I had referred to this during the course of my dissertation on visual indentity of brands. I realised that this book is excellent for design students to acquire an orientation on the aspects of design in a very wholisitic manner. It is perhaps one of the best books that i have read in the category of design criticism. I really enjoyed the manner in which it brings together a collection of essays by people from various design fields- this not only provides a great assessment tool as a whole but each essay is complete in its individual treatment. The issues that this book tackles is very timely and uses accuracy of language in explaining thoughts. It is open-ended in that it ties up social, cultural and economic aspects in the domain of design.

Design is a topic of social, cultural, and philosophical investigation. This book presents several essays by many contemporary philosophers of design, with a good mix between highly academic rhetoric and slightly more informal writings. Not light reading, but highly enlightening.

May look expensive, but a complete insight into the art of picture persuasion in world war two. Most of the examples are posters and film stills from the period, supported by a written commentary of the background and significance. There is also a good essay on the psychological warfare campaign against Germany after D-Day which was designed to undermine the will to resist inside the Reich. Amongst the less well known material is a full treatment of Japan and its largely unsuccessful campaign to win over conquered nations, such as the Philippines, to its co-prosperity sphere. Perhaps the underlying message is that war propaganda only succeeds when its message is borne out by what the intended recipients see all around them in any case. Some images in this book, such as Colonel Blimp and jackbooted nazis, still appear in cartoons today. There are a few mistakes, eg William Joyce or Lord Haw Haw was hardly a "renegade Englishman" given that he was an American citizen, howbeit with an illegally acquired British passport. Popular humor of the early 1940s is well represented in the poster examples, although one suspects that Dr Goebbels never really understood the British psyche. All in all, a good read and viewing.

This book has a great deal of artwork in it from all sides of the war (subtitle is "An Allied and Axis Visual Record, 1933-1945"). It is beautifully illustrated. This is a good price for this book (I paid double). Valuable to anyone with a fascination of the "fourth front" of WWII.

Good for overintellectualizing and pontificating idealistic principles of design; bad for any concrete examples. Sure, fanciful ideas of design's capacity to revolutionize social, environmental and cultural change is a splendid idea, but I'll need you to show me something that manages to accomplish that first. And hold all the airy, abstracted philosophical fluff please!

The Idea of Design is more the philosophy of design than anything else. It's true benift that is great for anyone in industial/graphic design and architechture is that it show a variety of view points. Romantics often get so caught up in their own vision they fail to see things from a different perspective. From reading the book I have learnt two very important lessons. (1) The most brilliant design resides in nature. Try as we will, our insight to solve one problem leads us to an ocean of social, economical and environmental difficulty. (2) In the past lies a higher understanding in which we often ignore. Before one creates, the designer must contemplate the change it will make in culture/society. This why studying a variety of different perspectives is imperative. Social responsiblity is hopefully making a comeback. Extremely interesting points are made in the essays, bearing in mind that you can grasp the daunting complexity of often abstact ideas.