Gustav Klimt and his fellow artists believed that crafts should have a status equal to the fine arts and that there is no art that does not have an impact on everyday life. Exhibitions held by the Vienna Secession featured works from a wide variety of genres and suggested to the public that art is for everyone. Drawing upon the overarching idea that practical objects should be visually beautiful, Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann founded the Vienna Workshop in 1903.

Early designs by the Vienna Workshop were characterized by curves inspired by nature under the influence of Art Nouveau, the most popular decorative arts movement in Europe at that time. However, the British Arts and Crafts Movement, which emphasized harmony between functionality and aesthetics, soon triggered a groundbreaking change in the Vienna Workshop’s designs towards geometric simplicity. The philosophy of the Vienna Workshop greatly influenced large numbers of designers and architects, including the future members of the Bauhaus that would be founded in pursuit of functionalism.