The Culture of Design

Guy Julier is Senior Lecturer in design at Leeds Metropolitan University.

This is a thoughtful update on previous editions; Julier takes time to pick up on ′sticky′ issues and explain them in detail without sounding pedantic or over-bearing. This new edition will be a welcome addition to contemporary design culture and of use to designers and students alike.

• Chapter 1: Design CultureDesign culture as an object of studyBeyond Visual Culture: Design Culture as an academic disciplineModels for studying Design CultureDesign Culture beyond discipline?Chapter 2: Design and ProductionThe rise of designFreelance, in-house and consultancy designThe establishment of design consultancyThe 1980s design consultancy boomNeo-fordist designPost-fordist designTowards a brand ethosSpeeding up design and productionDesign within disorganized capitalismThe new economyChapter 3: Designers and Design DiscourseDefinitions of designThe word ‘design’ in historyThe professional status of designDesigners as ‘Cultural Intermediaries’Historicity and modernism in design discourseSecond modernity versus design managementService designDesign ThinkingChapter 4: The Consumption of DesignThe culture of consumptionDesign and consumer culturePassive or sovereign consumers?De-alienation and designingCommodities and the aesthetic illusionSystems of provisionCircuits of cultureDesigners and the circuit of cultureWriting about thingsConsumption and practiceAnomalous objectsChapter 5: High DesignDesign classicsMediating productionConsuming postmodern high design: Veblen and BourdieuHistoricityModern designers/modern consumersDesigners, risk and reflexivityCritical designDesign artChapter 6: Consumer GoodsImagesSurfacesDoing the DysonProduct semanticsMood boardsLifestyles and design ethnographyBack to the workshopProduct semantics and flexible manufactureDesigning global productsProduct designers and their clientsProducts and brand imageProduct useThe iPod: consumption, practice and contingencyChapter 7: Branded PlacesEvaluating place: beyond architectural criticismThe Barcelona paradigmCultural economies, regeneration and gentrificationMuseums and postindustrial place-makingBeyond nation-states: cities and regionsThe branding of city-regions and nationsProblematizing the branding of placeChapter 8: Branded LeisureFrom Fordist to disorganized leisureTime-squeeze and packaged leisureThe Disney paradigmPost-touristsNaked and nowhere at Center ParcsTelevisuality and designing leisure experiencesDedifferentiation/distinctionChapter 9: On-screen InteractivityComputers and graphic designTechnological development and consumer growthProfessional practicesCritical reflectionAuthorshipReadershipConsuming interactivityCybernetic lossLiberation and regulation: the bigger pictureBytes and brandsChapter 10: Communications, Management and ParticipationInternal brand buildingThe end of advertisingBrand and communications consultancyEmployees as consumersAesthetic labourDesigning for creativitySocial participation and design activismChapter 11: Networks and Mobile TechnologiesiPhones and smartphonesCyborgsClosed and open networksCultural relativism and technological changeThe competition of monopoliesScipts and metadataAgencementAssemblageArticulationBoundary objects and spacesChapter 12: Studying Design CultureA design culture turnWriting design cultureScopeClosed and open conceptions of designReflexivity and historicityMediationDensityDynamicsMaterialityConcluding remarks