An Introduction to Design and Culture provides a comprehensive guide
to the changing relationships between design and culture from 1900 to
the present day with an emphasis on five main themes:
- Design and consumption
- Design and technology
- The design profession
- Design theory
- Design and identities.
This fourth edition extends the traditional definition of design as
covering product design, furniture design, interior design, fashion
design and graphic design to embrace its more recent manifestations,
which include service design, user-interface design, co-design, and
sustainable design, among others. It also discusses the relationship
between design and the new media and the effect of globalisation on
design.
Taking a broadly chronological approach, Professor Sparke employs
historical methods to show how these themes developed through the
twentieth century and into the twenty-first century and played a role
within modernism, postmodernism and beyond. Over a hundred illustrations
are used throughout to demonstrate the breadth of design and examples -
among them design in Modern China, the work of Apple Computers Ltd., and
design thinking - are used to elaborate key ideas. The new edition
remains essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students of
design studies, cultural studies and visual arts.
