International Design Organizations: Histories, Legacies, Values

Description

This innovative volume brings together international design scholars to address the history and present-day status of national and international design organizations, working across design disciplines and located in countries including Argentina, Turkey, Estonia, Switzerland, Italy, China and the USA. In the second half of the 20th century, many non-governmental organizations were created to address urgent cultural, economic and welfare issues. Design organizations set out to create an international consensus for the future direction of design. This included enhancing communication between professionals, educators and practitioners, raising standards for design, and creating communities of designers across linguistic, national and political borders. Shared needs and agendas were identified and categories of design constantly defined and re-defined, often with overt cultural and political intents. Drawing on an impressive range of original research, archival sources and oral testimony, this volume questions the aims and achievements of national and international design organizations in light of their subsequent histories and their global remits. The Cold War period is central to the book, while many chapters draw on post-colonial perspectives to interpret how transnational networks and negotiations took place at events and congresses, and through publication.

Jeremy Aynsley is Professor of Design History and founding Director of the Centre for Design History at the University of Brighton, UK. Alison J. Clarke is Professor of Design History and Theory and founding Director of the Papanek Foundation at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, Austria. Tania Messell is Researcher in Design History at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW) in Basel, Switzerland.

International, regional and national organizations have been essential in negotiating the political, economic and social standings and functions of the design professions since the mid-twentieth century. This volume brings together an impressive array of new research on these networks and their role in the consolidation of the culture and practice of design as we know it today. -- Kjetil Fallan, Professor of Design History, University of Oslo, Norway In the past 80 years, international organizations have greatly shaped discourse and practice in industrial and graphic design. International Design Organizations provides a refreshingly diverse array of critical perspectives into the designers' interactions with and through international organizations, with a focus on lived experience and the political ramifications of the ideal of the 'international', within design communities. Chapters clearly demonstrate how international design organizations are constituted both by regional and local ways of working brought into dialogue and by an often-illusory proposal for 'universal' design approaches, values or standards, showing how the resulting communities of practitioners, researchers and educators both link design culture across geographical and cultural divides and reflect deeper political inequalities between continents and nations. -- Sarah Teasley, Professor of Design, RMIT University, Australia This new edited volume presents pioneering research in predominantly postwar design histories and successfully applies network research methods onto yet unexplored design history material. Thirteen essays analyse histories of institutions transnationally and reveal the complex functioning of design institutions and their contributions to the narrative of design history as a whole. This fascinating and engaging book will captivate its readers but should also become a useful teaching tool for understanding this net of stories and histories. -- Helena Capkova, Associate Professor of Art History, Ritsumeikan University, Japan An invaluable retrospective for students of design management and design history and a rare treat for graphic design students, tracing the historical underpinning of paradigm shifts that have informed a century of design. This volume provides a unique insight and perspective on the evolution and impact of key international design organizations and influential personalities instrumental in shaping the international discourse on design. This is a timely reminder of the importance of international collaboration in a time of resurgent nationalism. -- Sara Ekenger, Course Leader, MA Design Management, London College of Communication, UAL, UK International Design Organizations is a much-awaited collection that offers new perspectives on the entanglement of design cultures and networks during a historical period of heightened internationalism and exchange. Drawing on a plurality of expert views and deftly edited, this book contributes to our understanding of design and designing as a multifaceted, ever-shifting activity negotiated through professional and institutional rules, national and transnational interests, and resulting from diverse epistemic structures. A timely read for anyone invested in advancing global, transnational and decolonial approaches to design. -- Livia Rezende, University of New South Wales, Australia