Industrial Design Reader

This pioneering anthology focuses exclusively on the history of industrial design. Sixty full-length primary source essays detail the most crucial movements, issues and accomplishments of industrial design. Written by a wide range of experts - designers, theorists, critics, advertisers, historians and curators - the book traces the history of industrial design, industrialization and mass production in the United States and other design centres from 1850 to the present day. The book combines news reports on the first design workshops, early reviews of household products, aesthetic manifestos, excerpts from socio-economic debates on mass production and lectures into a lively overview of this dynamic field. The texts were selected according to criteria such as canonicity, notoriety of the writer, pithiness and entertainment value and include key texts from visionaries such as William Morris, Henry Dreyfuss and Victor Papanek. Edited by an expert on industrial design history, the book provides educators, students and practitioners of industrial design a unique one-stop reading experience and resource.