Catalog of the exhibition "British design 1948-2012: Innovation in the Modern Age" at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Mar. 31-Aug. 12, 2012.

Spaces & Places: British Design 1948 - 2012 provides a much needed series of new perspectives on British Design's recent history.

British Design brings together leading international scholars, designers and journalists to provide new perspectives on British design in the last sixty years, and how it at once looked back to the past with the continuation of traditions that spoke to Britain's design heritage, and looked forwards with the embrace of modernist and postmodernist style. The book responds to and develops new ways of understanding the recent history of design in Britain, with case studies on designed spaces and objects, including domestic interiors, retail spaces, schools and university buildings and transport. The contributors address significant moments and phenomena in the historical and social history of British design, from the rise and fall of the English Country House style and the Brutalist architectural boom of the 1960s to the modern shopping space, and consider the work of key contemporary designers ranging from Tommy Roberts to Thomas Heatherwick. British Design provides new criticism and analysis on how design, from the immediate post-war period to the present day, has developed and changed how we live and how we interact with the spaces in which we live. British Design is split into 13 chapters and is richly illustrated with 65 images, 16 of which are in full colour.

In 1957 the UK Design Museum launched the first annual Designs of the Year Awards to identify and promote the very best of British design. For the next 30 years, the awards celebrated designed objects in all forms, from the domestic (cutlery, glassware, textiles, and furniture) to the communal (streetlights, signage, and public seating) and everything in between, including fitted kitchens, schooners, bicycles, and electronics. This beautifully designed book introduces and illustrates the quirky breadth of the awards. Iconic objects by Robin and Lucienne Day, Kenneth Grange, and David Mellor sit alongside retro classics.

South Asian textiles have shaped British fashion and dress for centuries. 'British Asian Style' looks at the ongoing importance of South Asian textiles to British fashion and culture.