A study addressing the role of industrial design in a world characterized by a large variety of lifestyles. Following an introductory section on new developments and social positions faced by designers, it focuses on the work of the German designers of the Verband Deutscher Industrie-Designer.

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Our civilization consists of a universe of things. It is chaotic, crammed full of devices from all periods and countless cultures. It is rare for homogeneous worlds of objects to be brought into being, and this only happens in places where life itself is reduced to a few functions, such as prestigious rituals. The uniform lifestyle that the artists of Bauhaus had in mind, aiming to design every element of consumer's everyday world, gave way to the pluralistic positions of modernism. There is no longer a uniform lifestyle, but a large number of them, possible and impossible. But what is the role of industrial design in this apparently anarchic diversity? Is it a matter of holding its own against the competition of individual trends and declaring one style to be non plus ultra again? This and many other questions that concern industrial designers and confront them with new developments and social positions are dealt with by the author in the introductory section of this work. The main section of the book is concerned with the work of the German designers who founded the Verband Deutscher Industrie-Designer in Stuttgart in 1959. They were seven young people who had already enjoyed considerable success as designers of industrial products. They were joined by Herbert Hirche who, with Wilhelm Wagenfeld and Herbert Gugelot, was one of the three 'greats' in the history of post-war German design. His commitment was crucially important to the development of the professional association. Karl Duschek, who has worked as Anton Stankowski's partner for many years, designed the book.