The Meanings of Modern Design: Towards the Twenty-First Century

In designing cars or watches for the super-rich, the designer must create objects that look expensive, luxurious, even unique. In styling for the rest of us, the designer or engineer often uses ``visual good manners,'' hiding from sight important design components that determine how well a product will function. British designer Dormer ( The New Jewelry ) deftly here unravels the symbolism of many designs, from hairdryers to furniture. He exposes gender-based esthetic assumptions that revolve not only around whoever tends to use a particular object or tool, but also who does the buying. The contemporary crafts movement has brought creative freedom to the middle-class artist-designer, yet in the process, observes Dormer, craftspeople have been marginalized. Enhanced with 50 photographs, this provocative, thoughtful study offers new ways of seeing and relating to our designed environment. (July)