Main entry:

Grudin, Robert.

Title & Author:

Design and truth / Robert Grudin.

Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, 2011.

Description:

216 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Notes:
Includes index.
pt. 1. Homage to Rikyu: design, truth, and power. -- Sen no Rikyu and the paradox of innovation -- Good design tells the truth -- What design and truth say about each other -- Design as tragedy: the rise and fall of the Twin Towers -- Edsel's law: how bad design happens -- Designs of darkness -- Face to face with design -- pt. 2. Homage to Vasari: design, knowledge, and energy. -- Giorgio Vasari and the permutations of design -- The lady in the picture: design and revelation in Renaissance art -- In Jefferson's footsteps: modes of self-design -- Jefferson's gravestone: metaphorical extensions of design -- Liberty as a knowledge design -- Corporate redesign and the business of knowledge -- Designing time -- The design of private knowledge -- Epilogue. Designing truth.

Summary:

If good design tells the truth, writes Robert Grudin in this path-breaking book on esthetics and authority, poor design tells a lie, a lie usually related ... to the getting or abusing of power. From the ornate cathedrals of Renaissance Europe to the much-maligned Ford Edsel of the late 1950s, all products of human design communicate much more than their mere intended functions. Design holds both psychological and moral power over us, and these forces may be manipulated, however subtly, to surprising effect. In an argument that touches upon subjects as seemingly unrelated as the Japanese tea ceremony, Italian mannerist painting, and Thomas Jefferson's Monticello plantation, Grudin turns his attention to the role of design in our daily lives, focusing especially on how political and economic powers impress themselves on us through the built environment. Although architects and designers will find valuable insights here, Grudin's intended audience is not exclusively the trained expert but all those who use designs and live within them every day.

ISBN:

9780300171310 (Paperback)
0300171315

Subject:

Design.
Truth.
Vérité.
truth.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 273010
Call No.: BIB 206425
Status: Available