Design Encyclopedia, The [Hardcover]

Mel Byars (Author), Terence Riley (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2, 2004

The Museum of Modern Art Design Encyclopedia is the most comprehensive design reference guide to date. Compiled over the last 15 years by Mel Byars, in consultation with an international team of design experts, The Encyclopedia sets out to provide the factual framework of a discipline whose own historical accounting of itself is still relatively young. (By way of contrast, art history has existed as a scholarly discipline for over two centuries, and has produced a fairly comprehensive record of itself in that time period.) Only once before has a similarly comprehensive overview of the history of design been attempted--in 1994, also by Mel Byars. The Encyclopedia is about design, of course, but these days "design" seems to encompass almost everything, from magazine layouts and sweatshirts to animatronic flower gardens and heart pumps, not to mention the more abstract "information design." Here, however, design is considered only in its concrete application to functional objects, thus crossing with craft, decorative arts, and industrial design, but distinguishing itself from fine art and theory. The result is 832 pages covering the last 130 years in the history of the design of furniture, lighting, fabrics, ceramics, glassware, metalware, objects in a range of other materials, and mechanical, electrical, and electronic appliances, as well as automobiles and some inventions. There are separate entries for designers and craftspeople, design studios, consortiums and partnerships, noteworthy manufacturers, significant historical periods and styles, and materials. Entries, 3,600 in all, are self-contained and organized alphabetically, and include cross-references. Information is an amalgamation of data gathered from a vast number of primary and secondary sources. With over 700 full-color illustrations, most of which are drawn from the MoMA collection, the remainder from Quittenbaum Kunstauktionen in Munich and Hamburg or directly from designers or manufacturers, this publication is an invaluable, definitive compendium of the world of design over the last century and a half.

Editorial Reviews

Review

…the invaluable reference resource for any design library. -- Interior Design September 2004

Product Details

• Hardcover: 832 pages
• Publisher: The Museum of Modern Art, New York (June 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 087070012X
• ISBN-13: 978-0870700125
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.1 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #665,439 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars At second glance, February 7, 2006

By 

Valerie J. (West Yorks, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Design Encyclopedia, The (Hardcover)

When I first received this, I fanned through it and was disappointed. I was expecting to see huge glossy photographs of fantastic works of art and all I could see was a whole lot of text. I set it aside. Later, I opened it again and this time I went through it more slowly. I was wrong. The images are smaller than I had anticipated but the book is filled with them and the text is informative. It's a great, good quality, well presented reference book. I'm glad to have it on my bookshelf.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great reference work, June 5, 2009

By 

F. G. Naerebout (Leiden, Holland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Design Encyclopedia, The (Hardcover)

This is a marvellous work of reference: there is a large number of well-illustrated entries on individuals and institutions that have played an important part in 'design' (applied arts, and architecture and other arts when in a close relationship to the applied arts) for the past one and a half century. If this kind of thing interests you, this encyclopedia is a must. But it is also a pleasure to browse, and find out that those chairs and lampshades and I don't know what that you have seen so often and taken for granted are the product of some individual's creativity. This book can open your eyes to the wealth of design that is not only in museums but everywhere around you.