1. Introduction

The approaches of design history have mentioned by many writers. The approaches vary from designer to designer. While for Tony Fry, he has given us an ideological understanding of the nature of design history, which is an important hegemonic role in the contemporary design culture. Tony says that the design history aims to hide the social, political and economic implications of design practices behind an ahistorical discourse that deals with only one aspect of a design object's being, which is only its physical appearance, and making issues like commodification and class division (Tony Fry, T. 1988).

Then he provides people with several methods to reveal the historical design in his book- Design history Australia: a source text in methods and resources (Tony Fry, T. 1988). Cutting-edge is the research chances for engagements in sustainable futures and is currently engaged in international engagements. In this essay, the author will analysis his two important methods for the design history.  

2. Analytical approach and interpretive method

Design History is more complicated and wide-ranging discipline for people to learn. The design history now aims to find out the artefacts from concept of development, production, mediation, and consumption of the design (Archer, Bruce, 1981). In the past decades, the discipline has found out a wide-ranging theories and methods for the interpretive analytical of objects. Design History shows us a comprehensive guide to these unseen changes of the objects （Julier Guy,2008）. Later on, the paper will discuss the two methods used in the design history.

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