"For centuries, design was a luxury. But throughout the 1800s, science — and the technology it created — would begin to make design more accessible to the masses. A design revolution was on the horizon. [...] Goods would fetch a higher price just because they looked expensive: working men and women would pay extra to have homes, neighbourhoods, clothes, and vehicles that broadcast their fellowship with the rich." "Design has evolved to meet the challenge of the new relationship between people and the material goods they need. Today, designers — artisans, manufacturers, engineers, architects — think far beyond the way things look. Comparing pre-industrial design to post-industrial design with a picture is absurd. Critiquing a modern object based on its appearance is ignoring the thousands of decisions that go into its creation. Each and every one of those decisions has tradeoffs, ranging in impact from saving fractions of pennies in material cost to causing billions of dollars of long-term ecological harm." matthewstrom.com/writing…l-design