Writing Design: Words and Objects

by Grace Lees-Maffei (Editor)

How do we learn about the objects that surround us? As well as gathering sensory information by viewing and using objects, we also learn about objects through the written and spoken word - from shop labels to friends' recommendations and from magazines to patents. But, even as design commentators have become increasingly preoccupied with issues of mediation, the intersection of design and language remains under-explored. Writing Design provides a unique examination of what is at stake when we convert the material properties of designed goods into verbal or textual description. Issues discussed include the role of text in informing design consumption, designing with and through language, and the challenges and opportunities raised by design without language. Bringing together a wide range of scholars and practitioners, Writing Design reveals the difficulties, ethics and politics of writing about design.

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 17, 2012

About the author

Grace Lees-Maffei is a Professor of Design History and Director of the Professional Doctorate in Heritage (DHeritage) at the University of Hertfordshire. Grace's published work is available in The Design History Reader (Bloomsbury 2026, 2010), Writing Design: Words and Objects (Bloomsbury 2012), Made in Italy: Rethinking a Century of Italian Design (Bloomsbury 2013), Design at Home: Domestic Advice Books in Britain and the USA since 1945 (Routledge 2013), Iconic Designs: 50 Stories about 50 Things (Bloomsbury 2014), Designing Worlds: National Design Histories in an Age of Globalization (Berghahn, 2016), Reading Graphic Design in Cultural Context (Bloomsbury Academic, 2018), Design and Heritage (Routledge 2022) and in journals including Design Issues, Design and Culture, Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, Women's History Review, Modern Italy and the Journal of Design History.
Prof Lees-Maffei is Book Series Editor, with Prof Kjetil Fallan (University of Oslo), for Cultural Histories of Design (Bloomsbury), and Advisory Board member for AIS/Design Storia e Ricerche, Journal of the AIS/Design (Associazione italiana degli storici del design).