A Gathering of Flowers: On Design Anthologies

Abstract

Over the past decade, anthologies – also called ‘readers’ – of design history and theory have proliferated across publishers’ catalogues. These books perform important pedagogical functions: they define fields and establish canons of authoritative texts, authors and concepts. While detractors argue that the easy availability of textual sources online means that we no longer need anthologies, the opposite argument can be made: the overwhelming volume of electronic information sharpens the need for concise, edited selections. This paper examines the practices of selecting, editing and publishing anthologies and the reasons for their increasing popularity, particularly in design education, at the present time.

Keywords:

• design history
• design studies
• design culture
• anthologies
• pedagogy

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Grace Lees-Maffei

Dr Grace Lees-Maffei is reader in design History and programme director for the DHeritage at the University of Hertfordshire, where she leads the TVAD Research Group in its work on relationships between text, narrative and image. She is managing editor of the Journal of Design History, and advisory board member for AIS/Design Storia e Ricerche, journal of the AIS/Design (Associazione italiana degli storici del design) and for The Poster (Intellect). Lees-Maffei was visiting professor of Design History and Theory for the MA Design Cultures, Vrije University, Amsterdam (2013–15) and visiting professor of Design and Culture, Doctoral Program on Design, IADE-U, Lisbon (2013–14). Her recent publications include The Design History Reader (Berg 2010), Writing Design: Words and Objects (Berg 2012), Made in Italy: Rethinking a Century of Italian Design (Bloomsbury Academic 2013), Design at Home: Domestic Advice Books in Britain and the USA since 1945 (Routledge 2013), Designing Worlds: National Design Histories in an Age of Globalization (Berghahn, 2016), Reading Graphic Design in Cultural Context: An Introduction (Bloomsbury Academic, 2018), and articles 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.

Daniel Huppatz

Dr D.J. Huppatz is a senior lecturer at Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia, where he lectures in design and architectural theory and history. His current research interests include mapping histories of modern Asian design, Australian design, and histories of interior design and architecture. Huppatz’s research appears in journals including Design Issues, Journal of Design History and Design and Culture. He is editor of Design: Critical and Primary Sources (Bloomsbury, 2016), and co-editor of Unbounded: On the Interior and Interiority (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2015). Huppatz is a co-founder of the Design History Australia Research Network, DHARN. He is currently working on a book titled Modern Asian Design. He is also an art critic and founding member of 1st Floor, an independent art space that ran from 1996 to 2004.