Best of
Design

1980

Theory and Design in the First Machine Age


Reyner Banham - 1980
    It has influenced a generation of students and critics interested in the formation of attitudes, themes, and forms which were characteristic of artists and architects working primarily in Europe between 1900 and 1930 under the compulsion of new technological developments in the first machine age.

Le Corbusier: Le Modulor and Modulor 2


Le Corbusier - 1980
    Le Modulor was published in 1950 and after meeting with success, Le Corbusier went on to publish Modulor 2 in 1955. In many of Le Corbusier's most notable buildings, including the Chapel at Ronchamp and the Unite d'habitation, evidence of his Modulor system can be seen. These two volumes form an important and integral part of Le Corbusier's theoretical writings.

Men: A Pictorial Archive from Nineteenth-Century Sources


Jim Harter - 1980
    Their diversity, crisp black-and-white lines, and adaptability to typography and a wide range of other projects make them an ideal source for a limitless array of craft and design ideas.Now Jim Harter, noted collagist, has compiled a comprehensive sourcebook of 19th-century woodcuts depicting men. Similar in format to his popular previous collection, Women (Dover 0-486-23703-6), the present volume contains over 400 carefully selected illustrations of men in an enormous variety of poses, costumes, attitudes, and activities: playing baseball, dancing, roping steers, mining coal, playing chess, hunting, flirting, courting, wrestling, shoveling, running, reading, talking, praying, thinking, gesturing, fencing, and more.Spanning a variety of geographical locations and historical periods, these delightfully old-fashioned renderings depict Eskimos in kayaks, medieval knights, Roman gladiators, magicians, firemen, soldiers, miners, beggars, fops, dandies, Prussian generals, shepherds, artists, acrobats, bullfighters, doctors, mythological and religious figures (Laocoon, Buddha, Moses, etc.), monks, prisoners, and more, representing nearly every masculine occupation and activity imaginable.The material in this book has been chosen to reflect the diversity of the subject, to illustrate the variety of styles of wood engraving, and to be of maximum useĀ to artists and designers. Reproduced from such periodicals as Illustrated London News, La Nature, Leslie's, and Harper's, these engravings will solve a great many illustration problems at a very low cost. All 412 illustrations are in line and immediately usable; many have been silhouetted by Mr. Harter to increase their usefulness. This is an unusually comprehensive and helpful sourcebook that belongs in the working library of every modern artist or illustrator.

The Hindu Temple (2 Volumes)


Stella Kramrisch - 1980
    The first 4 parts of the work are devoted to the philosophy of temple architecture. Part V deals with the origin and development of the temple from the Vedic fire altars to the latest forms. Part VI discusses the pyramidal and curvilinear superstructures in the main varieties of the Sikhara, the Sikhara enmeshed in Gavaksas and the composite Sikhara. Part VIII describes the proportional measurements and the rhythmic disposition of the garbha-grha and the vertical section.

Experiences in Visual Thinking


Robert H. McKim - 1980
    To encounter reality deeply, you cannot leave part of yourself behind. All of your senses, your emotions, your intellect, your language-making abilities - each contributes to seeing fully.Robert McKimRobert H McKim's Experiences in Visual Thinking is a goldmine of information and activities for those interested in the ways in which perceptual thinking skills can be observed, utilized and improved, and how powerful these skills are in their "capacity to change your world of ideas and things".

Art Deco


Victor Arwas - 1980
    Arwas discusses the work of Art Deco's leading French exponents -- Ruhlmann, Puiforcat, Erte, Dunand, Fouquet, Cassandre, Boucheron, and Icart, to name but a few -- as he traces the evolution of the style from its first appearance at the famed 1925 Exposition des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris, from which it took its name.

Time-Saver Standards for Building Types


Dechiara - 1980
    It offers vast amounts of information on the essential component elements of each building. A true classic in the industry.

Now I Lay Me Down to Eat: Notes and Footnotes on the Lost Art of Living


Bernard Rudofsky - 1980
    Modest in size but broad in aim, this book examines five basic functions - eating, sleeping, sitting, cleansing, and bathing - in the rearview mirror of humankind's accumulated knowledge. Taking its title from the table manners at the Last Supper, it inevitably leads to the Lord's endorsement of drinking wine and eating with one's fingers. It expatiates on the fork's decline from an instrument for pitching dung to one for pitching food. It reveals the noxiousness of chairs and touches upon the role of swings and rockers as aids to masturbation. It speaks of the need for pocket urinals; of the casualties in our battle against the bidet; of the abominable toilet paper. It extols the convivial bath of past and present, more especially the forgotten pleasures of balneal banquets. Withal, it is meant neither to spread dangerous heresies nor to undermine our birthright to make the worst of possible choices. Rather it demonstrates by means of persuasive illustrations that life can be less dull than we make it.Contents:11 Preface17 Table manners at the Last Supper47 Sitting ugly103 Hygiene at a discount123 The convivial bath149 The obsolete bedroom185 P.S.186 Acknowledgements187 Text References190 Index191 Additional picture sources

Printing Types: Their History, Forms, and Use (2 Vols)


Daniel Berkeley Updike - 1980
    By tracing the development of type design, Updike discusses the importance of each historic period and the lessons it contains. The original two-volume set has been combined into one hardbound book containing the original 367 typographical illustrations selected from rare and beautiful books. In Volume I, Mr. Updike discusses the Latin alphabet, the invention of printing, the cutting and casting of types, fifteenth-century types in Germany, Italy, France, Spain, and England as well as German, Italian, and French types of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. Volume II continues the discussion of types to the beginning of the nineteenth century and then describes American types and nineteenth-century types in general. This work is the third edition, reprinted with new introduction by Martin Hutner. Co-published with The British Library. Over 367 typographical illustrations

Army of Lovers


Rosa von Praunheim - 1980
    

Hungarian Folk Designs for Embroiderers and Craftsmen


Anne Szalavary - 1980
    A treasure of old world designs from Hungary that will delight needle workers, embroiderers and those with Hungarian family ties~!

Creative Perspective


Robert W. Gill - 1980
    

Pictorial Archive of Printer's Ornaments: from the Renaissance to the 20th Century


Carol Belanger Grafton - 1980
    1,489 decorative ornaments for artists and craftspeople: headpieces, tailpieces, dingbats, lunettes, calligraphic and heraldic devices, and more, in Renaissance, Baroque, Victorian, Art Nouveau, and many other styles.

Mariano Fortuny: His Life & Work


Guillermo De Osma - 1980
    

Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography, 3-Volume Set


Lynne Warren - 1980
    This unique approach covers the aesthetic history of photography as an evolving art and documentary form, while also recognizing it as a developing technology and cultural force. This Encyclopedia presents the important developments, movements, photographers, photographic institutions, and theoretical aspects of the field along with information about equipment, techniques, and practical applications of photography. To bring this history alive for the reader, the set is illustrated in black and white throughout, and each volume contains a color plate section. A useful glossary of terms is also included.

The Book of Shaker Furniture


John Kassay - 1980
    This book is a collection of furniture made by members of this remarkable American religious sect.

Thinking Visually


Robert H. McKim - 1980
    Chapters explore ambidextrous thinking, seeing by drawing, and directed fantasy.

Notes on Graphic Design and Visual Communication


Gregg Berryman - 1980
    Features essential design information that provides a visual vocabulary and an introduction to concepts of design based on the work of well-known designers.

Thermal Shutters And Shades: Over 100 Schemes For Reducing Heat Loss Through Windows


William A. Shurcliff - 1980
    Are you interesting in Thermal Shutters and Shades: Over 100 Schemes for Reducing Heat Loss Through Windows?

The Architecture of the French Enlightenment


Allan Braham - 1980
    At the same time, it explores the broader determinants of architectural production: the rapid economic expansion of Paris and the main provincial centers and the increasing demand for improved public amenitiesā€”theaters, schools, markets, and hospitals. This generously illustrated book provides a vivid commentary on society and manners in pre-Revolutionary France.

Colonial Williamsburg Decorates for Christmas: Step-By-Step Illustrated Instructions for Christmas Decorations That You Can Make for Your Home


Libby H. Oliver - 1980
    This how-to book contains directions for making forty-two beautiful decorations including an apple cone and an herb wreath. Step-by-step drawings and thirty-five color photographs show how to create each decoration at home

Traditional Chinese Textile Designs in Full Color


Northeast Drama Institute - 1980
    Movements and gestures follow age-old patterns, and the physical appearance of the performers is rigidly controlled, especially their costumes, which reveal social rank, occupation, and often personality traits of the characters. Traditional, well-known motifs are embroidered in colored silk or cotton on specifically prescribed parts of the costume to act as symbols or emblems. Since the motifs are crucial to such symbolic representations, they are the focus of the greatest possible care and art.This handsome volume reproduces 60 authentic full-color motifs, originally published in mainland China. Beautifully painted by Lu Hua and Ma Chiang, the motifs include dragons, lions, phoenixes, sharks, cranes, lotuses, peonies, plum blossoms, and more. Incorporated in these designs are timeless themes found throughout Chinese art: a permeating sense of nature depicted with a sense of growing, moving life; the perfection of shape and proportion that defines a godlike universality. In their subtle coloring, harmonious interplay of shape and form, and interlocking symmetrical designs, these motifs perpetuate ancient traditions of symbolic representation and allegorical meaning.Produced with meticulous care and taste, this album of motifs displays each design at its best: details are sharp and clear against monochromatic backgrounds; subtle hues with stylized renderings of birds, fish, animals, flowers, clouds, waves, and other shapes achieve a highly controlled composition of unity and grace. Designs are also ingeniously adapted to their specific use on the garment: as circular "crests" for broad flat areas, and as elongated panels for borders, collars, and trouser legs. Captions identify each motif and briefly indicate the type of costume, and the parts of the costume on which they occur.

Structure in Nature Is a Strategy for Design


Peter Pearce - 1980
    This book--itself designed with graphic modularity and richly illustrated with examples of forms created by nature and by man, including some remarkable and surprising architectural structures developed by the author--leads the designer in this "natural" direction, beyond the familiar limitations of the right angle and the cube and into a richer world of forms based on the triangle, the hexagon, and general polyhedra, as well as saddle polyhedra spanned by minimal continuous surfaces.The author writes that "Systems can be envisaged which consist of some minimum inventory of component types which can be alternatively combined to yield a great diversity of efficient structural form. We call these "minimum inventory/maximum diversity" systems."By such a 'system' I mean a "minimized" inventory of component types (a kit of parts) "along with" rubrics whereby the components may be combined.... The snowflake is the most graphic example in nature of the minimum inventory/maximum diversity principle. In fact, it may be considered an archetype of physicogeometric expression. All planar snow crystals are found to have star-like forms with six corners (or subsets thereof).... However, within this six-fold form, no two snowflakes have ever been known to be exactly alike...."An integral part of the concept of minimum inventory/maximum diversity systems is the principle of conservation of resources. The formative processes in natural structure are characteristically governed by least-energy responses. Perhaps the simplest expression of this is found in the principle of closest packing, a principle which even in its most elementary form is common in both the animate and inanimate worlds."Pearce's work follows in the tradition established by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson and Konrad Wachsmann, and reflects his earlier close working association with Charles Eames and Buckminster Fuller. With Eames, he contributed to the design of seating and other furniture systems, and he edited the preliminary text of Fuller's "Synergetics, " that grand summary of his thoughts, and prepared the illustrations for the published version of that book.Many of the ideas explored in this book have already undergone "reduction to practice" in the firm Pearce founded, Synestructics, Inc. Its initial products have been kits and kites, and a ministructure large enough for kids to crawl through, the "Curved Space Labyrinth," a saddle polyhedra system made of transparent plastic. Adult-sized structures, and indeed megastructures, based on these principles can be realized as soon as entrepreneurs emerge whose vision is commensurate with that of Peter Pearce.