I researched and wrote this series of essays for students studying product design back in 1997. It is intended as a concise overview of the movements and the designers who were influential in developing Industrial Design as it is practised today and serves as an introduction; a launching point for further study of the design movements covered here.

A recurring theme you will notice is the fact that many of these designers originally trained as architects, turning their skills at balancing weighty objects to the equally weighty problems of defining elegant and useful design.
  Influenced also by contemporary artists and writers, their combined accomplishments are manifested today in the many little and large objects which we buy to enhance our everyday living.