Designing the department store : display and retail at the turn of the twentieth century /
Emily M. Orr. ; cover design Louise Dugdale.
- First published in Great Britain 2020.
- ix, 198 pages : illustrations, photographs ; 25 cm
- Bloomsbury Visual Arts. .
- Bloomsbury Visual Arts. .
Includes bibliographical references (pages 173-188) and index (pages 189-193).
The 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.--backover. https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/designing-the-department-store-9781350054370/
9781350054370 9781350054394 9781350054387
Department stores Design and construction --History