5    Designing identities

Representing the nation

By 1914, a sophisticated understanding of the ways in which design could be used by individuals, groups, institutions and countries to form identities had emerged. Groups of all sizes, keen to persuade others of their status and authority, began to use designed artefacts and images as a means of persuading others of their economic, political, technological or cultural authority. Nowhere was that phenomenon more apparent than in the way existing and emerging nations used design as a means of forming, expressing and promoting their identities both to their indigenous populations and to the world at large.

The strategies employed to link design with national identity at that time were essentially ...

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