This study looks at the artists, designers and writers who formed the Independent Group in the early 1950s including such influential figures as Richard Hamilton, Eduardo Paolozzi, Nigel Henderson, William Turnball, Rayner Banham and Alison and Peter Smithson. As a group they aimed to raise the status of popular objects and icons within modern visual culture. The development of the Independent Group is mapped out against the changing nature of modernism during the Cold War era, as well as the impact of mass consumption on post-war British society. In this ...

Throughout the history of design, women have been overlooked or overshadowed, their work frequently sidelined or credited to their male peers. Women in Design offers a comprehensive introduction to women’s legacies in the fields of architecture, craft, fashion, furniture, interior, product, textile and graphic design, and a vital corrective to male-centric histories of design. Leading design writer and historian Anne Massey considers the struggle for design education and employment, the early prevalence of women ‘behind the scenes’, the ...