Design as an Attitude

Acclaimed author Alice Rawsthorn revises her bestselling field guide to design in the wake of a pandemic, technological change and the escalating climate emergency.
Four years after its initial release, Alice Rawsthorn's bestselling book is republished in an expanded edition, updated in response to recent social, political, and ecological challenges worldwide. Fully revised by the author, the book is enriched by a new chapter on design's response to the climate emergency, while also exploring the impact of COVID-19, rising inequality and new developments in identity politics on design.
Design as an Attitude describes the resourcefulness and ingenuity with which designers are responding to complex and intersectional global challenges at an extraordinarily turbulent time. Public interest in design is soaring as a new generation of designers uses advanced technologies to pursue their humanitarian and ecological objectives in increasingly ambitious projects, as well as to reinvent the objects and spaces we use daily.
One of the world’s leading design commentators, Rawsthorn demystifies the field in an authoritative and engaging voice, by exploring the most dynamic developments in contemporary design and assessing their impact on our lives now and in the future. From artificial intelligence to the craft revival, from gender politics to the refugee crisis, Design as an Attitude offers a comprehensive survey of design today. Its appendix comprises more than 50 biographies of relevant living designers and role models for contemporary design.
Based in London, Alice Rawsthorn (born 1958) is an award-winning design critic and the author of several books on design, including the critically acclaimed Hello World: Where Design Meets Life (2013). Her weekly design column for the New York Times was syndicated worldwide for over a decade. She is a cofounder, with MoMA’s Paola Antonelli of Design Emergency, a research platform that investigates design’s role in building a better future. They are publishing a book on Design Emergency in May 2022. Rawsthorn speaks on design at important global events, including TED and the annual meetings of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. She was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to design and the arts.

224 pages