21st Century Design: New Design Icons from Mass Market to Avant-Garde

by Marcus Fairs, Marcel Wanders (Foreword)

The dawn of the 21st century has witnessed an explosion of creativity in just about every field of design. This updated new edition of the popular 21st Century Design guides the reader through an often bewildering array of contemporary movements, styles, and trends. Intelligently and provocatively written, this large and attractive volume places the current scene in a historic framework, explores the cultural and economic forces shaping design now and for the future, identifies top designers and trends, and explains the vigorous artistic debates going on among the innovators in architecture, fashion, interiors, and product design. From the avant-garde to mass-market, 21st Century Design provides an accessible and engaging look at what’s happening today.

Genres: Nonfiction, Design, Art

464 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2009

Reviews

[Wreade1872 · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this is an overview of various pieces of design, architecture, furniture, clothing etc. Its very much a coffee-table book, in that each short piece can be read in any order.
This does lead to slightly odd experience if reading in sequence as you can have multiple references to the same people written as if you’ve never heard of the person before.

For a coffee-table book it doesn’t have the biggest pictures, it couldn’t really with the amount of items it wants to cover. Some might also want more information on each but its just a short bit on each one.
On the other hand that is still quite a bit of writing when you add it up and if your actually looking at the whole work. I do like the authors forthright descriptions.

Finally... maybe its just me but the font seems pretty small.

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

From architecture to shoes, this book explores design inspired by new techniques (rapid prototyping, new plastics, wrapped carbon fiber) and design that is decidedly low-tech (Maarten Baas + antique furniture + blowtorch). Some of it is instantly trite (anybody else tired of Tord Boontje's laser-cut light fixtures?), some is classic, and some is extremely hard on the eyes, like a European pharmacy interior clad in green plexi cabinets, lit from within. Just looking at the pictures, I got the 'look away and everything is pink' effect.

But every ten pages, I had to stop and say, "Whoa. THAT is COOL."