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The Design History Society is the leading organisation that promotes and supports the study of design histories, both in the UK and internationally. Through its journal, annual conference and programme of events it brings together all those engaged in the subject – students, researchers, educators, designers, designer-makers, critics and curators among them. It also acts as an advocate for the subject in a number of different contexts.

7 September - 9 September
ESAD College of Art and Design, Matosinhos, Portugal
Design exhibitions and exhibition design have a central place in the history of design, providing us with significant...

Welcome to the final Provocative Places and Objects blog of 2023. This time, Ieva Daujotaite, a Design History Postgraduate from the Royal College of Art / Victoria & Albert Museum shares research on Soviet Playground Design in Lithuania.

5 December 2023
Projekt Studio, Cape Town (Re)Making: Craft-Design and Women’s Empowerment in the Global SouthCall for...
We love to hear what our members are getting up to. If you'd like to contribute to the DHS Newsletter and get published on our website, just drop us an e-mail.
More details >1 December 2023
The Design History Society is pleased to welcome our new Ambassador, Rowan Adamson. Rowan recently achieved her...
30 November 2023
The Design History Society has recently welcomed new members to its Executive Committee. Anna Talley has joined...
29 November 2023
The Design History Society (DHS) is looking for a host for its 2025 annual conference. The conference is a...
![Report: Child Creativity from Secessionist Vienna to Postwar America by Megan Brandow-Falller (recipient of the Research Access Grant [Professional])](https://cdn.designhistorysociety.org/uploads/images/_half/6.jpg)
Megan Brandow-Falller, Professor of History at the City University of New York KBCC, reports on research undertaken for the book project 'Child Creativity from Secessionist Vienna to Postwar America', supported by the DHS Research Access Grant (Professional)

Welcome to the next in our Provocative Places and Objects series, in which our contributors look at places and spaces that challenge and confront us as design historians. This time, Justin Childress, Clinical Assistant Professor in the Master of Arts in Design & Innovation at the Southern Methodist University, looks at VHS tapes as memory objects.

2 November 2023
Closure of MoDA and Disbursal of CollectionsThe SAHGB, DHS and AAH note with sadness and immense concern the...

Jessica Kelly reports on the publication of her monograph titled No More Giants: J.M. Richards, modernism and The Architectural Review, which was partly funded by the DHS Research Publication Grant.
Design History Society members include all those interested in design: students, designers, lecturers, historians, researchers, craftspeople, manufacturers, archivists, curators, librarians and collectors. New members are always welcomed and actively encouraged to contribute to events and publications.
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19 October - 20 October
online
Teaching Graphic Design History in/of the Arab World: Narratives and Practices DATE: Thursday 19th / Friday...

Welcome to the next in our Provocative Places and Objects series, in which our contributors look at places and spaces that challenge and confront us as design historians. This time, Isabella Warnham, a student on the V&A/RCA History of Design MA, looks at the Arab Hall at Leighton House in London.

10 October 2023
We are pleased to announce that a Special Issue on the theme of the 2022 DHS annual conference 'Design and Transience'...

9 October 2023
Call for Papers for Special Issue of the Journal of Design History: Administering Design: Politics, Power and Agency...

7 October, 2 - 4:30pm
online
Convened by Alexandra Banister (Design History Society Ambassador and PhD student at Oxford Brookes...

Ahead of our ‘Designing the Domestic: Innovation in the Home’ symposium, DHS Ambassador Alexandra Banister caught up with Dr Emeline Brule, design lecturer at the University of Sussex, to further explore her research into the modern torchiere.

As part of our upcoming online symposium ‘Designing the Domestic: Innovation in the Home’, DHS Ambassador Alex Banister caught up with Selin Geerinckx, interior architect and doctoral researcher at the Faculty of Design Sciences, University of Antwerp, to discuss her research on the bodily and mental effects of modern(ist) housing ideologies. Selin will be presenting joint paper – ‘The Bruynzeel Kitchen: On Body Movements and Household Reform’ alongside Els De Vos, associate professor at the University of Antwerp.
Check out our blog to see reports on the Society's activities.
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2 October 2023
In September we sadly said farewell to one of our Ambassadors, Wiktoria Kijowska after almost two years in post...

Ahead of our ‘Designing the Domestic: Innovation in the Home’ symposium, DHS Ambassador Alexandra Banister interviewed Priya Gupta, a PhD scholar at the Faculty of Architecture at CEPT University in Ahmedabad, to further discuss her research analysing the impact of state led regulations on Chandigarh’s private housing.

In the wake of the Barbie fever, this month's guest contributor to the Provocative Objects series Amelia O’Mahony-Brady (independent design researcher, archivist and recent Trinity College Dublin graduate) introduces us to Barbie Velina: a limited-edition doll exclusive to Italian audiences, released in Summer 2002.