Monograph: Ettore Sottsass (New Edition)

The life and work of Ettore Sottsass is more relevant than ever, with exhibitions around the world and renewed collector interest in the Memphis movement. Now available in a new format, this book, packed with beautiful images taken from the extensive Sottsass archives and including drawings and sketches from the designer’s countless sketchbooks, explores his entire career from the 1940s to the 2000s, covering everything from his architectural projects and product design to his jewellery, sculpture, and graphics.

Ettore Sottsass (New Edition), by Philippe Thomé, Published by Phaidon, Format: Hardback, Size: 320 x 230 mm (12 3/8 x 9 in), Pages: 492 pp, ISBN: 9780714875200

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Books: Wegner: Just One Good Chair

The name Hans J. Wegner (1914–2007) is inseparable from his unrivalled chairs, which helped Danish design to achieve its international breakthrough. Every design fan has his or her favorite from among Wegner’s approximately five hundred creations. Today, there is a hardly a glossy interior design magazine that does not include an illustration of the elegant China Chair (1943) or the Y Chair (1950), and even John F. Kennedy sat on his Round Chair, which is now simply called The Chair (1949). Trained as a furniture maker, Wegner usually made his prototypes himself by hand, using traditional joinery techniques such as tongue-and-groove or finger joints. In the process he pushed the limitations of wood, giving his designs an unmatched elegance. His sense of humor did not fall by the wayside, either, as evidenced by his splendid Peacock Chair (1947) or the masculine Ox Chair (1960), that latter of which is available with or without horns.

Just One Good Chair, Hans J. Wegner, Texts by Christian Holmsted Olesen, Graphic Design by Rasmus Koch, Format: 25.60 x 32.60 cm, 256 pp., 300 ills., English, 2014. ISBN 978-3-7757-3809-5, Published by Hatje Cantz
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Monograph: James Irvine

A complete monograph on the work of the influential British-born, Milan-based furniture and product designer James Irvine (1958–2013). James Irvine is an intimate look into the work and life of a design legend. Previously unpublished drawings, sketches, models and images from Irvine’s archives and personal anecdotes and texts from the designers who worked directly with him, including Jasper Morrison, Marc Newson, Konstantin Grcic and Naoto Fukasawa, reveal Irvine’s passions, interests and idiosyncracies like never before.

James Irvine, Hardback, 270 x 205 mm (10 5/8 x 8 1/8 in), 240 pp, 600 colour illustrations, ISBN: 9780714868967, Published by Phaidon
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Brutalism by Thomas Danthony & Michael Abrahamson

The Brutalism project is a collaboration with Black Dragon press about Brutalism architecture in London. Three A2 poster, 5 colors screen print, edition of 100, signed. Eight A4 pages concertina litho booklet on 350gsm paper. With words by Michael Abrahamson architect and creator of Fuck Yeah Brutalism.

Brutalism, by Thomas Danthony & Michael Abrahamson

Books: Pierre Paulin. L’homme et l’œuvre

There will never be enough tribute to the immense talent of the French designer Pierre Paulin. This beautiful book of major works highlight the paradoxical and complex as well as the hair-raising concern for human creativity. Before becoming a cult designer Pierre Paulin (1927-2009) was a decorator located in the rue de Seine in Paris as attested by the stamp on the preparatory drawings of the chair Stuhl. An autodidact rebel, an unusual character, skinned alive, an outsider criticizing the caste of right-thinking design, he was primarily a pioneer and a visionary who experimented bold forms and new technologies coming out of the postwar boom. Mushroom (1959) Tranche d’orange (1959), Ribbon Chair (1966), Face à Face (1967), La Langue (1963) and Concorde (1966) … etc. Absolute icons, dressed in foam and stretched fabric, reveal a demanding formal economy and aesthetic quest. Innovative and anticipatory of these furniture collections, edited by Thonet France, Roche, Artifort, Herman Miller and now Roset, suggest sculptures that combine gesture and landscape, purification and pleasure, functionality and elegance. “I do not create. I design. I draw,” stated vehemently that prolific creator who refused dilution of design in art. In subliminal connivance with the times and its aspirations to happiness, the designer was able to shape a changing world where the body adopts new postures. “Creations by Pierre Paulin confront us as authoritative in their own right, achievements that demonstrate the power of a company and what it produces,” says author and art critic Nadine Down. Philippe Starck and the Bouroullec brothers admire a singularity that combines comfort and style. And judging by the many avatars inspired by his aesthetic, they are not the only ones to recognize the intelligent model of the hand and the mind.

Pierre Paulin. L’homme et l’œuvre, by Nadine Descendre, Published by Albin Michel, Language: French, EAN 9782226250575

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Monograph: Nendo

Oki Sato founded nendo in Tokyo in 2002. Since then, it has become one of the most sought-after design studios worldwide. The name nendo is Japanese for modeling clay. It is indicative of the studio’s playful, yet rational approach. Nendo: 10/10 is a comprehensive monograph of the studio’s work. Each of the book’s ten chapters showcases one of nendo’s design principles. Chapters explore, for example, nendo’s compelling approach to multiplying, linking, concealing, balancing, magnifying, and folding. Featured projects include vibrant store concepts and mystically inspired exhibition spaces as well as sculptural furniture pieces, home accessories, and design objects. Nendo’s impressively clear, yet intriguingly sophisticated work not only represents the epitome of contemporary design from Japan, but also sets the tone for design’s future on the global scene.

Nendo, Format: 24,5 x 33 cm, 320 pages, full color, hardcover, English, ISBN: 978-3-89955-470-0, Published by Gestalten

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Monograph: Shiro Kuramata by Deyan Sudjic

Shiro Kuramata (1934-91) was a truly exceptional designer of furniture and interiors. Many of his poetic, precise and unique pieces, like the expanded-metal-mesh How High the Moon Armchair and the acrylic, aluminium and paper-flower Miss Blanche Chair, are still highly prized, collected by museums like MoMA and the V&A and sold at auction. Sadly, however, most of the hundreds of interiors he designed no longer exist, and can only be glimpsed in photographs or described by those who saw them.

This combination of the precious and the disappeared is appropriate for a designer like Kuramata, whose work was neither modern nor nostalgic, neither western nor Asian, but which has a remarkable creative power as well as a sense of endless invention. This compelling and highly influential work is documented here in this beautiful monograph.

Author Deyan Sudjic, the director of the design museum in London and the author of many highly-acclaimed books on design and architecture, tells the story of Kuramata’s life against the backdrop of Japan’s turbulent history from the 1930s to the 1990s. It was a period in which the collapse of the repressive conformism of Japan’s traditionally authoritarian social order released a creative explosion that propelled Japan into the creative forefront in cinema, literature, fashion, architecture and design, and Kuramata’s work occupies a special place in this period.

Designed by Jonathan Hares, and presented in two volumes with a beautiful acrylic slipcase, the book includes all of Kuramata’s work, depicted in never-before-published photographs and drawings from the Kuramata archives. Many projects are represented with images of the design and manufacturing process, appropriate for this very technically inventive work that continues to be of interest to a wide range of designers. Shiro Kuramata is a major figure who richly deserves the wider audience he is just beginning to attract, and this first-ever monograph will be of a quality and beauty to match the work he produced.

Shiro Kuramata, by Deyan Sudjic, 2 volume hardback ediiton in acrylic slipcase, 305 x 238 mm (9 3/8 x 12 in), 416 pp, 600 colour illustrations, ISBN: 9780714845005, Published by Phaidon

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Books: Pastoe: 100 Years of Design Innovation

The Utrecht furniture manufacturer Pastoe has been a leader in unique, timeless furniture of great craftsmanship and quality for 100 years. The roll-front Amsterdammer cabinet, for example, has been a design classic for years and is featured along with the work of Pastoe designer Cees Braakman in the collection of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Pastoe’s centenary is the occasion for this richly illustrated book, produced in collaboration with designers, architects, artists and photographers in the Netherlands and abroad.

Author and design critic Gert Staal relates the most significant moments in Pastoe’s history. Pastoe’s current focus is also discussed extensively. Along with fascinating archival pictures and documentation of every significant Pastoe design, considerable attention is devoted to today’s home environment and the current design domain. Pastoe’s new visions of contemporary living are highlighted in an inspiring way through innovative propositions specially developed for this anniversary by innovators like Naoto Fukasawa, Claudio Silvistrin, Scheltens & Abbenes and Konstantin Grcic.

Exhibition: Like Pastoe: 100 years of design innovation

Pastoe: 100 Years of Design Innovation, Author:Gert Staal, Anne van der Zwaag, Publisher: nai010 Uitgevers, ISBN: 9789462080683

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Eames House Limited Edition Prints

After Ray’s death, the Eames family shared and cared for the Eames House and grounds, always mindful to safeguard their authenticity for the future. Now, the Eames Foundation is ready to preserve the house as it existed when Charles and Ray lived and worked in it for the last, most prolific half of their lives. This includes not only conserving the house for the future but also celebrating and transmiting the legacy and philosophy of Charles and Ray.

Help preserve the Eames House and own a piece of the Eames legacy. Each print is hand numbered. These prints are 100% original works inspired by the elegant geometry and understated simplicity of Eames designs. All proceeds will support the projects of the Eames Foundation.

Eames House Prints, Limited Edition of 500, from the Eames House

Books: Graphic Design and Architecture: A 20th-Century History

“Mandatory reading for every graphic designer and architect, as well as those that aspire to these two professions, and most importantly for all who are concerned with the humanizing possibilities inherent in the visual arts.”
- James Stewart Polshek, FAIA

For centuries, the intimate relationship between graphic design and architecture has shaped not only cities and their structures but also the lives of their inhabitants. Graphic Design and Architecture: A 20th-Century History is the first historical overview which examines this unique marriage of graphic design and architecture in the context of artistic, social, and cultural movements and influences of the twentieth century.

Graphic Design and Architecture, A 20th-Century History: A Guide to Type, Image, Symbol, and Visual Storytelling in the Modern World, by Richard Poulin, 8.5 x 10 inches, 272 pages, 300 illustrations, ISBN: 9781592537792

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