I can recommend you the boo "Object of Desire" by Adrian Forty, which gives a very interesting and critical reading of the development of the industrial design field since it's birth.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1272268.Objects_of_Desire

I recommend some books of the sociologist Lucius Burckhardt.

https://www.degruyter.com/search?query=Lucius+Burckhardt&startItem=0&pageSize=10&sortBy=alphabetical&documentTypeFacet=book

Ehsan Baha …. Below are a series of links that offer a variety of ideas on the subject. In my experience there’s a distinct challenge with our ideas about Industrial design. That is, the tendency to define it along with the the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution. Personally I prefer the beginning with the very early crafts men and women. That eventually led to the multitude of craft guilds in the middle ages. -Our ideas for mechanizing these skills led to the industrial revolution. One that continues (robotics, machine learning and AI et al) to today. Even today the discipline is in flux.Traditionally its described by the task as making objects. However, the making of ideas and experiences is now included.

1)__ A History of Product Design

Bradford L Goldense

Available as full text download

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332091475_A_History_of_Product_Design_A160

2)__History from Things: - Notes on the History of Industrial Design

by Raimonda Riccini

Link is to JSTOR - for full article you’ll need to create an account.

Send me a message if this is difficult.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/1511893

3)__ Student Introduction to Industrial Design

(Powerpoint presentation - PDF)

by Matthew Kressy

https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/34891/15-783JSpring-2002/NR/rdonlyres/Sloan-School-of-Management/15-783JProduct-Design-and-DevelopmentSpring2002/A3B94580-C4EA-49F3-B89C-736B87D2EAFB/0/intro_to_id_lecture_28feb02.pdf

4)__Theory and Practice of Industrial Design by Angela Dumas

http://www.urenio.org/tools/en/Industrial_Design.pdf

5)__ Industrial Design

By Kees Overbeeke and Caroline Hummels (UK)

https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/the-encyclopedia-of-human-computer-interaction-2nd-ed/industrial-design

6)__ The Concept Of The Design Discipline by

Paul A. Rodgers Lancaster University, UK

Craig Bremner, School of Creative Industries, Australia

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/dialectic/14932326.0001.104/--concept-of-the-design-discipline?rgn=main;view=fulltext

I would also recommend Penny Sparke’s

“Industrial Design in the Modern Age” which covers the topic in depth. The transition from crafted objects to mere decoration of industrial forms, or “applied arts” to crudely attempt humanization of manufactured products in thd 19th century, finally gave way to a more wholistic vision of the practice of industrial design in the 20th century. Now in the 21st century, as the very definition of product has evolved to include virtual, digital products, so too is the practice oc industrial design evolving as one of the ogher respondents to your query has pointed out.

I would also recommend Penny Sparke’s

“Industrial Design in the Modern Age” which covers the topic in depth. The transition from crafted objects to mere decoration of industrial forms, or “applied arts” to crudely attempt humanization of manufactured products in thd 19th century, finally gave way to a more wholistic vision of the practice of industrial design in the 20th century. Now in the 21st century, as the very definition of product has evolved to include virtual, digital products, so too is the practice oc industrial design evolving as one of the ogher respondents to your query has pointed out.

I would also recommend Penny Sparke’s

“Industrial Design in the Modern Age” which covers the topic in depth. The transition from crafted objects to mere decoration of industrial forms, or “applied arts” to crudely attempt humanization of manufactured products in thd 19th century, finally gave way to a more wholistic vision of the practice of industrial design in the 20th century. Now in the 21st century, as the very definition of product has evolved to include virtual, digital products, so too is the practice oc industrial design evolving as one of the ogher respondents to your query has pointed out.

I would also recommend Penny Sparke’s

“Industrial Design in the Modern Age” which covers the topic in depth. The transition from crafted objects to mere decoration of industrial forms, or “applied arts” to crudely attempt humanization of manufactured products in thd 19th century, finally gave way to a more wholistic vision of the practice of industrial design in the 20th century. Now in the 21st century, as the very definition of product has evolved to include virtual, digital products, so too is the practice oc industrial design evolving as one of the respondents to your query has pointed out.

My first answer is Penny Sparke´s work. That said, I can´t say I have stumbled across very many article-type discussions on industrial design´s history in the sense that not much of the material I´ve read since 2009 goes into the nuts and grit of what happened in studios.

The Story of Design, Charlotte & Peter Fiell

Try to pass by PUBLISH OR PERISH from HARZING, a very useful software in detecting the most valuable papers in almost every research engine.

Best of luck!

Cant say I can point to literature but I did interview (files lost now) the head of the Danish Design School in 2003 and he pointed to Russia (St Petersburg) as the evolutionary centre for Danish Design. I assume it was the trade/craft schools around luminaries such as Faberge and his contractors.

Design Since 1945, by Peter Dormer.

Industrial Design Techniques and Materials, by Raymond Guidot.

I agree with the ones that recommend the work of Penny Sparke.

I would argue that things started as soon as mankind started to manipulate materials to the benefit of the group. Clay bowels, arrow heads, flint hammers, indeed anything traded for other goods, in my book is industrial design.

So you probably need to start with some Palaeolithic cave paintings!

In contrast to Phil Chapman’s response, I would hold that the word “industrial” carries with it the idea that we are talking about objects created in a more mass production setting. I would be the first to say that aesthetic and functional design has its roots in the work of atisans and craftspeople down through the ages, but aligning these skills with the contraints and production capabilities of industry brings the deeper challenge of evolving designs to be capable of mass production, while resulting too in broadening effects of designs on daily life arising from mass usage.

I agree with Toby Wellls, modern industrial design is born in the hight of roaring 20s just before the great depression. Key figures are Raymond Loewy, Harley Earl, Henry Dreyfuss etc. In Leowy´s autobiography "Never Leave Well Enough Alone" you'll get some insight in his pioneering work. He distinguish between the art industries and industrial design which I think is a good mental model when you digets historic literature in Industrial design. My conclusion is that he first modern inhouse design function was created by Harley Earl when he 1927 set up the art and color section at GM.

I recommend " What is Interior Design" by Graeme Brooker and Sally Stone

Interesting point Toby and I quite agree with your comment, although Eshan is interested in the 'evolution' and development of industrial design. I would argue that the evolution of design is likely to have originated from a very modest beginning.

Art journal 1840 (or 46?) is to my knowledge the first text that mention industrial design, a British industrialist traveled to Lyon in France in order to investigate why their silk printing production worked so well. There he found out that they educated industrial designers were the students took for both technical drawing and art classes. If you stretch the aspect of industrial design then I've seen it referenced to Marcus Vitruvius Pollio´s book De Architectura (10 books on Architecture) 30 and 15 BC. The rationale being that architect in those days ment chief builder and that he didn't only discussed buildings but also products.

I also agree with Toby Wellis and Torbjorn Anderson . For me industrial design could also be referred to as Applied Arts.Which is used to categorize visual art works that are meant to fulfill a specific function and can be mass produced.