Books: Phaidon Design Classics

It is the first definitive illustrated sourcebook on the evolution of design to include such a wide scope of objects in detail. From cars to furniture, from tableware to cameras, from everyday objects to airplanes, this breadth of design has never before been collected in such a way before.

“A guide to better living through design.” - Aaron Betsky, Designer.

“The ultimate tool kit to decode the modern world. Hugely thorough, and just the right side of quirky.” - Deyan Sudjic, Curator and Critic

“…very big, very yellow and very heavy.” - Terrance Conran, Designer

Phaidon Design Classics (3 Volume Set) (Design Classics)
Buy it now: Amazon

Beautiful Evidence by Edward Tufte

In Beautiful Evidence, Edward Tufte explores how to best display evidence looking at: mapped pictures; sparklines; links and causal arrows; words, numbers and pictures together; the fundamental principles of analytical design; corruption of evidence; and more. 

Buy it here: Amazon

Other Tufte Books:

• The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd edition by Edward R. Tufte, 1983. The source for learning about displaying information. An excellent book for anyone who must use data to make decisions, convince others and educate others.
• Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative by Edward R. Tufte, 1997. Visual Explanations centers on dynamic data – information that changes over time. It is Tufte’s 3rd book. Another excellent book.
• Envisioning Information by Edward R. Tufte, 1990. “The most design-oriented of Edward Tufte’s books, Envisioning Information shows maps, charts, scientific presentations, diagrams, computer interfaces, statistical graphics and tables, stereo photographs, guidebooks, courtroom exhibits, timetables…”

Books: Night Vision – Photographs by Troy Paiva

Night Vision: The Art of Urban Exploration.
“A booming subculture is on the rise: dubbed Urban Exploration, it involves sneaking into abandoned or off-limits factories, aviation “boneyards,” decommissioned bases, and other derelict features of the military/industrial landscape. Troy Paiva is a foremost photographer of the UrbEx (as it’s known to its devotees) phenomenon, and his distinctive blend of atmospheric night photos and lighting effects are the visual hallmarks of a scene that has drawn the increasing attention of the media and the public—as seen in recent programs on both the Discovery Channel (“Urban Explorers”) and MTV (“Fear”). Illuminated by histories of the sites documented, Night Vision reveals the remarkable discoveries of a new generation of explorers.”

Night Vision: The Art of Urban Exploration. by Troy Paiva
Buy it here: Amazon

Books: In Plane View

In Plane View: Abstractions of Flight

The many types of aircraft held at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC no doubt attract their fair share of aerophiles. But now even those with just a passing interest in aviation can marvel at the beauty of flight as depicted in the pages of In Plane View: Abstractions of Flight, a new collection of imagery from Carolyn Russo, the Smithsonian’s photographer. Russo’s work focuses on the details of a range of different aircraft and it’s from her re-examining of their various forms and structures that this collection of striking shapes, patterns and abstractions has been brought together.

Buy it here: Amazon

Jeffrey Milstein: Plane Spotter

Often it takes an artist to show us that the familiar is in fact truly remarkable. Jeffrey Milstein’s elegant photographs of commercial airliners have quickly become contemporary icons, exhibited at the Bonni Benrubi Gallery in NYC and Paul Kopiekin Gallery in Los Angeles.

Buy the book: AirCraft: The Jet as Art

Spank The Monkey

Edited by the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art — Spank The Monkey is an international survey of recent contemporary urban art starring twenty-two artists from the established art arena and those from the “street art” scene, who have created an art system of their own, removed from that of the museum and gallery circuit. Ranging from works by Barry McGee, Miss Van, Groovisions, Shepard Fairey, Os Gemeos, Swoon, Banksy and more, this book examines their works and places them in a broad context of urban and street art and harnesses the energy of some of the most significant artists to emerge from this new international sub-culture.

Buy it here: Spank the Monkey

Books: Furnish

Furnish, Furniture and Interior Design for the 21st Century
Furnish presents furniture and rooms that are redefining our current understanding of furnishings and interior design. The book documents and puts into context recent work by designers, artists and architects who are creating and using furniture in pioneering ways. The experimental objects and spaces documented in Furnish are not only a sure indicator of the trends that will be influencing interiors for the next few years, but they also serve as innovative examples of interdisciplinary design work that are inspiring for anyone working creatively.

Buy it here: Furnish: Furniture and Interior Design for the 21st Century

Monograph: Jaime Hayon

Spanish designer and artist Jaime Hayon will be one of the most influential designers in the years to come, and this is the first monograph to present the full spectrum of his work. Ranging from clear and harmonious to playfully extravagant, all of the included examples of interiors, furniture, tableware and decorative ceramics attest to his inimitable grasp of form, style and colour. In addition to celebrated collaborations with clients such as Camper, Swarovski and Bisazza, Jaime Hayon Works contains previously unreleased personal sketches, illustrations and productions of new projects that will make its world premiere debut at the annual Milan Furniture Fair.

Buy it here: Jaime Hayon Works

Monograph: Santiago Calatrava

Santiago Calatrava is not only one of the world’s most prominent architects, but also an engineer and an artist. With recent projects such as the stadiums for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens or the new railway station in Liège, Belgium, he has reached a level of undeniable notoriety in Europe and continues to move further ahead. The only architect ever to have his work exhibited at both the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, he is currently working on the main transportation hub for Ground Zero in Manhattan as well as the tallest building in the United States: the 160-story Chicago Spire Tower. Winner of the 2005 American Institute of Architects Gold Medal as well as numerous other prestigious awards, Calatrava is one of the greatest and most innovative architects alive.

Buy it here: Calatrava: Complete Works, 1979-2007

Books: Wirtschaftswunder

Germany after the war

It was no more than eight years after the surrender of the Nazi government when Josef Heinrich Darchinger set out on his photographic journey through the West of a divided Germany. The bombs of World War II had reduced the country’s major cities to deserts of rubble. Yet his pictures show scarcely any signs of the downfall of a civilization. Not that the photographer was manipulating the evidence: he simply recorded what he saw. At the time, a New York travel agency was advertising the last opportunity to go and visit the remaining bomb sites. Darchinger’s pictures, in color and black-and-white, show a country in a fever of reconstruction. The economic boom was so incredible that the whole world spoke of an “economic miracle.” The people who achieved it, in contrast, look down-to-earth, unassuming, conscientious, and diligent. And increasingly, they look like strangers in the world they have created. The photographs portray a country caught between the opposite poles of technological modernism and cultural restoration, between affluence and penury, between German Gemütlichkeit and the constant threat of the Cold War. They show the winners and losers of the “economic miracle,” people from all social classes, at home, at work, in their very limited free time and as consumers. But they also show a country that looks, in retrospect, like a film from the middle of the last century.

This Collector’s Edition is limited to 1,000 copies, each numbered and signed by J. H. Darchinger and containing the signed color photograph Reichstag, Berlin, 1958.

Buy it here: Wirtschaftswunder