The World As Your Muse
David Rockwell has designed scads of restaurants, and now he has a book with designer Bruce Mau. Phaidon Press’s Spectacle focuses on some of the most intriguing events and places around the world, including the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the colorful Holi Festival in India, and the Harbin Ice Festival in China. The book highlights the beauty (and sometimes the oddity) of the attractions and shows us what lures people to these larger than-life events. Also featured are interviews with creative types like Julie Taymor, Quincy Jones, and Simon Doonan.
Show and Tell
A handy guide to the way we view art, history, and retail merchandise, David Dernie’s Exhibition Design (from W.W. Norton) studies international exhibits, trade fairs, and installations, pointing out interesting approaches and methods of displays, lighting, technology, and graphics employed in creating such experiences. The book serves as a condensed tour of innovative presentations, with observations on materials and aesthetics as well as consideration of viewers’ perspectives. In case you missed such blockbuster shows as (love it or hate it) “The Art of the Motorcycle” or the Armani retrospective at the Guggenheim, you can still get a feel for how they were presented.
Modern Chronicles
Highlights of the past 75 years of the Italian architecture and design journal Domus are now compiled in a dizzying 12-volume set, providing a wealth of information on a variety of styles and movements, including Art Deco, the many phases of Modernism, and Pop. With 6,960 pages, Taschen’s Domus 1928-1999, Volumes I-XII is a collection of articles (reproduced as they originally appeared) with introductions that preface what was going on in the world of design during each era. Splurge on this one—the set retails for $600.
A Designer's Touch
Expected this spring from Rizzoli is the first monograph on the work and processes of Dutch-born super-designer Tord Boontje. The book will include more than 300 sketches, photos, and illustrations of Boontje’s product designs, patterns, and installations.
Shopping for Ideas
Take a cue from retail history and check out Shop America: Midcentury Storefront Design 1938-1950 (Taschen), also slated for a spring release. The book delves into a time when the big-box stores didn’t exist, and features drawings and photographs that detail often extravagant modern designs for banks, shoe shops, bakeries, grocery stores, and beauty salons.
Photos: Domus courtesy of Taschen; Exhibition Design courtesy of W.W. Norton & Company, David Heald/© The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York (“The Art of the Motorcycle”); Spectacle courtesy of Phaidon Press Inc., © Belga Pictures (flower carpet)
Every other year, Brussels\' Grand-Place is filled with an enormous floral carpet.
Courtesy of Phaidon Press Inc., © Belga Pictures
Every other year, Brussels' Grand-Place is filled with an enormous floral carpet.
Courtesy of Phaidon Press Inc., © Belga Pictures
Twelve volumes of Domus cover 75 years of design.
Courtesy of Taschen
The Guggenheim's "The Art of the Motorcycle" exhibit.
courtesy of W.W. Norton & Company, David Heald/© The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York
