This analysis looks at the relationship between people, designers and electronic products. It speculates how in the future mobile phones, PCs, music systems and television may merge into one all-purpose tool, blending into the fabric of our homes and offices.
A book about design in an age of technological revolution. It explores our relationship with the objects which surround us, arguing that contemporary design-from plastic surgery to Prozac, from landmines to Tamagotchis-is instant cultural history: a window through which we can observe ourselves and perhaps even make sense of our world. Products of Our Time categorises design in the 1990s into a number of key themes. It tracks the move from cheap, 'no-brand' supermarket goods to the up-market minimalism of much of today's packaging; it examines the way in which design is used to create our own identity, including the ways in which we pierce, decorate and change the design of our own bodies; and it looks at the design of electronic objects and the ways in which technology reflects a cultural drift towards violence and high speed. Published to coincide with a major international touring exhibition, starting in Glasgow from November 1999 to February 2000.