Industrialisation and the first designers

Machines could now produce in their thousands. The question became what mass-produced goods should look like – and design as a profession was born.

The Industrial Revolution began in England in the mid-18th century. Josiah Wedgwood organised his pottery works around the division of labour and engaged artists such as John Flaxman to shape his products – an early form of industrial design.

Michael Thonet invented a method of bending wood with steam and launched chair No. 14 in 1859. It could be shipped in parts and assembled with a few screws, and more than 50 million have been sold.

The Great Exhibition in London in 1851, housed in the glass-and-iron Crystal Palace, showed what industry could do – but also how overloaded and poorly designed many goods were. The criticism led to new schools of design and to museums such as the one now known as the Victoria and Albert Museum.