Surveying applied arts & industrial design from the 18th century to the present day this book explores the dynamic relationship between design & manufacturing & the technological social & commercial context in which this relationship developed The effects of a vastly enlarged audience for the products of modern design & the complex dynamic of mass consumption are also discussed Part of this dynamic reveals that products serve as signs for desires that have little to do with need or function The book also explores the impact of a wealth of new man-made industrial materials & tools on the course of modern design
- from steel to titanium plywood to plastic cotton to nylon wire to transistors & microprocessors to nanotubes The research development & applications of these technologies are shown as depending upon far-reaching lines of communication stretching across geographical & linguistic boundaries Reviews of the first edition Raizmans book awakens you to examples of design that surround us everywhere all the time By the end the History of Modern Design manages the rare trick of being an authoritative textbook that fuels the imagination (Blueprint)