Design in Britain : big ideas (small island)

This is a unique moment for British design. The generation which shaped the emergence of design in the post war years, from Robin Day and Kenneth Grange to Terence Conran, is still active at the same time as young designers born half a century later are coming to prominence with innovative explorations of the implications for design of a very different technological and social climate.

Design in Britain discusses the major figures that have led the way and those who have turned it on its head.

Divided by subject matter, chapters include: Architecture - how the shape of commercial rebuilding has evolved in Britain; Identity - how the logos and marks measure out the history of Britain; After the Object - the web-based expansion of the definition of what constitutes design; Fashion - a measured account of the ideas and the reality behind British fashion; Graphic Design - an account of the successive creative waves of graphic design in Britain; Furniture Design - a view of what it is that has made British design special from the outside; Industrial Design - a critical response to the interaction between design in the commercial sense, and in the cultural sphere, and Car Design - how Britain is building more cars than ever, but in foreign owned factories.

With each chapter written by an international expert in that field, this really is the most comprehensive account of what it is that has given Britain a special place in design.