Plastics in Design

Table of contents

Plastics occupy a singular position in the history of design. Emerging from late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century chemical experimentation, synthetic polymers introduced materials unlike wood, metal, glass, or ceramics. Plastics could be moulded rather than carved, coloured throughout rather than finished, and produced at industrial scale with a consistency previously unattainable. These qualities reshaped not only how objects were made, but how they were imagined, distributed, and used.

This thematic hub assembles key articles from encyclopedia.design to examine plastics in design as a material system rather than a stylistic trend. It connects material innovation to manufacturing processes, domestic life, fashion, and the cultural narratives that have accompanied plastics from the early twentieth century to the present.

Early plastics and material innovation

Plastics and post-war modernism

Plastic furniture and industrial form-making

Designers who shaped plastics in design

Brands and systems of production

Plastics in fashion, jewellery, and the body

Everyday objects and plastic domesticity

Critique, sustainability, and reassessment

Editorial note

This page is intended as a reference hub. It will be expanded as new plastics-related entries are added and as older articles are updated with stronger sourcing, image metadata, and internal linking.