Design and Theory

Bruno Giberti
Design History and
the History of Design
JOHN A. WALKER

The Meanings of
Modern Design
PETER DORMER

The history of design is not a new sub­

ject. It has been the theme of two well­
known if not always well-loved pillars of
the historical literature, Nikolaus Pev­
sner's Pioneers of the Modern Movement
(1936) and Sigfried Giedion's Mechani­
zation Takes Command (1948). In con­
trast, design history is a relatively new
discipline, well established in Britain but
still forming in this country. The time is
right, then, for a book like Design History
and the History ofDesign, in which John
A. Walker surveys the landscape of this
field for its students.
Walker's previous works include a
Glossary of Art, Architecture and Design
Since 1945 (1973), Art Since Pop
(1978), and Art in the Age of the Mass
Media (1983). Such a background might
seem to qualify him more as an art critic
than a design historian, but the experi­
ence of writing a dictionary seems to
have given him a permanent appetite
for the encyclopedic, and his latest work
provides a methodological introduc­
tion suitable for the novice historian in
several disciplines.
As an introduction, Walker's book is
comparable to Hazel Conway's Desif!.n
History (1987), an anthology of essays
written by specialists in various subject
areas of design history-dress and tex­
tiles, ceramics, furniture, interiors, graph­
ics, industrial; and environmental design.
Walker takes a very different tack in his
book. He pretty much ignores profes­
sional di visions, and treats the history of
design as the subject of a single disci­
pline, which he calls design history De­
 Design Book Review 22

prise that design historians have reached

such an easy consensus about what they
should study: "New research on design
usually focuses upon an extremely nar­
row range of topics: consumer goods,
public transport, advertising, the home,
etc." He scolds his fellow historians for
taking refuge in such "safe" topics, rather
than stretching their imaginations, as well
as the boundaries of their field, to include
new or troublesome subjects, and the po­
litical and moral implications of what de­
signers do:
Why are design historians so unimag­
inative? Why are they so reluctant to
consider military space vehicles, engi­
neering machines, computer hardware
and software, the role of the state in
promoting design, the relation of design
to pollution, profit and exploitation, as
topics worthy of analysis? There
appears to be a deeply-entrenched
The monstrous aspect of the routines of modem domestic life; drawing by Stephanie Rowe. (From The
Meanings of Modern Design.)
conservatism among design historians,
an unwillingness to confront the rela­
tionship between design and politics,
design and social injustice.
sign history is a relatively new discipline, Design historians agree that their object Walker claims to be a materialist, but
when compared to related fields that of study is the history of design, but
there is not yet a consensus concerning he talks like a social historian. In chapter
study art or architecture. In fact, Walker four, he argues that it is not enough for
the meaning and scope of the term/con­
can date the establishment of design his­ cept design. For example, does design scholars to tell the story of individual de­
tory as a discipline very precisely to include architecture? Is architecture signers and their creations. Design is a
1977, when British design historians, part of the object of design history or
art history or is architectural history an process enmeshed in social relations, ex­
previously meeting as a subsection of the plains Walker, and it is the historian's job
independent discipline in its own right?
Association of Art Historians, founded Similar uncertainties arise in respect of to unravel these connections.
their own professional organization, the the crafts, the minor or decorative arts This discussion of the theoretical basis
Design History Society. Not surprisingly, and the mass media.
of design history reaches its culmination
the discipline has been dominated by In the course of the chapter, Walker in chapter five. Complaining that too
British historians. considers the strengths and weaknesses of much of the literature consists of nar­
Every discipline has to stake its own several definitions. Although he doesn't rowly focused studies-"books on de­
territory, and so Walker begins his book commit himself to any single definition, signers, products, styles, design educa­
appropriately, by proposing a definition: he notes that most design historians ac­ tion, etc."-Walker unveils a four-part
Design history, it is proposed, shall be cept "design as a specialist activity asso­ "Pro-duction-consumption Model" that
the name of a comparatively new intel­ ciated with the industrial revolution, mass tries to account for the entire design pro­
lectual discipline, the purpose of which production manufacture, the modern cess, and by extension the entire range of
is to explain design as a social and his­ movement in architecture, and the con­ subjects available to the design historian.
torical phenomenon.
sumer society." This is broad enough to This model, which illustrates the work­
But what is "design"? That is not a include all the previously discussed ings of a modern industrial system, dia­
simple question to answer, given the va­ fields, with the possible exception of the grammatically relates the production of a
riety of people we have seen involved, crafts, which receives separate attention design to the production, distribution, and
and the ambiguity of the term "design" in chapter three. It also locates design con-sumption of designed goods. The
itself. In chapter two,"Defining the Ob­ firmly within the modern period. chapter is unfortunately very short-only
ject of Study," Walker addresses the Given the youth of the discipline, and six pages-and thus the model, while in­
problem of defining this fundamental the contentious task of defining its most teresting and comprehensive, does not
concept: essential concept, Walker expresses sur­ receive sufficient application.

54
 Design and Theory

If the first part of the book can be This is how she deconstructs the meaning some light on the work of female de­
considered an introduction to the theory of this basic and widely shared assumption: signers, but she fears that Anscombe's
of design history, Walker's last four "women-designers approach" actually
It assigns men to the determining, func­
chapters survey the methods of this field. serves to perpetuate anti-feminist atti­
tional areas of design-science, tech­
These are not in any way limited by dis­ nology, industrial production-and tudes. These include the traditional view
ciplinary boundaries. As Walker points women to the private, domestic realm that women are better suited to "soft"
out at the beginning of chapter six, "de­ and to the "soft" decorative fields of pursuits such as the decorative arts, tex­
design. It places form in the feminine
sign historians encounter in their practice tiles, interior design and fashion, as well
realm where its role is to reflect the
the same basic methodological and theo­ imperatives of the "real." as an equally traditional, art-historical
retical problems as do all historians." focus on the work of "great" designers, a
Like Walker, Attfield downplays the
Much of the work he presents belongs to category that has usually excluded
importance of the designer and the de­
scholars working outside the discipline. women.
signed object as historical subjects, and
In chapter seven, one of the longest Having laid out the advantages of a
she argues that scholars should adopt an
and meatiest chapters in the book, Walker feminist approach, Attfield considers how
approach that is more deeply involved
surveys the various methods, their litera­ feminist historians have looked at the re­
with the social, economic, cultural, and
ture and their significance for the design lationship between the physical organiza­
technological contexts of design. On
historian-the materials/techniques ap­ tion of the built environment and the so­
these grounds, she considers the merits
proach, the comparative method, content cial organization of labor. She also exam­
of A Woman's Touch, Isabelle Anscombe's
analysis, typology, national histories, ines feminist approaches to everyday ob­
well-known history of women in de­
anthropology, social history, structural­ jects, consumerism, the Arts and Crafts
sign (1984).
ism, and semiotics. Chapter eight consid­ movement, and the concept of gender.
Attfield admires the book for shedding
ers the problem of style in all its Attfield's essay is compre­
various aspects, and nine ex­ hensive and concise, if not espe­
plores the complicated and topi­ cially eloquent (neither she nor
cal relationship between design Walker can be accused of har-.
and consumerism. boring belletristic tendencies).
With a few brief exceptions, The fact that her essay follows
references to feminism are con­ Walker's own conclusion means
spicuously absent from Walker's that her ideas are not at all knit- .
theoretical and methodological ted into the fabric of the book.
survey. Walker explains his In the simplest terms, these con­
omission by asserting that the dense to a plea for reconsidering
feminist approach is not merely the history of design from a
another ingredient that can be woman's standpoint-a point of
thrown into the methodological view that should be within the
pot. As he says, "it is a politics conceptual reach of male histori­
rather than a method," which calls ans, who are learning to tell the
into question many of the basic story of people not of their own,
(male-serving) assumptions of well-educated class. In spite of
design and design history. this still timely message, one
Walker leaves the task of in­ wishes that Walker had reserved
troducing a feminist perspecti ve for himself the privilege of hav­
to Judy Attfield, who contributes ing the last word, that he had
a final essay entitled "FORM/fe­ been somehow able to work her
male FOLLOWS FUNCTION/ contribution into his own con­
male." Attfield maintains that the cluding remarks. As it is, Att­
statement, "form follows func­ field's essay comes as a kind of
tion," normalizes a situation in feminist postscript-not unap­
which men hold the real design preciated, but an afterthought.
power, while women are rel­ I'll leave my own last words
egated to the subservient roles of Hairdryer for men hy Atlantic Design. (From The Meaning\ oj' for an underwhelming book of
consumers and ornamentalists. Model'll Design.) criticism by Peter Dormer. This

55
 Design Book Review 22

English writer is previously responsible one hand, and the consumer on the
for several well-illustrated catalogues, other."
which form a "new" series surveying dif­ As is evident from such a statement,
ferent areas of design. These include New Dormer has some very large claims to
Jewelry (1985), New Ceramics (with make for the significance of the designer
Ralph Turner, 1986), and New Furniture as stylist. (By "designer," of course, he
(1987). Dormer was also a contributor to means the industrial variety.) Ultimately,
New British Design (1986). he has to admit that this kind of work has
Dormer's latest effort, The Meanings an increasingly limited significance, in
of Modern Design: Towards the Twenty­ spite of what designers like to think about
First Century, is a very different kind of themselves, when compared to areas of
book. Its seven essays attempt to survey, our culture that are really bubbling. In a
not the discipline of design history, but very sad and unexpected conclusion to
the state of current design practice; he a chapter on "Valuing the Handmade,"
even has something to say about its fu­ he announces the dulling of design's cut­
ture. As outlined in the preface, the book ting edge:
examines three categories of designed The heart of the contemporary avant
objects: consumer durables such as garde in the West is not craft or art or
vacuum cleaners, cameras, and blow dry­ the modernism versus post-modernist
ers; craft objects; and status-loaded, high­ debate-the heart is theoretical physics
and applied technology. How many of
design artifacts-"heavenly goods" cre­
us are able to enter the conceptual land­
ated for the truly rich or "tokens" fabri­ scape of the new physics or are at home
cated for status-conscious yuppies. The in the craft of computer software con­
book also explores four broad themes: the struction?
economic context of design (capitalism); It seems that stylists are now con­
the influence of new technology; the rela­ demned to the margins.
tionship between making, consuming,
and individual satisfaction (consumer­
ism); and the effect of larger social values
on the design process.
One of the most interesting points in
the book comes right at the beginning of
the first chapter, where Dormer makes an
important distinction between "above the
line" and "below the line" design. The
line in question is the boundary between
public and private; between what's evi­
dent about an object and what's con­
cealed from view. Styling is above the
line, in these terms; engineering is below.
This is a critical distinction, according
to John Walker, that design historians
have ignored in the past. What a shame,
then, that Dormer has so very little to say
about "below the line" design, important
as it is. He is only interested in what de­
signers do, and even that is restricted to a DESIGN HISTORY AND THE HISTORY OF
fairly narrow range: "In this book the DESIGN, John A. Walker, Pluto Pre", I'J~N, 243
pp., illu, .. $44.95 cloth: $16.'J5 paper.
emphasis is upon the designer as stylist­
THE MEANINGS OF MODERN DESIGN: TO·
as a broker of ideas and values, a middle
WARDS THE TWENTY· FIRST CENTURY, Peter
personage between the manufacturers, Dormer, Thame, and Hud,on, I 'J'JO, 1'J2 pp .. illu,.,
engineers and applied scientists on the $24.95.

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