Design for Life: Our Daily Lives, the Spaces We Shape, and the Ways We Communicate, As Seen Through the Collections of Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum

by Susan Yelavich, Stephen Doyle (Editor)

Book by Yelavich, Susan

Genres: Design

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum houses a huge collection of objects, and this book features photos of 500 of them, from typewriters to wallpaper, luggage tags to stage designs, and dinner plates to toilets. Everything humans make has design, be it good, bad, or indifferent, but we don’t normally think about it. Does the design of the object serve its purpose, or is it clumsy to use? Is it beautiful as well as practical? Whether the item is primarily designed by an artist or by an engineer, it’s all designed by the human imagination. I loved looking through this book and seeing examples of jewelry, clothing, furniture, cars, tableware, houses, advertising graphics, and more. Short on text but long on pictures, it’s an easy read as an introduction to design. Five stars.

[Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this on the sidewalk and decided to give it a read. There's not a ton of words but lots of beautiful pictures and interesting captions.

[Frederic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice introduction to design in everyday objects, drawn from the collections of the Cooper-Hewitt.