Industrial Design in the Modern Age

An ambitious new survey of industrial design from 1900 to the present day in the United States, Europe, and around the world, as told through selected objects from the George R. Kravis II Collection.

Destined to become a new classic in the design genre, this major work summarizes an enormous topic—the creation of everyday objects for mass production and consumption from 1900 to the present—and shows how these products have become both symbols of the modern age and harbingers of our future. It covers the work of the heroes of modern and post-modern design, from the early pioneers—Dreyfuss, Bel Geddes, and Eames—to the leaders in the field today, including Starck, Newson, and Ive.

More than 200 objects from the Kravis Design Center’s collection are highlighted as important exemplars of industrial design. A wide range of media is represented, including furniture, metalwork, ceramics, and plastics. New research by contributing scholars has uncovered illuminating details about each object that help tell a more complete story of design in the past 100 years.

Among the more than 400 photographs, which include a wealth of historical images and ephemera, are those of the objects taken especially for this book and seen as never before, in vibrant color and precise detail. This concise new history introduces a whole new audience to the topic in a style that is at once educational and accessible.George R. Kravis II has amassed more than 4,000 industrial design objects in his collection at the Kravis Design Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Penny Sparke is Professor of Design History at Kingston University in London.