The Design Book Hardcover – September 16, 2013

This small book contains one page devoted to each of 500 selected designs, some iconic, others obscure, but all chosen for their beauty and elegance. Items begin with household scissors from 1663 and continue through to the 2009 Dyson air multiplier. The emphasis is on home objects, with lots of chairs, lamps, dishes, watches and pens, and containing such elegant standards as the moleskin notebook and the paperclip. This is a fun and compact conversational piece, but also fun just to browse through, to appreciate great design and sometimes a trip down memory lane.Each page contains information about the designer, manufacturer and year, with details about the historical context and aesthetic. There is no introduction or commentary, but an index of the items, another for the designers, an author list and picture credits.

A fine little intro to 20th c. industrial design that's handier than the coffee table size version. Of course its scope is limited to Housewares & furnishings mostly, withoutsome great toy & sporting goods designs such as the Spalding rubber ball, the Converse sneaker, the Whammo Frisbee & plastic yo-to, Silly Putty, Slinky, Mattel's Barbie, and the high quality bearing resin wheels that made roller blades & skateboards cultural phenomena. However, this is a very fine introduction to the efforts of designers to imbue functional objects with beauty. Organized chronologically the first item is a pair of scissors invented over 300 years ago inChina; among the last items is the first Apple iPhone of 2007. Really a nifty littlegift for a future industrial designer/inventor.

So glad I was able to get this out of print book. Love the book, the pictures and the succinct description of each item.

I expected a brand new book, but received a book that looks like it has been handled, opened, and dropped a few times

very good book for someone interested in a short concise history of some of the most common yet striking objects that surround us

It is a very nice book.

This is one of the books that you must have for your bookcase. Fantastic excerpts on the origin of design and their modern day descendants.

The book is really little. Cute design, but it arrived with the back cover squished in.

As a non-professional designer I found this book full of interesting, helpful and sometimes surprising facts. Easy to dip into and very well presented it is a fascinating record and survey of many objects that we use and which surround us everyday.

Really nice little book to look at from time to time (you probably wouldn't want to read it through cover to cover all in one go)Each design has a single page with a picture and couple of paragraphs about the specific design, many of which you will recognise but not realise how important or breakthrough they were at the time.

Arrived on the expected date and in good terms. Good quality and it smells like new :)Thought the book would be a little bit bigger but that is my fault, should have been more informed.

Very interesting read if you're into product design.

Impressive collection of all the design items that I have searched for all in one place!!!