Design and Truth

Title: Design and Truth
Author: Robert Grudin
G: 1704344
ISBN: 9780300171310
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2011
Binding: Paperback
Language: English
Edition: Illustrated
Number of Pages: 224
Section: Design | History & Criticism
Condition Note: Excellent, unmarked copy with little wear and tight binding. We ship in recyclable American-made mailers. 100% money-back guarantee on all orders.
Publisher Description:

A profound meditation on how design reflects the uses and abuses of power from the Pulitzer Prize-nominated author of Time and the Art of Living

"If good design tells the truth," writes Robert Grudin in this path-breaking book on esthetics and authority, "poor design tells a lie, a lie usually related . . . to the getting or abusing of power."

From the ornate cathedrals of Renaissance Europe to the much-maligned Ford Edsel of the late 1950s, all products of human design communicate much more than their mere intended functions. Design holds both psychological and moral power over us, and these forces may be manipulated, however subtly, to surprising effect. In an argument that touches upon subjects as seemingly unrelated as the Japanese tea ceremony, Italian mannerist painting, and Thomas Jefferson's Monticello plantation, Grudin turns his attention to the role of design in our daily lives, focusing especially on how political and economic powers impress themselves on us through the built environment.

Although architects and designers will find valuable insights here, Grudin's intended audience is not exclusively the trained expert but all those who use designs and live within them every day.