TABLE OF CONTENTS 
Good design works. Excellent design also gives pleasure.
Pleasure derives from form, color, texture, feel, and the associations that these invoke. Pleasing design says something about itself; generally speaking, honest statements are more satisfying than deception, though eccentric or humorous designs can be appealing too.
Materials play a central role in this. A major reason for introducing new materials is the greater freedom of design that they allow. Metals, in the past century, allowed structures which could not have been built before: cast iron, the Crystal Palace; wrought iron, the Eiffel Tower; drawn steel, the Golden Gate Bridge, all undeniably beautiful. Polymers lend themselves to bright colors, satisfying textures, and great freedom of form; they have opened new styles of design, of which some of the best examples are found in the household appliance sector: kitchen equipment, radio and CD-players, hair dryers, telephones, and vacuum cleaners make extensive and imaginative use of materials to allow styling, weight, feel, and form which give pleasure.
Those who concern themselves with this aesthetic dimension of engineering are known, rather confusingly, as "industrial designers". This chapter introduces some of the ideas of industrial design, emphasizing the role of materials. It ends with case-studies. But first a word of caution.
Previous chapters have dealt with systematic ways of choosing material and processes. "Systematic" means that if you do it and I do it, following the same procedure, we will get the same result, and that the result, next year,...
