Nestor Perkal has been multiplying his activities as an artist since the 1970s. He is indeed simultaneously a designer of furniture, objects and lightings, an interior architect, a scenographer, a curator and an art director. This book is the first monograph made about his work and aims to chart the different steps of his extraordinary career. In 1978, Nestor Perkal left his native land, Argentina, to settle in France. He first thrived in Paris as an independent designer, creating original furniture. At the same time, he opened a gallery and was the first to represent Memphis. His creations were displayed at the exhibition Life with colours of the Cartier Foundation in 1985. Then, he moved to Limoges where he lead the Craft, a research centre about the art of ceramic making. An artistic community gathered around him. He worked with many creators, designers, artists, but also manufacturers, sponsors and collectors. Having grown as an artist through time, Nestor Perkal played and is still playing a crucial part in promoting and producing the work of contemporary designers, architects and artists. Text in French.

In 1946, Abram Games left the War Office armed with this testimonial: 'His work had to be subtly persuasive, or directly "propagandist" - but it was always effective, compelling, and of outstanding quality.' During the Second World War, Captain Games, holder of the unique title of 'Official War Poster Artist', designed a hundred posters for army use. The Ministry of Information adapted several designs for civilians. There is a tale to tell about many of these images, especially about his infamous but most successful ATS Blonde Bombshell recruiting poster. Being the son of a photographer, Games employed many ingenious photographic tricks to convey his message of 'Maximum Meaning, Minimum Means' in his designs. Most books on Graphic Design have included images by Abram Games. This is the only book published that concentrates solely on Games's war work. The Estate of Abram Games holds his large archive, which includes a memo from Churchill, personal correspondence, press cuttings, sketches, paintings, and maps for the Army Bureau of Current Affairs, and photographs from Games's seven years in army service.

"When I am working with colours, I feel like a painter. When I am working with metal, I feel like a constructor. And when I am working with toys, I feel like a child." (Felieke van der Leest). The work of Dutch jewellery and object artist Felieke van der Leest (born in 1968) expresses the very special affection that she has for animals. With unbridled fantasy she creates pieces that ostentatiously, colourfully and playfully revolve around her little friends. She combines techniques used in textile work, such as crochet, with valuable metals and plastic toy animals. Within the international art jewellery scene she has developed her own special language with which she narrates intelligent and witty stories with her animal protagonists; her pieces inevitably conjure a smile upon the faces of those who view them. Characteristic for Van der Leest is the joy in her work, which is ever present yet sometimes carried off into childhood. Serious themes in her work are also expressed, including environmental protection and human approaches to animals. The current publication comprises jewellery and objects by the renowned artist from 1996 to the present.

From the moment Christian Dior unveiled his famed New Look collection in Paris on February 12, 1947, women's fashion changed forever. Still one of the most revered names in fashion, Dior is known today for its unique couture dresses. This gorgeous volume continues the homage paid by famed photographer Patrick Demarchelier to one of the most important and influential fashion houses in the world. Working closely with the House of Dior, Demarchelier showcases the extraordinary gowns made in the Dior ateliers from 1947 to today. Along-side dresses designed by Dior himself, creations by the designers who succeeded him show the continuity of the house's rich heritage up to the absolute modernity of Raf Simon's designs. Sumptuously illustrated and beautifully designed, this book-a must for every fashion library-immortalises the archetype of haute-couture glamour.

This autobiographical monograph presents a retrospective of the 40-year innovative graphic design practice of husband-and-wife team, Nancy Skolos and Thomas Wedell. The two have seamlessly merged the boundaries between graphic design, photography and typography, fusing two-and three-dimensional space through overlapping type and image. Long-time influential designers and educators, and 2017 AIGA medalists, Skolos-Wedell’s work has been widely exhibited and published in the US and internationally. The book has been written as a series of interviews between Skolos and Wedell, and beautifully designed by the artists themselves. The result is a work of total design that showcases their unique way of thinking and working. Prototypes, iterations, and studio set-ups shed light on the process behind the finished work which unfolds in chronological order, subdivided in decades: '80s, '90s, '00s, '10s, '20s, with each section beginning with a timeline of notable events. While a time-based taxonomy may seem unimaginative, it was critical for presenting the evolving working methods. To provide the most direct view of the studio’s collaborative design process, much of the text unfolds as a series of interviews with each other. 

Barbel Thoelke's life's work in filigree porcelain. A finely-balanced book that includes both traditional manufacturers and one-offs. The life's work of the Berlin-born porcelain designer Barbel Thoelke unites the strictest design discipline with creative imaginings to make a superb, coherent and, in her own way, unique oeuvre in contemporary German studio porcelain. Thoelke's output is characterised by a consistent concentration on the vessel and encompasses not only studio series but also one-off vessels. At the same time, she works with such traditional manufacturers as KPM, the State Porcelain Manufactory Meissen, the Schwarzburger Werkstatten fur Porzellankunst and the Viennese porcelain manufacturer Augarten. Her mantra: ' to realise my very personal ideas of an object that one would like to live with every day, and which is perhaps only troubling when it is not there'. Text in German.

The Swiss type designer Adrian Frutiger decisively influenced the international creation of typefaces after 1950. His Univers typeface and the machine-readable font OCR-B are milestones, as is his type for the Paris airports, which evolved into the Frutiger typeface. All set new standards for signage types. In all, he created some fifty types, including Ondine, Meridien, Avenir, and Vectora. Based on conversations with Frutiger himself and on extensive research, this publication provides a highly detailed and accurate account of the type designer's artistic development. All of his types - from the design phase to the marketing stage - are illustrated and analyzed with reference to the technology and related types. Hitherto unpublished types that were never realized and more than one hundred logos complete the picture.

Wilhelm Deffke (1887-1950), established the first modern advertising agency in Germany in 1915. Together with his business partner he published an influential book on trademarks and makers' marks, in which they promoted the logo as a basis for all the company's advertising materials. Before his death in 1950, Deffke created more than 10,000 logos that were untypically functional and abstract for their time. Considered one of the pioneers of modern corporate design, he is known as the "Father of the Modern Logo" among design professionals internationally; yet only a fraction of his designs have ever been shown in public. This richly illustrated and comprehensive monograph is the first book to be published about his work as commercial artist, architect, poster and book designer. Fourteen essays present the wide-ranging aspects of Deffke's work in context with 20th-century European design history. More than 500 images, many of them previously unpublished, illustrate his achievements in poster and commercial art. This collection is a long overdue commentary and re-discovery, of an exceptional artistic personality.

Features work by an impressive list of international female designers. Besides the internationally famous names, it also considers the women behind the scenes of many fashion houses, whose far-reaching influence is something that has been completely overlooked in fashion history. Published to accompany an exhibition at Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, The Hague. 'The little seamstress' is how the renowned Coco Chanel was once disdainfully described by her contemporary Paul Poiret. He targeted her because she was a woman, but in fact he saw her as a major competitor. Times have changed. More fashion houses are now run by women than ever before. A perfect moment, therefore, for an overview that focuses on strong women in fashion. Femmes Fatales tells fashion history from the perspective of femail designers. Do they design differently for women than their male counterparts? What influence have they had? What does being a woman mean in terms of their creations? And what is their vision for fashion? This book includes work by Coco Chanel, Jeanne Lanvin, Elsa Schiaparelli, Mary Quant, Vivienne Westwood, Sonia Rykiel, Zandra Rhodes, Miuccia Prada, Maria Grazia Chiuri (Dior), Fong Leng, Sheila de Vries and Iris van Herpen, and many others. Text in Dutch and English.

Michel Buffet is known as a pioneer in the mid-century industrial design movement in France. His work embodies the aesthetics of the 'Thirty Glorious Years' of French design from 1945 to 1975, which he expressed elegantly in his signature shapes and colours. His career includes a 30-year association with Raymond Loewy at CEI (Compagnie d'Esthetique Industrelle), the founding of his own company (Vector Industrial Design), a range of elaborate public works and transportation projects, and his signature interior and lighting designs. His transportation projects include design work for planes (the Dessault Group Falcon and the Concorde) and trains, for the Caracas metro, the Hong Kong subway, the Channel Tunnel, Shell International service stations, and the French Navy. In the realm of furniture, he notably designed a modular kitchen, DF 2000, hailed by the Italian review Domus. His lighting fixtures from the 1950s - including the floor lamp B211 and wall sconce B206 - were initially issued by Luminalite, and have become popular classics which have been reissued by the company Lignes de demarcation. Text in English and French.

Norman Bel Geddes has long been considered the 'founder' of American industrial design. During his long career he worked on everything from theatre design, world fairs and cars to houses and product and packaging design. Nicolas P. Maffei's magisterial biography draws on original material from the archive at the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin, and places Bel Geddes' work within the fast-changing cultural and intellectual contexts of his time. Maffei shows how Bel Geddes' futuristic but pragmatic style - his notion of 'practical vision' - was central to his work, and highly influential on the professional practice of American industrial design in general.

In Chanel: An Intimate Life, acclaimed biographer Lisa Chaney tells the controversial story of the fashion icon who starred in her tumultuous era Coco Chanel was many things to many people. Raised in emotional and financial poverty, she became one of the defining figures of the twentieth century. She was mistress to aristocrats, artists and spies. She broke rules of style and decorum, seducing both men and women, yet in her work expected the highest standards. She took a 'plaything' and turned it into a global industry which defined the modern woman. Filled with new insights and thrilling discoveries, Lisa Chaney's Chanel provides the most defining and provocative portrait yet. 'Chaney's research is laudable, uncovering fresh details of Chanel's well-trodden rag trade to riches story' Evening Standard 'An unflinching examination of the historically inscrutable designer' Vogue Lisa Chaney has lectured and tutored in the history of art and literature, made TV and radio broadcasts on the history of culture, and reviewed and written for journals and newspapers, including The SundayTimes, the Spectator and the Guardian. She is the author of two previous biographies: Elizabeth David and Hide-and-Seek With Angels: The Life of J.M. Barrie.

For over fifty years Maurice Griffiths cruised in a variety of small
yachts amongst the rivers and creeks of the Thames Estuary and round
the coasts of Suffolk, Essex and Kent. In this classic book he tells of
the boats he owned in that time, and shows how the experience gained
with these small craft helped to turn him into a dedicated yacht designer.

There is more than an echo here of the magic the author found amongst
his beloved swatchways, so although this book contains much lore and
advice for the yacht designer, discerning owner and builder, it is also
a book of delightful reminiscences.

Dr Christopher Dresser is best remembered for his pioneering advances in design and associated technology. In the new industrial world of the nineteenth century, Dresser was the first designer to understand that machinery was a good servant but a poor master; he made it his business to understand how machines worked. His success gained him credibility. Dresser became a sought-after consultant to several textile manufacturers, most notably Barlow & Jones, Tootal, Warner & Sons, Turnbull & Stockdale, and Wardle, which allowed him to establish the largest design practice in Britain by 1870. Equally, it was his success in promoting textiles at affordable prices that attracted his popular following in the press. Unlike his contemporaries, he was interested in making designs available to everyone. However, Dresser is less celebrated in comparison to other designers of the era, such as William Morris, because Dresser was obliged to abandon this campaign to improve British taste due to an unexplained illness in the early 1880s. At the same time, Morris was expanding his business just as the Arts and Crafts movement was beginning to gain momentum. Despite being the first Victorian to address the decorative needs of all the population, there is a severe lack of appreciation for Dresser's work - whose influence can be found in many textiles that we take for granted today. This book redresses that balance, giving Dresser the monograph he deserves.

A comprehensive celebration of the fashions of one of the world's most revered designers. On the eve of the company's fortieth anniversary, this lavish book focuses upon the key creations and important milestones in the history of the celebrated Italian designer and his eponymous fashion house. With personal texts written by Giorgio Armani, the book contains biographical details interwoven with the story of the company. Giorgio Armani has been universally credited with changing the rules of contemporary fashion and creating a timeless version of modern dress by removing excess ornament and translating traditional sportswear looks into business and evening wear. His impact is felt not only in women's fashion and red-carpet glamour, but it is also inseparable from the evolution of men's style in recent decades. More than any other contemporary designer, Armani best represents the global success of Italian style. This gorgeously illustrated volume includes photography by a virtual who's who of leading international fashion photographers, such as Steven Meisel, David Sims, Craig McDean, Herb Ritts, Mario Testino, Deborah Turbeville, Aldo Fallai, and Annie Leibovitz, and features numerous fashion icons.

The greatest designer of French lighting, Robert Mathieu, is still little known to the general public today due to the rarity of his pieces on the market, highly sought after by specialised collectors. Unlike a traditional designer, Robert Mathieu not only designed his lights, but he made them, like an artist, in his studio on rue de Charenton in Paris. Here there is no publisher, but a dropper production close to that of a work of art, sometimes less than eight copies. What is remarkable about Robert Mathieu is on the one hand his unique creativity in France, because he has designed more than 200 models, but also the very high quality of execution of his pieces which are still in perfect condition today. This unpublished monographic work is born after ten years of preparation. Between the beautiful art book and the catalogue raisonne, it presents all the known models of this lighting artist, illustrated by studio photographs and period documentation or non-professional photographic testimonials, because a large number of the creations by Robert Mathieu have never been seen before. Text in English and French.

An architect without being one, an anomalous designer, a gifted draftsman and collector of objects, Luca Meda (1936-1998) wrote one of the most important chapters in the history of 20th-century Italian design. The world of domestic interiors was his privileged field of action, and the very close, one-of-a-kind relationship with Molteni&C has provided, since the seventies, an example of perfect symbiosis between creativity and business, art and industry. Among the pieces of furniture that have become iconic are the Piroscafo bookcase designed together with Aldo Rossi, the Zim and Ho chairs, the Vivette armchair, the Primafila sofa and the modular systems 505 and Pass. This publication offers an exhaustive portrait of Luca Meda, at long last highlighting the importance and extent of his production - which includes furniture, installations, architectural projects and design objects of all sorts - in the context of a still pioneering season of Italian design, but to whom we nevertheless owe the subsequent success on the world stage. The historical-critical essays dedicated to his work are accompanied by a series of interviews with collaborators and friends who shared knowledge and practice in the realisation of his projects, as well as the re-edition of an interview with Meda himself, published on "Gap casa" in 1983. Bio-bibliographical appendix and a list of works complete the fascinating journey of the volume. Critical essays: Serena Maffioletti, Alberto Ferlenga, Sofia Meda, Nicola Braghieri, Beatrice Lampariello, Rosa Chiesa, Giampiero Bosoni e Chiara Lecce, Dario Scodeller, Mario Piazza. Interviews: Luca Meda, Romano Barchi, Mario Carrieri, Nicola Gallizia, Eliana Gerotto, Peter Hefti, Felix Humm, Laura Maifreni, Bruno Longoni, Carlo Molteni, Diego Peverelli, Richard Sapper, Filippo Zagni. Text in English and Italian.

Sunday Suns is the weekly project of American designer Tad Capenter, who has taken on the simple of task of designing, illustrating, scuplting, modelling, making, stitching or creating a sun every Sunday.

This compelling autobiography tells the life story of famed manga artist Nakazawa Keiji. Born in Hiroshima in 1939, Nakazawa was six years old when on August 6, 1945, the United States dropped the atomic bomb. His gritty and stunning account of the horrific aftermath is powerfully told through the eyes of a child who lost most of his family and neighbors. In eminently readable and beautifully translated prose, the narrative continues through the brutally difficult years immediately after the war, his art apprenticeship in Tokyo, his pioneering "atomic-bomb" manga, and the creation of Barefoot Gen, the classic graphic novel based on Nakazawa's experiences before, during, and after the bomb. This first English-language translation of Nakazawa's autobiography includes twenty pages of excerpts from Barefoot Gen to give readers who don't know the manga a taste of its power and scope. A recent interview with the author brings his life up to the present. His trenchant hostility to Japanese imperialism, the emperor and the emperor system, and U.S. policy adds important nuance to the debate over Hiroshima. Despite the grimness of his early life, Nakazawa never succumbs to pessimism or defeatism. His trademark optimism and activism shine through in this inspirational work.

Czech-born Jacqueline Groag (1903-1985) was an incredibly adept textile designer who trained at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna during the 1920s under Franz Cisek and Josef Hoffmann. She produced textile designs for the Wiener Werkstatte and some of the Parisian fashion houses while she lived in Vienna. She married the architect and interior designer Jacques Groag - they made a successful team. However, in 1939 they were compelled to emigrate to the UK. Jacqueline Groag continued to produce textile design work for the British market, and after the war her designs could be seen at numerous outlets such as David Whitehead, Grafton, John Lewis and Liberty. For more than 20 years she worked as a freelance designer, supplying designs for carpets, greetings cards, laminates, plastics, textiles, wallpapers and wrapping papers to many firms including Bond-Worth Carpets, British European Airways, the British Overseas Airways Corporation, Dunlop, ICI and London Transport. In 1984 she became a Fellow of the Faculty of Royal Designers for Industry. She was a prodigious and successful designer to the end of her life. Along with Lucienne Day and Marian Mahler she is seen as central to a new and exciting development in textile design in the 1950s. Together their work is featured in a major exhibition 'Designing Women' which begins in Colorado Springs in September 2008. This is a ground breaking publication on the work of this highly important and influential designer.

The newest volume in the Art Institute of Chicago's successful A+D series, Fashioning the Object invites readers to visit three of the most visionary design studios at work today: Bless, Boudicca, and Sandra Backlund. Fiercely independent and far-reaching in their influences, these young designers from Berlin, London, Paris, and Stockholm are producing fashion objects that straddle the line between traditional craft and cutting-edge technique, both in their use of materials and in the promotion of their brands. Zoe Ryan establishes the context for understanding the exciting departures these design houses represent, as the young creators draw inspiration from an array of other disciplines, including architecture, performance, film, and fine art. From Bless's numbered editions, to Boudicca's graffiti-can perfume, to Backlund's ready-to-wear pieces of knitted copper, these designers adapt storied objects to new uses and break old conventions, promulgating their ideas in playful, groundbreaking ways. Distributed for the Art Institute of Chicago Exhibition Schedule: The Art Institute of Chicago04/14/12-09/13/12

The cooperation of Trix and Robert Haussmann with the Roethlisberger carpenters, which started in 1979, yielded numerous successful experiments in artistic and handcrafted furniture. Not comparable to furniture from the retail store, these exclusive designs were sold as a limited edition of 15 pieces each. For the first time, a publication presents the full scope of furniture that was developed in Trix and Robert Haussmann's "Allgemeine Entwurfsanstalt" for the Roethlisberger Kollektion. The design objects were highly sophisticated in the planning of each detail as well as their realization and required a high level of innovation, new techniques and technical expertise. The close collaboration and good relation between manufacturer and designers were what constituted the special appeal of the finished products.

Libertine is an invitation into Johnson Hartig's world, as the designer shares images of his eccentric and whimsical fashion designs, inspirational references, and his captivatingly eclectic interiors. Johnson Hartig is the founder and designer for the innovative fashion brand Libertine, which is renowned for breathing electric life back into vintage couture pieces by cutting them up and adding ornate crystal embellishments, rich silk-screened graphics, and embroideries to create gorgeous one-of-a-kind garments. With an uncanny ability to combine unexpected colors, patterns, and textures, Hartig has created a style that is youthful and edgy yet undeniably glamorous and sophisticated. A hopeless traditionalist yet a rule breaker, Hartig's personal style was initially what inspired the brand, and this eclectic philosophy permeates all parts of his life. Early champions include Anna Wintour, Karl Lagerfeld, and Damien Hirst. This captivating volume takes the reader on a much-awaited tour of Hartig's charmingly quirky home and personal style, which often garnish as much attention as his fashion brand. Hartig's passionate and playful personality shines through in his designs for Libertine as they do in the creative and uniquely decorated interiors of his home. His energetic spirit and joie de vivre lifestyle is contagious, and this volume will be an indispensable visual arcade to be cherished by lovers of fashion, style, and interior design alike.