A photographic exploration of Japanese architecture and design in size-constricted areas explores imaginative, ingenious, and revolutionary solutions to space-compromised living.

    His elegantly clear visual language not only defined product design for decades, but also our fundamental understanding of what design is and what it can and should do. Dieter Rams created ten rules of design more than twenty years ago. Sometimes referred to as the ten commandments, they are just as relevant today: Good design is innovative. Good design makes a product useful. Good design is aesthetic. Good design helps a product to be understood. Good design is unobtrusive. Good design is honest. Good design is durable. Good design is consistent to the last detail. Good design is environmentally friendly. Good design is as little design as possible. Less and More elucidates the design philosophy of Dieter Rams. The book contains images of hundreds of Rams's products as well as his sketches and models from Braun stereo systems and electric shavers to the chairs and shelving systems that he created for Vitsoe and his own company sdr+. In addition to the rich visual presentation of his designs, the book contains new texts by international design experts that explain how the work was created, describe its timeless quality, and put it into current context. In this way, the work of Dieter Rams is given a contemporary reevaluation that is especially useful in light of the rediscovery of functionalism and rationalism in today s design. Less and More shows us the possibilities that design opens for both the manufacturer and the consumer as a means of making our lives better through attractive, functional solutions that also save resources. "

     The Taj Mahal in Agra is arguably the most iconic image of India and is visited by eight million tourists annually. It was characterized as “pure, perfect and unutterably lovely” by the British Viceroy, Lord Curzon, and in 1983, UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site of “outstanding universal value.” For centuries the world has believed that it was built by Shah Jahan in 1631 to immortalize his love for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Certain mysteries and myths that surround the monument have recently come to the fore in the country, stimulating a public debate about the place it holds as a true representation of Indian culture. Inside you will read about... ✓ The Life of Mumtaz Mahal: The Jewel of the Palace ✓ The Building of the Taj Mahal ✓ A UNESCO World Heritage Site ✓ Myths, Conjecture, and Controversy ✓ The 22 Locked Rooms in the Basement And much more! This book presents the five main historical figures of the Mughal Empire in India during that period as well as many details of how the Taj Mahal was built. It traces the events that have led to the present controversy.

    Happy Home brims with useful ideas for transforming a ho-hum home with relaxed contemporary style featuring bright colors, cheerful patterns, and varying textures and scale inspired by designer Charlotte Hedeman Gueniau and her home furnishings company Rice, which are well-known among design fans for innovative home furnishings and houseware collections featuring ethically sourced and produced products. The book shows how the basics of everyday life can be enlivened by bringing color and a sense of fun to daily living, whether by using brightly colored accessories or by introducing fabrics with patterns, textures, and hints of humor throughout the home. Included are practical suggestions that add informal charm to any room, as well as do-it-yourself projects ranging from brightly colored throws and cushions, storage ideas to hide clutter, hand-painted furniture, and decorative motifs for walls and other surfaces.

    Her very first collection of signature handbags turned the fashion world on its head, displaying a new sense of freshness and optimism. Now, nearly 20 years later, the graphic patterns and expressive colors of her apparel, handbags and home furnishings are instantly recognizable - and universally coveted. In Pattern, Orla Kiely traces the pattern of her own development as a designer, providing useful information and inspiring insights that can help all of us develop a creative eye for color, shape, form - and pattern. Gain a glimpse of a typical fashion year, including the timing, production and presentation of seasonal collections. Come to understand the power of color, how it triggers emotional and intellectual responses, and how to temper those responses by combining and contrasting tones. And who better than Kiely to advise us on the use of pattern in our lives, be it in the clothes we wear, the accessories we carry, or the furnishing we surround ourselves with in our homes, from wallpaper to rugs, lampshades to linens? Vibrant illustrations and gorgeous photography make Pattern a visual treasure and a thoughtful guide to using pattern with confidence and joy.

    Learn how to find space in your home, whittle down your stash, and get tips on maximizing your storage and organization. Experts will also show you how to repurpose furniture, recyclables, and vintage items to establish a space with function and personality.Inside the Creative Studio offers imaginative and unique solutions for every lifestyle, regardless of money, time, or space. Artists and crafters of all types—quilters, fiber artists, mixed-media artists, jewelry makers, sewists, painters, and more—share their stories, tips, and images of putting together their customized creative spaces. From spacious oases to cute and compact retreats, each studio offers countless inspirational ideas.With some of the best articles and creative inspiration from Studios magazine, Inside the Creative Studio offers everything you need to know to spend less time making your studio work and more time actually creating.

    Using salvaged lumber and bricks, discarded tires, hay and waste cardboard bales, concrete rubble, colored bottles, and old license plates, they create inexpensive buildings that bear the trademark of Mockbee's work, which he describes as "contemporary modernism grounded in Southern culture."In a time of unexampled prosperity, when architectural attention focuses on big, glossy urban projects, the Rural Studio provides an alternative of substance. In addition to being a social welfare venture, the Rural Studio--"Taliesin South" as Mockbee calls it--is also an educational experiment and a prod to the architectural profession to act on its best instincts. In giving students hands-on experience in designing and building something real, it extends their education beyond paper architecture. And in scavenging and reusing a variety of unusual materials, it is a model of sustainable architecture. The work of Rural Studio has struck such a chord-both architecturally and socially--that it has been featured on Oprah, Nightline, and CBS News, as well as in Time and People magazines.The Studio has completed more than a dozen projects, including the Bryant "Hay Bale" House, Harris "Butterfly" House, Yancey Chapel, Akron Chapel, Children's Center, H.E.R.O. Playground, Lewis House, Super Sheds and Pods, Spencer House addition, Farmer's Market, Mason's Bend Community Center, Goat House, and Shannon-Dutley House. These buildings, along with the incredible story of the Rural Studio, the people who live there, and Mockbee and his student architects, are detailed in this colorful book, the first on the subject."I tell my students, it's got to be warm, dry, and noble"--Samuel Mockbee

    In composition, it recognizes the separate but equally important identity of both a shape and its background.Since their introduction in the West, the intriguing exercises associated with Notan have produced striking results in every branch of Western art and design. This book, by two American artists and teachers who made an intensive study of Notan, was the first basic book on the subject in the West, and it remains one of the definitive texts. Through a series of simple exercises, it places the extraordinary creative resources of Notan easily within the grasp of Western artists and designers.Clearly and concisely, the authors demonstrate Notan's practical applications in six problems of progressive difficulty — creative exercises that will fascinate artists and designers of every calling and level of expertise. Along with these exercises, the book includes many illustrations of the principle of Notan, among them images as diverse as a sculpture by David Smith, a Samoan tapa cloth, a Museum of Modern Art shopping bag, New England gravestone rubbings, Japanese wrapping paper, a painting by Robert Motherwell, a psychedelic poster, and a carved and dyed Nigerian calabash. Painters, sculptors, potters, jewelry, and textile designers, architects, and interior designers all will discover — or rediscover — in these pages an ancient principle of composition that can help them meet creative challenges with fresh new perspective.

    If you are looking for new ways of employing type in your works of art and design (or new twists to apply to your current typographic techniques), check out Type Idea Index. You'll find yourself face-to-face with 650+ custom-created, idea-sparking examples of typography and type-intensive design. For maximum user-friendliness, these samples are organized according to the theme they express (Energy, Elegance, Order, Rebellion) and the sort of real-world application they relate to (initials, monograms, logos, headlines, paragraphs).Expand your knowledge of type and brainstorm for ideas every time you design with letters and words.Type Idea Index "is the sixth installment in the best-selling, globally popular Index series by Jim Krause."

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    We walk on it, drive on it, and many of us live and work within its walls. But very few of us know what it is. We take for granted this ubiquitous substance, which both literally and figuratively comprises much of modern civilization’s constructed environment; yet the story of its creation and development features a cast of fascinating characters and remarkable historical episodes. This book delves into this history, opening readers’ eyes at every turn.In a lively narrative peppered with intriguing details, author Robert Corland describes how some of the most famous personalities of history became involved in the development and use of concrete—including King Herod the Great of Judea, the Roman emperor Hadrian, Thomas Edison (who once owned the largest concrete cement plant in the world), and architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Courland points to recent archaeological evidence suggesting that the discovery of concrete directly led to the Neolithic Revolution and the rise of the earliest civilizations. Much later, the Romans reached extraordinarily high standards for concrete production, showcasing their achievement in iconic buildings like the Coliseum and the Pantheon. Amazingly, with the fall of the Roman Empire, the secrets of concrete manufacturing were lost for over a millennium. The author explains that when concrete was rediscovered in the late eighteenth century it was initially viewed as an interesting novelty or, at best, a specialized building material suitable only for a narrow range of applications. It was only toward the end of the nineteenth century that the use of concrete exploded. During this rapid expansion, industry lobbyists tried to disguise the fact that modern concrete had certain defects and critical shortcomings. It is now recognized that modern concrete, unlike its Roman predecessor, gradually disintegrates with age. Compounding this problem is another distressing fact: the manufacture of concrete cement is a major contributor to global warming. Concrete Planet is filled with incredible stories, fascinating characters, surprising facts, and an array of intriguing insights into the building material that forms the basis of the infrastructure on which we depend.

    Whether we find ourselves in a museum, hospital, airport, mall, or street in an unfamiliar city, we depend on systems of visual, audible, and tactile cues not only to lead the way, but also to keep us safe. They are the fundamental questions of wayfindinga process that encompasses both the experience of choosing a path within a built environment and the set of design elements that aid in such a decision. A decade ago, the professional practice of wayfinding design simply involved devising sign systems. Today, the field is much broader and continues to expand to address technological developmentskinetic media, GPS systems, web connectivity, smart materialsas well as cultural changes in areas such as branding and environmental awareness. Similarly, a cross-disciplinary familiarity with graphic, architectural, landscape, interior, industrial, and information design has become an essential requirement of twenty-first-century wayfinding design.The Wayfinding Handbook is an exciting new volume in our acclaimed Design Briefs series. Professional wayfinding designer David Gibson draws on more than thirty years of experience collaborating with architects, planners, developers, managers, and civic leaders to offer an insider's view of this rapidly evolving discipline. Using real-life examples, Gibson illustrates the way type, color, mapmaking, dimensional forms, material selection, and new media are used to create effective wayfinding systems.The Wayfinding Handbook is a complete guide to the discipline, from planning and design to practical considerations, such as setting up teams and managing projects. "Other Voices" sidebars, presentedthroughout the book, reveal the opinions of experts who plan, manage, and shape wayfinding projects. A comprehensive bibliography and gallery of resources round out what is likely to become the go-to resource for students, professionals, or anyone charged with designing people-friendly, universally accessible environments.

    Logolounge features the work of superstar artists and firms such as Michael Vanderbyl and Sibley Peteet Design and includes both new campaigns and never-before-seen projects. With 2,000 logos from a variety of sources, this visually compelling volume will become the go-to resource for inspiration from the best in the field.

    Known for her art journals, Fiphie conjures up a beautiful concept of combining art and poetry, gifting the reader a unique compilation of her works. In her debut, Fiphie touches on subjects such as love, heartbreak, loss, death, trauma, femininity, longing and wanderlust. She creates powerful images which let the reader immerse deeply into her world of thought.Please note that The Dust Has Grown Flowers is exclusively available on fiphie.com/shop/