About the Book
Design is all around us, it is impossible to avoid. Everything that surrounds us has been designed - from the paperclip and the iPod, to our homes and the way we live. Design: Intelligence Made Visible is epic, opinionated, comprehensive in scope and forms the definitive statement on design for this century. Written by Stephen Bayley, one of the world's best known commentators on modern culture and Terence Conran, one of the world's leading designers and arbiters of taste, this book pays tribute to the leading names, movements, materials and processes such as furniture, fashion, cars, graphics, products, signs and symbols. The book combines essential facts with authoritative opinions - everything, as the industrial designer Raymond Loewy once said, from a lipstick to a steamship - but brought right up to date.A series of essays begin by introducing how design has its place in modern cultural history including Terence Conran's definition of design. The main section of the book comprises an A-Z of iconic people, products and processes from 20th century to the present day with biographies of leading designers from past and present, as well as corporate histories, product appraisals, and witty accounts of relevant management, cultural and social theories. A major appendix has Bayley and Conran assessing the up and coming designers of today and finally a chapter on branding concludes with a provocative methodology to assess brand value.Beautifully designed and beautifully written, Design: Intelligence Made Visible is simply the indispensable guide to the contents of the modern world.
Table of Contents:
Foreword by Terence Conran - A note on good design, Introduction by Stephen Bayley - A note on 'disegno', An industrious love of art - the beginnings of design, Lawful prey - mass consumption, A kilogram of stone or a kilogram of gold? Survival and revival of craft values, Hygiene of the optical - the romance of the machine, The cash value of art - America, La Ricostruzione - Italy since the fifties, Ugly, inefficient, depressing chaos - symbolism and consumer psychology, All that is solid melts into air - design since the eighties, A-Z of contents, A-Z of entries, Acknowledgments, Index of products and designers,
About the Author :
Terence Conran is one of the world's leading designers, furniture-makers, restaurateurs, retailers and founder of the Habitat group of stores, which revolutionized home furnishings in the 1960s. He is Chairman of Conran Holdings, the parent company of his retail and restaurant businesses, and Chairman of Conran & Partners, his architecture and design practice. Conran & Partners is responsible for a wide range of residential and commercial buildings around the world, including airport terminals in London and New York, the Roppongi Hills project in Tokyo, Butlers Wharf in London, housing for City Lofts across the UK, and hotels such as Great Eastern Hotel and My Hotel in London, The Fitzwilliam in Dublin, Trieste in Vienna, The Park in Bangalore and Delhi, and Niki Club in Japan. There are Conran Shops in London, Paris, New York, Tokyo, Marunouchi, Nagaya and Fukuoka, and acclaimed restaurants across the UK and in New York, Paris and Stockholm. Terence Conran also designs furniture for Content and Benchmark. Terence Conran's books include The Essential House Book, The Essential Garden Book (co-written with Dan Pearson), Terence Conran on Design, Terence Conran on London, Terence Conran on Restaurants, Kitchens, The Ultimate House Book, Bathrooms, Storage and How to Live in Small Spaces all published by Conran Octopus. Stephen Bayley is one of the world's best-known authorities on design and popular culture. He has been a design consultant working on imaginative communications projects for clients including Ford, Absolut Vodka, The Coca-Cola Company, Volkswagen Audi, Marks & Spencer, Penhaligon's, Foster Associates, Harvey Nichols, BMW, Piaggio and the V&A amongst others. He is also well-known as an outspoken commentator on art and design, contributing regularly to The Times, The Daily Mail, The Observer, The Evening Standard, The Guardian, The Spectator, The Los Angeles Times, High Life, New Statesman, The Independent and GQ. He often broadcasts and appears on various popular programmes including PM, Today, Newsnight, Start the Week, Channel 4 News, London Tonight, and Any Questions. In addition, he has lectured in universities and museums throughout Britain as well as around the world. He has also been a judge of many national and international design competitions, including Campaign Press Awards, RIBA Architectural Awards, The Building Awards, Louis Vuitton Concours d'Elegance at Hurlingham, Cartier Style et Luxe at Goodwood and BBC Good Food Awards.In 1989 he was made a Chevalier de L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France's top artistic honour, by the French Minister of Culture.
Review :
Authoritative and current, the book is also a visual delight.
Comprehensive ... A handy reference for the amateur astronomer.
The vast visible universe is depicted in detailed, full-color photos in this lengthy but hand-size atlas.
[Bayley and Conran] offer readers a crash course in design.... This is no staid or simplistic survey.
This hefty tome is a swell start to building your arsenal of cool facts. Conran and Bayley know their stuff.
Provides an encyclopedic portfolio of iconic modern design, from Johan Vaaler's paper clip to Jonathan Ive's iPod.
By carefully limiting the number of entries ...the authors [have] lots of room left over for pictures. -- Michael Lassell "Metropolitan Home" (12/01/2007)
A lively and opinionated history. The bygone age of enlightened corporate sponsorship gets loving treatment. -- Piladas Viladas "The New York Times - City Edition" (10/07/2007)
An opinionated, comprehensive history of industrial design ... an encyclopedic survey of the best 19th and 20th century industrial designers. -- Zahid Sardar "San Francisco Chronicle" (10/13/2007)
Hundreds of large gorgeous photos make this a useful resource and a fun browse.
Smartly written and gorgeously illustrated.... It's the kind of book you'll dip into repeatedly just for fun.
This essential read for designers, or anyone who wants to know more, includes more than 300 colour photographs.
This is an eclectic, stylish guidebook of design through the ages. -- Martin Cash "The Winnipeg Free Press" (12/09/2007)
Richly illustrated and elegantly packaged, the book is beautiful enough for the coffee table and encyclopedic in its scope. -- Kimberley Brown "House and Home" (11/01/2007)
This is a brilliant book. -- Bill Robertson "Star Phoenix (Saskatoon)" (12/15/2007)
Fantastic photographs and lively, Conran-esque text.... If you found the 1985 volume useful, you'll want this useful update.
Conran and Bayley ... have seamlessly orchestrated a history of design that is as eclectic as it is evocative. -- Jon Alain Guzik "Miami Modern Living" (02/01/2008)
A comprehensive directory of just about everything related to design and those who create it.... A lovely and valuable book. -- Linda Turk "Chronicle-Journal (Thunder Bay)" (02/03/2008)
Best feature: A stage-setting series of essays...by Conran and Bayley probing the evolution of design since the 19th century. -- Jennifer David "House & Home" (04/01/2008)
This is a solid purchase, especially for its reasonable price and international scope. Summing Up: Recommended. -- R. T. Clement, Northwestern University "Choice" (04/01/2008)
Nothing about design escapes the critical gaze of Bayley and Conran. -- Patrick Tivy "Reno and DAƒ(c)cor" (05/01/2008)
