Recommended Reading: A Product Design Book List

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  The Museum of Modern Art, New York Century of the Child Growing by Design 1900-2000 In 1900, Swedish design reformer and social theorist Ellen Key published The Century of the Child, presaging the coming century as a period of intensified focus and progressive thinking around the rights, development and well-being of children. Taking inspiration from Key-and looking back through the twentieth century-this volume, published to accompany an exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, examines individual and collective visions for the material world of children, from utopian dreams for the "citizens of the future" to the dark realities of political conflict and exploitation. Surveying more than 100 years of toys, clothing, playgrounds, schools, children's hospitals, nurseries, furniture, posters, animation and books, this richly illustrated catalogue illuminates how progressive design has enhanced the physical, intellectual, and emotional development of children and, conversely, how models of children's play have informed experimental aesthetics and imaginative design thinking-engendering, in the process, reappraisals of some of the iconic names in twentieth-century . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Juliet Kinchin. Text by Tanya Harrod, Medea Hoch, Juliet Kinchin, Francis Luca, Maria Paola Maino, Amy Ogata, Aidan O'Connor, David Senior, Sarah Suzuki. Hbk, 9.5 x 12 in. / 264 pgs / illustrated throughout. Publication Date: 7/31/2012 List Price: US $60.00

  Hatje Cantz Apple Design Easily one of the most influential and popular design companies of our era, Apple has made electronics design history with its innovative iMacs, iPhones, iPods and iPads. Apple Design features over 200 examples of outstanding Apple designs by Jonathan Ive (born 1967), the company’s Senior Vice President of Industrial Design, who since 1997 has been responsible for the design of all of Apple’s products. Over the past decade, Ive and his team of designers have created elegant and user-friendly designs that have significantly advanced the brand’s cult status as it enters the new millennium. Examining each of these in detail, and with full color throughout, Apple Design compares various approaches to industrial design alongside Apple’s, and casts light on numerous aspects of its history, deepening our understanding of contemporary industrial design. Following an analysis of the forms and functions of the featured Apple products, the book provides an explanation of the . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Sabine Schulze, Ina Grätz. Foreword by Sabine Schulze. Text by Friedrich von Borries, Ina Grätz, Harald Klinke, Bernd Polster, Henry Urbach, Thomas Wagner, Peter Zec, Bernhard Burdock. Hbk, 10 x 11.75 in. / 320 pgs / 542 color. Publication Date: 11/30/2011 List Price: US $60.00

  Fuel Publishing Home-Made Europe Contemporary Folk Artifacts For this enchanting sequel to the critically acclaimed Home-Made: Contemporary Russian Folk Artifacts (2006), Russian artist Vladimir Arkhipov has travelled across Europe to further his collection. The objects he has found are made by everyday people inspired to create something themselves, rather than buying manufactured goods. Many have been made in pursuit of a hobby, or because the maker had the time and inclination to construct something personal. In other cases, the objects are more vital to the maker’s livelihood. Arkhipov’s archive includes hundreds of objects created with idiosyncratic functional qualities: an Austrian ski-bob made using an old bicycle frame; a metal strip full of spikes used to deter pigeons from landing on window ledges; a beautifully painted rocking-motorbike for children; and a device from Germany that enables a musician to play three brass tubas at once. This volume features 230 individual artifacts from Albania, Austria, Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, . . . . [see book details]

  By Vladimir Arkhipov. Edited by Damon Murray, Stephen Sorrell. Foreword by Jeremy Deller. Hbk, 5 x 8.25 in. / 272 pgs / 230 color. Publication Date: 5/31/2012 List Price: US $34.95

  NAi Publishers Complete Copier The Oeuvre of A.O. Copier 1901-1991 Starting his career as a glassblower at the Leerdam glass works factory when he was just 14 years old, Andries Copier (1901–1991) went on to become the greatest glass designer that the Netherlands has ever known. Copier was influenced by the Bauhaus design ethos, and, following its lead, established a clean, geometric Dutch style for the glass arts that combined affordability with elegance. Made in association with the Dutch National Glass Museum on the occasion of their momentous Copier retrospective, The Oeuvre of A.D. Copier catalogues the prolific designer’s life’s work. Cataloging nearly 2,000 works--with more than 1,200 examples reproduced in full color--it also includes designs, sketches and scholarly writings that elucidate Copier’s wide-ranging inspirations and techniques. This publication is the definitive monograph on a canonical figure in Dutch design. . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Laurens Geurtz, Job Meihuizen, Joan Temminck. Hbk, 9.5 x 12 in. / 520 pgs / 1,225 color. Publication Date: 5/31/2012 List Price: US $95.00

  JRP|Ringier The Complete Designers’ Lights 1950-1990 Clémence and Didier Krzentowski, the founders and directors of the leading contemporary design gallery Kreo (in Paris), have been collecting lights for 30 years. With an emphasis on Italian and French light design, their collection is the most important of its kind, comprising nearly 500 works of all kinds from the 1950s to the 1990s, and including significant groups of works by Paulin, Garrice, Castiglioni and Sarfatti. Conceived as a catalogue raisonné of this astounding collection, The Complete Designers’ Lights (1950–1990) provides an invaluable overview of light design and furniture history. It includes a discussion between Didier Krzentowski, Constance Rubini (curator of the Paris Musée des Arts Décoratifs) and design critic Pierre Doze, as well as an essay by the design and art critic Alex Coles that focuses on the relationship between light design and light art, through a comparison of Gino Sarfatti and Dan Flavin. . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Clémence & Didier Krzentowski. Text by Alex Coles, Pierre Doze, Didier Krzentowski, Constance Rubini. Hbk, 8 x 9.75 in. / 400 pgs / 600 color. Publication Date: 3/31/2012 List Price: US $125.00

  Damiani 100 Superlative Rolex Watches The Rolex tagline, "an obsession with perfection," is upheld by the brand's popularity. Often copied but never surpassed, Rolex--headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, with 28 affiliates worldwide and relying on 4,000 watchmakers in over 100 countries--has been the leading name in luxury watches and the symbol of exemplary performance and prestige for more than a century. John Goldberger, editor of 100 Superlative Rolex Watches, has spent many happy hours browsing through watch shops, flea markets, conventions and auctions around the world for the past 35 years, collecting and studying vintage watches. In this well-appointed volume he presents comprehensive descriptions of 100 of the finest Rolex watches ever made and provides an extensive overview of Rolex's production, demonstrating the company's innovation in the technical and aesthetic evolution of watch design. More than 600 color illustrations and 400 descriptions provide the collector and watch enthusiast with invaluable information: reference numbers, casing, movement, relative calibers . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by John Goldberger. Text by Giampiero Negretti. Hardback, 9.75 x 12.5 in. / 266 pgs / 600 color. Publication Date: 10/1/2008 List Price: US $200.00

  Poligrafa Alvar Aalto: Objects and Furniture Design By Architects Alvar Aalto (1898-1976) is the most prestigious Finnish architect of the last century, and the father of Nordic Modernism. He once said, "God created paper for the purpose of drawing architecture on it. Everything else is at least for me an abuse of paper." In the U.S. Aalto's critical reception began with his design for the Finnish Pavilion at the 1939 World Fair in New York: Frank Lloyd Wright described it as a "work of genius." After World War II, Aalto also designed MIT's student dormitory. Prior to this, the architect's Paimio Sanatorium (1929) and Viipuri Library (1935), both in Finland, had already attracted international praise. He was also an outstanding town planner, painter and sculptor. Aalto's Modernism entailed the use of natural materials, warm colors, and undulating lines, and he is considered an important early exponent of Organic Design as a result. Of his design work outside of architecture, Aalto's . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Patricia de Muga. Texts by Sandra Dachs, Laura García Hintze. Introduction by Markku Lahti. Hardcover, 6.5 x 8.25 in. / 128 pgs / 220 color. Publication Date: 11/1/2007 List Price: US $30.00

  The Chipstone Foundation/Milwaukee Art Museum American Fancy Exuberance in the Arts 1790-1840 Between 1790 and 1840, millions of middle-class Americans throughout the nation encountered Fancy”: they rode in a Fancy sleigh, dressed up in Fancy clothes, blew their noses in Fancy handkerchiefs, bought goods at Fancy shops, ate at Fancy tables on Fancy dishes, and slept under Fancy coverlets. Not just fancy but Fancy: an early nineteenth-century cultural phenomenon born out of new and enlightened ways of seeing, understanding, and responding to the surrounding world. Fancy expressed itself in just about everything that pleased the senses; generally colorful and boldly patterned, it elicited delight, awe, surprise, whim, and caprice. Whether experienced in the form of painted surfaces, kaleidoscopic quilts, or imaginary landscapes, Fancy engaged the emotions and expanded the imagination, expressing the core of human fancy. American Fancy offers an appropriately fantastic experience of this uniquely American sensibility. Author Sumpter Priddy has assembled and produced an original oeuvre in the field of decorative . . . . [see book details]

  Essay by Sumpter Priddy. Hardcover, 9 x 12 in. / 267 pgs / 326 color / 51 b&w. Publication Date: 5/2/2004 List Price: US $75.00

  Ivorypress Buckminster Fuller: Dymaxion Car In 1933, the visionary architect, engineer and designer Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) built a car that was at that time the world's most fuel-efficient car. The Dymaxion Car ran on 35 miles per gallon, while every other car on the road struggled to manage half that amount; zeppelin-like in appearance, it was streamlined to minimize wind resistance and was capable of carrying six to eight passengers. Fuller designed two more Dymaxion Cars over the following year, though none of the three saw production. In his book Everything I Know (1975), Fuller remembered: "Many people said to me, after I built three of these cars, 'I'm sorry your car wasn't a success.' And I'd say 'What do you mean?' They said, 'Well you didn't get it into production.' I said, 'I wasn't going into business, I was producing a vehicle. And it was extremely successful. I learned an incredible amount.'" Today the Dymaxion . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Hsiao-Yun Chu, David Jenkins. Text by Jonathan Glancey, Norman Foster. Clth, 10 x 10.25 in. / 224 pgs / 111 color / 135 b&w. Publication Date: 2/28/2011 List Price: US $75.00

  Poligrafa Charles & Ray Eames: Objects and Furniture Design By Architects With the new By Architects series, Ediciones Polígrafa launches an innovative project dedicated to showcasing furniture and objects designed by some of the most important architects of the twentieth century. Three titles open this series: Alvar Aalto, Jean Prouvé and Ray and Charles Eames. Best known for their contributions to architecture, furniture design (especially the Eames chair), industrial design, film and photography, Charles and Ray Eames remain among the most renowned American designers of the twentieth century. The couple married in 1941 and moved to California, where they pursued their furniture design in molded plywood. During the war they were commissioned by the U.S. Navy to produce molded plywood splints, stretchers and experimental glider shells. In 1946, Evans Products began producing the Eames' molded plywood furniture. Their iconic molded plywood chair was called "the chair of the century" by the influential architectural critic Esther McCoy. In 1949, Charles and Ray designed . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Laura García Hintze. Texts by Patricia de Muga, Sandra Dachs. Hardcover, 6.5 x 8.25 in. / 128 pgs / 220 color. Publication Date: 10/26/2007 List Price: US $30.00

  The Museum of Modern Art, New York Counter Space: Design and the Modern Kitchen Over the course of the past century, the kitchen, more than any other room in the modern dwelling, has been the focus of intensive aesthetic and technological innovation. Historically, European and American kitchens were often drab, poorly ventilated, and hidden from view in a basement or annex. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, however, the kitchen became a central concern of modernism and a testing ground for new materials and technologies. Since then, the room has come to articulate and at times actively challenge societal relationships to food, consumerism, the domestic role of women, and even international politics. Counter Space examines the twentieth-century transformation of the kitchen through the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, featuring a wide variety of design objects, architectural plans, posters, archival photographs and artworks--ranging from the iconic Frankfurt Kitchen, mass-produced for German public housing estates in the aftermath of World War I, to an . . . . [see book details]

  Text by Juliet Kinchin, Aidan O'Connor. Hbk, 8 x 10 in. / 88 pgs / 75 color. Publication Date: 4/30/2011 List Price: US $24.95

  The Museum of Modern Art, New York The Design Encyclopedia The Museum of Modern Art Design Encyclopedia is the most comprehensive design reference guide to date. Compiled over the last 15 years by Mel Byars, in consultation with an international team of design experts, The Encyclopedia sets out to provide the factual framework of a discipline whose own historical accounting of itself is still relatively young. (By way of contrast, art history has existed as a scholarly discipline for over two centuries, and has produced a fairly comprehensive record of itself in that time period.) Only once before has a similarly comprehensive overview of the history of design been attempted--in 1994, also by Mel Byars. The Encyclopedia is about design, of course, but these days design” seems to encompass almost everything, from magazine layouts and sweatshirts to animatronic flower gardens and heart pumps, not to mention the more abstract information design.” Here, however, design is considered only in its concrete application . . . . [see book details]

  By Mel Byars. Clothbound, 7.5 x 10.25 in. / 832 pgs / 700 color. Publication Date: 6/2/2004 List Price: US $65.00

  Metropolis Books Design Revolution: 100 Products That Empower People By Emily Pilloton In January of 2008, with a thousand dollars, a laptop and an outsized conviction that design can change the world, rising San Francisco-based product designer and activist Emily Pilloton launched Project H Design, a radical non-profit that supports, inspires and delivers life-improving humanitarian product design. "We need to go beyond 'going green' and to enlist a new generation of design activists," she wrote in an influential manifesto. "We need big hearts, bigger business sense and the bravery to take action now." Featuring more than 100 contemporary design products and systems--safer baby bottles, a high-tech waterless washing machine, low-cost prosthetics for landmine victims, Braille-based Lego-style building blocks for blind children, wheelchairs for rugged conditions, sugarcane charcoal, universal composting systems, DIY soccer balls--that are as fascinating as they are revolutionary, this exceptionally smart, friendly and well-designed volume makes the case for design as a tool to solve some of the world's biggest social problems . . . . [see book details]

  By Emily Pilloton. Foreword by Allan Chochinov. Pbk, 8 x 8 in. / 304 pgs / 250 color. Publication Date: 10/31/2009 List Price: US $34.95

  Ediciones Poligrafa Eero Saarinen: Objects and Furniture Design By Architects Series Despite the brevity of his career, Eero Saarinen (1910-1961) was one of the most celebrated architects of his time. Born in Finland, he immigrated to the United States in 1923, where his father was director of the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Here, the young Saarinen took courses in sculpture and furniture design, and began close friendships with fellow students Charles and Ray Eames, as well as Florence Knoll. As a designer, Saarinen moved easily between the so-called International Style and Expressionism, utilizing a vocabulary of bold colors, curves and cantilevers; many of his pieces have remained in production, becoming twentieth-century furniture icons. As an architect, Saarinen is responsible for some of the most potent architectural symbols of American identity including Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. Published in Poligrafa's By Architect series, this volume surveys Saarinen's life and career. . . . . [see book details]

  Introduction by Antonio Román. Hbk, 6.5 x 8.5 in. / 128 pgs / 178 color. Publication Date: 8/31/2012 List Price: US $30.00

  Ediciones Poligrafa Eileen Gray: Objects and Furniture Design By Architects Series Neglected in her lifetime, Eileen Gray (1878-1976) is now regarded as one of the most important furniture designers and architects of the early twentieth century. She first worked as a lacquer artist, then as a furniture designer and finally as an architect. At a time when other leading designers were almost exclusively male and adherents to one movement or another, Gray remained stalwartly independent. Her design style was as distinctive as her way of working; Gray developed an opulent, luxuriant take on the geometric forms and industrially produced materials used by International Style designers such as Le Corbusier, Charlotte Perriand and Mies van der Rohe. Her voluptuous leather and steel Bibendum Chair and chic E-1027 glass and tubular steel table are now familiar icons of modernity. Part of the By Architects series, Eileen Gray highlights the work of this singular designer-architect. . . . . [see book details]

  Introduction by Carmen Espegel. Hbk, 6.5 x 8.5 in. / 128 pgs / 166 color. Publication Date: 10/31/2012 List Price: US $30.00

  Walther König, Köln Flying Furniture The artist and architect Peter Smithson is one of the best-informed and insightful critics of Modernist and Postmodernist architecture. In Flying Furniture he sheds light on the construction of furniture, particularly mobile furniture, which has rendered obsolete the distinction between 'movables' and 'immovables.' The works featured here extend from Bauhaus up to the present day, representing such essential designers as Alison and Peter Smithson, Stefan Wewerka, El Lissitzky, Jean Prouvé, Marcel Breuer, Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe and Gerrit Rietveld. The book itself testifies to the possibilities and dynamism of the field of design with its unique shape, its playful layout and the witty remarks and quotations throughout. . . . . [see book details]

  Artwork by El Lissitzky, Peter Smithson. Contributions by Stefan Wewerka, Axel Bruchauser, Mies van der Rohe. Text by Alison Smithson. Paperback, 9 x 10 in. / 192 pgs / 126 color / 124 b&w. Publication Date: 8/2/2000 List Price: US $40.00

  Gregory R. Miller & Co. The Furniture of Poul Kjærholm: Catalogue Raisonné The Furniture of Poul Kjærholm: Catalogue Raisonné is the comprehensive and definitive reference work on one of the most important and profound designers of the twentieth century. Poul Kjærholm (Denmark, 1929-80) was a furniture architect whose unique aesthetic language combined industrial materials and techniques with a craftsman's approach to details and materials. The catalogue has been authored by the American architect Michael Sheridan, an internationally recognized expert on Scandinavian architecture and design and the world's foremost authority on Kjærholm. This volume includes 70 entries that document, analyze and describe all of Kjærholm's realized designs. The entries include furniture dimensions and information about materials, as well as a wealth of drawings and vintage photographs. The book features the renowned Modernist photographer Keld Helmer-Petersen's iconic photographs of Kjaerholm's work. Helmer-Petersen was Kjærholm's creative partner for three decades and documented his furniture and exhibitions over this period. Sheridan's biographical essay traces and discusses the . . . . [see book details]

  Foreword by Hanne Kjærholm. Text by Michael Sheridan. Hardback, 8.75 x 8.75 in. / 224 pgs / 230 b&w. Publication Date: 2/1/2008 List Price: US $90.00

  Poligrafa Jean Prouvé: Objects and Furniture Design By Architects As a young man, Jean Prouvé (1901-1984) longed to become an engineer, but as his family could not afford the requisite training, at 15 he was apprenticed to a master blacksmith in Paris. Prouvé opened his own smithy in Nancy in 1923, and shortly thereafter produced his first furniture made from thin sheet steel. Right away, Prouvé's sparse, geometric aesthetic appealed to avant garde architects such as Robert Mallet-Stevens and Le Corbusier, who commissioned ironwork from him, and in 1929, invited Prouvé to join the new Union des Artistes Modernes, a group of artists and designers championing the Modernist style. In the early 1940s, due to the scarcity of steel during World War II, Prouvé began working mostly with wood. Besides creating furniture, he also explored designs for pre-fabricated housing, constructing dwellings for the homeless. But by the 1960s, Prouvé's austere style seemed passé, and he fell foul of fashion's whims; . . . . [see book details]

  Hardcover, 6.45x 8.25 in. / 128 pgs / 220 color / 20 b&w. Publication Date: 11/1/2007 List Price: US $30.00

  Silvana Editoriale Low Cost Design Low Cost Design is based on the principle that the most innovative design ideas are probably not the ones passing through patent offices. Functioning as a visual dictionary of everyday ingenuity and self-sufficiency, and spanning Northern Europe and the Mediterranean, Low Cost Design catalogues inspiring examples of the creative repurposing of detritus, and of overlooked land, by ordinary people—whether for reasons of subsistence, politics or sheer artistry. Thus, a flowerpot and a section of a fence become an improvised barbeque; a tree stump on a sidewalk is carved into a makeshift one-seater. The innovations are classified as either "objects" or "actions," demonstrating a decentralized but palpable European movement conscious of avoiding waste. Low Cost Design features an essay by the artist and designer Daniele Pario Perra, who in 2001 began the Design on the Cheap database. . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Daniele Pario Perra. Text by Emiliano Gandolfi, Daniele Pario Perra, Pierluigi Sacco, Francesco Morace, Beppe Finessi. Flexi, 8.75 x 11 in. / 216 pgs / 320 color. Publication Date: 3/31/2011 List Price: US $50.00

  MFA Publications The Maker's Hand American Studio Furniture, 1940-1990 The Studio Furniture movement began around the middle of the twentieth century, as a revival of the Victorian Arts and Crafts Movement, and as a reaction against the ongoing domination of mass-produced rote furniture. Over the course of subsequent decades, studio furniture has taken many directions, from the reproduction of period styles to designs that resemble sculpture more than furniture. The Maker's Hand is the most authoritative book to date about the Studio Furniture movement. It details the history and development of Studio Furniture, from its origins in post-World War II America to its current prominence. Also included are extensive biographies of some 40 furniture makers, as well as guides to the main exhibitions, schools and galleries. Profusely illustrated with works by Wendell Castle, Sam Maloof, Molly Gregory, Wharton Esherick and many others, this is an indispensable guide to the inventive world of Studio Furniture. . . . . [see book details]

  Text by Edward S. Cooke, Kelly H. L'Ecuyer, Gerald W. R. Ward. Pbk, 9.25 x 10.25 in. / 168 pgs / 104 color / 71 b&w. Publication Date: 9/30/2009 List Price: US $35.00

  Damiani Maria Pergay: Complete Works 1957-2010 Maria Pergay: Complete Works 1957-2010 is the first comprehensive survey of the work of the legendary French furniture designer, whose work has attracted clients and collectors from around the world for decades. Pergay is most renowned for her use of stainless steel, which she began exploring in 1968 with the now iconic Flying Carpet Daybed and the Ring Chair. Since 1957, Pergay has worked with everyone from Pierre Cardin to the Saudi Royal family, designing an extravagant Turtle Sofa for the couturier and the interiors of the Al Hada palace in Riyahd. In the late 1980s and through the 1990s, the designer received important commissions from Russia and continued to pursue her innovative work in stainless steel, combining it with materials such as mother of pearl, lacquer and precious woods to striking effect. Since her major New York exhibition in 2006, Pergay, now 80, has exhibited internationally and has continued to . . . . [see book details]

  By Suzanne Demisch, Stephane Danant. Text by Adam Lindemann. Hbk, 9.5 x 11.75 in. / 325 pgs / 300 color. Publication Date: 9/30/2011 List Price: US $70.00

  Metropolis Books Material Change Design Thinking and the Social Entrepreneurship Movement Material Change shows that there is something going on in design-something powerful. Design can change the world. This new way of thinking is revolutionizing the business of design and the design of business. Material Change is the story of trained architect and entrepreneur Eve Blossom, who built her design business, Lulan Artisans, on a framework of ecological, economic, social, communal and cultural sustainability. Lulan Artisans is a for-profit social venture that designs, produces and markets contemporary textiles made by Blossom's collaborators-over 650 weavers, dyers, spinners and finishers in Cambodia, India, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. Lulan's mission is to effect systemic social change: to give workers an ample wage and benefits; to bring stability to communities by creating jobs; to preserve artisanal skills; and to provide economic alternatives so that individuals can make better economic choices. In the book, we follow Eve's process of forming a grassroots, for-profit social venture. She openly shares her story . . . . [see book details]

  By Eve Blossom. Foreword by Yves Behar. Flexi, 7 x 8.5 in. / 160 pgs / 130 color. Publication Date: 10/31/2011 List Price: US $30.00

  Hatje Cantz Mies and Modern Living In 1929 Barcelona was host to the World Arts Fair, an international architecture and design exposition attended by members of the Spanish royalty and many senior European government officials. It was an occasion for cultural grandstanding, an opportunity for countries to parade their native talent. So when the German government approached Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) to design a pavilion, he was left in no doubt as to their expectations--and he met them, erecting an ultra-modern creation in glass, steel and four types of marble. Once he had accomplished this, Mies then set about designing furniture for his building--something none of his competitors appear to have thought of. Thus was born the iconic Barcelona chair, an ingenious blend of clean Modernist steel tubing and comfort-appeal cushioning. Gathering the proceedings of a 2007 symposium on van der Rohe, this publication takes the Barcelona chair as a starting point to address his . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Helmut Reuter, Birgit Schulte. Hardback, 9.75 x 11.25 in. / 288 pgs / 250 color. Publication Date: 2/1/2009 List Price: US $75.00

  MFA Publications Musical Instruments MFA Highlights Musical instruments are among the most meaningful artifacts produced by humankind, a marriage of technology, artistry, symbolism, religion and entertainment. Musical Instruments presents over 100 examples from the MFA's world-renowned collection, spanning a breadth of centuries and cultures, offering a brilliant array of instruments as producers of both aural and visual delight. The pieces shown here--which range from an ancient Greek trumpet to a modern lap steel guitar, from earthenware panpipes to the phenomenally complex Indonesian gamelan--are remarkable not only for the myriad sounds they produce, but also for their attractive, at times breathtaking, extraordinarily varied physical aspects. As objects of both cultural expression and sculptural craft, these are among the most exquisite and intriguing instruments ever created. More than a mere picture book, however, this latest title in the MFA Highlights series offers, as do its companion volumes, an accessible introduction to the genre, bringing to the fore the full . . . . [see book details]

  Essay by Darcy Kuronen. Paperback, 7 x 9 in. / 256 pgs / 120 color / 10 b&w. Publication Date: 7/2/2004 List Price: US $19.95

  Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution Piranesi as Designer Justly renowned as one of the finest printmakers of the eighteenth century, Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) is best known for his etched views of Rome and its antiquities, as well as for his highly influential suite of drawings entitled Carceri, or Imaginary Prisons. Trained as an architect, Piranesi revolutionized architecture and design through his combination of decorative elements and ornamental motifs from the Egyptian, Etruscan, Greek and Roman styles; yet his work as the designer of interiors and furnishings has been largely uncelebrated until now. Published in conjunction with a major exhibition at the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, in 2007, Piranesi as Designer features ten accessible essays and more than 300 rare illustrations that explore the far-reaching impact of Piranesi's style on three centuries of architecture and design. . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Sarah E. Lawrence. Text by John Wilton-Ely, Peter Eisenman, Alvar Gonzàlez-Palacios, Michael Graves, Alice Jarrard, Peter N. Miller, Ronald De Leeuw, David Rosand, Bent Sørensen. Pbk, 9 x 11 in. / 360 pgs / 325 color. Publication Date: 9/15/2007 List Price: US $45.00

  Stichting Kunstboek Richard Hutten: Works in Use The Dutch designer Richard Hutten is barely 38 and has already made an indelible mark in the international design world. In 2008, if everything goes according to plan, a design academy carrying his name will open in Seoul. Orders for his contemporary version of the Berlage chair are difficult to keep up with, and his Domoor mug, Bronto chair and Zzzidt chair (also known as the "skippy") remain very successful. At the Central Museum in Utrecht, the Netherlands, he has designed the restaurant, the garden furniture and the bookshop. Hutten's designs, or "works in use," as he likes to call them, are sought after by celebrities and colleagues alike, and several of his colleagues testify to their strong feelings about his oeuvre in this exceptional monograph: Jeffrey Bernett, Aaron Betsky, Humberto Campana, Konstantin Grcic, Masamichi Katayama, Karl Lagerfeld, Karim Rashid, Marcel Wanders and many others. Paola Antonelli introduces. . . . . [see book details]

  Essays by Paola Antonelli, Aaron Betsky and Brigitte Fitoussi. Interviews with Humberto Campana, Konstantin Grcic, Karl Lagerfeld, Karim Rashid, et al. Boxed, 10.75 x 8.5 in. / 240 pgs / 700 color. Publication Date: 5/1/2006 List Price: US $70.00

  NAi Publishers Rietveld's Universe The foremost designer of the De Stijl group, and the author of its most iconic product, the 1917 Red and Blue chair, Gerrit Rietveld (1888-1964) stands today as one of the last century's most adventurous designers and architects. The iconicity of the Red and Blue chair, and of the Rietveld Schröder House in Utrecht (which was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2000), have perhaps overshadowed the incredible scope and longevity of Rietveld's career, for this consummate modernist polymath designed on every scale, from a bus stop to a small village, and he continued his experiments right up to his death in 1964. Today his works are to be found in the collection of every serious design museum. Rietveld's Universe is a comprehensive publication on the range of this great designer's work, reproducing works and presenting new research and perspectives, including contributions by leading international scholars. Focusing on Rietveld's . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Marie-Thérèse van Thoor, Ida van Zijl, Rob Dettingmeijer. Pbk, 9.5 x 9 in. / 277 pgs / 200 color / 120 b&w. Publication Date: 1/31/2011 List Price: US $47.50

  R 20th Century/Whitehaus Media Renate Müller: Toys & Design Made of beige open-weave jute with colored leather accents, Renate Müller's toy animals and shapes are some of the sweetest, most endearing and simply artistic toys that have ever been made. They were conceived in the early 1960s, as part of an endeavor launched by Helene Haeusler at the Sonneberg Technical College for Toy Design in Germany, and were designed to fulfill the need for large, brightly colored stuffed animals to enhance orthopedic exercises and balance coordination for mentally and physically handicapped children. Müller's toys debuted at the Leipzig Fair in 1967, were tested by psychiatric hospitals and clinics throughout Germany and proved a huge hit. In fact, her alligators and rhinos were so lovable, her fabric bowling pins so beautifully made, her hippos and elephants so comforting, that they quickly became coveted by design buffs worldwide, and they have remained so to this day. In 1990, Müller took over the . . . . [see book details]

  Foreword by Evan Snyderman. Text by Reinhild Schneider. Clth, 11.25 x 8.5 in. / 80 pgs / 40 color / 26 b&w. Publication Date: 3/31/2011 List Price: US $45.00

  JRP|Ringier Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec: Lianes Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec have been key players in French design of the 2000s; among their most popular works are their "Disintegrated Kitchen" (1997), "Closed Bed" (1998), "Spring Chair" (2000) and "Vegetal Chair" (2009), and they have also worked with Issey Miyake and Camper. This volume provides a survey of their activities. . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Clément Dirié. Texts by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, Clément Dirié, Alessandro Mendini. Hbk, 7 x 9.5 in. / 64 pgs / 51 color. Publication Date: 1/31/2011 List Price: US $39.95

  The Museum of Modern Art, New York Safe: Design Takes on Risk Safety is an instinctive need that has guided human choices throughout history. Now more than ever, it has become not only a focus, but almost an obsession. Designers are trained to mediate between disruptive change and normalcy and can soothe people's anxiety. When scientific revolutions happen, they translate them into objects that people can understand and use. Good design provides protection and security without sacrificing the need to innovate and invent. This book and the exhibition that it accompanies document the unique objects that designers have created to answer people's needs, both physical and psychological. Physical objects include shelters for victims of disasters and homeless people, hideaway furniture and personal armor and protective gear, while psychological objects include those that thwart identity theft, offer self-defense, and provide comforting reassurance. The objects presented here reflect how good design goes hand-in-hand with personal needs. This book includes an introductory essay by Paola Antonelli, Curator . . . . [see book details]

  Edited and with Introduction by Paola Antonelli. Essays by Phil Patton, Marie O'Mahony and Cameron Sinclair. Paperback, 7.5 x 9.5 in. / 236 pgs / 275 color. Publication Date: 10/15/2005 List Price: US $29.95

  Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution Set in Style: The Jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels Since its opening on the place Vendôme in Paris in 1906, renowned jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels has played a leading role in setting style and design trends in luxury jewelry and in the development of the art of jewelry design. Van Cleef & Arpels pieces have been worn by such style icons as the Duchess of Windsor, Grace Kelly and Elizabeth Taylor, and the company's prestige has spread throughout the globe, thanks to an unending list of prominent commissions issued by royal and imperial courts and the world's rich and famous. Set in Style: The Jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels explores the historical significance of the firm's contributions to jewelry design in the twentieth century, including the establishment of Van Cleef & Arpels in New York in 1939. The book features more than 350 of Van Cleef & Arpels' most celebrated works from museum and private collections worldwide, including . . . . [see book details]

  Text by Sarah D. Coffin, Suzy Menkes, Ruth Peltason. Clth, 9.5 x 12 in. / 288 pgs / 350 color. Publication Date: 5/31/2011 List Price: US $55.00

  MFA Publications Silver of the Americas, 1600-2000 American Silver in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Volume 3 At more than 500 pages, and featuring 1000 detailed reproductions, this handsome, extensive collection catalogue complements and updates Kathryn C. Buhler's landmark 1972 opus, American Silver, 1655-1825. It includes all of the American silver in the Museum of Fine Art's esteemed collection, including many previously unpublished works acquired between 1972 and 2004. Also featured are a number of works created after 1825 that did not appear in the Buhler catalogue--such as a Tiffany pitcher from the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial, the very first piece of American silver acquired by the museum. Silver of the Americas presents a chronological sweep from the seventeenth century to the present, with chapters on the Colonial era, the Federal period, the Revival styles of the nineteenth century, the aesthetic movement, the Arts and Crafts period, and twentieth-century Modernism, as well as a chapter on silver from Mexico and South America and another devoted to church silver. This . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Gerald W.R. Ward and Jeannine Falino. Text by Gerald W.R. Ward, Jeannine Falino, Jane Port, Rebecca Ann Gay Reynolds. Hardcover, 9 x 10.75 in. / 544 pgs / 1,000 b&w and 30 color. Publication Date: 2/1/2007 List Price: US $100.00

  Cicada Books State of Craft In the first decade of the twenty-first century, as the perils of globalized consumerism became an omnipresent reality and a topic of which all were aware, a small critical mass began to eschew mass-produced domestic design in favor of producing handmade and recycled objects themselves. The craft revolution of the early 2000s gained early visibility with the renewed popularity of knitting, which in turn revived the dying arts of crochet, embroidery, bricolage and macramé, seeping from the fringes of the culture into its mainstream. In 2005, Victoria Woodcock and Ziggy Hanaor edited Making Stuff, one of the first alternative craft books to hit the shelves and draw the spotlight to this burgeoning movement. With State of Craft, Woodcock and Hanaor shake things up once again, offering a fully illustrated how-to guide for making everything from mobiles to lampshades. State of Craft features interviews and contributions from all the hottest international craft . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Victoria Woodcock, Ziggy Hanaor. Pbk, 6.75 x 8.75 in. / 224 pgs / 380 color. Publication Date: 10/31/2011 List Price: US $19.95

  The Museum of Modern Art, New York Talk to Me Design and the Communication between People and Objects Since the introduction of the personal computer in the early 1980s, many objects have been designed to have capabilities well beyond their immediate use or appearance. Whether openly and actively or in subtle, subliminal ways, these objects talk to us, and we have come to expect interaction with them. Contemporary designers, besides giving objects form and function, write their initial scripts--the foundation for useful and satisfying conversations. Talk to Me focuses on projects that involve such direct interaction--including interfaces, websites, video games, devices and tools, and information systems--as well as installations that establish practical, emotional, or even sensual connections to cities, companies, governmental institutions, or other individuals. The featured objects range in date from the late 1980s to today, with particular attention given to the last five years and projects currently in development. Organized thematically, Talk to Me introduces design practices that are increasingly crucial to our world and demonstrates how . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Paola Antonelli. Text by Paola Antonelli, Jamer Hunt, Alexandra Midal, Kevin Slavin, Khoi Vinh. Pbk, 9 x 10.5 in. / 208 pgs / 407 color. Publication Date: 7/31/2011 List Price: US $35.00

  Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution Why Design Now? National Design Triennial Why design now? As issues of ecology and sustainable living continue to gain in urgency and topicality, design has come to the forefront of the arts as the discipline best equipped to meet today's challenges. Designers around the world are rising to this clarion call by creating products, buildings, landscapes, messages and more that address important social and ecological problems. Why Design Now? National Design Triennial accompanies the fourth installation in Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum's acclaimed National Design Triennial exhibition series. Designed by Michael Bierut, a partner in the award-winning design firm Pentagram, Why Design Now? is the first Triennial book to be truly international in reach, with 134 designers and projects in more than 44 countries. With eight essays by four Cooper-Hewitt curators, project profiles and more than 350 color illustrations, many of which have never been published before, Why Design Now? offers a glimpse into contemporary innovation, and an . . . . [see book details]

  Text by Ellen Lupton, Cara McCarty, Matilda McQuaid, Cynthia Smith. Hbk, 8.5 x 11 / 192 pgs / 370 color. Publication Date: 5/31/2010 List Price: US $40.00