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Product Description
Product Description
John Heskett wants to transform the way we think about design by showing how integral it is to our daily lives, from the spoon we use to eat our breakfast cereal, and the car we drive to work in, to the medical equipment used to save lives. Design combines 'need' and 'desire' in the form of a practical object that can also reflect the user's identity and aspirations through its form and decoration. This concise guide to contemporary design goes beyond style and taste to look at how different cultures and individuals personalize objects. Heskett also reveals how simple objects, such as a toothpick, can have their design modified to suit the specific cultural behaviour in different countries. There are also fascinating insights into how major companies such as Nokia, Ford, and Sony approach design. Finally, the author gives us an exciting vision of what design can offer us in the future, showing in particular how it can humanize new technology.
About the Author
John Heskett's analysis of design as the result of social and economic influences has earned him an international reputation as an important commentator on design. He is the author of Industrial Design (Thames and Hudson, 1980; published in translation in Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Brazil, and Japan) widely used as a basic textbook in design courses in many countries, and Philips: A Study of the Corporate Management of Design (Rizzoli, 1989). He has also
contributed articles and essays to numerous magazines, anthologies and catalogues, and regularly writes for ID Magazine. In addition to writing and lecturing internationally on design, he has acted as consultant to governmental bodies and educational organizations in many countries. He is an executive consultant for the Hirano Design Group, a major Japanese consultancy, and visiting professor at Tama Art University in Tokyo.
contributed articles and essays to numerous magazines, anthologies and catalogues, and regularly writes for ID Magazine. In addition to writing and lecturing internationally on design, he has acted as consultant to governmental bodies and educational organizations in many countries. He is an executive consultant for the Hirano Design Group, a major Japanese consultancy, and visiting professor at Tama Art University in Tokyo.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
One of the most curious features of the modern world is the manner is which design has been widely transformed into something banal and inconsequential. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
One of the most curious features of the modern world is the manner is which design has been widely transformed into something banal and inconsequential. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book is a good introduction to some parts of design theory and practice, using limited space well. But it neglects and also ignores important subjects, such as cultural traditions of design such as in Finland and Japan; legal protection of designs, as intellectual property or patents; some main domains of design, such as fashion; and the role of opinion leaders and fashions in creating demand for particular designs.
More serious are the partly wrong treatments of broader issues, especially in the final chapters. Thus, they wrongly discuss industrial policies as a modern form of mercantilism, expect that design decisions beyond one's personal habitat can be made with the participation of multitudes, and charge design with making contributions to major global issues far beyond its potentials.
One final small but irritating point, which is the responsibility of the publisher: There are many spelling errors in German worlds.
Professor Yehezkel Dror
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
More serious are the partly wrong treatments of broader issues, especially in the final chapters. Thus, they wrongly discuss industrial policies as a modern form of mercantilism, expect that design decisions beyond one's personal habitat can be made with the participation of multitudes, and charge design with making contributions to major global issues far beyond its potentials.
One final small but irritating point, which is the responsibility of the publisher: There are many spelling errors in German worlds.
Professor Yehezkel Dror
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have this book because it is part of the "picture box" very short introductions box set.
I have an interest in design but this book has not enriched my designs on design! It often states the obvious where I was hoping for great insight and is remarkably wishy-washy (even in comparison with other books about design or abstract words in general).
The only positives I took from it were two interesting facts: one about unintended effects of Coca-cola's globalisation and one about the difference between American and Japanese bathrooms!
If you have an interest in design, try to find a "history of design" book as opposed to this supposed thesis on where and what design is: I fear the reason the book didn't go anywhere was because the abstract for it was too broad!
I have an interest in design but this book has not enriched my designs on design! It often states the obvious where I was hoping for great insight and is remarkably wishy-washy (even in comparison with other books about design or abstract words in general).
The only positives I took from it were two interesting facts: one about unintended effects of Coca-cola's globalisation and one about the difference between American and Japanese bathrooms!
If you have an interest in design, try to find a "history of design" book as opposed to this supposed thesis on where and what design is: I fear the reason the book didn't go anywhere was because the abstract for it was too broad!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4 reviews
14 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Disappointing
7 Aug 2009
Format:Paperback
I read a few books from the Very Short Introduction (VSI) series such as Law, Economics and Logic, and found them to be clear, systematic, packed with information, and fitting of their titles.
That and curiosity led me to read this book on design. Instead of being interesting and enlightening, I found this book to be boring, poorly written, and confusing.
I'm not very a good writer and that really ought to stop me from making any criticism. But then I thought it is important that others gets a preview of this book before they buy it. The problem with the writing is that it uses many long and big words that carry little meaning, words that are abstract and can mean a number of things, and when crammed together along with five six other abstract words, can mean nothing and everything, e.g. "`Communications' is here used as a shorthand term to cover the vast array of two-dimensional material that plays such an extensive role in modern life."
Then there are those strange metaphors, that I suppose make sense but are really forced, e.g. "design should be the crucial anvil on which the human environment, in all its detail, is shaped and constructed for the betterment and delight of all." of all things, why an anvil, why a monolithic piece of metal that is the antithesis of design. And this is irony.
As you slowly go through the paragraphs, you glean an occasional insight, a fitting example, a powerful well phrased argument, and you wonder if you cut out all the crap in between, all the redundancies and tautologies, all the fluff, whether this wouldn't be a decent book.
At the end of the book however, you realize the answer is no. Of the important, useful information, such as the fundamentals of good design, a list of factors most important to good design, a monographs on some interesting topics such as object design, ergonomics, typography, the use of materials in design, design as related to the visual, auditory and haptic, and so much so much more, are all absent or lacking in this book.
A good question to ask yourself at the end of reading a book is what have I learned. For this one, I doubt anything.
That and curiosity led me to read this book on design. Instead of being interesting and enlightening, I found this book to be boring, poorly written, and confusing.
I'm not very a good writer and that really ought to stop me from making any criticism. But then I thought it is important that others gets a preview of this book before they buy it. The problem with the writing is that it uses many long and big words that carry little meaning, words that are abstract and can mean a number of things, and when crammed together along with five six other abstract words, can mean nothing and everything, e.g. "`Communications' is here used as a shorthand term to cover the vast array of two-dimensional material that plays such an extensive role in modern life."
Then there are those strange metaphors, that I suppose make sense but are really forced, e.g. "design should be the crucial anvil on which the human environment, in all its detail, is shaped and constructed for the betterment and delight of all." of all things, why an anvil, why a monolithic piece of metal that is the antithesis of design. And this is irony.
As you slowly go through the paragraphs, you glean an occasional insight, a fitting example, a powerful well phrased argument, and you wonder if you cut out all the crap in between, all the redundancies and tautologies, all the fluff, whether this wouldn't be a decent book.
At the end of the book however, you realize the answer is no. Of the important, useful information, such as the fundamentals of good design, a list of factors most important to good design, a monographs on some interesting topics such as object design, ergonomics, typography, the use of materials in design, design as related to the visual, auditory and haptic, and so much so much more, are all absent or lacking in this book.
A good question to ask yourself at the end of reading a book is what have I learned. For this one, I doubt anything.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
PARTLY GOOD, PARTLY WRONG
5 Mar 2012
Format:Paperback
This book is a good introduction to some parts of design theory and practice, using limited space well. But it neglects and also ignores important subjects, such as cultural traditions of design such as in Finland and Japan; legal protection of designs, as intellectual property or patents; some main domains of design, such as fashion; and the role of opinion leaders and fashions in creating demand for particular designs.
More serious are the partly wrong treatments of broader issues, especially in the final chapters. Thus, they wrongly discuss industrial policies as a modern form of mercantilism, expect that design decisions beyond one's personal habitat can be made with the participation of multitudes, and charge design with making contributions to major global issues far beyond its potentials.
One final small but irritating point, which is the responsibility of the publisher: There are many spelling errors in German worlds.
Professor Yehezkel Dror
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
More serious are the partly wrong treatments of broader issues, especially in the final chapters. Thus, they wrongly discuss industrial policies as a modern form of mercantilism, expect that design decisions beyond one's personal habitat can be made with the participation of multitudes, and charge design with making contributions to major global issues far beyond its potentials.
One final small but irritating point, which is the responsibility of the publisher: There are many spelling errors in German worlds.
Professor Yehezkel Dror
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Agree with D. Liu's August 7 review
21 Jan 2012
Format:Paperback
Yeah, disappointing. Some interesting thoughts here and there but nothing well developed. An illustrations and photographs -- seeming pretty important in a book on design -- are haphazard and poorly done. Too bad, I was erally looking forward to this.
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