Synopses & Reviews
What is it that persuades us to camp outside Apple stores to be the first to buy an iPhone?
Why is it that a generation ago a typewriter might have lasted someone a lifetime, but now we write on computers that we upgrade every couple of years to shinier, faster, sleeker models?
Why do the clicks of some car doors sound 'expensive'?
Deyan Sudjic charts our relationship '"both innocent and knowing'" with all things designed. From the opulent excesses of the catwalk to the playfulness of an Alessi jam jar, he shows how we can be manipulated and seduced by our possessions. With scintillating wit he addresses these questions and more, exploring the reasons why every designer yearns to put a personal stamp on a chair or an adjustable lamp, and where design ends and art begins.
Review
" " Donald Norman, author of Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things
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" " Michael Bierut, author of Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design
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" " Henry Petrosky, author of Small Things Considered: Why There Is No Perfect Design
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" " Bill Moggridge, cofounder of IDEO and author of Designing Interactions
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" " Richard Sennett, author of The Culture of the New Capitalism
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" " John Dunningan, Dean of Architecture and Design, Rhode Island School of Design
Synopsis
In ?The Language of Things, ?thedirector of London's Design Museum charts our relationship with all things designed. With scintillating wit and an eye for the pleasures and dangers of rampant consumerism, Deyan Sudjic takes us from luxury car commercials to glossy advertisements for seasonal variations of the Prada purse to the hype surrounding the latest version of the iPhone, exploring how we are manipulated and seduced by our possessions. Who would've thought that it's the subtle visual similarity between the Volkswagen Golf GTI and the barrel of an automatic pistol that makes people want to get behind the wheel? And why is it that digital cameras in cell phones "click" even though they don't have a shutter? Sudjic's illuminating argument will resound with anyone who has ever been affected by how things look lured, in other words, by the powerful siren call of design.
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Synopsis
A brilliant exposé of the interaction between art, design, and commerce.
Synopsis
What is it that persuades us to camp outside Apple stores to be the first to buy an iPhone? Why is it that a generation ago a typewriter might have lasted someone a lifetime, but now we write on computers that we upgrade every couple of years to shinier, faster, sleeker models? Why do the clicks of some car doors sound "expensive"? Deyan Sudjic charts our relationship--both innocent and knowing--with all things designed. From the opulent excesses of the catwalk to the playfulness of an Alessi jam jar, he shows how we can be manipulated and seduced by our possessions. With scintillating wit he addresses these questions and more, exploring the reasons why every designer yearns to put a personal stamp on a chair or an adjustable lamp, and where design ends and art begins.
About the Author
Deyan Sudjicis director of the Design Museum, London. He is the author of 100-Mile Cityand The Edifice Complexand the coauthor of The Architecture Pack.
Exclusive Essay
Read an exclusive essay by Deyan Sudjic