An introduction to design and culture

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This third edition of An Introduction to Design and Culture has been revised and updated throughout to include issues of globalization, sustainability and digital/interactive design.

New for this edition is a chapter which covers key changes in design culture. Design culture has changed dramatically in the 21st century, the designer-hero is now much less in evidence and design has become much more interdisciplinary.

Drawing on a wealth of mass-produced artefacts, images and environments including sewing machines, cars, televisions, clothes, electronic and branded goods and exhibitions, author Penny Sparke shows how design has helped to shape and reflect our social and cultural development.

This introduction to the development of modern (and postmodern) design is ideal for undergraduate students.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Illustrations (p. vii)
• Acknowledgements (p. x)
• Introduction: Twentieth-century design and culture revisited (p. 1)
• Part 1 Design and modernity, 1900-1939 (p. 11)
• 1 Consuming modernity (p. 12)
• Conspicuous consumption and the expansion of taste (p. 12)
• Consumer culture and modernity (p. 22)
• 2 The impact of technology (p. 30)
• New production methods, new materials (p. 30)
• The materials of modernity (p. 39)
• 3 The designer for industry (p. 47)
• Art and industry (p. 47)
• The consultant designer (p. 55)
• 4 Modernism and design (p. 65)
• Theory and design at the turn of the century (p. 65)
• The hegemony of modernism (p. 72)
• 5 Designing identities (p. 82)
• Representing the nation (p. 82)
• Corporate culture and the state (p. 91)
• Part 2 Design and postmodernity, 1940 to the present (p. 99)
• 6 Consuming postmodernity (p. 100)
• The dream of modernity (p. 100)
• Consumer culture and postmodernity (p. 108)
• 7 Technology and design: a new alliance (p. 122)
• The materials of abundance (p. 122)
• Technology and lifestyles (p. 131)
• 8 Designer culture (p. 144)
• International designers (p. 144)
• The new designers (p. 153)
• 9 Postmodernism and design (p. 165)
• Modern design in crisis (p. 165)
• Postmodern design (p. 172)
• 10 Redesigning identities (p. 185)
• Redefining the nation (p. 185)
• Redefining design (p. 193)
• Glossary (p. 202)
• Notes (p. 221)
• Bibliography (p. 238)
• Index (p. 256)

Author notes provided by Syndetics