Product Description

An exploration of the parallel development of product and graphic design from the 18th century to the 21st, considering the relationship between design and manufacturing, and the technological, social and commercial context in which this relationship developed. The effects of a vastly enlarged audience for the products of modern design and the complex dynamic of mass consumption are also discussed. Part of this dynamic reveals that products serve as signs for desires that have little or nothing to do with need or function. The book also explores the impact of new man-made industrial materials on modern design - from steel to titanium, plywood to plastic, cotton to nylon, wire to transistors and microprocessors to nanotubes. The research, development and application of these technologies is shown as depending upon far-reaching lines of communication stretching across geographical and linguistic boundaries.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #144900 in Books
• Published on: 2004-02-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Review
History of Modern Design is essential reading - reserve your copy now...the book is filled with 500 illustrations, making it a both colourful and informative book, with almost everything you need to know about design in the last 300 years. --Scotland on Sunday

Review
..Raizman's book awakens you to examples of design that surround us everywhere, all the time. By the end, the History of Modern Design manages the rare trick of being an authoritative textbook that fuels the imagination..

Review
Design books are ten a penny these days, but History of Modern Design stands head and shoulders above the rest..