Design : intelligence made visible /

The resurgence of design books continues to gain momentum, with exciting offerings on historic periods, styles, individual designers and design firms, and single-volume dictionaries and encyclopedias such as this appealing new work. Bayley (design consultant, author) and Conran (designer, architect, author) present a personal and somewhat idiosyncratic reference book that dispenses with introductory details about purpose, scope, audience, selection criteria, etc., and opens instead with short essays on the development of design, mass consumption, crafts, industrial design, consumer psychology, and design since the 1980s. A final essay on national design characteristics ends the book. A-Z illustrated entries (p. 83-323) favor late-19th- and 20th-century modernism, with an emphasis on furniture and Italian disegno cars.Entries consist of a paragraph or two supplemented by large photos. Refreshingly, the authors do not hesitate to reveal likes and dislikes. For examples, Pierre Cardin "can infuriate or bore ... the fastidious shudder with embarrassment"; Herman Miller's Aeron chair "is also very attractive to dust and dirt"; of Issigonis's original Mini Morris, they say "nothing so small had ever before been so commodious." This is a solid purchase, especially for its reasonable price and international scope. Other dictionaries to consider include Mel Byars's The Design Encyclopedia (CH, Jan'05, 42-2538), Jonathan Woodham's A Dictionary of Modern Design (CH, Jun'05, 42-5605), Guy Julier's The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Design since 1900 (2nd ed., 2005), Michael Erlhoff's Design Dictionary (2007), and Ben Bos and Elly Bos's edited AGI: Graphic Design since 1950 (2007). Summing Up: Recommended. Undergraduates, practitioners, and general readers. R. T. Clement Northwestern University

Design experts Bayley (Imagination, General Knowledge) and Conran (Ultimate House Book, Designers on Design, etc) offer readers a crash course in design in this impressive, coffee-table-ready resource. After a brief narrative history of design from the 18th century to the present (the rise of consumerism and mass production, the Arts and Crafts movement, the Bauhaus ethic, etc.), the design and pop culture heavyweights delve into an alphabetical listing of design figures, themes and products. The artful confluence of the societal, artistic and architectural is what sets the book apart: rather than relying on key figures, Conran and Bayley?s wide net enables the reader to see both the forest and the trees, no small achievement. Though the sheer number of subjects restricts most entries to a paragraph or two, this is no staid or simplistic survey; Conran and Bayley inject plenty of colorful editorial comments, characterizing fashion icon Pierre Cardin, for example, by his "monomania," which can "infuriate or bore." The book assumes a familiarity with most styles and designers, though movements such as surrealism and modernism are well-explained. Bayley and Conran?s experience with and enthusiasm for the material, coupled with up-to-the-minute coverage (the iPhone is included), make this a thoughtful contemporary look at an often mercurial subject. Color photos and illus. throughout. (Oct.) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.