British Design: Image & Identity

(Preface) 'The 1980s have witnessed a startling transformation of design in Britain - a transformation that has had a worldwide influence. New retail chains have been converted en masse to interior design; design consultancies, with a constant stream of images and styles, have developed beyond recognition; designers have overrun the media, from television to pop videos, while new magazines have signalled changes in graphic design; fashion and textile designers have basked in the international limelight; and young designer-makers and artist-craftsmen have thrown in the air all accepted notions about the boundaries between art, design and craft.

In this book, the brilliant young Dutch design historian, Frederique Huygen, brings an outsider's eyes to the first full scale study of the 'Britishness' of British Design and its significance for the rest of the world. She describes the development of design from the Industrial Revolution onwards, against the background of British culture, in order to interpret what is happening today. In a visually exciting study, bursting with ideas, she also makes use of several hundred illustrations, from Saatchi and Saatchi to Neville Brody, from Peter Murdoch's paper chair to James Dyson's Cyclon vacuum cleaner, from Harrods' corporate identity to Fitch shop design - all supported by key images from the past that provide the vital context for answering the question: what is it that makes British design so different?

Frederique Huygen is Curator of Design at the Boymans-van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam.

Condition: Very Good. Shelf ware consistent with age. Light rubbing to cover/edges.

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