Reading and writing fill in the blanks

Of course, for as long as there have been objects they have been designed. Yet design only vanishedexpandedintroducedemerged emerged as a dedicated discipline in the 19th century and its literature and theory is still very much in its infancy. It is curious that despite the increasingly prominent role that self-consciously designed commodities play in our everyday lives and in the way we define ourselves, the literature around the subject is hugely disappointing. In fact, beyond bland coffee-table books, it is barely there at all. Nikolaus Pevsner's Pioneers of Modern Design, a classic Hegelian text treating modernism as the inevitable evidenceoutcomeonusclause outcome of a historical process is, despite being first published in 1936 and hopelessly dated, still the key text. There have been anysomesimpleother other books, from quirky Bruno Munari (Design as Art) to deadpan Norman Potter (What is a Designer: Things, Places, Messages), and Deyan Sudjic's 2008 The Language of Things, whichthenhoweveras which attempted a broader examination. Nevertheless there is surprisingly little critique, an almost complete absence of theory and little genuinely popular, compelling writing on the subject.