Describes the development of the design of manufactured goods and examines the interaction between the American culture and industrial design

An encyclopaedic guide to production techniques and materials for product and industrial designers, engineers, and architects. Today's product designers are presented with a myriad of choices when creating their work and preparing it for manufacture. They have to be knowledgeable about a vast repertoire of processes, ranging from what used to be known as traditional "crafts" to the latest technology, to enable their designs to be manufactured effectively and efficiently. Information on the internet about such processes is often unreliable, and search engines do not usefully organize material for designers. This fundamental new resource explores innovative production techniques and materials that are having an impact on the design industry worldwide. Organized into four easily referenced parts—Forming, Cutting, Joining, and Finishing—over seventy manufacturing processes are explained in depth with full technical descriptions; analyses of the typical applications, design opportunities, and considerations each process offers; and information on cost, speed, and environmental impact. The accompanying step-by-step case studies look at a product or component being manufactured at a leading international supplier. A directory of more than fifty materials includes a detailed technical profile, images of typical applications and finishes, and an overview of each material's design characteristics. With some 1,200 color photographs and technical illustrations, specially commissioned for this book, this is the definitive reference for product designers, 3D designers, engineers, and architects who need a convenient, highly accessible, and practical reference.

From the Werkbund to the Bauhaus to Braun, from furniture to automobiles to consumer appliances, twentieth-century industrial design is closely associated with Germany. In this pathbreaking study, Paul Betts brings to light the crucial role that design played in building a progressive West German industrial culture atop the charred remains of the past. The Authority of Everyday Objects details how the postwar period gave rise to a new design culture comprising a sprawling network of diverse interest groups—including the state and industry, architects and designers, consumer groups and museums, as well as publicists and women's organizations—who all identified industrial design as a vital means of economic recovery, social reform, and even moral regeneration. These cultural battles took on heightened importance precisely because the stakes were nothing less than the very shape and significance of West German domestic modernity. Betts tells the rich and far-reaching story of how and why commodity aesthetics became a focal point for fashioning a certain West German cultural identity. This book is situated at the very crossroads of German industry and aesthetics, Cold War politics and international modernism, institutional life and visual culture.

An ambitious new survey of industrial design from 1900 to the present day in the United States, Europe, and around the world, as told through selected objects from the George R. Kravis II Collection. Destined to become a new classic in the design genre, this major work summarizes an enormous topic—the creation of everyday objects for mass production and consumption from 1900 to the present—and shows how these products have become both symbols of the modern age and harbingers of our future. It covers the work of the heroes of modern and post-modern design, from the early pioneers—Dreyfuss, Bel Geddes, and Eames—to the leaders in the field today, including Starck, Newson, and Ive. More than 200 objects from the Kravis Design Center’s collection are highlighted as important exemplars of industrial design. A wide range of media is represented, including furniture, metalwork, ceramics, and plastics. New research by contributing scholars has uncovered illuminating details about each object that help tell a more complete story of design in the past 100 years. Among the more than 400 photographs, which include a wealth of historical images and ephemera, are those of the objects taken especially for this book and seen as never before, in vibrant color and precise detail. This concise new history introduces a whole new audience to the topic in a style that is at once educational and accessible.

Design and Culture: A Transdisciplinary History offers an inclusive overview that crosses disciplinary boundaries and helps define the next phase of global design practice. This book examines the interaction of design with advances in technology, developments in science, and changing cultural attitudes. It looks to the past to prepare for the future and is the first book to offer an innovative transdisciplinary design history that integrates multidisciplinary sources of knowledge into a mindful whole. It shows design as a process that expresses goals through values and beliefs, functioning as a major factor in contemporary cultural life. Starting with the development of the Industrial Revolution, the book focuses on the evolution of design and culture in the twentieth century to predict where design will go in the future. Given the major social and political shifts currently unfolding across the globe, and the resulting changing demographics and environmental degradation, Design and Culture encourages collaboration and communication between disciplines to prepare for the future of design in a rapidly changing world.

Covers the evolution of industrial design from 1851 to 1993, and contemporary themes in industrial design.