportunity to see some other angles and perspectives of Art Deco style, see the context . Thanks for your as well humor. Your students must be lucky to have you.

As a random person trying to figure out for the first time - the transition, era and influences of Art Deco. This was "streamlined" beautifully. Most valuable 2 hours I've spent this year. Bravo! 👍🏻 Please keep this open & expanded for us, the non-students 😁

11-2021, I found this fascinating and loved all the visuals! Thank you so much! I wish this design period is reproduced more today for all of us who love Art Deco and can’t afford the few pieces on the market for sale.

I wish I have a teacher like you, Matthew. Absolutely beautiful presentation. Full of examples, references and in depth analysis of this fantastic era of design. And I love your touch of humour too. I'm subscribing to your channel and I will be browsing your videos for the next couple of weeks, maybe. Keep up the good work, and thank you for sharing your amazing knowledge and taking the time to do this.

The thing that brought me here is 1)loving the style 2)minecraft 3)when trying to understand the mannerisms and mentality of the design, gained through well educated teachers, allows for creativity to flow from a state of natural, while drawing on the principles internalized from the talk

This is more than two years later, but I am so glad I happened upon this recorded lecture. First, we are restoring our basement that was originally a speakeasy, and after watching I learned that the style is clearly inspired by Donald Deskey's designs. I will look further into his designs, and I am sure the decor will fall into place. Second, we are casually looking for future art schools for my 13-year-old daughter and after sitting through your lecture, I am sure RISD will be at the top of her list. I also know a few RISD alumni who are fantastic artists and wonderful people.

I just HAVE TO say this session was absolutely BRILLIANT! I am not a student, I studied engineering and later also illustration, am a huge fan of industrial design and despite working in the field for 20 odd years I still found this excellent. Please do not think for one second we are not following or not entertained. Excellent work - I am now going to go back and watch your previous sessions about Art Nouveau! I hope you will do one for Googie too at some point! Keep up the excellent work!

Stumbled upon this at 1:30 AM. In addition to being really informative, it's interesting to see how 100 years ago a unique set of circumstances created this interesting design style and now a unique set of circumstances led me to watch this lecture. I'm not a student at all, but I enjoyed watching this and learning from you

When I see a photograph with Art Deco images, my heart involuntarily misses a beat, and I feel an overwhelming sense of joy. I don't know anything about art, style or design but growing up as a lonely and isolated child who sought refuge in the movies of the 1930's, Art Deco symbolizes a promissory note for a more beautiful and prosperous future liberated from war, poverty, crime and racism. I wished with all my heart that I could exist in that world!

I waited for your lectures since your lecture on "Bauhaus to Broadway" please please put more your interesting lectured on youtube, Or udemy, or any other platform. Your lectures are incredibly interesting!!!!

Thanks Matthew. I've been following your videos for a few years now and relish each one. I've been a professional designer for about 20 years and still learn new things every time I watch. Your video on efficiency has been shared with my clients to explain some of the design decisions I make for them. I'm really looking forward to seeing way more content now that we have the plague.

I have been an engineer in consumer electronics for 30 years, these lectures reignite my enthusiasm of designing and building things. I wish I had access to this lectures when I was at university. I constantly rewatch these lectures and I share them with my nieces and nephews who are starting their careers to try to inspire a love of I.D. BTW Love the "hot mess" approach it's charming and brings a human side to a subject that can tend to the clinical and cold.....Thinks...... sterile white surfaces and turtle neck sweaters of my former company.. Many , many thanks!

This is why I love the internet and KZfaq. I’m not a student nor studying design just came across this gem of knowledge and Im here for it.

Greetings form France. What a beautiful thing the internet is that we can freely educate and touch the lives of people who we may never meet on the other side of the globe. Thank you very much for your time, effort and passion in making this.

I walked around Miami Beach today & feel like I "discovered" Art Deco for the first time in my life. THANK YOU, Matthew Bird, for sharing this wonderful video with us. What an incredible introduction to Art Deco. Your expertise, insight, and humor are appreciated more than I can even say.

I've watched this twice, about a year apart, and learned new things each time. Prof. Bird, you are a fabulous historian and presenter!

I’m not in your class or your school and I find this very interesting and funny. Especially the part when you got side tracked going off on a tangent about hiccuping 😂

Just adding to the praise already here. As someone who can barley make it through a 5-10 minute KZfaq video, I’ve just made it through two hours of really fascinating and well presented stuff. I’ll be watching more! Thanks for uploading.

Mathew, it's now 2021, I just found your lecture, watched it all in one sitting. How I wish, I was 40 years (gulp) younger and could change my career path and attend your class at The Rhode Island School of Design.

Thanks for the video. I am an industrial designer who worked at Teague in the late 70's. Everything stated in your video rang true to my thinking. When I try to tell non-design folk of what industrial designers do I use the analogy of being artisans in the past that creates objects people touch and use; Stone carvers, mural painters, furniture makers and architects. They all created wonders in products and in design. Someone had to design it and make it or get it made. I consider ourselves modern "Artisans". Forever changing what we do for society and humanity. Enjoyed your talk; wasn't boring.

I did not think I could love Art Deco more than I did, but now I do and I thank you for finding even greater coherence in the movement than I had.

Thank you very much for making this freely available! I had never thought about Industrial desing in the past, heck i didn't even knew who this guy on out (now retired) 10 swissfrancs bill was. But this lecture was so interesting and well produced that I watched everything and it sparked my interested in design!

OMG! I wish all my hot messes were as excellent as yours. Absolutely wonderful video. How I wish the art history classes I took in the 1960’s (Mass College of Art) had been as interesting and the professors as charismatic as you. THANK YOU! Now I must watch your other videos. And, BTW, I watched to the end and enjoyed every minute. And if you can forgive a 73-year-old grandmother, you are too hard on yourself! ❤️ Shirley

Also here of my own free will, and I feel grateful for it too! I grew up in a very large family of doctors and academics and listening to you crack deadpan jokes and move on as if you'd never made them is my second favorite part of stumbling upon and slipping into the back of this class. The first is learning the technical angles of an era that stole and kept my heart almost 40 years ago. I have always found great joy in the streamlining designs and I had No idea that it also serves a key purpose in structural integrity. Thank you very much for your time and excellent deliverance of your vast knowledge of this endlessly fascinating subject! I will be looking forward to seeking out the rest of your classes.

This video was one of my best random finds on this platform and even though I am not your student and two years late to the party, I have listened through and learned a lot out of it. You have a very natural and clear way of conveying information. I didn't feel like I was sitting in a lecture, I felt like a good friend of mine wanted to share with me something they are very passionate about and it so happened that they knew a lot about art deco. I will definitely check other videos now. Greetings from Poland.

What a great presentation! Thank you so much for makin this publicly available. Love your sence of humor as well. Thanks again!

Thanks, Matthew! This is AWESOME! Charming, funny, informative, and very compelling. Art Deco really needed the in-depth treatment you give it here. Watched it to the end with relish, and have started watching the one on Art Noveau. Absolutely fascinating, and very well presented. No need to stop apologizing, since it's so funny when you do!

I guess I should thank Covid. Without it, this would have been limited to those in your class. Instead, here I am in Melbourne, Australia enjoying this look into Art Deco while wondering what I missed in weeks 1-4. Thank you for making this available for the world to see.

Thank you! I discovered your video by chance (a year later). I'm just someone who likes Art Déco and, thanks to you, I learned so much... (greetings from Belgium!)

Matthew, you are an extraordinary teacher! I am a Primary School teacher from South Africa and come from an academic family that loves history and art. The way in which you combined these two fields with your remarkable knowledge and passion for this topic is inspiring! I now understand objects that were in my grandparents' homes so much better.

Yes, yes, we are still watching at the very end. No, no, we're not doing anything else. We're riveted to the screen. Such a good teacher. k

Bravo! We're still here at the end of the video. My wife and I watched it over a three-evening period. It's good to see it when someone adapts to the COVID and post-COVID era. Good lessons and material. Maybe our next generation will make some of these old things new again.

Wow! Came across this gem in my feed! Love this. Quite funny, at 42.52 mins in he says none of that matter, no one is still watching! Of course I am!

I just want to say that I wandered onto your video Sunday, 3rd April 2022 and I watched THE WHOLE THING!!! :) Since that seemed to be a concern for you. I am not an industrial design student. I'm a retired IT guy. It was interesting. Your enthusiasm for the subject was lovely. You made it very engaging AND you made it all make sense. How Paris 1925, the emergence of new materials/new tech influenced design and modern life, how people's expectations were changed and channeled by design and tech. Very interesting ideas. Thank you, sir!

Absolutely spectacular information presented from the period. Not a student currently but a 54 year old lover of Art Deco who always loves to learn. Thank you !!!!

Absolutely incredible presentation. The 2 hours actually went by really fast. A+ from beginning to end. Massive thank you for sharing your extensive knowledge, expertise and enthusiasm. Will be watching this again.

These lectures have been such an excellent introduction into the world of ID! Thank you for posting these publicly Matthew! My husband and I have loved watched them. Please keep posting them!!

I have always loved and dabbled in art, but it is a real escape from the world's horrors these days. So glad I found these lectures. Thanks, you're the best!

When I hit my 85th birthday almost a decade ago, I was bored and tried my hand at creating Art Deco wall art. Now I'm creating videos. Everyone is invited to stop by. Matthew, I enjoyed the learning opportunity. 😎

Sunday coffee, building furniture and watching/listening to this lecture is a treat. Thank you for sharing this.

Loved the video. Great content. Love the authenticity of the au pif delivery style even more. Your love for the subject matter shines through, and that matters a lot. Bravo. I would sit your course in a heartbeat.

Well, this I have to say is a genuine diamond on YT. Although I’ve had Art History as a minor subject, my specific interest in the area of industrial arts has always been Art Deco. I made it an integrated element in the interior design of our house as much as feasible including accessories, although it’s never been easy. The history of Art Deco itself and its flow of development is profusely well explained in this lecture. I’ve learned many new details and facts. Thank you so much.

Thank you Matthew! 23 y/o architecture student and you changed my world!

I'm not taking you're class but I really enjoyed you're video. I've always been a big of Art Deco. In looking back of the struggles of the Covid pandemic, I give this effort a 4 out of 5 in the production.

I came across this video while idly searching for inspiring art deco images for a home art project, and I am now hooked on your whole lecture series! Thank you for making these available to us all.

Self-depreciating aside, this is one hell of a tutorial that is engaging and very thorough. I was distracted by the teacher perhaps not wearing pants, and the phallic-like silver object on the shelf behind him didn't help, but this and his other vids on Bel Geddes and ID are good enough to buy. I am very grateful for this man.

I stumbled upon this quite by accident. I think it just came up next after something else I’d been watching. I’m absolutely transfixed and loving it. Your students are incredibly lucky to have somebody who just brings the whole topic to life teachers in a very matter-of-fact, but knowledgeable way. Having studied (I totally different subject) in the 70s and 80s, I had to put up with tutors who were supercilious and pompous as I said your students are incredibly lucky

Not a student but you had me at Art Deco - of which I can't get enough You taught me so much Thank you for this and your time

I'm an industrial designer. I never stopped being a student. Thanks for this and all the other videos you've published since.

I'm no longer a student, but I love art history and all the objects and design you talked about. You were just so good. You looked relaxed and prepared, and the talk + visuals held together so well. I learned loads from you while having a great time. And now I have new ways to look at designed things. A+!

Matthew, I just discovered your channel and I am so glad I did. I think you're an excellent teacher and I thoroughly enjoyed this video and I stayed to the last second absolutely engaged. I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate all the work that it took for you to put this material together and talk about it so knowledgeably. There is nothing greater than a fine teacher.

I came upon your pandemic-driven workaround presentation, and I have to say I was utterly charmed and disarmed by your honesty and complete brilliance. And humor. And thoroughness. This was revelatory, and fun, and you are a fine professor indeed. I was born in 1953, and grew up with those bakelite phones, and those aluminum coffee percolators. And those roundish radios, never knowing that the horizontal lines were not only for looks but for venting heat from the components inside. The skyscraper-imitating cabinets were glorious to behold. And the early radio cabinets on their tall sculpted legs. I could go on and on, but this was a fine detour to take into a world I know very little about. Thank you. Odds Bodkin

Really amazing lecture, thank you so much for sharing

What a fantastic summary of this style and period ! I have been in love with this addictive material ,actively collecting it from 25 until the age of 65, and still pursuing it .

Au contraire, I am here at 43 minutes into this week’s lesson, and I’m riveted!! 😍😍😍😍😍Thank you so much for sharing these classes with those of us that love design (especially Art Deco & MCM!!😍), but unable to attend. I find your voice to be pleasing, your chosen examples to display and educate on- fabulous! I’m only pausing to thank you, and……. To get some ice cream! 🍦😛

you happened to show up in my feed... and now I wish I had been an actual student of yours. you may have been sitting at home, talking to the interverse, imagining no one was listening... but you reached me and enriched my love for and understanding of all things shiny, pretty, innovative and usefully wonderful. thank you!

Let me thank you! I'm from Ukraine and you're the best lecturer. I'm happy to learn from you! Thanks a lot!

Dear Matthew Bird. I am only writing this as I am concerned that you think that you are communicating something that is not well edited as book would be. I love your approach in this lecture. As an old sifter through op, junk, second hand and antique shops, especially from 1960 to 1993 I loved your lecture. It was like visiting all the shops previously listed, with someone who could identify and fit into a larger story, artefacts and material culture that wash up from our past. Keep it up! Viva for the junk shop approach to industrial design history.

I am still watching. Awesome information dense content ! Mr Bird has great energy and his subject matter expertise is a gift for the rest of us.

Loved your presentation, it's really lovely for me to be able to reconnect with my youthful hope to create, I clicked on this, not because I am involved with, or, working towards an umm carear but to be reacquainted with the passion I had as a youth. Loved this, I listened to the end, I have an anecdote about the inspiration for what I know as "cat's eyes" in the middle of the road in the 1970s,,, Supposedly the designer saw a cat, one night, in the headlights of his car, looking towards him, he was intrigued by the way the cat's eyes seemed to stand out so brightly, so he studied what could be the reason for this, eventually coming up with a means for drivers, on the roads to be more able to stay safe and in their lanes. This was taken up and widely used in many countries, I know that the next thing I say is only conjecture,,, but as the legend goes,,, , if the cat had been walking in the other direction he would have invented the pencil sharpener??? I hope this comment will tickle your sense of humour, Folks' senses of humour and the way we are can be easily misunderstood is a worry for all of us. P

I love Art Deco and when your informative and entertaining presentation popped up in my recommended list, I had to watch all the way to the end. Thank you.

One of the best tutorials I have seen . Very entertaining and personable speaker.

Don't know how I got here and not a student but love Art Deco and Steam Punk! This is an awesome video! Thank you look forward to more!

Greetings from North Carolina! This is May 2023. I hope you have pants on now. I am separating from my husband and moving away from our MCM home. I have always loved Art Deco and that’s how I found you. Wonderful clips, photos and information

I also am not one of your students but as a 64 year old woman I am now obsessed with your program! You are wonderful in your presentation, being quite natural and including so many aspects of humanity in your teaching. Thank you for helping expand knowledge!

Thank you a lot. I am not a student but a woodworker and this is the best series on Industrial Design. Super Awesome!

Thank you. I am from Italy and loved Art Deco even when it wasn't popular here due to its overlapping the Fascist regime. I love the connection with industrial design and engineering.

Iv watch through all these videos, right till the end. Im 28 yeah old artist and i love your knowledge and delivery of it. Dont put yourself down this is great brother.. thank you

I'm not only STILL watching..... I'm... STIIILLL Watching 👀 (2yrs later) I made them into a PLAYLIST, And I rewatch them! I find them not only informative, BUT, also surprisingly soothing and calming. Chill Out AND learn at the same time! 😎🤓🤗

YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!!! Soooo much knowledge, and it is so interesting and FUN to listen to you!! thank you so much from all of us that ended up here! really amazing. I will watch all your videos!

I can't help but think that maybe there is a design lesson to be drawn from this video intended for a class and that now has 140 000 views! Thank you, it was an enjoyable and educative 2 hours.

I love and collect Art Deco and I appreciate your erudite knowledge about the subject. I'm discovering information about the things I own that I never knew! Don't underestimate how entertaining you are either. I do usually give up on a KZfaq by now but I'm sticking with this to the end. A constant diorama of examples is capable of maintaining my interest to the end. Thank you.

from the random viewer - great video, well put together and very substantive. Very happy to see the channel offering more to explore ! Thanks for your time

Just a random environmental scientist enjoying these videos while I toil away on work. I'm finding all of these presentations really entertaining. Perhaps its the nostalgia of sitting in college lecture, but as a novice furniture maker/hobbyist, I'm finding a bit of inspiration

Bravo!This is one of my faves of your ID: The Pandemic Lectures. All the more interesting in that it’s also a snapshot of higher education in the in the early Times of Covid. Like many here, I’m not a student, just an enthusiast. Thanks much, Mr. Bird.