Best Design Books

Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty by Andrew Bolton

January 20, 2016

Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty by Andrew Bolton – Alexander McQueen (17 March 1969 – 11 February 2010) was an icon in the fashion industry. This book is a fine tribute to one of the best fashion designer and conceptual artist who died far too young but whose contributions to contemporary fashion and art will live on. This book is likely to become a collector’s item, so handsomely designed and present as it is. The artist was the most influential, imaginative, and provocative designer of his generation- The artist both challenged and expanded fashion conventions to express ideas about race, class, sexuality, religion, and the environment. Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty examines the full breadth of the designer’s career, from the start of his fledgling label to the triumphs of his own world-renowned London house. It features his most iconic and radical designs, revealing how McQueen adapted and combined the fundamentals of Savile Row tailoring, the specialized techniques of haute couture, and technological innovation to achieve his distinctive aesthetic. It also focuses on the highly sophisticated narrative structures underpinning his collections and extravagant runway presentations, with their echoes of avant-garde installation and performance art. Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty celebrates the astounding creativity and originality of a…

The essential guide: Design of the 20th Century by Taschen Books

June 6, 2014

Charlotte&Peter Fiell have written numerous Taschen books,including1000 Chairs, Design of the 20th Century, Industrial Design A–Z,Scandinavian Design, Designing the 21st Century, Graphic Design for the 21st Century,1000 Lights and Contemporary Graphic Design. They also edited Taschen’s Decorative Art series and the 12-volume domus 1928-1999. From Art Noveau to minimalism and everything in between Design of the 20th Century (published by Taschen) shows clearly that the previous century was marked by momentous changes in the field of design. Aesthetics entered into everyday life with often staggering results. Our homes and workplaces turned into veritable galleries of style and innovation. From furniture to graphics, it`s all here – the work of artists who have shaped and recreated the modern world with a dizzying variety of materials. From the organic to the geometric, from Art Deco, through to Pop and High-Tech, this book contains all the great names – Harry Bertoia, De Stijl, Dieter Rams, Philippe Starck, Charles and Ray Eames, to name only a very few. This essential book is a comprehensive journey through the shapes and colors, forms and functions of design history in the 20th century. An A-Z of designers and design schools, which builds into a complete picture of contemporary living. Lavishly illustrated, this is design in the fullest sense. “This is…

BALLETS RUSSES BY ANDRÉ TUBEUF

September 6, 2013

The success of the Ballets Russes was legendary, but there is more to the legend than its name: the actual story, the adventure, conceived by one man and lived by a few, that lasted only eight seasons and three summers. From 1911 to 1914, Serge Diaghilev, driven by conviction and stubbornness, turned his vision into reality. He collaborated with the likes of Leon Bakst, Igor Stravinsky, and Picasso to create an explosion of creativity in Western Europe which had never before been seen in the world of art. Thanks to Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, the most glorious page in the history of ballet, one of the most magnificent moments in the adventure of Art, was written. To turn the pages of this stunning book, which offers rare documents from the legendary Ballets Russes from 1911 to 1914 (Monte Carlo years), is to follow Diaghilev on his creative quest—a journey that continues to influence art, theater, ballet, and fashion to this day. About the Author André Tubeuf taught philosophy for thirty-five years and served as musical adviser for two Ministers of Culture, Jacques Duhamel and Michel Guy, before he began writing. A collection of his most important works, l’Offrande Musicale, was published…

Guy Laramee Book Art

January 8, 2013

Guy Laramee Book Art – Are you familiar with the fantastic work of Guy Laramée? In the course of his 30 years of practice, this interdisciplinary artist has created in such varied and numerous disciplines as theater writing and directing, contemporary music composition, musical instrument design and building, singing, video, scenography, sculpture, installation, painting, and literature. He has received more than 30 arts grants and was awarded the Canada Council’s Joseph S. Stauffer award for musical composition. His work has been presented in United States, Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, and Latin America. Among Guy Lamarée sculptural works are two incredible series of carved book landscapes and structures entitled Biblios and The Great Wall, where the dense pages of old books are excavated to reveal serene mountains, plateaus, and ancient structures. Of these works he says: “So I carve landscapes out of books and I paint Romantic landscapes. Mountains of disused knowledge return to what they really are: mountains. They erode a bit more and they become hills. Then they flatten and become fields where apparently nothing is happening. Piles of obsolete encyclopedias return to that which does not need to say anything, that which simply IS. Fogs and clouds erase…