Although human beings have been making things for around 1.76 million years, the concept of “design” is barely 150 years old, the profession of “designer” less than 100, and a serious understanding of design—whether as creative art or as rigorous science—has yet to be realized. In this course, we will examine the history of design, understood as an inventory of objects, a method of research, a strategy ofbusiness, and a habit of mind.We will study leading movements of late 19th through early 21st century design, drawing our examplesfrom industrial products, architectural spaces, graphic images, and information systems, always within the cultural context in which they function. In the end, however, we will find that design is less about objects than about ideas.

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