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Look of the Century: Design Icons of the 20th Century by DK Publishing ,Michael Tambini (Author)
Developed in association the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum, the book examines the objects of our century in a clear, compelling visual format, with lots of information on the century's leading designers and movements.
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Amazon.com
Michael Tambini, founder of Pentagram Design in London, presents The Look of the Century,
a thorough yet concise wrap-up of the most outstanding designs of the
last 100 years. A record of human inventiveness, as well as of human
consumption, this weighty little softcover volume (512 pages) looks at
various stylistic movements, their leaders, and the key developments
and innovations that have shaped our aesthetic environment.
Chock-a-block with thousands of small color reproductions and written
in an extremely accessible style, this book serves as a kind of field
guide to the world of products. It is organized into sections on each
of the various rooms in a house and chapters on leisure,
transportation, the office, graphics, advertising, and packaging. Form,
craft, detail, size, longevity, availability, and cost are addressed
for each item. And more complex issues like the impact of assembly-line
production, the phenomenon of mass consumption, the notion of corporate
identity, the consequences of the design industry for the environment,
and the effects of computers on product forms and their construction
are explored as well. Also included is an A to Z of designers'
biographies, as well as a glossary of terms. --A.C. Smith
From Publishers Weekly
What's amazing, after
looking through Michael Tambini's The Look of the Century, is how
similar many things are at the two finials of this 100-year period.
Clearly, those items most influenced by technology have changed
greatly. The 1900 Graphophone, which played a cylinder, looks nothing
like the Denon Stacking System D-90, which plays a CD. But design of
the century has been marked by modernism, so Jean Puiforcat's 1928 tea
service isn't unimaginably far from the Alessi tea set of 55 years
later. Nor are watches or vases or chairs or fountain pens. But what's
most interesting about this book published by DK Publishing in
Association with the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum,
Smithsonian,is to watch the (sometimes cyclical) development over time.
BOMC alternate.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Book Description
From Frank Lloyd Wright to
Vivienne Westwood, from sunglasses to sofas, The Look of the Century is
the ultimate visual reference to the material world of the last ten
decades. Developed in association the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum, the
book examines the objects of our century in a clear, compelling visual
format, with lots of information on the century's leading designers and
movements.
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