Objects of Desire: Design and Society Since 1750 [Paperback]

Adrian Forty (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 17, 1992

"One of the most significant contributions to design history in recent years."—Financial Times

Objects of Desire looks at the appearance of consumer goods in the 200 years since the introduction of mechanized production, whether in Josiah Wedgewood's use of neo-classicism for his industrially manufactured pottery or the development of appropriate forms for wirelesses. The argument is illustrated with examples ranging from penknives to computers and from sewing machines to railway carriages. In opening up new ways of appraising the man-made world around us, Objects of Desire is required reading for anyone who has any involvement with design and a revealing document about our society. 272 black-and-white illustrations

Editorial Reviews

Review

Readable and argumentative.

About the Author

Adrian Forty is Professor of Architectural History at the Bartlett School of Architecture and Planning, University College, London.

Product Details

• Paperback: 246 pages
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson (June 17, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0500274126
• ISBN-13: 978-0500274125
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #155,509 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Who "designed" modern culture?, May 7, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Objects of Desire: Design and Society Since 1750 (Paperback)

Design, according to Adrian Forty, encompasses not just how things look, but how they are made and marketed as well. In a very readable and well-illustrated book, Forty shows how design reflects and changes culture. His fascinating historical accounts show how modern consumer society developed. Victorian pocket knives, for instance, mirrored and reinforced that era's strict social structure. In another example, Forty reaches back to the 1750s to show how Wedgewood china introduced revolutionary changes in industrial manufacturing, design, and marketing that made the industrial revolution possible. Objects of Desire should appear on the reading lists of every design department and business school

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great textbook for Design History, January 19, 2007

By 

Professor Frederique Krupa (Paris, France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Objects of Desire: Design and Society Since 1750 (Paperback)

I rediscovered this book after college since I was probably too young to truly appreciate it the first time around. I use it now as the textbook for my Culture of Design seminar because it is one of the rare design history books that can ground design in its social context with real depth or clarity. (And boy, have I looked!)

While it can seem long winded to some, the ideas contained within are so novel and well explained that it can make someone allergic to 18th and 19th Century Design (like myself) truly appreciate the radical innovations of that period. For example, the Industrial Revolution was not just due to the steam engine's invention but more specifically to division of labor such as implemented in Wedgewood's factory in the mid 18th century.

The chapter on "Differentiation by Design" is a gem, showing how design reinforces class, age and gender roles. In the chapter on labor saving devices, women didn't really save any labor since cleanliness standards simply rose to meet product opportunities...

It's true that the book's layout, infographics and quality of the images do not do it justice... Hopefully the next reprint will address that.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More a technical treatise than an easy read., November 12, 2005

By 

A. Woodley "Patroness, Janeites, the Austen list" (New Zealand) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Objects of Desire: Design and Society Since 1750 (Paperback)

This is more for the reader who wants to read an economic and cultural treatise on the development of design and how it has affected culture.

If it wasn't so long-winded I would have actually enjoyed it a lot more. Forty has looked at some of the assumptions we have made about design and culture and realised that they are not quite as they seem. A classic example he uses is that the invention and high use of sewing machines coincided with the impossibly ruffled gowns and dresses of the 1860's - the assumption has always been that the sewing machine made this type of style possible. Forty points out that these dresses did indeed use up to 100yds of fabric, and the use of the sewing machine only made them possible by making them more affordable. Sweatshops paid machine sewers far less than they paid hand sewers - therefore more complex dresses made by machine could be made for cheaper cost. My only problem with Forty is that he takes nearly 2 pages to say this.

I have some other problems with this work, I don't think it is well illustrated - all illustrations are small and in black and white - a bit hard to take in things that he calls 'richly glazed' and so on when you can't even see the colours. It also means he has catalogues and so on in here printed in impossibly small form so you can barely make out the designs.

On another petty note, I was surprised to see the picture of a cauliflower tea pot - fully functional from Wedgewood on one page, and then several pages later a picture of the mould was shown - both from 1760. What suprised me was that there was no reference in the text or near either illustration alluding to the fact that these were both in here. I thought something like this would at least have a small footnote directing to the other page.

I realise that with printing you have to make compromises but I didn't feel that these essentially editing and printing details did the book and its subject full justice. This really is a great book - divided into 11 chapters from the first industrial designers, to design in the home, labour-saving in the home and design and corporate identity. It just doesn't really quite make it.