Writing Design: Words And Objects

Description: How do we learn about the objects that surround us? As well as gathering sensory information by viewing and using objects, we also learn about objects through the written and spoken word - from shop labels to friends' recommendations and from magazines to patents. But, even as design commentators have become increasingly preoccupied with issues of mediation, the intersection of design and language remains under-explored.Writing Design provides a unique examination of what is at stake when we convert the material properties of designed goods into verbal or textual description. Issues discussed include the role of text in informing design consumption, designing with and through language, and the challenges and opportunities raised by design without language. Bringing together a wide range of scholars and practitioners, Writing Design reveals the difficulties, ethics and politics of writing about design.

Review: This volume promises to become essential reading for anyone interested in the historical and contemporary circumstances by which words describe design, and design defines language. From a range of international perspectives, the book's contributors show how the interrelationship between language and design is never passive, but always subject to mediation, negotiation, and at times contestation. Jeremy Aynsley, Professor of History of Design, Royal College of Art Writing Design is long overdue. For well over a century, critics, historians, theorists and designers themselves have used a multitude of words to decribe, suggest, denote, evoke and critique that evasive concept of 'design'. Now, for the first time, a group of scholars have set out to reflect on that long-standing practice and to make us think more deeply about the complex relationship that exists between words and things. Professor Penny Sparke, Kingston University, London

Contents: Acknowledgements General Introduction, Grace Lees-Maffei PART 1: RIGHTING DESIGN - ON THE REFORMING ROLE OF DESIGN CRITICISM Introduction 1. 'Writing about Stuff': The Peril and Promise of Design History and Criticism, Jeffrey L. Meikle, University of Texas at Austin, USA 2. Design Criticism and Social Responsibility: The Flemish Design Critic K.-N. Elno (1920-1993), Fredie Flore, Ghent University, Belgium 3. The Metamorphosis of a Norwegian Design Magazine: Nye Bonytt, 1968-1971, Kjetil Fallan, University of Oslo, Norway 4. Writing Contemporary Design into History, Stephen Hayward, University of the Arts London, UK PART 2: MEDIATIONS - BETWEEN DESIGN AND CONSUMPTION Introduction 5. Thinking in Metaphor: Figurative Conceptualising in John Evelyn's Diary and John Ruskin's Stones of Venice, Anne Hultzsch, University College London, UK 6. Regulating the Body in Army Manuals and Trade Guides: The Design of the First World War Khaki Service Dress, Jane Tynan, University of the Arts London, UK 7. Vitaglass and the Discourse of Modern Culture, John Stanislav Sadar, Monash University, Australia 8. Lewis Mumford's Lever House: Writing a House of Glass, Ann Sobiech Munson, Iowa State University, USA PART 3: DESIGNING WITH AND THROUGH LANGUAGE Introduction 9. Judging a Book by its Cover: or Does Modernist Form Follow Function?, Polly Cantlon and Alice Lo, both University of Waikato, New Zealand 10. Reading Details: Caruso St John and the Poetic Intent of Construction Documents, Mhairi McVicar, Welsh School of Architecture, UK 11. Applying Oral Sources: Design Historian, Practitioner and Participant:, Chae Ho Lee, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, USA 12. Fluid Typography: Construction, Metamorphosis and Revelation, Barbara Brownie, University of Hertfordshire, UK PART 4: SHOWING AS TELLING - ON DESIGN BEYOND TEXT Introduction 13. Showing Architecture Through Exhibitions: A Taxonomical Analysis Applied to the Case of the First Venice Architecture Biennale (1980), Lea-Catherine Szacka, University College London, UK 14. Design as Language without Words: AG Fronzoni, Gabriele Oropallo, University College London, UK 15. On the Legal Protection of Design: Things and Words about Them, Stina Teilmann-Lock, Danish Design School, Denmark 16. Text-led and Object-led Research Paradigms: Doing Without Words, Michael Biggs and Daniela Buchler, both University of Hertfordshire, UK Contributors List of Illustrations Select Bibliography Index

Author Biography: Grace Lees-Maffei is Reader in Design History in the School of Creative Arts at the University of Hertfordshire and is co-editor of The Design History Reader (Berg, 2010).

Explains how important language is to understanding design, how a range of texts - from design criticism to instructions and labels - shape the appreciation and use of design.