14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Speed lines on Main Street, February 12, 2006
This review is from: American Streamlined Design: The World of Tomorrow (Hardcover)
Without Eric Brill's vision of a streamlined America this book would not be possible. He collected almost eight hundred products and donated his amazing collection to the Stewart Collection in Montreal. This book is a stunningly beautiful celebration of a very American, egalitarian design style.
The story of Streamline is pretty well documented (I've even done a Listmania about it) but what lifts this book above the others is its coverage of everyday products. Mr Brill could hardly collect buildings, shroud enclosed steam engines or Greyhound buses so he sought out mass-produced products available on any Main Street.
The visual basis of the book is a hundred and eighty products for use in the commercial world, the home (kitchen, bathroom, living room) and recreation. Each has a superb, simple still-life color photo that really makes these products sparkle, captions include manufacturing details and a design analysis of the item. Nicely some of this text has a delightful light heartedness. It is the product photos that I just love about the book, to see a whole-page color shot of a Stromberg-Carlson portable radio, a Skippy-Racer kids scooter (designed by Harold Van Doren) a Juice-King juicer or a DeVilbiss portable compressor in such clarity is amazing.
The six chapters comprehensively explore Streamline with the last one considering the effect the style had on product design over the last decade. The last pages include the usual designer biographies, bibliography (a brief but excellent listing) and index. There is the odd inclusion of ten pages near the beginning of the book devoted to a fulsome description of Eric Brill's residence, the beautiful Mandel House, in Bedford Hills, New York designed by Edward Durell Stone. This is the only architectural text in the book and I assume is only included because Mr Brill lived in this Moderne house. It also includes a rather brief description of the origins of his collection, though I would have liked to read a lot more about his research into Streamline and how he bought these items years after they were first made
The perfect complement to 'American Streamlined Design' is
American Modern, 1925-1940: Design for a New Age which has the same very strong visual format with beautifully photographed product shots. Its coverage though is for the more artistically creative items, glass, metal-ware and furniture for instance, rather than mass-produced items. With these two books (both beautifully designed and printed) you'll have as near perfect coverage of Streamline products so far available.
***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'cusomer images' under the cover.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Design for the The World of Tommorow, March 5, 2006
This review is from: American Streamlined Design: The World of Tomorrow (Hardcover)
The phrase "Art Deco" was only coined in the late 1960's to describe an era of modern design from 1925 to 1940. In an American context, Art Deco is an umbrella term that covers such diverse styles as "International Style", "Moderne", "Art Moderne", "Modernist", "Machine Age", "Depression Modern" and "Streamline". All these terms are inter-related and are no more than attempts to fine tune our understanding of modern design during this period.
Most of the art books and museum catalogues that are written about the American Art Deco era concentrate on superbly crafted objects that were produced for wealthy people. These same museum quality objects show up time and time again in the different books. What separates "American Streamlined Design" from most of the other books on American Art Deco is that authors concentrate on mass produced items that were made for the middle class.
In the 1930's and 1940's, the concept of streamline with its emphasis on clean, swept back lines and futuristic detailing appealed to a nation undergoing an economic Depression and entering into a World War. Inherent in the Streamline's design philosophy was the promise of a better world. In response, a generation of talented industrial designers began to produce thousands of objects that embraced this design philosophy. What makes this book extraordinary is the collection of such ordinary objects as typewriters, bathroom scales and lawn mowers. This book shows just how beautiful everday objects can be. Highly recommended.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If you love streamline design, then you'll love this book, September 12, 2009
This review is from: American Streamlined Design: The World of Tomorrow (Hardcover)
This book is full of great photography of some really nice streamline design products. It concentrates on consumer products and does not have extensive coverage of transportation (cars, trains, etc). If you're looking for a book that concentrates on transportation, then I'd suggest Streamlined: A metaphor for progress ISBN 3-906700-71-2. These two books combined would give you a pretty extensive education about streamline design.
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