Orr, Emily M.Unknown
Bloomsbury Visual Arts (London, 2020) (eng) English9781350054400Unknown1st ed.SHOW WINDOWS; UnknownThe book builds an original argument for the department store as a significant site of design production, and therefore offers an alternative interpretation to the mainstream focus on consumption within retail history.
Emily M. Orr presents a fresh perspective on the rise of modern urban consumer culture, of which the department store was a key feature. By investigating the production processes of display as well as fascinating information about display-making’s tools and technologies, the skills of the displayman and the meaning and context of design decisions which shaped the final visual effect are revealed.
In addition, the book identifies and isolates ‘display’ as a distinct moment in the life of the commodity, and understands it as an influential channel of mediation in the shopping experience. The assembly and interpretation of a diverse range of previously unexplored primary resources and archives yields fascinating new evidence, showing how display achieved an agency which transformed everyday objects into commodities and made consumers out of passersby.
Physical dimension
1 online resource (xxii, 212 p.)Unknownill.
Summary / review / table of contents
Front matter
Introduction
1–22
1. Retail Architecture 23–56
2. Window Display 57–96
3. The Shopfitting Industry 97–130
4. The Department Store Interior 131–162
Conclusion 163–172
Back matter