In this study mobilising taste in the lower classes is the focal point. From the late1930s onwards this issue appears to have been of paramount importance to UK government and industry alike, and placed emphasis on improvement through design in a way that recalled and perpetuated 19th century philanthropic approaches. This was exemplified in exhibitions, leaflets, publications and reports such as “Design in Everyday Things”, “The Things We See” series, “The Value of Good Design” and the “Design Quiz”. Critical examination of these documents reveals the aesthetic and social assumptions that underpinned the promotional and interpellative literature of design reform in its address to ‘the indiscriminating public’ and provide a supplementary account of British design in the period under review that emphasises its class dimensions and national assumptions. This research intends to look in detail at class perceptions and relationships with design. More specifically this interpretation looks at the social project embodied in government agency approaches to taste and the aspirations it held for the aesthetic education of the working class. This is an exploration and critical analysis of specific, period determined promotions of quality in design as instruments for social and ethical engineering. The thesis examines the discursive strategies of a number of initiatives intended to bring examples of design and its products to a public perceived to be in need of enlightenment, improvement and incorporation in particular economic and social trends. Much of the visual and textual output around design of this period pointed to a rebuilding of the social order through improved taste and aesthetics much of which was to be experienced in the home. A critique of the language of value judgments contained in this literature provides a specific view of design and the aesthetics not only of the object, but also as a reflection of the self. It implies graded criteria used to construct judgments situated in the aesthetic, ethical/moral, material and social categories. These provide evidence for a demonstrable point of view and construction of a particular narrative to seeing and comprehending taste, situated within a framework of class cultures and social identity. Essentially this engages design from an analysis of reception of meaning, aesthetic construction and socio-political intention, and specifically understanding the ‘understanding’ of design. The overarching rationale is to understand how design has been mediated, and to what perceived ends at particular historical conjunctures.