Jeremy Aynsley’s research interests concern late nineteenth and twentieth-century design in Europe and the United States, with a special focus on design in modern Germany. He is especially interested in the phenomenon of the migration of Modernism, avant-garde and commercial visual languages in graphic design, as well as the education and professionalisation of the designer.

A further research specialism is in the history of the domestic interior and its representation through publication. His publications in this area include ‘Graphic Change: Design Change: Magazines for the domestic interior, 1890–1930’ in Journal of Design History, 19 (1), 2005, 43–60; ‘The Modern Period Room, a contradiction in terms?’ in T. Keeble, B. Martin and P. Sparke (eds) (2006), The Modern Period Room, London: Routledge, 8–30; ‘Displaying Designs for the Domestic Interior in Europe and America, 1850–1950’ in J. Aynsley and C. Grant (eds) (2006), Imagined Interiors: Representing the domestic interior since the Renaissance, London: V&A Publications, 190–215; and ‘Pochoir Prints: Publishing the designed interior’ in S. Schleuning (2007), Moderne: Fashioning the Modern Interior, Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press, 9–19.

A new research project addresses the history of graphic design in California, 1930–65. Jeremy Aynsley will contribute to the forthcoming exhibition, California Design, 1930–1965: ‘Living in a Modern Way’, to be held at Los Angeles Country Museum of Art. A second research project develops from a long-standing interest in the relationship between design and ideology, and focuses on the culture of advertising and graphic design in the German Democratic Republic, 1949–69.