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Dialectics of design: how ideas of ‘good design’ change
Anne Tomes. Peter Armstrong.
Research Papers
This paper advances a first‐pass theory of change in the styling of objects of domestic utility. It is based on the idea that the expressive potential of design for the maker, the user and the designer exists in tension with other desirable properties of the designed artefact. Respectively these are mass availability, conformity to professionally‐defined ideas of good taste, and the demands of function and marketability. The theory is illustrated by reference to the emergence and subsequent dilution of three design movements; Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau and certain versions of Modernism.
