John Heskett wants to transform the way we think about design by showing how integral it is to our daily lives, from the spoon we use to eat our breakfast cereal, and the car we drive to work in, to the medical equipment used to save lives. Design combines 'need' and 'desire' in the form of a practical object that can also reflect the user's identity and aspirations through its form and decoration. This concise guide to contemporary design goes beyond style and taste to look at how different cultures and individuals personalize objects. Heskett also reveals how simple objects, such as a toothpick, can have their design modified to suit the specific cultural behaviour in different countries. There are also fascinating insights into how major companies such as Nokia, Ford, and Sony approach design. Finally, the author gives us an exciting vision of what design can offer us in the future, showing in particular how it can humanize new technology. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

John Heskett was a pioneering British design historian, with a particular interest in design and economics. Design and the Creation of Value' publishes for the first time his groundbreaking seminar on design and economic value. In remarkably clear and accessible prose Heskett explores the how the key traditions of economic thought conceive of how value is created. Critically teasing out the role of design in this process, Heskett shows how design's role in innovating and creating value creating value for organisations and products can be given a firm grounding in economic theory. Featuring examples of businesses which have successfully responded to the value of design in their practice, as well as others who have failed because of their inability to understand value-creation, Heskett looks in detail at the relationship between producers, markets, products and consumers, using these instances to offer a both a strong critique of the limitations conventional economic thought and new model of the economic importance of design thinking in value creation.

John Heskett was a pioneering British design historian, with a particular interest in design and economics. Design and the Creation of Value' publishes for the first time his groundbreaking seminar on design and economic value. In remarkably clear and accessible prose Heskett explores the how the key traditions of economic thought conceive of how value is created. Critically teasing out the role of design in this process, Heskett shows how design's role in innovating and creating value creating value for organisations and products can be given a firm grounding in economic theory. Featuring examples of businesses which have successfully responded to the value of design in their practice, as well as others who have failed because of their inability to understand value-creation, Heskett looks in detail at the relationship between producers, markets, products and consumers, using these instances to offer a both a strong critique of the limitations conventional economic thought and new model of the economic importance of design thinking in value creation.

A John Heskett Reader brings together a selection of the celebrated design historian John Heskett's key works, introduced and edited by Clive Dilnot of Parsons, the New School, USA. Heskett, who passed away in early 2014, was a pioneering British-born writer and lecturer. His research was foundational for the study of industrial design, and his research into the relationship between design, policy and economic value is still a regular reference-point for academics and students alike. This anthology represents well the great range of his work, covering such varied topics as the growth of Japanese industrialism, modernism in the Third Reich, and 1980's corporate design management. Including both hard-to-access and previously unpublished material like Crafts, Commerce and Industry and Economic Value of Design, the book demonstrates Heskett's passionate interest in exploring the relationship of design and making with economic value across the entirety of human history. Featured texts include, What is Design, Chinese Design: what can we learn from the past?, The 'American System' and Mass Production, The Industrial Applications of Tubular Steel, Creative Destruction: the nature and consequences of change through design, Reflections on Design and Hong Kong, besides many others.