The invention of design : a twentieth-century history / Maggie Gram.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gram, Maggie, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Design--Social aspects--History--20th century.

Design.

Physical Description:

vii, 322 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Basic Books, Hachette Book Group, 2025.

Summary:

"Design has penetrated every dimension of contemporary society, from classrooms to statehouses to corporate boardrooms. It's seen as a kind of mega-power, one that can solve all our problems and elevate our experiences to make a more beautiful, more functional world. But there's a backstory here. In The Invention of Design, designer and historian Maggie Gram investigates how, over the twentieth century, our economic hopes, fears, and fantasies shaped the idea of "design"-then repeatedly redefined it. Nearly a century ago, resistance to New Deal-era government intervention helped transform design from an idea about aesthetics into one about function. And at century's end, the dot-com crash brought us "design thinking": the idea that design methodology can solve any problem, small or large. To this day, design captures imaginations as a tool for fixing market society's broken parts from within, supposedly enabling us to thrive within capitalism's sometimes violent constraints. A captivating critical history, The Invention of Design shows how design became the hero of many of our most hopeful stories-dreams, fantasies, utopias-about how we might better live in a modern world"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Preface

Introduction

Beauty

Function

Problem solving

Human-centeredness

Experience

Thinking

Afterword

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 263-307) and index.

Local Notes:

Athenaeum copy: Ashjean fund bookplate.

Other Format:

Online version:

Gram, Maggie. Invention of design.

Online version: Gram, Maggie. Invention of design.

ISBN:

9781541600638

1541600630

OCLC:

1460290547