Inside Design Now: National Design Triennial

Rating:
Summary: Look, Read, Think
Review: If you can't make it to New York to see the actual Triennial show at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, then this book is your best bet for a provocative survey of contemporary design. This is particularly true if you think of design as a big idea connecting print, interaction, motion, products, architecture and environments. You'll find a good balance of critical writing with images in this book. So it is something both to look at and to read and think about.

Rating:
Summary: Inside Design Now
Inside Design Now
Inside Design Now
Review: The catalogue for the National Design Triennal at the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum is an elegant distillation for those who cannot make it to New York before January 25, and includes essays by its four curators. The theme, in every aspect of design, from furniture to graphics, lighting to fashion, is pluralism. Standouts include Yusuke Obuchi's Wave Garden-a poetic alternate energy generator that rewards frugal consumers by becoming a maritime park at weekends; Loyand Ford's deconstructed clothes; and Stephen Wolfram's graphic portrayal of simplicity generating complexity-an inquiry that might, one day, summarize the workings of the universe in a few lines of code. Get the book and try to see the exhibition: both will stretch your mind and broaden your appreciation of what designers can do. (Michael Webb is the book reviewer for LA Architect magazine.)