This book takes an in-depth look at design processes, with twenty-five depictions of "the making of" products from a wide variety of industries. Its primary focuses are furniture design, transportation design, and household appliances. Renowned designers like Konstantin Grcic, the Bouroullecs, Stefan Diez, Hella Jongerius, and Sir Norman Foster offer step by step accounts of how they go about designing products for Vitra, Grundig, Jura, and Authentics – the tools they use for visualization and how projects change during the model phase. Plus: an interview with design legend Dieter Rams on realized and unrealized products for Braun.

A new approach to theory development for practice-driven research, proposing that theory is something made in and through design. Tendencies toward “academization” of traditionally practice-based fields have forced design to articulate itself as an academic discipline, in theoretical terms. In this book, Johan Redström offers a new approach to theory development in design research–one that is driven by practice, experimentation, and making. Redström does not theorize from the outside, but explores the idea that, just as design research engages in the making of many different kinds of things, theory might well be one of those things it is making. Redström proposes that we consider theory not as stable and constant but as something unfolding—something acted as much as articulated, inherently fluid and transitional. Redström describes three ways in which theory, in particular formulating basic definitions, is made through design: the use of combinations of fluid terms to articulate issues; the definition of more complex concepts through practice; and combining sets of definitions made through design into “programs.” These are the building blocks for creating conceptual structures to support design. Design seems to thrive on the complexities arising from dichotomies: form and function, freedom and method, art and science. With his idea of transitional theory, Redström departs from the traditional academic imperative to pick a side—theory or practice, art or science. Doing so, he opens up something like a design space for theory development within design research.

Cooper Hewitt possesses one of the most diverse and comprehensive collections of design works in existence, and is the only museum in the United States devoted exclusively to historic and contemporary design. Featuring more than 900 collection objects selected by its curatorial staff and renowned designer Irma Boom, 'Making Design' embodies the most important tenets of the institutions philosophy: transparency of design process, accessibility for all users in its physical and digital manifestations, and cross-discipline connections throughout the collection.

Introduces young people to the fundamental elements of design using shapes, lines, and humor.

A lively, beautifully illustrated history of theatrical stage design from ancient Greek times to the present, coauthored by the world's leading authority, Oscar G. Brockett.

Textile design inhabits a liminal space spanning art, design and craft. This book explores how textile design bridges the decorative and the functional, and takes us from handcrafting to industrial manufacture. In doing so, it distinguishes textiles as a distinctive design discipline, against the backdrop of today's emerging design issues. With commentaries from a range of international design scholars, the book demonstrates how design theory is now being employed in diverse scenarios to encourage innovation beyond the field of design itself. Positioning textiles within contemporary design research, Textile Design Theory in the Making reveals how the theory and practice of textile design exist in a synergistic, creative relationship. Drawing on qualitative research methods, including auto-ethnography and feminist critique, the book provides a theoretical underpinning for textile designers working in interdisciplinary scenarios, uniting theory and texts from the fields of anthropology, philosophy, literature and material design.

Medici Gardens challenges the common assumption that such gardens as Trebbio, Cafaggiolo, Careggi, and Fiesole were the products of an established design practice whereby one client commissioned one architect or artist. The book suggests that in the case of the gardens in Florence garden making preceded its theoretical articulation.

Design as Future-Making brings together leading international designers, scholars, and critics to address ways in which design is shaping the future. The contributors share an understanding of design as a practice that, with its focus on innovation and newness, is a natural ally of futurity. Ultimately, the choices made by designers are understood here as choices about the kind of world we want to live in. Design as Future-Making locates design in a space of creative and critical reflection, examining the expanding nature of practice in fields such as biomedicine, sustainability, digital crafting, fashion, architecture, urbanism, and design activism. The authors contextualize design and its affects within issues of social justice, environmental health, political agency, education, and the right to pleasure and play. Collectively, they make the case that, as an integrated mode of thought and action, design is intrinsically social and deeply political.