Design for Society - Softcover

'Whiteley's look at design in the 1990s is an account of how the design industry, caught up in its own self-image for the past decade, needs to reinvent itself and focus again on its social role. This means taking greater account of green and feminist issues and creating a new type of socially responsible design. Surely a thesis of relevance to architects.' - RIBA Journal 'His green and feminist critiques ... blow a welcome breath of fresh air into the design profession.' - The Ecologist 'Whiteley's Design for Society is an important and well-reasoned explanation where design stands in relation to environment and ecology in the nineties. It will refocus the discussion from style to need and human issues. It should help to make the shift to more human and spiritual concerns visible to consumers, students and professionals in design.' - Victor Papanek, author of Design for the Real World

Although design has become eminently newsworthy among the general public in our society, there is very little understanding to be found of the values and implications that underlie it. Design generates much heat but little light: we live in a world that has much design consciousness, but little design awareness. Nigel Whiteley analyses design's role and status today, and discusses what our obsession with it tells us about our own culture. "Design for Society" is not an anti-design book; rather, it is an anti-consumerist-design book, in that it reveals what most people would agree are the socially and ecologically unsound values and unsatisfactory implications on which the system of consumerist design is constructed. In so doing, it prepares the ground for a more responsible and just type of design.