This course introduces significant developments in the history of design in Europe and America from 1850 to 2000. The lectures will examine a variety of object types, including furniture, interiors, graphics, and products, and draw examples from the well known as well as the anonymous. Throughout, design will be situated within its social, cultural, political and economic contexts. Materials, technology, and debates informing the configuration of things such as Modernism and taste will be considered, as will the changing role of the designer, and the effects of the shifting ways of life on patterns of production and consumption. In addition, the course will also consider how issues of gender, race, and class affect design. Readings will come from both primary and secondary sources, and new approaches and methods in the study of the history of design will be discussed. Pathway: Art and Design History.

This course introduces significant developments in the history of design in Europe and America from 1850 to 2000. The lectures will examine a variety of object types, including furniture, interiors, graphics, and products, and draw examples from the well known as well as the anonymous. Throughout, design will be situated within its social, cultural, political and economic contexts. Materials, technology, and debates informing the configuration of things such as Modernism and taste will be considered, as will the changing role of the designer, and the effects of the shifting ways of life on patterns of production and consumption. In addition, the course will also consider how issues of gender, race, and class affect design. Readings will come from both primary and secondary sources, and new approaches and methods in the study of the history of design will be discussed. Pathway: Art and Design History.