Utility Reassessed : The Role of Ethics in the Practice of Design

by Edited by Judy Attfield

• ISBN13: 9780719052774
• ISBN10: 0719052777
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 1999-08-20
• Publisher: Manchester University Press

Summary

This sparkling collection of essays both defines and reassesses the concept of Utility. Using it as a touchstone for the consideration of the place of ethics in the recent history of design, the collection offers a way into the issues which concern design decision-makers today. It offers previously unpublished research into diverse topics such as the investigation into the hitherto undiscovered designs for a utility vehicle, and it reveals a fresh perspective on the philosophy behind the concept of Utility as a design theory.

Author Biography

Judy Attfield is Lecturer in Design History and Material Culture at Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton.

Table of Contents

List of figures	vii
Notes on contributors	xi
Preface	xv
Introduction: Utility reassessed	1	(11)
Judy Attfield
I DEFINING UTILITY DESIGN
Utility prefigured: Ruskin and St George's Mill	12	(19)
Linda Coleing
`Pro arte utili': the utility principle in Finnish textile design education	31	(8)
Marjo Wiberg
An episode in post-Utility design management: the Council of Industrial Design and the Co-operative Wholesale Society	39	(19)
Jonathan M. Woodham
`Beauty, everyday and for all': the social vision of design in Stalinist Poland	58	(15)
David Crowley
`The beauty of stark utility': rational consumption in America-Consumer Reports 1936-54	73	(19)
Susie Mckellar
II REASSESSING THE HISTORY OF UTILITY DESIGN
The design of Utility vehicles in wartime Britain	92	(18)
Jonathan Bell
Utility furniture and the myth of Utility 1943--48	110	(15)
Matthew Denney
The Utility garment: its design and effect on the mass market 1942--45	125	(18)
Helen Reynolds
Fashion, femininity and `frivolous' consumption in World-War-Two Britain	143	(14)
Pat Kirkham
Utility forgot: shaping the future of the British pottery industry 1941--45	157	(14)
Graham Mclaren
Enid Marx: designing textiles for the Utility Furniture Design Advisory Panel	171	(19)
Cynthia R. Weaver
III THEORISING THE ETHICS OF UTILITY DESIGN
Utility, design principles and the ethical tradition	190	(13)
Nigel Whiteley
Freedom of Design	203	(18)
Judy Attfield
Utility and the politics of consumption	221	(12)
Patrick J. Maguire
Fascinating Fitness: the dangers of Good Design	233	(12)
Judy Attfield
Design and the state: post-war horizons and pre-millennial aspirations	245	(16)
Jonathan M. Woodham
Index	261