Industrial Design in the Modern Age

Sparke's sweeping history of the mass-produced object from 1900 to now, and how everyday things became symbols of the modern age. A century of design Outcomes seen at the SDF's Frontier — where the discipline's work meets, and remakes, the wider world. Published by Rizzoli, Industrial Design in the Modern Age features roughly 250 objects, many published for the first time, from the George R. Kravis Collection, with essays by curators and experts in the field. Penny Sparke, who wrote the introduction, notes that the objects are organised by function rather than by designer, which allows a full range of objects to be included, from named designers to anonymous ones. The book covers pioneers such as Dreyfuss, Bel Geddes and the Eameses through to contemporary designers including Starck, Newson and Ive, tracing how mass-produced objects became both symbols of their age and signs of the future.