San Antonio College Library

What object covers a multitude of everyday needs and is used by explorers, housewives, campers and astronauts? It also saves lives, opens bottles, can be held in the palm of one's hand, is on display at the New York Museum of Modern Art, and is produced at a daily rate of 34,000 units? It's the Swiss Army Knife.

Ettore Sottsass designed the red plastic Valentine typewriter in 1969 for the modernist Italian firm Olivetti. Since 1958, Ettore Sottsass worked regularly with Olivetti, in exchange for total creative freedom. The Valentine was described by Olivetti as "a real pop object designed to blend into the private space." The typewriter had always been associated with the emancipation of women, but now the object itself was feminized. At once provocative...

The Wassily Chair came out of the great crucible of art, design and theory that was the Bauhaus. Like all great innovative movements in the history of ideas, Bauhaus attempted to bring theory and practice closer together and to rediscover connections between art and other human activities. The Wassily Chair Model B3 was designed in 1925 by Marcel Breuer for Wassily Kandinsky's flat. Breuer was trying to create disconnected, aerial shapes which appeared...

The mid-twentieth century was one of the most popular, collectable, and dynamic periods of international design. Drawing on the inventive style of the era, Mid-Century Modern Icons of Design features exclusive illustrations of iconic mid century designs, from Eames chairs to Poul Henningsen lamps and George Nelson clocks, all rendered in a distinctive graphic style befitting the era. Four concertina books, collected in a stylish slipcase, unfold accordion-style...

The stunning objects in this fully illustrated volume include furniture and household appliances, cars and toys as well as many other design items which transcended their everyday utility to achieve iconic status during the twentieth century. Each object is examined in color photographs and illustrations of its use, together with a brief biography of the designer and additional information illuminating our contemporary design culture.

In three pencil strokes, Philippe Starck explains his concept of the Bubble Sofa Club. Take a Twenties classic Club and make it into a simple, modern and innovating settee. Whereas the Club sofa was the privilege of middle-class interiors, Philippe Starck reinterprets this object with a greater concern for making it accessible to all. Using a hollow polyethylene casing manufactured in the roto mold process, the final product is a robust, ecological...

Coverage includes architecture, graphics, furniture, lighting, textiles, and appliances from Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Includes biographies of notable designers.

On June 22, 1979, Sony Japan launched the Walkman TPS-L2. This video examines how the Walkman has spread throughout the world changing our domestic environments, our attitude toward music, and paved the way for a range of everyday miniature and portable objects, such as the iPod, the MP3 player, the mobile phone, and many more.

Serge Mouille's lamps are thoroughly modern and timeless. They are unparalleled in both their conception and manufacture, two features essential to the project, and the basis of good design. His outstanding handcrafted work ethic seems obsolete in today's era of industrial outsourcing. Serge Mouille spent his later years teaching his know-how, in the style of the Living National Treasures of Japan, forgoing all awards and accolades from industrial...