Design History Workshop Japan

What is the difinition of the term ‘design history’?

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Unfortunately it is not simple to answer. Design historians are partly historians. We research the history of design or its surroundings, mostly focusing on society, economy, politics, policies, etc.

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‘Design’ has played a vital role to change our society, or vastly the world. And it will, in the future. Not only the situation but also human being itself has been changed by design. Those who are called design historians are studying and clarifying the interwoven internal and external elements on design.

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Those who study ‘history of design’ are not design historians, I suppose. They could be historians who advocate the art field. Design historians would always focus various directions: socially, economically, politically and popularly.

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The activities of design historians are popular in the United Kingdom and Japan. In the United Kingdom, The Design History Society (1977-) internationally supports the study of its field, and their publishing Jornal of Design History is the leading journal from Oxford Journal. It is written in English, and published four times a year.

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In Japan, in 2002, the academic society Design History Workshop Japan was founded, and has been playing a pivotal role to spread the field of ‘design history’ into Japan. I have been a member of this society since 2008.

The society also publishes annual journal: The Journal of the Design History Workshop Japan. It is bilingual (Japanese and English) because our society attempts to promote our activities internationally.

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The above picture represents the 10th issue (the 10th anniversary too!). My paper was published through this issue: Promoting Modern Swedish Design after the 1990s.

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We will be able to ship our journals off to abroad, so if you are interested in them, let me know.