This study aims to analyze how industrial design as a profession and discipline has been presented to the public in Turkey. The object of the study is constituted by the popular home style magazines which increased rapidly in number through the dynamics of the post-1980 period. These publications have been inspected in the scope of the research and their in constructing and shaping public awareness about design culture has been the focus of the study. The main theme of the thesis is focused on the analysis of Turkish social values which changed after the 1980s and on how the magazines handled the subject of design, and the qualities which they highlighted in the presentation of the products. In addition, the roles which were ascribed to design and to the designers in terms of the newly calibrated consumption values, have also been discussed. The socio-political and economic transformations of the post-1980 period constitute the contextual framework of the thesis.

This theses Brand product as a symbol of young participants is focused on the phenomenon of brands, which is interpreted through its relation to social status. In the theoretical part of the theses there are two contradictory views discussed (T. Veblen's and G. Lipovetsky's), which provide two different points of view concerning contemporary society and the relation between luxurious goods and social status. Through this discussion the thesis provides the characteritics of youth in the context of its developement during the 20th century. Another discussed topic are marketing techniques focusing on today's young generation. In the research part the author aims to find a connection between luxurious brands consumption and the concept of status among young adults studying Czech high schools. Results did not prove this connection to be very strong, and it seems therefore that Lipovetsky's point of view was the one closer to our analysis.

Between the 1850s to the 1960s, the department store emerged as a prominent retail format worldwide. As a retail format, the department store model broke away from pre-existing retailer and consumer conceptions of shopping and the shopping environment. Store leaders placed their focus on creating an uplifting mode of consumerism that perpetuated the department store as an ‘experience.’ However, behind the department store’s ‘magical’ façade, store management preplanned and manipulated consumer interactions with every part of the store. The managerial techniques managers used allowed these institutions to become an epicentre of consumerism and urban culture globally. The department store has lost its reputation as a vibrant shopping location in the digital age, and retailers and consumers alike have disregarded it as solely a monument of retail nostalgia. Nonetheless, today’s retailers still have much to learn from the ways department store leaders innovated. The management techniques used in department stores can provide insight into these institutions’ successes and pitfalls when navigating changing retail circumstances. If the department store is used as a tool of managerial know-how for retailers in the digital age, it could allow other retailers to sustain a semblance of the department store’s longevity, commercially and culturally. Hudson’s Bay, a remaining store in the Canadian department store industry, features as a case study to highlight the extent to which department store leaders designed and managed their stores. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis examines the department store’s legacy as a tool of managerial know-how for retailers in the digital age. From the 1890s to the 1960s, department stores were an epicentre of consumerism and urban culture in locales worldwide. Department store management crafted store environments to create a ‘magical’ atmosphere for customers while calculating every consumer interaction with the store behind the scenes. Over the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, increased retail competition has forced many stores to close, often leaving visual façades as the sole reminders of some defunct stores. Yet, the extensive management techniques used inside and outside stores provide insight into how this retail format achieved prominence, how its leaders responded to competitors, and how department store management techniques can contribute to current retail discussions despite its continued decline.