Make it New studies the formation of a professional design practice in California’s Silicon Valley and its role in the region’s “ecosystem of innovation.” In 1980, about midpoint in the story, the San Francisco Bay Area was at best a marginal presence in the design world. Today there are, arguably, more designers working in Northern California than anywhere else in the world. Specifically, the book has three principal objectives: First, to show how design, no less that the region’s iconic technology companies, its legal and financial institutions, and its universities, became an integral com ... More

Make it New studies the formation of a professional design practice in California’s Silicon Valley and its role in the region’s “ecosystem of innovation.” In 1980, about midpoint in the story, the San Francisco Bay Area was at best a marginal presence in the design world. Today there are, arguably, more designers working in Northern California than anywhere else in the world. Specifically, the book has three principal objectives: First, to show how design, no less that the region’s iconic technology companies, its legal and financial institutions, and its universities, became an integral component in the growth of the economic engine of the United States; Second, to trace the formation of a design community in the San Francisco Bay Area and describe the evolution of design practice; Third, to document the extension of design into a progressively larger field of industries and organizations and explain the dramatic rise in acceptance of design as an element of organizational strategy. Drawing upon corporate records, private collections, university and museum archives, and approximately 200 interviews with key figures from the 1950 to the present, Make it New is the first book to explore the role of design in the formation of the most powerful economic engine in the world.