Takahashi Jun's fashion is not born out of an excessively intellectualized agenda. While not quite populist, his generative influences are instead romantic-even gothic. A fixture of the Paris collections for more than ten years-plus seventeen uninterrupted seasons in Tokyo prior to that-Takahashi's life's work confirms a maturation from self-conscious artifice and rebel pastiche to a steely, withering elegance all his own. Hailing from Gunma Prefecture like his friend NIGO of *A Bathing Ape, Takahashi's long association with the undisputed king of Ura-Harajuku in the early 1990s is now the stuff of local fashion lore. But Takahashi would blaze an entirely different path to legend and notoriety. The violent rending and hasty reassembly that characterized his early work, its calculated imperfections and sutured seams, have given way to collections that he himself now calls sexy and feminine. UNDERCOVER is insightfully curated with fashion filled chapters devoted to Takahashi's sketches, graphic work, collaborations, and most innovative designs to date. Lavishly illustrated with more than 200 photographs and in-depth essays by fashion writers, curators, and colleagues, this book gives readers first time access into Takahashi's UNDERCOVER, one of the most desired and multidimensional clothing lines in contemporary fashion.

As one of the world's foremost interior designers, Tricia Guild has a passionate belief that the way we choose to live has a significant impact on our well-being and happiness. The homes that we live in, the things that we surround ourselves with, and the everyday choices we make, can profoundly affect our outlook and positivity. It is no surprise, then, that Tricia practises what she preaches: she finds it impossible to separate her work as a designer from other aspects of her life, and she believes that, in seeking creative inspiration in each experience, especially in enjoying the things that bring pleasure to our lives, we can perfect the art of living. For Tricia, Italy is a particularly enduring passion: the culture, landscape, architecture, food and music all strike a creative chord. She has had a house there for many years. The last home was a rustic farmhouse, but when Tricia and her family began the search for a new property, she knew it would be decidedly different. In this new Italian home, Tricia found the perfect opportunity to create a contemporary interior reflecting a love of modernity and simplicity that has evolved over the years. In Tricia's view, modernity does not mean a lack of colour, pattern or texture; a contemporary interior can be both decorative and minimal - in fact, a confident use of colour and pattern can be the very thing that makes it even more wonderful. Here, working with the architect Stephen Marshall and the garden designer Arne Maynard, Tricia has created a special home - a contemporary interpretation of the local vernacular - that represents her kind of modern. In In My View, Tricia charts the creation of her stunning Italian home set amid verdant oil groves. We are taken on an extensive tour of the breathtaking property, right from the entrance steps and the rooms/spaces in the main house to the outdoor dining areas, studio, guest accommodation, kitchen garden and pool house. Stephen and Arne offer insight into their collaboration with Tricia, describing, among other things, the selection of materials - local stone, concrete, glass and galvanized metal - for the house, and the planting on the terraces and around the rolling lawns of the garden. Local artisans and craftspeople also played a crucial role in bringing this truly magnificent yet relaxing and comfortable home to life. Tricia also presents her new London home - a Victorian townhouse in a corner plot, where, with the same team of Stephen and Arne - she set about creating an urban retreat comprising three distinct areas to accommodate living, dining and resting. While life in Italy for Tricia is about seasonality and nature, her life in London is centred on her work at Designers Guild, the company she founded in 1970. Her London home therefore is, she says, `sharply experimental', her version of a lab, where she tests designs and assesses how colours work together. In this section of the book, Tricia provides a glimpse of working life and the design process at the company headquarters in west London. Throughout the book, Tricia shares the moodboards that helped her to realize her dream homes in Italy and London. For Tricia, moodboards are vital in the early stages of any project, large or small, because they help to stimulate the creative process, even define how one wishes to live, by establishing the language, rhythm and style of each space. The choices that one makes here, the process of selection and careful editing, lie at the heart of finding one's own style. In My View reveals the personal choices have shaped the way Tricia lives now, and will inspire the reader to develop their individual style and thus create their own special view.

When the German-Vietnamese interior designer Thai Cong Quach gets down to business, he creates sumptuously furnished interior landscapes for everyone who loves the extraordinary. He cleverly combines elements of Western (pop) culture with the traditions of the Far East. For him, luxury is not merely an end in itself - people are always at the centre of everything he does. The interiors he has been designing for over 20 years bear his distinctive signature and an unmistakable style. Thai Cong - A Passion for Aesthetics is the first coffee table book dedicated to Thai Cong Quach's unique form of expression. With incisive writing and captivating images, the book showcases finished interiors along with their sources of inspiration, and, most importantly, the master of staging discusses what aesthetics mean to him.

A new title in the Design series and an excellent introduction to the life and work of this versatile Russian artist. Alexander Mikhailovich Rodchenko (1891-1953) was a central figure in the Russian Constructivist art movement; a radical activist, a pioneer of photomontage, a theorist, and a teacher. He was an active force in the organization of the first museums of modern art that arose in Russia in the first years after the Russian Revolution of 1917. Attending art school in 1914 in Kazan was to be a defining influence: that year Russian Futurists performed in the town, and Rodchenko saw their leading figures in action. It transformed his vision and he was still working with Futurist artists and their ideas twenty-five years later. And it was at art school where Rodchenko first met the artist Varvara Stepanova, with whom he collaborated extensively, and who would become his life-long partner. Central in the re-examination of art and its place in society after the Revolution, and in the search for a new culture without the class implications of the past, Rodchenko's radical approach proposed a new understanding of a constructed, rather than a tastefully composed, culture. This concise, comprehensive and informative work focuses largely on Rodchenko's graphic work in the form of book jackets, posters and advertising. The Design series is the winner of the Brand/Series Identity Category at the British Book Design and Production Awards 2009, judges said: "A series of books about design, they had to be good and these are. The branding is consistent, there is a good use of typography and the covers are superb." Also available: Claud Lovat Fraser ISBN: 9781851496631, GPO ISBN: 9781851495962, Peter Blake ISBN: 9781851496181, FHK Henrion ISBN: 9781851496327, David Gentleman ISBN: 9781851495955, David Mellor ISBN: 9781851496037, E.McKnight Kauffer ISBN: 9781851495207, Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious ISBN: 9781851495009, El Lissitzky ISBN: 9781851496198, Festival of Britain 1951 ISBN: 9781851495337, Harold Curwen & Oliver Simon: Curwen Press ISBN: 9781851495719, Jan Le Witt and George Him ISBN: 9781851495665, Paul Nash and John Nash ISBN: 9781851495191, and Abram Games ISBN: 9781851496778.

Few have left a deeper impression on the world of typography than Jan Tschichold (1902-74), one of the most outstanding and influential designers of the 20th century. Not only was he was a master in his field, but he wrote a number of highly influential books and became instrumental in promoting the modernist design strategy called the New Typography. This substantial volume covers Tschichold's life and career, placing the designer's vision firmly in the rich cultural and historical context of his era. Tschichold embraced avant-garde ideas from movements such as the Bauhaus and De Stijl and made them accessible to working designers and printers, stressing clarity in communication, with form and function going hand in hand. The contributing writers discuss the designer's major influences and the highlights of his varied career, including his seminal poster designs, his groundbreaking work with Penguin Books, and his creation of the classic typeface Sabon. Lavish illustrations - archive photographs, many published here for the first time, as well as copious examples of Tschichold's work - accompany the text, confirming that Tschichold's heritage lives on in the digital age, and proving that he is amongst the greatest typographic designers ever.

Presents botanical studies by sixty gold medal winning artists, from the Lindley Collections at the Royal Horticultural Society, the country's leading gardening charity. A historical essay explores the long-standing relationship between artists and the RHS. Introduces each medallist with a short biography and discussion of their winning composition. Features a diverse range of artists from across the globe. Botanical Illustration: a genre of art that endeavours faithfully to depict and represent the form, colour and detail of a plant. Abiding by this definition, the RHS Lindley Library has secured approximately 30,000 splendid illustrations of buds, fruit, flowers and leaves since they first started commissioning artists in 1806. RHS Botanical Illustration - Gold Medal Winners represents a cross-section of recent gold medallists from around the world. The RHS only award their gold medal to the most outstanding exhibitions, encouraging the international artistic community to perform to the highest standard. This gold medal is a highly-coveted testament to an artist's abilities, and the illustrations gathered in these pages demonstrate great attention to detail, masterful colour work and outstanding technical skill. Insightful commentary on the artists' creative process accompanies each picture. The perfect book for the lover of horticulture, as well as an excellent reference both for botanists and aspiring artists, this collection also includes an introductory essay that delves into the history of the RHS.

A celebration of the quirky, surprising, and often spectacular work of Dutch fashion designers Viktor & Rolf Conceived and designed by acclaimed graphic designer Irma Boom, this book brings to life the legendary conceptual creations of Dutch duo Viktor & Rolf. Entirely made up of 8-page gatefolds, each of which relates to a specific show, with images, sketches, and quotes showcasing that particular collection, it elevates bookmaking to an entirely new level while referencing the dramatic layers that feature in the designers' work. Exploring Viktor & Rolf's signature stunning style, this book is the ultimate homage to the spectacle of fashion.

Versace-a name that epitomizes Italian opulence, bold sexiness, and a flair for the extravagant-holds its place firmly in the fashion world as a legendary and iconic luxury brand. Taking over the creative artistic direction of the family-run fashion house in 1998, the enigmatic and alluring Donatella Versace has since catapulted the brand into popular culture, cementing Versace as a go-to label for A-list celebrities. This richly illustrated tome chronicles Donatella's interpretation of Versace in the twenty-first century and her remarkable work as the curator and face of Versace. Versace includes exclusive contemporary and archival imagery from runway and backstage shots to intimate scenes at the Versace atelier, with accompanying original essays penned by fashion's most authoritative voices. Featuring arresting photography by Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, and Steven Meisel, among many others; images of Versace fashions modeled by the original "supers," such as Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell, and Linda Evangelista; and red-carpet coverage of Hollywood's elite wearing dazzling Versace couture, this glittering volume delivers the magnetic vibrancy, supreme luxury, and glamour quotient that define Versace.

"He leads the field by a very long furlong, out on his own, making his own weather. He is Klimowski, unafraid."-Harold Pinter, Nobel Prize-winning playwright In the mid-1970s, Andrzej Klimowski's fearlessly original artwork caught the eye of leading Polish theater and film companies, for whom he designed some of the period's most iconic posters. The London-born artist, who moved to Poland at a time when many East Europeans dreamed of going West, went on to create posters for works by filmmakers and playwrights from Scorsese to Altman, Beckett to Brecht. Drawing on folk art and Polish Surrealism, Klimowski uses techniques including photomontage and linocut to create posters that are filled with metaphor, drama, and originality.

Belgian fashion, an important presence on the world couture stage since the 1980s, is the subject of many books, studies, and exhibitions. The focus of attention, however, is often on the Antwerp Fashion Academy and the famous Antwerp Six. This book goes a step further by investigating the influence of Brussels designers and the famous Brussels fashion school, La Cambre, on what is collectively referred to as Belgian fashion, and identifies the people and ideas that set the Brussels fashion world apart.

Milton Glaser's posters-more than 450 since 1965-combine conceptual rigor and originality with a mastery of visual language and a high level of artistic expression. Some, like his 1967 Bob Dylan poster for Columbia Records, are icons; others, like his series celebrating "I Love New York," evoke his best-known work. Milton Glaser Posters includes them all, with Glaser's own commentary describing his thought process and inspiration. The book is a delight for the art lover, an education in visual expression, and an entertaining journey through the cultural life of half a century, all rolled into a single compact, intense volume.

Jean-Paul Goude is a modern legend in the world of commercial art. From his New York days with Esquire magazine to his latest work for Galeries Lafayette, he has consistently provoked and delighted those who have encountered his work. He was Grace Jones's Pygmalion, creating unforgettable images of her, from androgyne to cyber-superwoman to supreme diva. This volume, published to accompany a major retrospective at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, is a celebration of his creative zest and perfectionism, and his unique affinity for making fresh and engaging work. Around 600 images are on show, including many working documents published here for the first time, from inspired doodles to final images that sparkle with creative vigour. Selected and arranged by Goude himself, they present a gallery of artworks that have redefined advertising and brand photography as we know them. Sexy, irreverent and full of humour, this book will inform and instruct all those concerned with the art of image-making, whether professionals or simply those prepared to be entertained by chic, witty images that work.

Aldo Rossi (1931-1997) added to his successful activity as architect, professor and theorist, also that - equally well known - of designer: in this field he continued with great professionalism and passion until his untimely death in 1997, collaborating with some of the most important Italian and international manufacturers, such as Alessi, Artemide, Bruno Longoni Atelier d'Arredo, Molteni, Rosenthal and Unifor. The volume investigates Aldo Rossi's activity in the design sector in its entirety, presenting the furnishings and objects designed and manufactured from 1960 to 1997. Among these, some pieces well known to the public stand out, such as the La Conica and La Cupola coffee makers by Alessi, the Cabina dell'Elba by Bruno Longoni Atelier d'Arredo or the Paris chair by Unifor, just to name a few. The analysis of this production, which also includes unpublished projects and prototypes, highlights the continuous and constant relationship with architecture, while the technical drawings and photographic and archival documentation help to restore the history of each piece. The volume includes a critical essay by Domitilla Dardi. Text in English and Italian.

The original and creative universe of the artist and designer Candela Cort is visually summarized in the pages of this book. A sample of his hats, necklaces, headdresses, collages, bracelets and collars that she builds from x-rays, corrugated cardboard, brass wire, ribbons, elastic rubber, plastic or buttons. Every object is unique and inspired by everyday life. All in them is exceptional, daring and, at the same time, subtle, delicate and ethereal.

Joe Colombo (Milan, 1930-1971) was one of the greatest designers of the last century, visionary and ingenious, capable of giving shape to ideas that retain a striking relevance to this day. Trained first at the Brera Academy and then at the Polytechnic of Milan, Joe Colombo has expressed, in just 20 years of work, an absolutely innovative world view, placing man and his life at the centre of reflection, imagined a dynamic and transformable habitat both on a domestic and urban scale. A design in the round, aimed at satisfying every need - also thanks to technology and new materials - and to shape the space and its objects according to the different activities of the moment, be they working or social interactions. From here, the modular and dynamic furnishing accessories with futuristic lines, among which some pieces that have become iconic of Italian design stand out such as the Tube Chair, the Spider lamp (Compasso d'Oro 1967) or the Boby trolley (now at the MoMA in New York), the "monoblocks", such as the Mini-Kitchen or the Total Table with integrated dishes, up to the global housing unit, a visionary "machine", which encompasses all the needs of living. This volume constitutes the first catalogue raisonne of his work, of which about 180 projects are documented, divided between works still in production and historical works; introduced by the essays by Ignazia Favata - his historical collaborator - and Domitilla Dardi, it is completed by a critical anthology. Text in English and Italian.

EISNER AWARD WINNER | Best Academic/Scholarly Work About Comics | 2019 One of the most influential women in independent comics, Julie Doucet, receives a full-length critical overview from a noted chronicler of independent media and critical gender theorist. Grounded in a discussion of mid-1990s media and the discussion of women's rights that fostered it, this book addresses longstanding questions about Doucet's role as a feminist figure, master of the comics form, and object of masculine desire. Doucet's work is hilarious, charming, thoughtful, brilliant, and challenging, even three decades on. Anne Elizabeth Moore is an award-winning journalist, bestselling comics anthologist, and internationally lauded cultural critic. Her most recent book, Body Horror, is on the Nonfiction Shortlist for the 2017 Chicago Review of Books Nonfiction Award, was named a Best Book of 2017 by the Chicago Public Library, and was nominated for the 2018 Lammys. She teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the College for Creative Studies. She was born in Winner, SD, and resides in Detroit with her cat. Praise for Body Horror: "[Body Horror is] scary as fuck and liberating. . . . Moore connects the dots that you did not even think were on the same page." -Viva la Feminista

The Italian goldsmith of the "Paduan School" Giampaolo Babetto is famous for his jewellery - geometrically distinct shapes arranged into refined entities of extraordinary perfection and beauty. However, the artist's wide-ranging spectrum also includes furniture design, silverwork, sculptures, liturgical utensils, and architecture; even his design drawings possess an autonomous character and artistic value. In addition to Christian iconography, his sources of inspiration include the fresco cycles of Renaissance artist Jacopo da Pontormo but also echo Minimalism, Neoplasticism, Neoconstructivism, and "arte programmata/cinetica." The Entity of Being presents the first overarching survey of the virtuoso Babetto. The comprehensive catalogue section is complemented by four contributions that provide exciting insights into the work of this universal artist. Text in English, German and Italian.

Karl Fritsch (b. 1963), master of extravagant rings, returns with a publication that lures us deep into his world. Ruby Gold is a "no-frills" pared-back book, without pagination, without essays. Instead it comprises 81 rings from the past 20 years featuring embedded gemstones and such memorable slogans as "Fuck Off" and "Nudelsuppe" (Noodle Soup). The jewellery artist's unmatched mastery of material and expression is apparent in every single ring, and every piece possesses tremendous energy as a result of the delicate yet archaic handling of the precious metals: Karl Fritsch carves in silver, shapes in gold, sets rubies and zirconias as a child would decorate a cake - with self-confidence and with no regard for waste. In between the detailed illustrations, Fritsch brings the rings and fingers into ironic dialogues with each other: "Ring: I am art. / Finger: Oh come on..." And: "Ring: I am a ring. / Finger: You are unwearable." Text in English and German. Published to accompany an exhibition at Galerie Zink, Waldkirchen, Germany, 12 September - 20 December 2020.

The second edition of SIGNS. Contemporary Italian Graphic Design continues the work of the first edition of 2016 with the aim of introducing the general public to the profession and discipline of graphic designers as well as to the different languages, unique characteristics and orientations of some of the leading figures of visual design, always able to renew itself and dialogue with the international scene, in the footsteps of a great historical tradition. The designers and projects in this book do not represent a definitive and arbitrary selection, but rather one step of a journey tracing out a map of Italian excellence in visual design. Artists: Alessio D'Ellena, Andrea Rauch, Andrea Rovatti, CamuffoLab, Carmi e Ubertis, Claudia Neri/ Teikna Design, Francesco Messina, Franco Achilli/A+G, G&R Associati, Gaetano Grizzanti, La Tigre, Marco Tortoioli Ricci, Mario Cresci, Matteo Alabisio, Paola Lenarduzzi, Paolo Tassinari, Parco Studio, Rovai-Weber, Salvatore Gregorietti, Silvana Amato, Stefano Tonti, Studio Bunker, Studio MUT, Un Altro Studio, Zetalab. Text in English and Italian.

For those of advanced tastes, the Modern Movement was a welcome corrective to the debased aesthetics of the commercial world. The products of light industry were as untutored in the 1920s and 30s as massed housing and both took scant interest in the idealist thinking that sought to harness architecture and design to social progress. Robert Best, one of Britain’s leading industrialists in this period, shared the goal of better mass education but was troubled by Modernism’s promoters, for reasons that they found hard to understand. If the few knew better than the many, and had an obligation to elevate them whether they liked it or not, where did this leave the democratic principles that our liberal society prided itself on? Best felt that the campaign to popularise Functionalist design took propaganda into territory that had uncomfortable political overtones. In this extraordinary memoir, written in the early 1950s but never previously published, Best explored his concern about the sense of noblesse oblige that lay behind such bodies as the Council of Industrial Design, set up in 1944 ostensibly to raise the saleability and quality of British manufacturing but also, in his view, to brainwash the public into denying what it liked in favour of more cultivated but untested alternatives.

Italian-born American artist Harry Bertoia (1915-1978) was one of the most prolific, innovative artists of the post-war period. Trained at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, where he met future colleagues and collaborators Charles and Ray Eames, Florence Knoll, and Eero Saarinen, he went on to make one-of-a kind jewellery, design iconic chairs, create thousands of unique sculptures including large-scale commissions for significant buildings, and advance the use of sound as sculptural material. His work speaks to the confluence of numerous fields of endeavour, but is united throughout by a sculptural approach to making and an experimental embrace of metal. Harry Bertoia: Sculpting Mid-Century Modern Life accompanies the first U.S. museum retrospective of the artist's career to examine the full scope of his broad, interdisciplinary practice, and feature important examples of his furniture, jewellery, monotypes, and diverse sculptural output. Lavishly illustrated, the book offers new scholarly essays as well as a catalogue of the artists numerous large-scale commissions. It questions how and why we distinguish between a chair, a necklace, a screen, and a freestanding sculpture and what Bertoia's sculptural things, when taken together, say about the fluidity of visual language across culture, both at mid-century and now.

From the white plastic bed for the Prisunic catalogue (1966) to the Culbuto armchair issued by Knoll, and from the Lip watch to the private apartments of the Elysee Palace, Paris, (1983), the furniture and objects conceived by Marc Held have been emblematic of the renewal of French design, following the line of Scandinavians such as Alvar Aalto and Arne Jacobsen...With his gallery L'Echoppe on the rue de Seine, Paris, and then with his agency, the designer and architect Marc Held also took part in major projects for IBM and Renault. This book traces fifty years of design, whose success with the public at large has contributed to a great liberation in our style of life. The generosity of his vision has remained faithful to the humanist values that guided his childhood in Bagnolet, where he was born in 1932. Having settled in Greece, on the island of Skopelos, over twenty years ago, Marc Held still continues to build houses and furnish them with his creations, working closely with Greek craftsmen.

Christian Dior was born in Granville, a seaside town on the coast of Normandy, France: while his family had hoped that he would become a diplomat, Dior preferred art. His preternatural talent resulted in him being hired by Robert Piquet in 1937, and subsequently worked alongside Pierre Balmain and Lucien Lelong. Dior was an instant sensation after the Second World War. His designs, which asserted femininity, were a strong rebuke to the utilitarian, unisex clothing of wartime and came to symbolise the 'New Look'. Dior had an extremely close relationship with his sister, Catherine - honouring her work during the war in the French Resistance with the popular perfume Miss Dior. She was his muse. The book features around 60 haute couture designs from the collections of the Musee des Arts Decoratifs along with an equivalent number of iconic pieces belonging to Dior Heritage (the house's own archives of original runway prototypes or garments ordered by clients), supplemented by fragrances and accessories. The items on display thus offer a panorama of Christian Dior's haute couture creations since 1947, always the epitome of modern elegance, with the selection taking as its unifying thread the fabric of dreams and the passing on of an aesthetic vision. Text in English and Arabic.