This book is the ideal entry point for any student who wants to understand the many complex roles of design--as process, product, function, symbol, and use.
Reflecting the diverse range of perspectives on design, the reader brings together over 70 key texts. The essays are presented in themed sections covering history, methods, theory, visuality, identity, consumption, labor, industrialization, new technology, sustainability, and globalization. Each section is separately introduced and each concluded with a guide to further reading.
Authors include Theodor Adorno, Arjun Appadurai, Rayner Banham, Jean Baudrillard, Pierre Bourdieu, Cheryl Buckley, Michel de Certeau, Margaret Crawford, Michel Foucault, Buckminster Fuller, Paul du Gay, Erving Goffman, Donna Haraway, John Chris Jones, Guy Julier, Naomi Klein, Ezio Manzini, Victor Margolin, and many others. In addition, a final section of specially commissioned essays analyzes 10 seminal designs of the 20th Century, from Helvetica to the cell phone.
Bringing together the best classic and contemporary writing, Design Studies: A Reader will be invaluable to all students of Design as well as to students of Architecture, Art, Material Culture and Sociology.