Industrial design is a fundamental component of the traditional consumer experience. Almost every commercially produced product encountered in our day-to-day lives, from toasters to toothbrushes, has been designed with our taste preferences, our desires and our lifestyles in mind. This book traces the history of industrial design over three centuries, beginning with the eighteenth-century industrial revolution. It identifies the major figures, organizations, styles and evolutionary events of the profession, looking particularly at the refinement of industrial design by nineteenth-century European artists and the congruence of American design and industry during and immediately after the Great Depression.