Includes bibliographical references (pages 301-302) and index.

"This richly illustrated volume covers the entire range of design today. In recent years design has developed greater variety than ever before: anything goes, seems to be the motto. This book shows that what at first sight appear to be little more than chaos is actually a handful of styles, each with a place in the kaleidoscope of modern design. Sobre functionalism coexists with colorful sculpture-objects of Alchimia and Memphis. Post-modern design with its historical references flourishes alongside futuristic High Tech. Trans High Tech uses High Tech materials as if they were archaeological artifacts. Minimalism and archetype design share a reductive aesthetic. The individual essays on these contemporary styles are preceded by a history of 20th-century industrial design using chair and lamp designs as examples. One essay focuses on the increasingly dominant role of architecture in design: micro-architecture can be found in tableware, where coffee pots resemble highrise buildings, for instance, and in furniture. Common objects are given a new cachet by presenting them as miniatures of formidable designs. The evolution of design is shaped by individual designers as much as by stylistic movements and this book includes chapters on the work of influential German designers Rams, Wewerka and Scheel. This richly illustrated survey demonstrates that the avant-garde does after all exist in industrial design today."--Jacket.

Also issued online.

SACFinal081324