The Professionalization of Window Display in Britain, 1919-1939 (Cultural Histories of Design)

Kerry Meakin

ISBN 10: 1350427454 / ISBN 13: 9781350427457

Published by Bloomsbury Visual Arts 2024-09-05, 2024

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 6666-HCE-9781350427457

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Professionalization of Window Display in Britain, 1919-1939 (Cultural Histories of Design)
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Visual Arts 2024-09-05
• Publication Date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1350427454
• ISBN 13: 9781350427457
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

This book provides the first comprehensive history of window display as a practice and profession in Britain during the dynamic period of 1919 to 1939.

In recent decades, the disciplines of retail history, business history, design and cultural history have contributed to the study of department stores and other types of shops. However, these studies have only made passing references to window display and its role in retail, society and culture. Kerry Meakin investigates the conditions that enabled window display to become a professional practice during the interwar period, exploring the shift in display styles, developments within education and training, and the international influence on methods and techniques.

Piecing together the evidence, visual and written, about people, events, organisations, exhibitions and debates, Meakin provides a critical examination of this vital period of design history, highlighting major display designers and artists. The book reveals the modernist aesthetic developments that influenced high street displays and how they introduced passers-by to modern art movements.

About the Authors

Kerry Meakin is Head of Retail and E-Commerce, School of Business Technology, Retail and Supply Chain at the Technological University Dublin, Ireland. She completed a PhD at the Modern Interiors Research Centre, Kingston University, UK, and has written contributions in books such as Bauhaus Effects in Art, Architecture and Design (2022) and articles for journals such as Journal of Design History and History of Retailing and Consumption.

Grace Lees-Maffei is Professor of Design History at the University of Hertfordshire, UK. She is the editor of Iconic Designs (Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2014) and Writing Design (Berg, 2011), co-author of Reading Graphic Design in Cultural Context (Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2019), and co-editor of Made in Italy (Bloomsbury Academic, 2013) and The Design History Reader (Berg, 2010, second edition forthcoming). She is also co-editor of Bloomsbury's Cultural Histories of Design series.

Kjetil Fallan is Professor of Design History at the University of Oslo, Norway. He is the author of Design History (Bloomsbury Academic, 2010), the editor of Scandinavian Design (Bloomsbury Academic, 2012) and co-editor of Made in Italy (Bloomsbury Academic, 2013). He is also co-editor of Bloomsbury's Cultural Histories of Design series and an editor of the Journal of Design History.