John Heskett | Biography

John Heskett is Chair Professor of Design at the School of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, a post he took up in July of this year after fifteen years as Professor of Design at the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.

He is the author of Industrial Design, (1980), widely used as a basic textbook on design courses in many countries and subsequently translated into several languages; German Design 1870-1918, (1987); and Philips: A Study in Corporate Design (1989). His most recent book is Toothpicks and Logos: Design in Everyday Life, published by Oxford University Press in 2002. He also contributes articles, essays and reviews to numerous magazines, anthologies and catalogues. He is currently working on a major history of design for Phaidon Press and editing a two-volume Encyclopaedia of Industrial Design.

His current research is focused on the theme of how design creates (and not just adds) economic value, with particular emphasis on industry in the Pearl River Delta of China, and the role of this in Design Policy in governments and corporations. Other areas of teaching include the relationship between design and innovation, the problems of successfully changing the nature of markets, and the problems of designing for global markets.