What is it that persuades us to camp outside Apple stores to be the first to buy an iPhone?
Why is it that a generation ago a typewriter might have lasted someone a lifetime, but now we write on computers that we upgrade every couple of years to shinier, faster, sleeker models?
Why do the clicks of some car doors sound 'expensive'?

Deyan Sudjic charts our relationship '"both innocent and knowing'" with all things designed. From the opulent excesses of the catwalk to the playfulness of an Alessi jam jar, he shows how we can be manipulated and seduced by our possessions. With scintillating wit he addresses these questions and more, exploring the reasons why every designer yearns to put a personal stamp on a chair or an adjustable lamp, and where design ends and art begins.

"Like 'geese force-fed grain until their livers explode, to make foie gras, we are a generation born to consume,' says this witty commentary on rampant consumerism enabled by design innovation. Indeed, Sudjic (director of London's Design Museum and author of The Edifice Complex) says, consumer snobbery and design obsession can border on 'high-functioning autism.' Writing almost conversationally, he explores how 'consumer engineering' expanded the design process, inspiring the world to 'consume [its] way out of the Great Depression' and becoming the present marketing ideal. Luxury, fashion and art, says Sudjic,are the highlights of modern design, with fashion as the 'most developed form of built-in obsolescence' — and consumers are willing to pay dearly for the impermanence. Brimming throughout with primarily British examples, pricing and language, Sudjic's appreciation of first-rate design shows through his vivid descriptions of universally classic functional or aesthetically pleasing archetypes. Especially appealing to marketers and design connoisseurs, this is easily digestible for the average consumers interested in knowingly purchasing quality design for the senses — if they can still afford it in today's economy. 71 b&w illus, 5 color illus. (June)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

In this brilliant expose of the interaction between art, design, and commerce, Sudjic charts our relationship with all things designed. From the opulent excesses of the catwalk to the playfulness of an Alessi jam jar, he shows how we can be manipulated and seduced by our possessions.

Deyan Sudjic is director of the Design Museum, London. He is the author of 100-Mile Cityand The Edifice Complex and the coauthor of The Architecture Pack.