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There’s one thing I like more than a good book at the moment, and that’s a good design book. Getting into the swing of the whole design history is pretty interesting stuff. Finding out about the philosophies, work and different ideas of people who have gone before you in an extremely new profession is very interesting. As professions go, Engineering seems to date back around 1000 years, and the history of Art seems to date back earlier than 40,000 years ago. Industrial Design as a career has predominantly come around through the increase of industry. Mass-production and mass-consumption lead the designer for industry to look at products in a way which could increase both. Creating products which are manufacturable in larger and larger quantities and adding the desirability needed to get those products into market.
In An Introduction to Design and Culture in the Twentieth Century, Penny Sparke looks at the role of the desiger for industrial production, aka The Industrial Designer. Although the book was published in 1986 there is still a huge amount of information relevant to today’s world of design. The history of the Industrial Designer is dated back to the beginnings in the mid-1800’s and documented through several different phases until it reaches the almost-current state of design. The Industrial Designer seems to take the modern form around the time of the 1930’s. The book contains an extensive glossary of names to guide you through the hundreds of names dropped within the text. Influential design advocates and adversaries are included and an extremely interesting chapter in the back of the book about anti-design. Not necessarily those against design, but those fighting for a real design, and a real function behind a rather two-sided industry.
It is clear once you reach the end of the book that there are a few chapters that need to be filled in, mainly considering how the internet has proppigated the designer and changed the industry along with the development of new technologies and a more responsible way of designing for industry. Nearing the end of the book, Sparke mentions Victor Papanek’s Design For The Real World which “focused on the particular role that design plays in the modern world and on the need for the designer to come to terms with the moral and social imperatives that working within mass production and mass consumption necessarily imply.” Papanek also “described his new designer as a generalist rather than a specialist, working with a team of people to a common goal.” Within recent years (i.e. after the book was published) it is clear that some of the important factors are starting to be addressed, so it is worth bearing in mind that the content stops short of what is happening now.
For me, this book has been an extreme eye opener. The book essentially documents the history of the profession which i want to do well within. It is important to know what has happened before you, as much as knowing where you should be and where you intend to be going. The social, cultural and ethical issues are addressed within this book and there is a great sense of reality throughout by bringing the design into context. This is a definate must-read for any Industrial Designer, but equally as enjoyable (i would imagine) for anyone interested in popular culture, design, applied arts or the development of mass production and consumption.
Books:
- Design for the Real World, Victor Papanek
- An Introduction to Design and Culture in the Twentieth Century, Penny Sparke
