Design Recent Picks

February 2010

The underlined titles will take you directly to our catalogue.
Some featured items are linked via a book cover to enable you to read more reviews.

ABITARE MAGAZINE
"Abitare is an Italian magazine devoted to architecture, interior design, furniture, product design and graphic arts. It features profiles of projects around the world, interviews with top designers and architects, information on new products, and commentary.
A magazine with a long tradition of dealing with architecture, design and the visual arts, ABITARE was founded and has been based in Milan since 1963...Through the development of issues around dwelling, design and the visual arts, ABITARE is exploring different ways to approach and understand reality through a magazine, exploring fresh narratives and projects. Arbitare addresses contemporary cultural and aesthetical practices, looking for debates and controversies, and moving away from the tendency simply to report and review."(www.designophy.com)

The Art of Living by Claudia Steinberg
"To artists and designers, a home is a canvas on which they can project themselves, a testing ground for creative impulses, a place to display the objects that inspire them, a venue for experimentation with forms and materials that later appear in their own work. In this unique volume, photographer Bärbel Miebach captures the unique spirit of the private living quarters of twenty-five internationally known figures including Ellsworth Kelly, Catherine Malandrino, Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz, Andres Serrano, Hunt Slonem, Vivienne Tam, and Andrea
Zittel."(Amazon)

More Things Like This by McSweeney's, Michael Kimmelman
Curated by the editors of McSweeney's, this unconventional book explores the intersection of text, humor, and illustration in art created by cartoonists, writers, musicians, and fine artists. A refreshing mixture of high, low, and sideways, the selection features nearly 300 images from dozens of contributors, including David Shrigley, Kurt Vonnegut, Leonard Cohen, Chris Johanson, David Mamet, and many more. Insightful interviews with the artists further illuminate the shared and divergent approaches they take in creating this smart, funny, and engaging work."(Amazon)

The Pattern Sourcebook: A Century of Surface Design by Drusilla Cole
This stunning picture book chronicles one hundred years of classic patterns, featuring designs in a wide variety of styles, art movements, and countries of origin to give an overview of surface design from the beginning of the last century to the present day. The book is full of original patterns from textiles, wallpaper, furniture, and ceramics and other decorative designs, drawn from a wide range of sources, including the rarely seen archives of leading manufacturers and private collections. Images are arranged by color, and retro and contemporary images come together so that exciting and unexpected juxtapositions occur.Featuring stunning patterns from celebrated artists, such as Henry Moore and Eduardo Paolozzi, to contemporary practitioners, such as Eley Kishimoto and Rob Ryan, this rich visual history of patterns will be a source of inspiration to designers everywhere. (Amazon)

500 Plastic Jewelry Designs: A Groundbreaking Survey of A Modern Material by Lark Books "The popular 500 series takes its hippest, most fun approach yet, with an intoxicatingly vibrant and technically diverse collection of contemporary jewelry. Juror Susan Kasson Sloan has put together a groundbreaking survey of the best work being done with this thoroughly modern material. Every page offers some delightful eye candy, with pieces that stretch from the subtle and sublime to the fantastically humorous. There’s jewelry that tells a story, and jewelry that cleverly incorporates recycled materials—including sunglass lenses and knitting needles. In true 21st century style, much of the work is being designed and produced with
cutting-edge CAD CAM technologies."(Amazon)

Jean Despres: Jeweler, Maker, and Designer of the Machine Age by Melissa Gabardi
"A definitive celebration of the work of this noted Art Deco designer. Jean Després
(1889–1980) was an Art Deco designer who captured the streamlined, modern aesthetic of the age of the machine and transformed it into objects of great beauty. As a young man, Després became acquainted with avant-garde artists in Paris, including Modigliani, de Chirico, and Braque, and, after the outbreak of war in 1914, he worked on the industrial design of airplanes. He later transferred this experience and inspiration to his family’s jewelry business, where he became known for his innovative geometric patterns. He also created a wide range of tableware and decorative objects in gold, silver, and pewter, whose bold, industrial
looks were uncompromisingly modern, yet always graceful and refined"(Amazon)

Chairs by Judith Miller
"The chair is the most ubiquitous design element in the domestic environment, and almost everyone who has tackled the world of design has ended up designing one. In "Chairs" Judith Miller scrutinises more than 100 of her favourite chairs reflecting on their iconic status, designers, historical facts, overall style, design details and ergonomic properties. More than 100 chairs have been specially photographed on location and are featured in chronological date order, ranging from early antiques such as the 1680 Wainscot Chair and the 1740 Louis XV Chaise Longue, to modern day collectables such as Marc Newson's 1988 'Embryo' and Tom Dixon's 2007 'Wingback'. This is not a catalogue; each chair has earned its place as an emblem of style, status, craft and art and is celebrated in this beautifully designed book."(Amazon)

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