OUGD401 - Summary of research. ST4

Consumerism as a way of life - Miles. S (1998)

This is a book, by Steven Miles, which gives an introduction to the historical and theoretical foundations of Consumerism. Miles gives a critical view of this broad subject, quoting designers and experts in consumerism theory, which gives a good balanced view on the subject matter.

The tone of voice within the book is very critical and cynical at times, a lot of his findings and quotes are quite negative towards designs roles in consumerism as he believes that the second half of the 19th century was a boom period in the history of consumption and design became a legitimate means of sustaining markets, in this he thinks that design controlled the markets through creating products which need to be renewed often as a way of generating more profits for themselves. He writes this clearly by saying that there new policy was aimed at continuos stylistic change in order to stimulate sales and profits, Miles outlines the changes which came about in design which soon played a fundamental role in the desirability and saleability of products in the 20th century. 

Yet with this negative spin which Miles writes, the quotes he includes have a more positive view of design in consumerism, which gives the feeling that Miles and other designers wants to see design as a playing a positive role, one quote he uses is ''Design can offer something beyond the chink of coins in the till or the rising curve of a sales graph. As well as promoting turn over, good design can be a progressive force, creating a momentum of confidence and a 'feel good' factor, which bolsters a societies, or companies, image of itself.' (Conran - 1996: 21) Conran believes design in consumerism is much more than profits and that it moves society forward and changes perspectives and can alter social classes, giving the consumer more than a product. 

Miles writes that promotion of consumerism and desire divides our society by the wants of the public and the 'haves' and 'have-nots'. Consumerism creates desires that individuals cannot have without finding themselves in some dire economic circumstance. This again creates a negative feel in the sense that design is temptation and it is causing people to want to be higher in the social classes than they can be, which is not a bad thing but it feels Miles blames consumerism for setting these social classes through the greed to generate more profits from those who cannot afford it.