Designing the future is a book that deals with CAD, and how it is specifically used in all design fields today. Robin Baker gives a short history of computers and computer science, and tracks the first feeble interactions between programmers and artists. He describes the "new tools" as they can be used in CAD today. In a wide survey he gives attention to the use of the computer in all design fields: industrial design, automobile design, architecture, graphic design, textile and fashion design, photography, design crafts, film and animation, painting and sculpture.

After all this, magnificently illustrated with loads of full-colour pictures, he starts to sketch the first outlines of the new design disciplines: interaction design, design for hyper- and multimedia, virtual reality, and design for visualisation. These disciplines will utilise the new design media: rapid prototyping, digital publications, shape grammars and the new kinds of software around intelligent design, neural networks, genetic algorithms, and object oriented software.

Combined with the increasing amount of technological integration this will give an enormous potential for the design studio of the future. This must also be taken as a warning: designers and artists must actively involve themselves into current developments concerning the new media. This will prove crucial if they are going to play any part in these tools of the twenty-first century. Robin Baker: "Exploring new uses for the medium of computing, experimenting with new techniques, providing genuinely new solutions to new problems, and -above all- humanizing the technology: these are all roles for the designer and the artist, not the technologist."

Designing the future is a wonderful flight simulation of the world of CAD today. As is the problem with all books that provide a wide view, it fails to go into deep detail, and it doesn't really pose any shocking theory concerning future developments. For anyone who wants to get any detailed information on a specific design discipline, this is not the book you need, but it does provide a very stimulating overview.