image: “Museums and collections”, from A Bibliography of Design in Britain, 1851-1970, by Anthony J. Coulson, London, Design Council, 1979, p. 51.
Where can bibliographies on design be found?
Besides list of references included in books, monographs, and essays on design, it is really hard to find bibliographies on design issues as a discrete subject — but it can be argued that bibliographical work is getting lesser attention in various fields.
Anyway, one might wonder how a bibliography or bibliographies of design would be like today, and what they could tell on how design is considered, researched, interpreted, how one author would manage the plethora of publications and fields of interest.
In 1979 the author of the Bibliography of Design in Britain, 1851-1970 wrote: «In the past few years the history of design has emerged as a subject for study in its own right. With the setting up of courses in design history at all levels, and of research in many different directions, there is a clear need to pool information about surveys and documents which already exist, but are widely scattered. As a first step, I have chosen to put together this introductory bibliography of the period which has excited the most interest recently. [...] I have described this work as an introductory bibliography for three main reasons. First, anything approaching a comprehensive bibliography is not possible at present, given the enormous span of the subject and the lack of serious historical research and documentation in so many of its areas. Second, I intend this work as an anthology of references to introduce a very wide range of books and articles on many different subjects, including a lot that have scarcely been studied hitherto. [...] Third, I have deliberately tried to restrict myself to the more accessible works, which can be used with profit by someone unfamiliar with the intricacies of some of the extremely complex subjects involved. [...] The core of serious design history writing is still fairly small and growing only slowly, so that a bibliography such as this is bound to include more popular works and surveys as well as the main documentary sources from which the history needs to be constructed. The mix is bound to be uneven, as some subjects are more popular with collectors and enthusiasts than others. Although I have interpreted design in a broad way, I have had to make some restrictions to keep the work to a reasonable size», consequently aspects of architecture and engineering were excluded, as well as toys, musical instruments and photography, already having a discrete specific literature; also weapons and military design and design for the performing arts were left out «as they would require a consideration of many special factors which cannot be adequately covered in a book of this size. [...] Some works that have only a marginal interest in design have been included, such as company histories, when they are useful in suggesting further sources and plans for research» (ibid., p. 5).
Pondering on these criteria, one might wonder how they could work for a new bibliography of design, in the 21st Century: can we find today specific references on military design and design of weapons? Are company histories still marginal? (Actually this seems not to be the case, at least in Italy and according to Italian publishers.) How would photography be included? Which arrangement of topics would be chosen, by disciplines, by products, by wider themes?
