A John Heskett Reader brings together a selection of the celebrated design historian John Heskett’s key works, introduced and edited by Clive Dilnot of Parsons, the New School, USA.

Heskett, who passed away in early 2014, was a pioneering British-born writer and lecturer. His research was foundational for the study of industrial design, and his research into the relationship between design, policy and economic value is still a regular reference-point for academics and students alike. This anthology represents well the great range of his work, covering such varied topics as the growth of Japanese industrialism, modernism in the Third Reich, and 1980’s corporate design management. Including both hard-to-access and previously unpublished material like Crafts, Commerce and Industry and Economic Value of Design, the book demonstrates Heskett’s passionate interest in exploring the relationship of design and making with economic value across the entirety of human history.

Featured texts include, What is Design, Chinese Design: what can we learn from the past?, The ‘American System’ and Mass Production, The Industrial Applications of Tubular Steel, Creative Destruction: the nature and consequences of change through design, Reflections on Design and Hong Kong, besides many others.

Introduction: Clive Dilnot

I. Key Themes
Introduction
1. What is Design?
2. Commerce or Culture? Industrialization and Design
3. Design from the Standpoint of Economics/Economics
from the Standpoint of Design

II. Design in History & the History of Design
Introduction
(A) Designing and Making in the Pre-Industrial World
4. Some Lessons of Design History
5. Crafts, Commerce, Industry
6. Chinese Design: What Can We Learn from the Past?
7. Three moments in the History of Making: Nomads, Traders, Slaves
(B) Designing in the Industrial World
8. The 'American System' and Mass Production
9. Writing the History of Design in the Industrial World
10. The Growth of Industrial Design in Japan
(C) Design in Germany 1870-1945
11. Government Policy & German Design 1870-1918
12. The Industrial Applications of Tubular Steel
13. Modernism and Archaism in Design in the Third Reich

III. Design, Business, Economics
Introduction
(A) Corporate design strategies
Sharon Helmer Poggenpohl: Design between Economics and Practice
14. GM: The Price of Corporate Arrogance
15. Everything Changes, Nothing Alters
16. Design Management in Phillips in the 1980s
17. Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks: How RCA is using
Design as a Strategic Tool
18. Current and Future Demands on Hong Kong Designers
(B) National Design Policies
Carlos Texeiria: John Heskett and design policy
19. National Design Policy and Economic Change
20. Learning from Germany's Integrated Design Policy
21. Design and Industry in China
22. A Design Policy for the UK: Three Suggestions
(C) Creating Value by Design
Tore Kristensen: John Heskett's contribution to the business
and economics of design
23. Creative Destruction: The Nature and Consequences
of Change through Design
24. Product Integrity
25. Cultural Human Factors
26: Creating Economic Value by Design

IV. Reflections
Introduction
27. Past, Present and Future in Design
28. Reflections on Design and Hong Kong
29. On Writing

V. Last Words
30. Can the Centre Hold?

List of acronyms
Contributors
Permissions and Acknowledgments


Appendix: A first bibliography of John Heskett's published work
Index