Hardcover. NY, Harry N. Abrams, 1st, 2000, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 300 pages. This book accompanies a major traveling exhibition that showcases works by some of the most visionary designers and architects, from chairs and tables to jewelry and entire buildings.
Softcover. US, Laurence King Publishing, 1st, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 186 pages, illustrated throughout in color and b&w. Light edgewear to wrappers, else a clean, tight copy. This is the first comprehensive survey of Modernist graphic design as it emerged in America in the period from 1920 and 1960 in various media--advertising, information design, brand identity, magazine design, book design, and posters. It examines the great works which by mid-century had defined American graphic design. The book begins with a section devoted to the emergence of Modernism and its major historical influence, such as European avant-garde movements, popular culture, educational innovations such as the Bauhaus School, architecture, industrial design, and photography. The heart of the book includes the key works of mid-century Modernism as it matured into a fully-formed American style, bringing together such great names as Alexey Brodovitch, Lester Beall, Paul Rand, Saul Bass, Will Burtin, and Alvin Lustig. The final section looks at the impact of and reactions to this new movement as graphic design in America matured in the 1960s and beyond.
Hardcover. Toronto, McClelland & Stewart, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, A fully illustrated, stylish look back at the story behind a Canadian design icon. With 250 illustrations, including previously unpublished drawings, rare film stills, confidential memorandums, and original photography,The Art of Clairtone is a candid and in-depth look at the company's skyrocketing success and sensational collapse.
Hardcover. NY, Assouline, 1st, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 128 pages. Internationally renowned artist Bernar Venet continues to challenge himself with a wholly original, fresh collection of furniture. Although designed to satisfy a non-artistic, purely domestic need, furniture fits naturally into the range of Venet's creative activities. Using a blow-torch to cut thick sheets of laminated, crude steel, he sets up a contrast between solidity and fragility, emphasizing rawness and indestructibility. Venet's furniture reflects the artistic vision he has developed throughout his ceuvre. He emphasizes functional simplicity and a plainness underpinned by notions of utilitarianism.
Hardcover. London, Frances Lincoln, 1st, 2011, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 255 pages, illustrated in color and b&w. Brenda Colvin (1897-1981) ranks with Sylvia Crowe and Geoffrey Jellicoe as a pioneer of twentieth-century landscape design in Britain. This first full account of her life and work demonstrates her importance. Early in her career Colvin visited the USA to see the new civic landscaping projects, especially the parkways. In England she transformed the landscapes of power stations, reservoirs, industrial sites, new towns and national parks and worked on private gardens. Her simple planting style and her ecological approach had enormous influence. NOTE: There is a very mild ripple/wave throughout the pages, otherwise a clean, bright copy. DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.
Softcover. NY, Princeton Architectural Press, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 224 pages, color photos. Charles Rose embraces the vast and varied panorama of the American landscape. The profile of his award-winning Paintrock Camp in Hyattville, Wyoming, follows the contours of a nearby canyon; Roses's adaptive reuse of an industrial structure in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood preserves the existing streetscape while creating a seamless flow between inside and out; and the shape of his United States Port of Entry project in Del Rio, Texas, was determined by the scorching Texan sun and features sustainable landscapes. With surprising use of volumes, materials, and geometries, agile movement of spaces, and an active language of planes and lines, Rose creates dynamic, expressive architecture that reminds us that buildings can be both sensitive to their locale and embrace the timeless principles of geometry, material, light, and shadow. Clean copy.
Hardcover. New Haven CT, Yale University Press, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 320 pages. From the 1920s through the 1950s, two individuals, Joseph Urban and Norman Bel Geddes, did more, by far, to create the image of "America" and make it synonymous with modernity than any of their contemporaries. Urban and Bel Geddes were leading Broadway stage designers and directors who turned their prodigious talents to other projects, becoming mavericks first in industrial design and then in commercial design, fashion, architecture, and more. The two men gave shape to the most quintessential symbols of the modern American lifestyle, including movies, cars, department stores, and nightclubs, along with private homes, kitchens, stoves, fridges, magazines, and numerous household furnishings.Illustrated with more than 130 photographs of their influential designs, this book tells the engrossing story of Urban and Bel Geddes. Christopher Innes shows how these two men with a background in theater lent dramatic flair to everything they designed and how this theatricality gave the distinctive modernity they created such wide appeal. If the American lifestyle has been much imitated across the globe over the past fifty years, says Innes, it is due in large measure to the designs of Urban and Bel Geddes. Together they were responsible for creating what has been called the "Golden Age" of American culture.
Hardcover. Taschen, 1st, 2006, Book: N, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 792 pages. This volume covers the second half of the 1970s, an era marked by the oil crisis and the related global economic crisis. For the first time, architecture and design dealt with alternative resources, ecological building methods, and recyclable materials. Nevertheless synthetics remained present in many fields, especially in interior design. Examples of projects featured are the postmodern and lightflooded buildings by Richard Meier, the modernistic buildings by Foster Associates, the Centre Georges Pompidou by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, and the buildings of the Japanese architects Arata Isozaki and Kisho Kurakawa. The industrial design of modern transport systems, office machines, and electrical appliances is also highlighted.
Hardcover. Taschen, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 580 pages. 1940-1949: Destruction and Reconstruction. This volume covers the 1940s, when fascism came to a climax and World War II led to the extensive destruction of Europe. But the second half of this decade was also a time of reconstruction, democratization, and the related search for new social values. Unlike in Nazi Germany, in fascist Italy Modernism was able to advance in architecture and design - as proved impressively by the buildings and designs by Carlo Mollino, Gian Luigi Banfi, Franco Albini, and Giuseppe Terragni that are documented herein. After the war, Organic Design emerged alongside the International style. This edition reflects upon the economic, social, and cultural problems of the time, but also shows how the force of the avant-garde continued to thrive in Italy, Switzerland, Scandinavia and the USA. Reports and features on modern industrial design and furniture, as well as domestic and business interiors stand side by side with articles about novel prefabricated houses. In publisher's shrink wrap. Due to size and weight, DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.
Hardcover. New York, Harper Collins, 1st, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 250 pages. Hardcover. Extensive color photographs throughout. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket.
Hardcover. New York, Harper Design, 1st, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 256 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Color photographs. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. A lavish, gorgeously designed full-color collection that showcases the designs of Dorothy and Otis Shepard, two groundbreaking giants of early twentieth-century American advertising. Dorothy and Otis Shepard are the unsung heroes of early twentieth-century North American visual culture. Together, they were the first American graphic designers to work in multiple mediums and scales with equal skill and vision, and their work remains brilliant; yet their names are little known today. Dorothy and Otis chronicles their story in detail for the first time. It explores the Shepards' penchant for abstraction and modernism, and shows how the advent of billboard advertising inspired their creativity--large campaigns that matched the grandeur of their lifestyle. Throughout, it demonstrates how their influence touched all aspects of consumer culture--from collaborating on the packaging for Wrigley's Gum and designing uniforms and logos for the Chicago Cubs to planning and promoting the resort island Catalina, where Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Clark Gable, and other celebrities frequented.
Softcover. Liverpool Univeristy Press, 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, pages. In 1916 Thomas Wallis founded a new practice, Wallis, Gilbert & Partner, primarily to collaborate with an American company in the design of factories to be constructed of reinforced concrete. Designing factories was not then popular among architects and many manufacturers regarded the employment of an architect a wanton extravagance. Wallis's move could be seen as a reckless gamble, but his and his partners' subsequent achievements suggest that his choice had been well considered; some of the best known inter-war industrial building - Firestone, Hoover, The Gramophone Company, Glaxo Laboratories - were their work. In Form and Fancy, Dr Skinner looks first at the biographical background of Wallis, at the history and organisation of the partnership he founded, and at the many factors that contributed to its reputation in the inter-war years. She then offers a perspective on architectural thought and activity in that period, and of the attitudes and influences on factory design. Designs by the partnership for over one hundred factories and factory buildings have been discovered and at the core of the book is a third chapter which analyses and assesses them. Dr Skinner concludes with an evaluation of the design philosophy of Wallis, Gilbert & Partners, the aim of which was to contribute to the successful pursuit of business by the companies that commissioned them.
Hardcover. NY, Limited Editions Club, 1966, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, beige buckram and boards covered in dark blue paper. Copy #794 of 1500 designed and printed by Joseph Blumenthal at the Spiral Press and illustrated with 15 wash drawings in color by Charles Raymond. SIGNED by the illustrator on the colophon page. Dickens' tenth novel, unusual from his others in its short length, and for not having scenes set in London. The satirical novel is instead set in the fictitious industrial mill-town Coketown Dickens wrote this serialised novel hoping to boost the sales of his periodical 'Household Words', which it indeed did. In a blue slipcase with one corner with a minor bump.
Hardcover. NY, Thames & Hudson Ltd, 1st, 2005, Book: N, Hardcover, 256 pages. In 1936, the founder of Herman Miller Inc, D. J. De Pree, committed Herman Miller to 'modern' furniture, partly because he saw a moral dimension to Gilbert Rohde's clean designs, honest materials and lack of ornamentation. In 1984, a major impetus behind Bill Stumpf and Don Chadwick's Equa chair was a desire to give a reasonably priced, comfortable, good-looking chair to everybody in offices - not just the top bosses. These are just two examples of the best work done at Herman Miller. The company is concerned with larger issues of humanity, equality and bettering the world by creating great places to work through design, and has, perhaps more than any other company, revolutionized office systems and furniture in the workplace. This book is the most up-to-date compilation available of the design efforts and results from Herman Miller since its foundation, reflecting its most recent work, activities and products. But it goes beyond simply cataloguing the work of the famous design team; it shows design-related attitudes of HMI and provides examples of the benefits of creative thinking and problem-solving. Written in clear, engaging prose, Herman Miller is a must-read for anyone interested in design.
Hardcover. NY, Rizzoli, 1st, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 272 pages. In 1936, Herman Miller Inc. founder D. J. De Pree committed Herman Miller to "modern" furniture. The rest is history: their continuing collaboration with some of the giants of modern design has made Herman Miller synonymous with quality in design. Herman Miller examines the company's powerful contributions by looking at the problems that design can solve and how creative thinking can benefit the world. Aside from having produced icons of modern furniture, Herman Miller has revolutionized office systems and furniture in the workplace.
Hardcover. Milan, A. Mondadori, 1st, 1945, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 6 unnumbered pages including the inside of both covers. Publisher's thick pictorial boards backed in white cloth-patterned paper & saddle stapled Lightly soiled, edges slightly rubbed, otherwise very good. A nice example with all flaps and concealed color illustrations in perfect working order. Laid in is a typed English translation of the text. Bruno Munari was "one of the most celebrated names in twentieth century Italy in graphic designing who fundamentally altered the landscape of many fields of visual arts, futurism and modernism He is credited for his contribution to industrial design, sculpture, painting, literature, film and concrete art." A collector's copy of this scarce title.
Hardcover. Cambridge MA, MIT Press, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 219 pages. This book documents the work of designer Brooks Stevens. It includes 250 illustrations of designs by Stevens and his firm, many in color, detailed studies of individual designs, interpretative essays, and several key writings by Stevens himself. Believing that an industrial designer "should be a businessman, an engineer, and a stylist, in that order," Stevens created thousands of ingenious and beautiful designs for industrial and household products-including a clothes dryer with a window in the front, a wide-mouthed peanut butter jar, and the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile.
Softcover. The MIT Press , reprint, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, The first publication documenting the work of Brooks Stevens, one of America's most influential twentieth-century designers. A long overdue introduction to the work of visionary industrial designer Brooks Stevens (1911-1995). Believing that an industrial designer "should be a businessman, an engineer, and a stylist, in that order," Stevens created thousands of ingenious and beautiful designs for industrial and household products--including a clothes dryer with a window in the front, a wide-mouthed peanut butter jar, and the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile. ("There's nothing more aerodynamic than a wiener," he explained.) He invented a precursor to the SUV by turning a Jeep into a station wagon after World War II, and streamlined steam irons so that they resembled aircraft. It was Brooks Stevens who, in 1954, coined the phrase "planned obsolescence," defining it as "instilling in the buyer the desire to own something a little newer, a little better, a little sooner than is necessary." This concept has since been blamed for everything from toasters that stop working to today's throwaway culture, but Stevens was simply recognizing the intentionally ephemeral nature of a designer's work. Asked once to name his favorite design, he replied, "none, because every one would have to be restudied for the tastes of tomorrow." Clean copy still in publisher's shrinkwrap.
Softcover. San Francisco , Chronicle Books, 1st, 1992, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 120 pages. Softcover. A very clean, unmarked copy with only minor edgewear. A history of American typography and graphic design throughout the industrial age. 200 color illustrations throughout.
Hardcover. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, reprint, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, gray cloth with red and black design, 44 pages illustrated in color by Burton. Mike and his trusty steam shovel, Mary Anne, dig deep canals for boats to travel through, cut mountain passes for trains, and hollow out cellars for city skyscrapers -- the very symbol of industrial America. But with progress come new machines, and soon the inseparable duo are out of work. Mike believes that Mary Anne can dig as much in a day as one hundred men can dig in a week, and the two have one last chance to prove it and save Mary Anne from the scrap heap. Bright, clean reprint of this classic, lacks dust jacket.
Hardcover. Potsdam, Germany, H.F. Ullmann, 1st, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 512 pages, illustrated in color, b&w. Like new in publisher's shrink-wrap. A retrospective of the most important developments and highlights in design of the past 100 years, beginning with the latest trends for 2011. Concise texts accompanying the individually featured designs, as well as excurses on selected themes and styles written by experts, round off this benchmark illustrated book. PLEASE NOTE: DUE TO WEIGHT, DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.
1966, Book: Very Good, Color art by Martin of a red construction crane towering next to skyscraper buildings. 8 3/4 X 12", very good. PLEASE NOTE: The image shown is a scan of the actual product you are purchasing. What you see is what you get. The sheet may have some imperfections beyond the cropped area shown. You are buying THE COVER ONLY- not the entire magazine. Your order will be placed carefully between stiff paper in clear plastic envelope, then packed in a rigid cardboard sleeve to prevent bending.
Hardcover. Los Angeles, Getty Research Institute, 1st, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover in pictorial boards. From 1940 to 1990, Los Angeles rapidly evolved into one of the most populous and influential industrial, economic, and creative capitals in the world. During this era, the region was transformed into a laboratory for cutting-edge architecture. Overdrive: L. A. Constructs the Future, 1940 - 1990 examines these experiments and their impact on modern design, reframes the perceptions of Los Angeles's dynamic built environment, and amplifies the exploration of the city's vibrant architectural legacy. The drawings, models, and images highlighted in the Overdrive exhibition and catalogue reveal the complex and often under-appreciated facets of Los Angeles and illustrate how the metropolis became an internationally recognized destination with a unique design vocabulary, canonical landmarks, and a coveted lifestyle. Clean copy. In publisher's shrinkwrap.
Hardcover. Phaidon, 1st thus, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 304 pages. Working in graphic, architectural, and product design, Pentagram is one of the most respected firms in the world. A collection of the work and thought of the Pentagram partners, this lavishly illustrated and--not surprisingly--beautifully designed book helps to explain the unique qualities of organization and creativity that have allowed the firm to prosper since its beginnings more than 20 years ago. The candid and insightful discussion of the business and artistic processes of design is useful for students as well as seasoned professionals. While the tone is occasionally a bit self-satisfied, the final feeling conveyed is that of a ceaselessly open and growing entity, astonished at its success, justifiably proud of its work, and aware of its status as an anomaly. Recommended for all collections with a focus on design.