Review by Choice Review
High modern 20th-century design often appeared to diminish or abandon color. Exhibition spaces became white cubes, and structures in glass, metal, and concrete eschewed color for apparent austerity. Appearances can be deceiving, as design journalist David Harrison points out in this book. The past century's objects of interior design have been enlivened by color. Harrison proceeds chronologically (1920--2020) to showcase 250 objects and eight design firms. Objects are accompanied by concise paragraphs in a manner echoing the prose of wall labels in a museum exhibition; similarly brief blurbs introduce the selected design firms. In 2021 academic understanding of "color" shifted, in keeping with societal shifts, to include more diverse colors and backgrounds of those who create design. Though Harrison's roster of designers is largely white, euro-American, to his credit he showcases design studio Doshi Levien, a partnership that brings together the UK and India. Chromophobia's day is done; long live color! Harrison's survey should pave the way for more nuanced histories that can restore color to its rightful place in the history of design. Summing Up: Recommended. All readers. --James E. Housefield, University of California, Davis
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
In this playful jaunt through 100 years of mostly European and American design, every page features a portrait of an object, like Maija Isola's iconic pink Unikko print for Marimekko (1964), paired with a brief description. (Isola's poppy pattern, we learn, was a flip response to a Marimekko company policy forbidding floral prints.) The book follows the canonical history of twentieth-century design, beginning with objects from the Bauhaus, sampling some from De Stijl, moving on to Scandinavian design and furniture by Americans like Eero Saarinen and the Eameses, and then championing Italy's pop experimentation. But this is only the first half of the book. The second half covers contemporary design from the past 35 years, and this is where it feels freshest--for instance, a bright-red, lily-shaped chair by Masanori Umeda (1990); design duo WrongWoods' midcentury-styled furniture imbued with bright colors through a woodblock printing process (2007). What fun to flip through this volume's rainbow, and yet how peculiar that it overlooks less flashy hues like brown, white, and black. They are, after all, colors too.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
