Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The essential shape, form and structure of some objects in our daily lives may have been fixed many generations ago, but design and designers have now been moved center stage by the varied demands of a society that in less than half a century has gone from the restless search for the new throw-away consumerism to a postmodernist recycling of ideas - and now, Green recycling of materials. Companies use design systematically to plan their manufacturing, shape their marketing and make their products more attractive, while many designers have sought to raise the status of their activity to that of an art form and even - like Ettore Sottsass - to see it as "a way of discussing life". Dormer questions orthodoxies, defines the contexts within which designers work, and aims to cover the wide range of post-war activity, including industrial and product design, graphics, furniture, textiles, kitchen utensils and tableware. His previous books include The New Ceramics, The New Furniture and The Meanings of Modern Design.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Booklist Review

For those who are fascinated with how objects look as well as how they work, Dormer provides a global view of design in the post-World War II era. Design to him is the interrelationship of form and function; a designer, therefore, can be a stylist, ergonomist, corporate image strategist, environmentalist, or some combination thereof. He quick-scans the histories, big-name examples, and styles found in a variety of fields, from products (Apple computer) to textiles (Issey Miyake), all of which leads to an appreciation of the complexity and interdependencies of design. Though the photographs add weight to his examples and authority to his content, one might wish for more of them. And his fast-forward look at the future, with mentions only of both the virtual reality and disassembly movements, leaves readers curious for further details. ~--Barbara Jacobs