Prof. Astrid Boeger provides us with the following reviewReview Rosemary Sassoon’s “the designer” is a story “from behind the curtains” about the changes in image, training, and techniques. Independently from any other comments: the book is influenced by a fundamental dependency on typography, what is explainable particularly with regard to the authors life and work. As a long term expert in design - especially in writing and graphic communications – Sassoon’s publication shows a lot of experience in the field of design and teaching. The original idea behind the book is to give an overview on the changes in all aspects of design during the last fifty years as well as introducing visions about future developments. The publication is targeted to designers, teachers and anyone interested in the subject of design. Following these intentions Rosemary Sassoon describes the closely coupled categories of industrial, textile, fashion, product or book design as it was in the beginning of her career, when the main objective of teaching was creativity – an age old problem. But: in todays life we have quite a lot of opportunities to “develop” creativity towards a combination of training, teaching, integration (and enhancement) of the social context of students using every available technology to generate the most suitable environment for the discipline of design in the educational system. And it seems, that the author is simply ignoring some of the newer application areas. During the last ten years the design focus changed significantly from applied arts towards applied sciences – and the central question still is, if design in the very near future will become a part of every profession - like presentation skills, mathematics, technology and innovation assessment as well as criterias of sustainability and ecological consequences. From my point of view in this book the colourful world of design is too much restricted to the author’s daily work and thus is more a collection of shades of grey… So, whilst writing my review I am walking on raser’s edge: on one side the broad explanation of traditional values and the fascination about a life time of work as designer, on the other side some weakness in fulfilling the approach to give some advice for future trends in teaching and training in combination with new trends and theories in design. The book is worth reading it, but it can not fulfill your expectations if you are looking for some ideas to improve education or training in design: it is more a story about “how it was” than “what’s up in the future”. The Designer Half a Century of Change in Image, Training, and Techniques By Rosemary Sassoon ISBN 9781841501956 Paperback 144 pages 230x174mm Published September 2008 Price £14.95