Lara-Betancourt, Patricia (2011) Book review of 'Historia del diseno en America Latina y el Caribe: industrializacion y comunicacion visual para la autonomia' by Silvia Fernandez and Gui Bonsiepe (eds.). West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture, 18(2), pp. 260-264. ISSN (print) 2153-5531

Abstract

This multiauthored book on the history of industrial and graphic design in Latin America and the Caribbean in the past fifty years is a brave and ambitious undertaking. It faces and overcomes the numerous obstacles that preparing such a history entails in Latin America, where sources, archives, and specialized libraries—let alone the time and funding that scholars require—cannot be taken for granted. The scope, covering Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Uruguay, and Venezuela, is ambitious for a first book on the subject with a mission to chart and survey new territory. Besides the first section, focusing on the history of design in each country, the book includes a second group of essays addressing general themes about the nature, purpose, and future of design. The articles in this section discuss shared concerns and major influences permeating design thinking in Latin America, such as global design versus contextual design, the impact of Swiss graphic design, industrial design as a professional activity, the language of products, the alternating influence between Spain and some Latin American countries, the social mission of “public design,” theoretical approaches to objects, design education in Europe, the relationship between design and crafts, and sustainable design.

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