Design Studies

Book excerpt: Design Studies: A Reader 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 seventy 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 concludes with a guide to further reading. In addition, a final section of specially commissioned essays analyzes ten seminal designs of the twentieth 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. Authors include: Theodor Adorno, Arjun Appadurai, Reyner Banham, Jean Baudrillard, Zygmunt Bauman, Pierre Bourdieu, Cheryl Buckley, Michel de Certeau, Margaret Crawford, Arthur C Danto, Adrian Forty, Michel Foucault, Buckminster Fuller, Paul du Gay, Erving Goffman, Donna Haraway, Dick Hebdige, John Chris Jones, Guy Julier, Naomi Klein, Ezio Manzini, Victor Margolin, Karl Marx, Daniel Miller, Victor Papanek, Nikolaus Pevsner, John Styles, and John Walker.