• Several 1950s design styles centered around creating pieces in new materials, like aluminum.Jupiterimages/Pixland/Getty Images
  
  The 1950s were a notable time in home and interior design. The post-World War II boom created a market that centered around the consumer, introducing furniture and other products optimized for function over form. Furniture pieces were designed to be mass produced and in new materials like moulded plywood, aluminum and plastics. Among others, notable designers included Charles and Ray Eames, Robin and Lucienne Day and Arne Jacobson.
  
  

Neo-Functionalism

• This design style emphasized simple, geometric shapes and a lack of unnecessary ornamentation. All elements of a given piece were designed for the sake of its function. This minimalistic style was best exemplified by the work of Hans Gugelot. His "M125" storage furniture system was built for ideal functionality, featuring bookcases and a bed built to what Gugelot considered ideal measurements, for instance. The unit was mass-produced in the middle of the decade.
  
  

Neo-Liberty

• This style emerged in Italy during the 1950s. It began as an attempt to revive the art nouveau style, an early 20th century movement that focused on organic, curvy forms. Designers like Carlo Mollino intended to apply these aesthetics to newly mass-produced objects. However, influences from the earlier arts and crafts movement, which focused on handmade qualities, were used to moderate the extremely industrial style of the prevailing modern and neo-functional design schools. This was exemplified in Mollino's "arabesque" coffee table, which featured both upper and lower glass platforms with a curved, moulded plywood frame in the center that served as a magazine rack.
  
  

Neo-Modernism

• This design movement originated from Italy. While it utilized the tenets of the rationalism style of the 1930s, which embodied minimal forms, neo-modernism departed from this older style by focusing on creating designs inspired by organic sculpture and other contemporary fine art. This style was best embodied in Salvador Dali's surrealist "lips" sofa.
  
  

Contemporary Style

• This post-war design movement utilized fun, expressive furnishing design in reaction to the streamlined, austere styles that prevailed during the war years. Like the neo-modern style, contemporary style used organic shapes in its pieces but was noted both for its use of bold color and "democratically accessible" design. This style utilized inexpensive materials so more consumers would have access to mass-produced contemporary furniture. It is exemplified by renowned designer Charles Eames' plywood chairs.