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Bauhaus

June 16, 2009 by Roy Johnson

Design history: Weimar, Dessau, Berlin 1919-1933

The Bauhaus was a major landmark in the development of modernism in the early years of the last century. In concept it grew out of the German desire to form its own version of the English Arts and Crafts movement, but it quickly became influenced by constructivism and expressionism. As a movement it grew rapidly in Weimar, despite the economic recession in Germany in the 1920s – and it embraced all forms of design – typography, ceramics, furniture, architecture.

Bauhaus Its principal teachers and movers are now household names in their respective disciplines – painters Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, and Lionel Feininger; architects Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe; designers Joseph Albers and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. What made them different to earlier design movements was that they wished to make their products available for industrial production.

This is the first full-length study of the movement and its participants to be based on the papers of the Bauhaus archive – many of which are reproduced in this elegantly designed book which does its subject proud in terms of page layout and typographic design. Magdalene Droste traces both the artistic policies which were constantly changing as key personnel came and went, as well as the political and economic difficulties of keeping the institution afloat – most of which was achieved in its first phase by Walter Gropius.

The structure of the book follows the policies under its three directors – Gropius, Mayer, and van der Rohe on its three sites, Weimar, Dessau, and Berlin.

I hadn’t realised before that the curriculum also included drama, which produced mechanical ballet and abstract theatre which still seems quite avant garde now, eighty-odd years later. There are some wonderful pictures of the products of the institute: the first really modern furniture; stained glass, pottery, and rugs; plus some exquisite tableware by Marianne Brandt, who for me is the outstanding discovery of this collection.

brandt_02
Gropius presciently observed: “Much of what we today consider luxury will tomorrow be the norm” – and its true that looking at the (for then) ultra-modern chairs, tables, and kitchen cabinets is hardly any different to thumbing through a contemporary IKEA catalogue. Some of their designs were commercially successful, particularly their best-selling wallpaper designs, many of which are still in production today.

The Bauhaus is perhaps known best for its influence on modern architecture, and yet strangely enough that subject was not taught there until a demand for it was made by students and then implemented by Mies van der Rohe. Droste’s detailed accounts of the classes taught there and the examples of work produced make you wish you could sign up as a student.

The latter part of her story deals with the intense battles which went on between left and right-wing political forces over the future of the Bauhaus. These ended in 1933 with the victory of the Nazis and the closure of the institution.

If there is a weakness in this scholarly piece of work, it’s that the story is not taken beyond there. For we know that many of the principal figures involved emigrated to America and continued their work in the New World . But you have to stop somewhere, and any shortfall is made up for by the quality of the illustrations,

I spotted this book in a display on modernism at Waterstone’s, selected it as the best on offer, and was amazed when I saw the price. It’s another in the astonishingly cheap and high quality publications from Taschen

© Roy Johnson 2007

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Magdalene Droste, Bauhaus, London: Taschen, 2006, pp.256, ISBN 3822821055


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Filed Under: Architecture, Design history, Graphic design, Product design Tagged With: Architecture, Bauhaus, Design, Product design

Cradle to Cradle

July 8, 2009 by Roy Johnson

re-thinking the way we make things

Cradle to Cradle is the programme for a philosophy of ecological design principles based on a consciousness of the global environment. IT raises fundamental issues about sustainability, well-used resources, and sensitivity to eco-systems. The authors are an architect and a chemist who between them tackle issues from major construction projects, to the design of shampoo and re-cyclable running shoes. It’s a work whose primary purpose it to make you think about design issues. Don’t expect glamorous colour photographs or examples of slick kettles and toasters – but be prepared to have your notions of ‘waste’ and ‘re-usability’ challenged in a radical manner.

Ecological DesignTheir stated aim is to re-think the way in which everything is made. And though they posit a very radical philosophy of using design intelligently, they are not reactionary when it comes to modern industry. In fact the book starts with an account of the Industrial Revolution which focuses on many of its good intentions – before listing its contemporary weaknesses in terms of the world’s ecology. They make their case for eco-consciousness using the very book itself:

It is printed on a synthetic ‘paper’…made from plastic resins and inorganic fillers. This material is not only waterproof, entirely durable, and (in many localities) recyclable by conventional means; it is also a prototype for the book as a technical nutrient’, that is, as a product that can be broken down and circulated indefinitely in industrial cycles – made and remade as ‘paper’ or other products

Good you might think: but the book is surprisingly heavy, and (though most people don’t know this) the biggest part of the cost of getting printed books to the public is transportation costs, based on weight.

They are also critical of what they see as shortsighted attempts to solve ecological waste by recycling:

your [recycled] rug is made of things that were never designed with this further use in mind, and wrestling them into this form has required as much energy – and generated as much waste – as producing a new carpet

The solution often proposed for these problems is called eco-efficiency – ‘doing more with less’. But they suggest that this just gives the appearance of social concern without changing the basic systems of industrial production. As they put it, ‘Being ‘less bad’ is not good: it is to accept things as they are.’

Examining the relationship of human beings to the planet at a very fundamental level, they come up with an interesting concept – that there is really no such thing as ‘waste’. Because when we throw things away, they do not go away. Indeed there is and can be no ‘away’. These things stay with us even if they are dumped in landfills, and even if they are incinerated we are still left with the by-products of combustion (including the CO2).

There is no need for shampoo bottles, toothpaste tubes, yogurt and ice-cream cartons, juice-containers, and other such packaging to last decades (or even centuries) longer than what came inside them

Some of the ideas they propose as alternatives seem rather fanciful. Recyclable televisions for instance: could their internal parts really be cost-effectively extracted and re-used? Running shoes with replaceable soles? But they do claim to have had a success with an upholstery fabric which is bio-degradable.

They are very much in favour of using local materials (think how wasteful it is transporting them from afar) and encouraging the use of local labour, which promotes the local economy.

It’s a book crying out for graphic illustration – particularly when they come to describing the ecologically positive buildings they have designed – with grass-carpeted roofs and tree-lined interiors. Nevertheless, I think this may well be one of those modern design classics which will find its way alongside Donald Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things and Viktor Papanek’s Design for the Real World as a standard text on every design curriculum.

© Roy Johnson 2002

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William McDonough and Michael Braumgart, Cradle to Cradle, New York: North Point Press, 2002, pp.193, ISBN: 0099535475


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Design for the Real World

July 14, 2009 by Roy Johnson

human-centred and ecological design principles

Design for the Real World is often tipped in design circles as one of the best overall guides to ethical design theory and practice, along with Donald Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things. Victor Papanek takes a radically user-centred approach to design, with a very strong emphasis on social and ecological consciousness. It’s obvious to see why a book like this becomes a standard text – because all his questions are very fundamental. Essentially, he bases his design judgements on political criteria. What does this object do? Who is it for? What is it made of? And do the answers to these questions have any social consequences for the rest of society?

Design for the Real WorldHe is quite uncompromising in his approach. No objects are too humble to be considered in terms of good or bad design – a hammer, a teacup, even a simple cardboard box. He is amusingly critical of famous design objects such as de Stijl and Macintosh chairs:

These square abstractions painted in shrill primaries were almost impossible to sit in; they were extremely uncomfortable. Sharp corners ripped clothing, and the entire zany construction bore no relation to the human body … The thronelike Glasgow chairs designed by Charles Rennie MacIntosh in 1902 – with six-and-one-half-foot ladderbacks [had] all the soft comforts of an orange crate.

You won’t get lots of ideas for fancy new designs, but you will get a radical method and a critical approach to design which means you will never look at a spoon or a sports car in the same way again.

En route he offers scathing analyses of multinational corporations such as fast food chains and motor car manufacturers for their often selfish and profligate policies. There’s a detailed critique of MacDonald’s packaging waste, and a clear link argued between gas-guzzling car design and US foreign policy in the middle-East. These ideas will appeal to anybody who wishes to combine design with an ecological conscience.

He also comes up with rather witty observations on ‘fashion’ and false aesthetics from time to time:

Because in any reasonably conducted home, alarm-clocks seldom travel through the air at speeds approaching five hundred miles per hour, streamlining clocks is out of place.

As an educationalist, he advances several useful problem solving techniques which could be applied in other disciplines, as well as design. But this book doesn’t let you off the hook. Whatever is being designed, he wants to know ‘Is it useful?’, ‘Does it do the job for which it is intended?’, and ‘Is it cost effective?’

If there’s a weakness, it’s that he spends a lot of time spelling out the problems of people with physical and social disabilities and calling for design solutions to them. We would all agree that these issues need attention, but personally I would rather he explained the principles of good design.

He gives plenty of examples of ‘alternative’ cheap and cheerful design solutions pioneered by his design studio and students

He’s fairly unrelenting in his argument for ecologically sound, labour-saving devices to help the underprivileged of the third world, but few of them seem entirely convincing, even when they pass prototyping.

The latter part of the book takes on the issue of design and education. Here he makes an argument for what he calls integrated design – working in teams, tackling real problems (not fashion-related) and keeping an ethical vision in mind.

The main trouble with design schools seems to be that they teach too much design and not enough about the ecological, social, economic, and political environment in which design takes place.

If you are serious about product design, put this book on your reading list. It’s full of attitude, full of ideas, and uncompromising in its approach. And it’s got a very good series of bibliographies on all topics related to the issues he discusses.

© Roy Johnson 2000

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Victor Papanek, Design for the Real World, London: Thames & Hudson, 1985, pp.394, ISBN: 0500273588


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Filed Under: Product design Tagged With: Design, Design for the Real World, Ecological design, Product design, Theory, Viktor Papanek

Design in the USA

July 9, 2009 by Roy Johnson

Product design in America 1800-2000

Design in the USA is much more interesting than its rather plain title suggests. It’s a very scholarly approach to the subject, incorporating both the economic and social history of design in America from its revolutionary origins to the present day. Jeffrey Meikle’s first chapters deal with America’s ambiguous relationship with Europe (and England in particular) before native designers begin to emerge towards the end of the nineteenth century in the form of Charles Eastlake (furniture) and Tiffany (lamps) – though I was glad to see that the novelist Edith Wharton got a mention for The Decoration of Houses (1897). Then there’s something of a leap from the end of the nineteenth century to the arrival of art deco in the 1920s.

Design in the USASince the art deco designers were influenced by the motifs they picked up from “automobiles, airplanes, zigzag bolts of electricity, and Manhattan’s skyscrapers”, one wonders why the engineers and architects who produced them are not given more consideration.

He claims that “The profession known as industrial design emerged during the Great Depression of the 1930s”, and he certainly provides a very detailed account of the design consultancies set up by Norman Bel Geddes, Raymond Lowey, and Henry Dreyfuss.

He’s particularly good at documenting the sociology of his subject – the movement of designers within their profession, and the effect on design of economic and political changes in society.

The good part of this survey is that issues of design are firmly placed within the context of American history, economics, and social change. It’s almost like reading an account of the social development of the USA in the last two centuries.

His account ends, quite tantalisingly, just as more-or-less universal access to the personal computers makes designers of us all. Now with the proliferation of web sites and blogs – plus the additional tools of digital photography and software to personalise everything from page layout to typography – the arts of design are truly democratised, which he points out is where they began in the USA two centuries earlier.

The book is very well illustrated, and there’s also a full scholarly apparatus – references, further reading for each chapter and its principal topics, a timeline matrix of design and related subjects; and a list of museums and websites.

© Roy Johnson 2005

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Jeffrey L. Meikle, Design in the USA, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, pp.252, ISBN: 0192842196


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Filed Under: Product design Tagged With: Design, Design history, Design in the USA, Product design

Design Management

May 24, 2009 by Roy Johnson

managing design strategy, processes and implementation

This new title from publishers AVA deals with the business aspects of design projects. I imagine the ideal readers would be students of design who were taking a serious interest in applying their theoretical skills to the practical demands of applying them in the world of commerce and manufacturing. The structure of the book follows that outlined in its sub-title – one section each on design strategy, then managing the design process, and finally design implementation. Each section is split into the knowledge required, a selection of case studies, and an outline of the skills needed for implementation. There is an underlying supposition that in addition to aesthetics, good design management will also take into account profitability, functionality, and even ecological issues.

Design ManagementSo it’s design with very much a practical business slant in mind. There’s an illustrated timeline of design which starts at 1759 with Josiah Wedgwood, then takes in most of the best-known names in design – from Peter Behrens, Moholy-Nagy, Raymond Loewy, Charles Eames, and Viktor Papanek, to the establishment of the design standards which have blossomed in the last ten years.

Although design is approached in the text as if it were a science or even a branch of sociology, it’s quite clear that a lot of it is connected with marketing and publicity – though at least Kathryn Best admits this by discussing such issues as ‘audience’, ‘market’, and ‘product life cycle’.

The case studies are interesting, well illustrated, and up to date – including for instance the Oyster smartcard for travel in London which eliminates the need for paper tickets, reduces queues, and keeps cash off the buses. She also has no problem illustrating all the positives of a company brand such as Apple with its iconic iPod (designed by UK’s Jonathan Ives).

The extended analysis of real-world examples range from thermal imaging devices (heat cameras) to Camper shoes, and from ecological architecture to a new Honda motor scooter. There are also interviews with leading designers from companies such as Yahoo and the National Health Service.

There’s a certain amount of idealisation in all this. Only projects launched by huge companies like AEG, Phillips, and Sony could afford such comprehensive planning of its developments. I’m sure that the majority of design projects have to make do with fewer staff and resources, and a shoestring budget compared with the methods being proposed here.

However, there are plenty of flow diagrams showing the stages of these ideal procedures – so anybody can see the models of good practice and adapt them for their own circumstances. There are also guidance sections on team working and managing creative designers. These include non-hierarchical systems of working and, it would seem, working conditions and design studios straight from the pages of Architecture Today.

The last section on project management in practice is closer to ‘management studies’ than to design. It reinforces the ideas mapped out recently by Chris Anderson in his influential essay The Long Tail – that manufacturers today are reducing their costs and increasing their performance by carrying the minimum of stock, delivering within hours instead of days or weeks, and responding instantly to the customer’s needs. If you were wondering why some shops in the clothing trade only stock what’s on display, that’s the reason why.

It’s an amazingly thorough production. It even finishes with practical suggestions for communication skills, based on the notion that designers need to be able to write effective reports and good business letters. There’s a bibliography, a webliography, suggested design journals, and a glossary. It’s also stylishly designed and produced, printed on thick matte paper stock with colour-coded pages, bound in an attractive paperback A4 format, and elegantly laid out throughout.

© Roy Johnson 2006

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Kathryn Best, Design Management: Managing Design Strategy, Process and Implementation, Lausanne: AVA, 2006, pp.215, ISBN: 2940373124


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Filed Under: Product design Tagged With: Design, Design Management, Product design, Project management

Design of the 20th Century

June 18, 2009 by Roy Johnson

pocketbook guide to major modern designers

These Taschen pocketbooks are very well produced, with high quality print, full colour illustrations, and they are amazingly cheap. I’ve bought several of them, both in the UK and abroad, and always been surprised at the integrity of the writing and the scholarship. But I have not been surprised at the quality of the illustration and the graphic design. It’s always been first rate.

Design of the 20th CenturyThis one is a collection of major designers and design companies in the twentieth century, arranged in A to Z format. Each entry consists of a biographical sketch or a historical account of a company or movement, with well-chosen colour illustrations of typical products. The authors are both experts in industrial design, both ex-Sotheby’s, and now running their own consultancy in London.

It’s amazing how many of the people represented were teachers, students, or felt the influence of the Bauhaus – Walter Gropius (architect) Marcel Breuer (furniture) Moholy-Nagy (photography) – though there are plenty from other sources – Le Corbusier (France), Charles and Ray Eames (USA), Charles Rennie Mackintosh (Scotland). Entries run from Alvar Aalto (Finland) to Frank Lloyd Wright (USA) and Marco Zanuso (Italy).

Lots of other well known names are represented: Lalique (glass) Mies van der Rohe (architecture) and Paul Rand (graphics). The one new discovery (for me) was Raymond Loewy, though I wondered why they chose to illustrate his work with a ceramic tea-set when he is renowned principally for streamlining automobiles and Greyhound coaches.

This volume is a very comforting mix of interior design, consumer products, teapots, chairs, and other domestic objects. But the main thing to say about such a high-quality yet low-price product is that it’s terrific value for money.

© Roy Johnson 2003

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Charlotte and Peter Fiell, Design of the 20th Century, Taschen, 2003, pp.190, ISBN: 3822855421


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Design Since 1900

June 30, 2009 by Roy Johnson

encyclopedia of modern design and designers

This is a comprehensive guide to all aspects of modern design. It covers graphics, consumer products, interior decor, furniture, print, advertising, plus industrial and architectural design. Entries run from the Finnish designer Alvar Aalto (who for obvious reasons always comes first in such listings) through Rene Lalique (glassware) and the multi-talented Hungarian Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, to typographist Hermann Zapf and Piet Zwart (who for the same reason always comes last).

Design Since 1900Most entries are illustrated by thumbnail graphics. It’s a shame they are not in colour, but you can’t expect everything in such a good-value production. The entries are either brief biographical sketches of individual designers (Saul Bass, Charles Eames, Raymond Loewy, Alexandr Rodchenko) with notes on why they have been so influential. There are also short histories of companies famous for their emphasis on design (Bauhaus, General Motors, Olivetti, Wiener Werkstatte).

Others include influential artistic movements (art deco, constructivism, neo-plasticism, and post-modernism) and individual products which have become icons of modern design (the Citroen DS19, Dyson vacuum cleaners, Tatlin’s Monument to the Third International).

There are notes on materials of manufacture (aluminium, formica, MDF, polyurethane) movements and schools (Deutsche Werkbund, Omega, and Black Mountain College) and explanations of technical terms such as anthropometrics, bit mapping, deconstruction, and third age design (which isn’t quite what you might think).

He even includes individual shops such as Biba, Habitat, and the Body Shop; typographists such as Neville Brody, Eric Gill, and Jan Tschichold. The only thing missing is Information Technology. There are a couple of mentions of computer games, but curiously enough not a single reference to Web design.

The text incorporates extensive cross-referencing, suggestions for further reading, and a chronological chart of design highlights since 1900.

© Roy Johnson 2004

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Guy Julier, Design Since 1900, London: Thames and Hudson, 2004, pp.224, ISBN: 0500203792


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Filed Under: Design history, Graphic design, Product design Tagged With: Decorative arts, Design, Design Since 1900, Graphic design, Product design

Design: A Short Introduction

June 27, 2009 by Roy Johnson

themes, principles, and categories of design

John Heskett kicks off this brief study by defining the term ‘design’ and shows fairly convincingly that it can cover a wide range of activities which affect “the forms and structures of the immediate world we inhabit”. There follows a quick gallop through historical attitudes to design problems, before getting under way with a look at the relationships between ‘form’, ‘function’, and ‘utility’. His focus is on design theory considered by categories (objects, communications, environments) rather than looking at the work of individual designers – though plenty of these are considered en passant.

Design: A Short IntroductionBy ‘communication’ he means the vast array of two-dimensional materials that play such an extensive role in modern life. For this read advertising, print, television, street signs, and web sites, plus hybrids such as the online promotional video. Once again he looks at general principles, but gives mention to individual designers such as David Carson, Milton Glaser, and Paul Rand.

On environment (interior and exterior design) he makes some interesting comparisons between America and Japan. Homes are much bigger in the USA, and the domestic appliances tend to be bigger and more old-fashioned. In Japan space is at such a premium that everything tends to be miniaturised, computerised, and designed to be stacked vertically, not horizontally

I was surprised he didn’t follow the logic of his own arguments here to consider the design of external environments such parks, airports, and other public spaces.

The design of ‘identities’ considers the sort of total corporate makeovers of the kind which Peter Behrens invented for the German electrical giant Allgemeine Elektrizitäts Geselschaft (AEG). He also considers disastrous examples, such as BA’s badly-judged, sixty million pounds re-launch of its visual identity with the much-mocked multicolour tailfins

Image is a projection of how a company would like to be understood by customers; identity is the reality of what a company delivers as experienced by customers. When the two are consonant, it is possible to speak of corporate integrity. If a gulf opens up between the two however, no amount of money flung at visual redesigns will rebuild customers’ confidence.

There’s a chapter on the relationship between design and business management and the politics of design in a national context which will be of particular interest to anyone with serious career ambitions.

He concludes with a glimpse into future possibilities, which gives him the chance to raise the issue of social responsibility in design – at which point I was delighted to note that he gave mention to Trevor Bayliss’ clockwork-powered radio.

This book was first issued as Toothpicks and Logos three years ago, and I have to say that placing it in the context of these ‘very short introductions’ has probably enhanced its value.

© Roy Johnson 2005

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John Heskett, Design: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, pp.148, ISBN: 0192854461


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Designing the 21st Century

June 18, 2009 by Roy Johnson

contemporary world product design and designers

This is a block-busting compendium of design and designers which is as smack up to date as it’s possible to be. It’s arranged in alphabetical order, allocating individual or group designers a few pages each to demonstrate work produced in the current century. The designers are each given a short profile and a list of exhibitions and clients, plus well-photographed examples of their work. They are also asked to respond to the question “What is your vision for the future of design?” The materials are those of everyday products – chairs, lighting, shelving, cutlery, computers (the Mac, naturally) motor cars, mobile phones, kettles, and settees.

Designing the 21st CenturyDesigners run from Werner Aisslinger and Ron Arad via the amazing Jonathan Ive, through to Helen Yardley and Michael Young. I was surprised by two things: how many of these designers had all come up with basically the same coffee table; and how many of the best designers were British.

Charlotte and Peter Fiell are a two-person encyclopedia of modern design, with a string of publications on the subject. If this doorstep size tome is not for you, try their pocket-book sized Design of the 20th Century and Industrial Design A—Z, both of which are short introductions to the same subject.

This is a visually rich collection which is doing its best to look ahead to what might happen next. Like most of Taschen’s other publications it’s well designed, well printed and produced, and amazingly good value.

It’s a pity the individual designer’s contact details are not given, but anyone with an interest could click on Google and track people down with a search word or two.

© Roy Johnson 2005

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Charlotte and Peter Fiell , Designing the 21st Century, London: Taschen, 2005, pp.576, ISBN: 3822858838


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Dictionary of Graphic Design

July 4, 2009 by Roy Johnson

illustrated encyclopedia of all matters related to design

This is a comprehensive guide to international developments in graphic design. From pre-industrial printing presses and medieval typography to computer graphics and avant-garde stylistic advances. The Dictionary of Graphic Design provides information about graphic designers, typographers, journals, movements and styles, organisations and schools, printers and private presses, art directors, technological advances, design studios, graphic illustrators, and poster artists. The entries are in alphabetical order ranging from the ABC system of standard paper sizes via Mackintosh and John Maeda to typographists Hermann Zapf and Piet Zwart.

Dictionary of Graphic DesignEntries are cross-referenced, and there’s also a chronological chart which outlines the relationship between movements, technology and designers around the world.This second edition has been completely revised, updated, and completely redesigned by Derek Birdsall. It includes 485 wonderfully varied illustrations which give a stunning visual record. It’s a shame they are mainly in black and white, but in such a bargain-price book I don’t suppose we can have everything.

They cover a wide range of media, including advertising, corporate identity, posters, packaging, magazine and book design, as well as fine art and illustration.

It’s very well informed and clearly based on in-depth knowledge of the subject. The authors cover all aspects of graphic design from 1840 to the present day – from William Morris, inspired by nature, and El Lissitzky’s Constructivist design, to the Designer Republic’s visuals for the music and club scene and John Maeda’s computer graphics.

There’s an illustration of almost every individual designer mentioned, and they are particularly generous towards younger contemporaries such as Mark Farrow and Peter Saville, whose work has been in CD and LP record cover design industry.

I checked out their entries on popular designers such as Neville Brody, David Carson, and Paul Rand, and all of them were spot on. The collection also introduced me to many designers whose work I recognised but who I had never heard of before.

© Roy Johnson 2004

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Alan and Isabella Livingston, Dictionary of Graphic Design and Designers, London: Thames & Hudson, 2003, pp.239, ISBN: 0500203539


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Filed Under: Dictionaries, Graphic design, Product design Tagged With: Design history, Dictionaries, Dictionary of Graphic Design, Graphic design, Product design

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