Design history, fad or function?

The 16 papers in this book were originally presented at the third annual conference on twentieth-century design history, which took place at Brighton Polytechnic in September 1977. They, like the conference itself, have three main areas of interest--the designer, the consumer, and the object or artefact that is the end product of design--but within these they cover a very wide range of subjects. Many of the papers also raise fundamental questions about broader aesthetic, social and cultural issues of 'taste, ' 'style, ' individualism versus anonymity in design, social and economic constraints on the design process, the relevance of quality judgements in design history and, indeed, about what the study of design history itself comprises and for whom it is being developed. --Back cover.