John Heskett (26 May 1937 – 25 February 2014) was a British writer and lecturer on the economic, political, cultural and human value of industrial design.

[3] With his background, Heskett began to write history considering social, economic and political as components of design.

Then he taught design history and theory in Sheffield, and at Ravensbourne College, Bromley, in south-east London (1984–89).

By 1990, he was working for a Japanese consultancy and, throughout the next decades, he was invited to speak and advise at institutional and governmental levels in Mexico, Chile, Finland, Japan, Taiwan and South Africa.

[4][5] Heskett was survived by his second wife, Pamela Smith, whom he married in 1992; his daughter, Ingrid, and son, Peter, both from his first marriage, to Irene Alksnis, which ended in divorce.