Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

John Heskett wants to transform the way we think about design, by showing how integral it is to our daily lives, from the spoon we use to eat our breakfast cereal, the car we drive to work in, to the medical equipment used to save lives. Design combines 'need' and 'desire' in the form of a practical object that can also reflect the users identity and aspirations through its form and decoration.This concise guide to contemporary design goes beyond style and taste to look at how different cultures and individuals personalize objects. Heskett also reveals how simple objects, such as a toothpick, can have their design modified to suit the specific cultural behaviour in different countries. There are also fascinating insights into how major companies such as Nokia, Ford, and Sony approach design. Finally, we are shown an exciting vision of what design can offer us in the future and especially its role in humanizing new technology.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• List of Illustrations
• 1. What is Design? (p. 1)
• 2. The Historical Evolution of Design (p. 12)
• 3. Utility and Significance (p. 35)
• 4. Objects (p. 55)
• 5. Communications (p. 81)
• 6. Environments (p. 101)
• 7. Identities (p. 124)
• 8. Systems (p. 144)
• 9. Contexts (p. 165)
• 10. Futures (p. 190)
• Further Reading (p. 203)
• Index (p. 209)
• Picture Acknowledgments (p. 214)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

An ambitious overview of the concept of design in the largest sense of the word, this volume tackles a diverse range of subjects, from tableware to advertising campaigns. Heskett (design, Illinois Inst. of Technology) guides the reader through a cursory yet compelling exploration of the myriad incarnations of design. Rather than organizing the book by profession or discipline, he takes the perspective of the end users (or receivers) and considers how they encounter design in their day-to-day lives as objects, environments, communications materials, identities, wayfinding systems, etc. Moving rapidly from one example to another, the book whets the appetite for deeper information and comes through with a robust "For Further Reading" section. Members of various design-related professions (graphic, interior, environmental, and industrial) will find this book of interest, but it will also prove rewarding for anyone interested in mass media, information glut, consumer buying habits, propaganda, ergonomics, and the cultural differences inherent in globalization. It is best suited to larger libraries or libraries with extensive liberal arts, fine arts, or communications sections. Phil Hamlett, Turner & Assocs., San Francisco (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

Heskett unpretentiously lays out the territory of the design arts. He discusses what each discipline is, what kind of work is done by the practitioners, and the importance of the design arts to contemporary society. It is at times fascinating to think of everyday objects as having been carefully planned, and Heskett is best when recounting such stories. However, the book is perhaps too unpretentious as it becomes tedious in places, seems unfocused, and ultimately fails to make an argument or illuminate the design arts beyond a cursory overview. It contains grammatical errors that good editors should have found. The book is suitable for secondary school students as a way of obtaining an overview of certain career choices, but it is difficult for this reviewer to recommend it for higher reader levels because there are so many other deeper and richer sources of information about the design arts. General readers. S. Skaggs University of Louisville

Booklist Review

Look around you. Unless you're in the wilderness, your eyes will alight on a remarkable array of man-made objects in a man-made environment, everything from a pen to a coffee cup, computer, desk, window, street, and automobile. Yet, in spite of the pervasiveness of industrial design, its process, motives, and consequences are not well understood, a conceptual gap these three books seek to fill. Heskett, a professor of design at Chicago's Illinois Institute of Technology and author of the textbook Industrial Design (1981), defines design in a "meaningful, holistic sense" by working from the recognition that "design is one of the basic characteristics of what it is to be human, and an essential determinant of the quality of human life." In a notably lucid narrative rich in provocative examples, he succinctly traces design's development from the earliest of technological breakthroughs to today's frenzied array of gadgets, graphics, and objects great and small, essential and frivolous. He goes beyond the classic duo of form and function to discuss utility and significance and to differentiate between the ephemeral and the enduring. Toledo, Ohio, isn't the city that first comes to mind as a design capital, but, in fact, it was a mecca for industrial designers at the dawn of the twentieth century, thanks to a socially responsible glass manufacturer named Edward Drummond Libbey, who built a factory and founded an art museum. Inspired by a utopian vision of the union of art and industry, Libbey and his colleagues established the influential Toledo Museum School of Design at the heart of a community of cutting-edge designers and manufacturers who produced everything from scales to picture windows, bicycles, glassware, and Jeeps. This lively, well-illustrated volume, which features a roster of engaging contributors, including Heskett, celebrates the Toledo's "pioneering enthusiasm for modern industrial design," a key phase in the evolution of design in America. The texture and timbre of twentieth-century American life were created by a flood of mass-produced products that reached astonishing proportions with the advent of the digital revolution. Design historians are just beginning to get a hook on the hectic era that delivered the Post-it Note, Stealth bomber, personal computer, ergonomic design, and Rollerblades. USDesign, 1975^-2000, the print facet of a traveling exhibition organized by the Denver Art Museum, covers the diverse and progressive work of late-century architectural, graphic, decorative, and industrial designers by presenting a wealth of intriguing illustrations and text that combines design theory with discussion of manufacturing and marketing techniques forged in the increasingly global marketplace. Fanciful concepts, sheer extravagance, and good old-fashioned problem solving are all evident in this instructive and enjoyable overview. --Donna Seaman