Design Culture Now: The National Design Triennial

Rating:
Summary: You CAN judge a book by it's cover!
Review: Almost annoying.

I agree about the fluorescent pages. I was really, really surprised that anyone would actually box large clumps of body copy (which by the way were written by someone who exists on a much higher plane of existence that the rest of us!) in to heavy fluorescent frames, which basically served to give me the worst headache I've had in weeks.

I was relieved though, that there was some redeeming content in the book. I appreciated the attention to various art disciplines, however, I would (as a graphic designer), have appreciated a LITTLE more attention to print projects.

I agree that it is perhaps, mis-titled, as I wonder if it truly represents "design culture," but there is much to inspire, and I found it worth having.

Rating:
Summary: A unique, informative survey of American design culture.
Review: Design Culture Now is the first survey of American design to blend architecture, product and graphic design under one cover, presenting the latest work in everything from fashion and landscape architecture to posters, film and interactive media. Themes provide the chapter focus for a book profiling projects by new designers and established achievers alike. Black and white and color photos pack the presentation.

Rating:
Summary: could have been SO much better
Review: Design Culture Now is the title for the catalog of the National Design Triennial(an exhibit of the best product,graphic,and architectural design done in the last three years). It's a nice title, but I'm not completely sure how accurate it is. The book contains a lot of nice pictures of designs and some decent writing about it. However I'm left wondering is this what design culture is? My feeling is that this a collection of the best stuff that has been in magazines about design for the last three years or the culture around designers not the designs that influence culture at large. The saddest part about this book is its unrealized potential. The concept is a decent one. Curators from the three fields of design looked far and wide for the best design in the country created in the last three years. They then met and instead of categorizing by building, product, or graphic they devised seven categories that served as umbrella themes in design (fluid, physical, minimal, reclaimed, local, branded, narrative, unbelievable.) The result is interesting. In the FLUID category an iMac is a page away from a rollercoaster in PHYSICAL a redesign of a shopping cart is grouped with a poster where a man has scarred his body to advertise a lecture. The juxtapostions are interesting but do not save the book. Too much of the work resides in the avant-garde, unseen by most people even fellow designers in many cases. A good example is the work of Martin Venezky (in the PHYSICAL category) a designer who alters the characteristics of letterforms by cutting and distorting them, while the work is interesting enough is it a profound influence on design culture? More likely it is work influenced heavily by grungy graphics. Similar things happen throughout the book where novel objects are elevated to undeserved levels. Another flaw is the attribution of design movements or the lack of criticim for being derivitive of the design movements. Hailing Razorfish as the creators of great internet sights is ok but the book makes it seem as if they are responsible for the idea of E-commerce sights, a better solution may have been to list E-commerce as a topic giving credit to the multitude of companies that have had a hand in developing this amazing revoluton in web design. Conversely, the fluid category is filled with iMac knock-offs which is ok but it should have made it clear that these things were obviously influenced by Apple's ID team. The book design also left something to be desired. Ellen Lupton designed the interior(she was also the curator responsible for graphics) and I was thoroughly let down. I am huge fan of her book Design/Writing/Research a monument in design criticism and book design in general. This book however is the polar opposite. The day-glo inks are the most noticeable flaw, giving me headaches while I tried to read the essays. other than that the layouts are just mediocre. It feels like every other design collection you have seen, which is ok but considering her scary talent it could have been much better. Overall I give it three stars, The project had good intentions, It broke traditional categories, included things not traditionally associated with design(roller-coasters, comic books, etc.), and tried to show a cross pollinated view of design. However I hope the next installment equally favors vernacular design along with the avant garde and provides more critical insight into who made the biggest waves and who merely latched on.

Rating:
Summary: spell-check now!
Review: I agree completely with the reviewer from Providence, RI. However, I place the day-glo inks as the SECOND most noticeable flaw. The first is the misspelling of SMITHSONIAN on the spine.

Rating:
Summary: overviews are necessary
Review: i like the book because of its overview and mixed / cross polinated approach. I don't think that vernacular design that informs our culture is any more inspiring necessarily to students than a more avant garde approach. Either way, I did find some mainstream design included and yet a lot was on the edge too. I think students, especially will gain from the survey approach here. They do not have enormous opportunities to see whats out there while they are in school and this resources makes a good effort at bringing it to them and the public. The layout is also fine. I do not fault the organization of the pages or thematic titles used throughout. It is a demonstration of cross fertilization in design that is pushing the envelope and thats the message of the book to me. Design is not complacent and not sitting still - it is pushing frontiers and making new relationships between information and communication, materials and process, environmental impact and human life/style, and so much more is happening all around us. I think its a good project.

Rating:
Summary: overviews are necessary
Review: i like the book because of its overview and mixed / cross polinated approach. I don't think that vernacular design that informs our culture is any more inspiring necessarily to students than a more avant garde approach. Either way, I did find some mainstream design included and yet a lot was on the edge too. I think students, especially will gain from the survey approach here. They do not have enormous opportunities to see whats out there while they are in school and this resources makes a good effort at bringing it to them and the public. The layout is also fine. I do not fault the organization of the pages or thematic titles used throughout. It is a demonstration of cross fertilization in design that is pushing the envelope and thats the message of the book to me. Design is not complacent and not sitting still - it is pushing frontiers and making new relationships between information and communication, materials and process, environmental impact and human life/style, and so much more is happening all around us. I think its a good project.