The twentieth century is the first century of self-conscious, total design at every level of our living and environment. Care and vision in application of design have come to be demanded in every aspect of modern life - from our kitchens and bathrooms, to our factories and workshops, from our clothes and domestic objects, to the packaging of pocket calculators or the structuring of plastic dining chairs.
Although the word has been used since at least the fifteenth century, when Italian writers spoke of "disegno" in describing the quality of line possessed by an image or artifact, in all es…
