Brands and logos are all around us - from the clothes we wear and the objects we buy, to the advertisements which cover our cities and the celebrities created by the media. We regard the brand as a new phenomenon, something born with the consumer society, but branding was born with civilization, its earliest examples dating to the Roman Empire.Branding is now a growing industry, applied not only to commodities but to charities, cities, the worlds of sport and entertainment, even government initiatives. Such is the ubiquity and power of branding that it is increasingly taken as a sign of the commodification of everyday life and the rapacity of corporate power. Examining the brand in history, the growth of national and global brands, the changing approaches of the branding industry and the exploration of new spaces for advertising, The Rise of Brands analyses exactly how brands develop and operate in contemporary society.

"Design as Politics" confronts the inadequacy of contemporary politics to deal with unsustainability. Current "solutions" to unsustainability are analysed as utterly insufficient for dealing with the problems but, further than this, the book questions the very ability of democracy to deliver a sustainable future. "Design as Politics" argues that finding solutions to this problem, of which climate change is only one part, demands original and radical thinking. Rather than reverting to failed political ideologies, the book proposes a post-democratic politics. In this, design occupies a major role, not as it is but as it could be if transformed into a powerful agent of change, a force to create and extend freedom. The book does no less than position design as a vital form of political action.

Research, design, and development firms are actively recruiting anthropologists and other social scientists, as ethnographic research becomes more central to the creation of appropriate new products, services, and marketing strategies for U.S. and global markets. To be successful designers, professionals must learn new processes, develop training programs, modify communication styles, and share their methods to make their work possible. The current volume is written by social scientists, designers, and entrepreneurs who create new products and services. They provide frank and insightful discussions about the opportunities and challenges facing researchers and designers who are learning to collaborate.

The book highlights several major topics in order to focus on critical aspects of the industry's highly related features. It provides background information about ethnography, decsribes and analyzes the industry, presents case examples of working practices and discusses emerging methodology based on three fundamental kinds of projects (discovery, design, and evaluation). The book suggests ways emerging design professionals can (1) improve their own performance, (2) change the working processes of the industry itself, (3) contribute to basic ethnographic research, and (4) craft training programs for the next generation of professionals.

"Kawaii" is a Japanese word that denotes "cute," "lovable," or "charming" although it does not have exactly the same meaning as those adjectives. This book proposes engineering methodologies for systematic measurement of the affective perception of kawaii, by using virtual reality and biological signals, and discusses the effectiveness of kawaii engineering for designing industrial products and services. Kawaii can draw sympathy from people and can embody a special kind of cute design, which reduces fear and makes dull information more acceptable and appealing. Following the introduction of the background of kawaii engineering in Chapter 1, Chapters 2 and 3 describe experiments on the systematic measurement and evaluation methods for kawaii products and affective evaluation experiments. Chapter 4 proposes a mathematical model to identify the physical attributes that determine kawaii in motion. Chapters 5 and 6 explain research that uses biological signals and eye-tracking. After a brief survey of psychological research on kawaii and cuteness in Chapter 7, Chapters 8 and 9 introduce the use of spoons designed to stimulate the appetite of the elderly and the practical implementation of an emotion-driven camera. Chapters 10-14 explain experimental research that examines kawaii perception of people from various cultural backgrounds. Kawaii Engineering will appeal to those who work on affective computing, product design, user experience design, virtual reality, and biological signals.

The last in Tony Fry's celebrated trilogy of books continues his radical rethinking of design. Becoming Human by Design's provocative argument presents a revised reading of human 'evolution' centred on ontological design. Examining the relation of design to the nature of the human species - where the species came from, how it was created, what it became and its likely future - Fry asserts that current biological and social models of evolution are an insufficient explanation of how 'we humans' became what we are. Making a case for ontological design as an evolutionary agency, the book posits the relation between the formation of the world of human fabrication and the making of mankind itself as indivisible. It also functions as a provocation to rethink the fate of Homo sapiens, recognising that all species are finite and that the fate of humankind turns on a fundamental Darwinian principle - adapt or die. Fry considers the nature of adaptation, arguing that it will depend on an ability to think and design in new ways.

The original concept for the Vision in Vehicle series of international conferences was born from discussions within the Applied Vision Association which led eventually to the first conference being held in 1985. Ten years of progress later and this volume presents the selected and edited proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Vision in Vehicles (VIV6) which was held at the University of Derby, 13-16 September 1995. The meeting was organised in association with the Applied Vision Association and the Ergonomics Society.
The conference is unique in the eclectic mix of disciplines which are attracted to the meetings and this enables research inssues to be considered in very broad contexts.

An unprecedented, essential field guide to more than a century of fascinating product and industrial design

From legendary classics to anonymous objects that are indispensable in homes and offices, this one-of-a-kind collection of original patent documents celebrates the creative genius of designers, inventors, creators, innovators, and dreamers the world over. The range is phenomenal: patents by Eero Saarinen, Charles Eames, Isamu Noguchi, Ettore Sottsass, Raymond Loewy, and George Nelson sit alongside everyday designs for tape dispensers, pencil sharpeners, food processors, desk fans, and drink bottles to create an valuable reference that's also an irresistible browse.

From Latin America is a collection of work from some of the most talented designers, agencies and illustrators in this region - such as Anagrama, IS Creative, Estudio YeYe, Empatia, Firmalt, Martin Azambuja, Futura, Giovani Flores, Sociedad Anonima, Asis, Parametro, BR/Bauen, Savvy, Studio Rejane Dal Bello, La Tortilleria, ps.2 and The Branding People.

Volume 2 of the updated and extended 3rd edition of this work focuses on the chemistry and technology of rigid polyurethanes. Recent developments in obtaining polyols from renewable resources and the field of rigid polyurethanes have been included. This book is of interest to chemists and engineers in industry and academia as well as anyone working with polyols for the manufacture of PUs.

Applying computational intelligence for product design is a fast-growing and promising research area in computer sciences and industrial engineering. However, there is currently a lack of books, which discuss this research area. This book discusses a wide range of computational intelligence techniques for implementation on product design. It covers common issues on product design from identification of customer requirements in product design, determination of importance of customer requirements, determination of optimal design attributes, relating design attributes and customer satisfaction, integration of marketing aspects into product design, affective product design, to quality control of new products. Approaches for refinement of computational intelligence are discussed, in order to address different issues on product design. Cases studies of product design in terms of development of real-world new products are included, in order to illustrate the design procedures, as well as the effectiveness of the computational intelligence based approaches to product design. This book covers the state-of-art of computational intelligence methods for product design, which provides a clear picture to post-graduate students in industrial engineering and computer science. It is particularly suitable for researchers and professionals working on computational intelligence for product design. It provides concepts, techniques and methodologies, for product designers in applying computational intelligence to deal with product design.

Good product designs merge materials, technology and hardware into a unified user experience; one where the technology recedes into the background and people benefit from the capabilities and experiences available. By focusing on functional gain, critical awareness and emotive connection, even the most multifaceted and complex technology can be made to feel straightforward and become an integral part of daily life. Researchers, designers and developers must understand how to progress or appropriate the right technical and human knowledge to inform their innovations. The 1st International Smart Design conference provides a timely forum and brings together researchers and practitioners to discuss issues, identify challenges and future directions, and share their R&D findings and experiences in the areas of design, materials and technology.

This proceedings of the 1st Smart Design conference held at Nottingham Trent University in November 2011 includes summaries of the talks given on topics ranging from intelligent textiles design to pharmaceutical packaging to the impact of social and emotional factors on design choices with the aim of informing and inspiring future application and development of smart design.

This first volume of the updated and extended 3rd edition of this work covers the basic chemistry and technology of oligo-polyol fabrication, the characteristics of the various oligo-polyol families and the effects of their structure on the properties of the resulting PU. This book is of interest to chemists and engineers in industry and academia as well as anyone working with polyols for the manufacture of PUs.

Charlotte Perriand was one of great designers of the twentieth century. A pioneer of modernism, her work was often overshadowed by her more famous male collaborators, who included Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Jean Prouve. However, in recent years her reputation as a furniture designer and architect has matched the stature of her peers - her furniture in particular has become highly prized by collectors. From the 1920s onwards, Perriand was instrumental in bringing the modernist aesthetic to interiors. But she also believed in the synthesis of the arts, and was friends with visual artists such as Pablo Picasso and Fernand Leger. This book will explore Perriand's journey from the machine aesthetic to her adoption of natural forms, and from modular furniture systems to major architectural projects such as Les Arcs ski resort. Featuring some of her most famous interiors, as well as her original furniture, her photography and her personal notebooks, this book sheds new light on Perriand's creative process and her place in design history. It will accompany the forthcoming Design Museum exhibition of the same title, which will coincide with the twenty-fifth anniversary of Perriand's last significant presentation in London, held at the Design Museum in 1996.