User:Magnificent Mind/Design history

Introduction
Design history is the study of objects of design in their historical and stylistic contexts. With a broad definition, the contexts of design history include the social, the cultural, the economic, the political, the technical and the aesthetic. Design history has as its objects of study all designed objects including those of architecture, fashion, crafts, interiors, textiles, graphic design, industrial design and product design. Design theorists revamp historical techniques and they use these aspects to create more sophisticated techniques of design. It acts as a tool to better future aspects of design.

Design history has had to incorporate criticism of the 'heroic' structure of its discipline in response to the establishment of material culture, much as art history has had to respond to visual culture (although visual culture has been able to broaden the subject area of art history through the incorporation of the televisual, film and new media). Design history has done this by shifting its focus towards the acts of production and consumption. The acts of production and consumption in design history were a result of the modernist approach designers started to take which advanced in the 19th century. Pre-capitalism and feudalism were the main drivers of modernism. They facilitated stylistic features and aesthetics which were exclusive because of the influence of small wealthy elites.

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Design History from a global perspective

The rise of western cultures in the 19th century facilitated the idea of having European civilization as culturally advanced which disregarded non-western cultures by representing them as cultures without history. A global perspective of design history meant that there was a growth in understanding design history from a global context. This meant that there became different understandings of design history and acknowledging its processes, production and consumption based on the different cultural contexts. This was done through what is called globalization. One way this was done was by building on to the existing modernist knowledge from Europe and making the processes, production and consumption meet the standards of the different cultures. The problem with this idea is that it assumes that there is only one narrative of design history by limiting it to a specific place and time. Globalizing design history also means popularizing other forms of design that may not constitute as design in the western countries. This means moving beyond the modernists approaches and acknowledging other forms of design other than those based on the European understanding of production and consumption. Such practices ensures that design history from different cultures is acknowledged and is treated equally to that of the West.

Globalization has also meant that design history is no longer only looked at in the perspective of production and consumption but is now also perceived in the lens of theories, policies, social programs, opinions and organizational systems. This perspective allows for acknowledging that design is not only concerned with the materialistic or three-dimensional products, but also includes a wide range of artifacts. Some of these artifacts may be understanding design history as a feature that gives humans a history of ideas on how to live and interact with each other. Aspects such as teamwork, management style and appreciation of different types of creativity are all examples of design history that demonstrates the art of living and interacting with each other. Diversity acts as a form of design technique that is used to facilitate creativity. Having diverse opinions and perspectives allows for a clash in opinions which also enhances creativity and helps build new knowledge. The Chinese design history and design studies has taken this approach by diversifying its approach on design. They take into consideration the Chinese civilizations which includes its history of arts, crafts and philosophy as well as incorporate the western technologies and marketing structures. On the other hand, places in Southern Africa have used design techniques as a form of social communication. These areas used rock paintings as a form of communications and such communication started to advance with the development of pictographs and alphabets.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17547075.2020.1741912 - sees European design history as primitive.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/1511575?searchText=Eurocentric+%22Design+History%22&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DEurocentric%2B%2522Design%2BHistory%2522%2B%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_phrase_search%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3Aecfc3a4c8724d52220a5d5c4699123ee&seq=4 - page 18 Eurocentric design history