Twentieth-Century Design (Oxford History of Art)

The most famous designs of the twentieth century are not those in museums but in the marketplace. The Coca-Cola bottle and McDonalds logo are known the world over and may tell us more about our culture than a narrowly-defined canon of classics. One of the worlds foremost design historians Jonathan Woodham takes a fresh look at the wider issues of design and industrial culture throughout Europe Scandinavia North America and the Far East. Drawing on the most up-to-date scholarship he explores themes such as national identity the "Americanization" of ideology and business methods the rise of multi-nationals Pop and Postmodernism and contemporary ideas of nostalgia and heritage. Woodham sets the proliferation of everyday design against the writing of critics as diverse as Nikolaus Pevsner the champion of Modernism and Vance Packard author of The Hidden Persuaders. The history which emerges is clearly seen for what it is: the powerful and complex expression of aesthetic social economic political and technological forces.