Michael Graves Designs: The Art of the Everyday Object

by Phil Patton, Michael Graves

Michael Graves The Art of the Everyday Object is the inside account of Michael Graves' one-man design revolution. In creating more than one thousand objects for the home over the last three decades, the acclaimed architect has elevated everyday objects-from toasters to toilet brushes-into enduring icons that have redefined the American home.In recent years, with the resounding success of his collaboration with Target Stores, Michael Graves has become a household name, equivalent in the public eye with the very concept of "good design." In Michael Graves The Art of the Everyday Object, author Phil Patton surveys this fascinating career in design and retail, from kitchen accessories for Alessi to hotels and household objects for Disney, crystal bowls for Steuben, boutiques and packaging for Lenox and more. Going behind the scenes in Graves' Princeton, N.J., studios, Patton offers an exclusive look at the firm's passionate quest to make high style accessible to every shopper with eye-catching, witty, and formally beautiful products. In his own words, Graves describes the thought and process behind his uniquely American body of work.With more than 300 color images, including rare examples of Graves' famous personal sketches, product models and prototypes, technical drawings, and specially commissioned photographs of the studio in action, Michael Graves Art of the Everyday Object celebrates works of art that work.

128 pages, Hardcover

First published June 17, 2004

About the author

Phil Patton is a contributing editor at Departures, Esquire, and I.D., a contributing writer at Wired and an automotive design writer for The New York Times. Phil was a regular contributor to The New York Times Home and Garden section and, in 1998, originated the "Public Eye" column. He has written many books including: Made in USA: The Secret Histories of the Things That Made America (Grove-Weidenfeld, 1992), which was named a New York Times notable book of the year; Bug: The Strange Mutations of the World's Most Famous Automobile (Simon & Schuster, 2002); Michael Graves Designs: The Art of the Everyday Object (Melcher, 2004); and Dreamland: Travels Inside the Secret World of Roswell and Area 51 (Villard, 1998). He has also written for Art in America, ARTnews, Connoisseur, Geo, Harper's Bazaar, Men's Journal, The New Republic, New York Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, Rolling Stone, Smithsonian, Travel + Leisure, Traveler, The Village Voice and Vogue. Phil was the Editorial Consultant on the Guggenheim Museum's "Motorcycle" show in 1998 and Consulting Curator for the "Different Roads" exhibition at MoMA in 1999. In 2000 he was consultant and contributor for "On the Job: Design and the American Office" at the National Building Museum in Washington.