Designing the 21st Century (Specials) [Paperback]

Charlotte Fiell (Author), Peter Fiell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2001 | Series: Specials

What does the future look like? The clues are in the work of today's most forward-thinking designers, 100 of which have been selected for this guide. Names like Philippe Stark, Ross Lovegrove, Jonathan Ive, Ron Arad, and Marc Newson mingle with those of newer designers such as Fernando and Humberto Campana, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Michael Young, Harri Koskinen, and Shin and Tomoko Azumi. The A-Z listings include images of work and biographical/contact information, as well as each designer's answer to the question: "What is your vision for the future of design?"

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

QUOTES FROM THE BOOK: “Boredom is the mother of creativity” – Ron Arad, London “Simple forms, sensitive, tactile materials, products made to stand the test of time” – Babylon Design, London “Communuication, not decoration.” – Debbie Jane Buchan, Edinburgh “When I design, I design for people, not for an abstract entity, a market, but for real people, people I know, people, I love” – Konstantin Grcic, Munich “Design is about creatively exploiting constraint” – Inflate, London “Always question why you are doing something, unless you are being paid a ridiculous amount of money, then really question it” – James Irvine, Milan “It’s only the future if it can’t be made” – Ross Lovegrove, London “Every new product development must contain innovation” – J Mays, Michigan “I approach design I a fairly subliminal way, which is lucky because I don’t have time to think about it too much” – Marc Newson, London “Reality is what we make it” – Stephen Peart, California “Design is the whole experience of living” – Karim Rashid, New York

About the Author

Charlotte J. Fiell studied art history in Florence and London. Both she and Peter M. Fiell, who is a native of Canada, trained with Sotheby's Educational Studies in London. Peter received his M.A. in Design Studies from Central Saint Martin's College of Art and Design London where he is now a guest lecturer. Together the Fiells run Fiell International Limited a London design consultancy specializing in the sale acquisition study and promotion of important design artifacts. They have curated exhibitions and written articles and books on design including TASCHEN's Decorative Arts 1900s – 1970s (six volumes), Charles Rennie Mackintosh, William Morris, 1000 Chairs, Design of the 20th Century, and Industrial Design.

Product Details

• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Taschen (October 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3822858838
• ISBN-13: 978-3822858837
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,689,045 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Really good, but not quite great, May 3, 2006

By 

Carina (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Designing the 21st Century (Hardcover)

Overall, I like this book because you can't beat 300+ pages of full color pictures for 10 bucks. It includes the work or many designers, each designer getting about 4-6 pages. For each designer, there is a picture of the designer, a quote by the designer (in English, German, and French), and several examples of the designer's work. The one thing that really frustrates me is that there are no descriptions of the objects. There is only a title and a year, such as "Handmixer, 1999," but I am often left wondering how an item works or how it evolved in the designer's mind. I guess for that we have to rely on other books, but if all you're looking for is a breif overview of modern design with a lot of nice pictures, this is a good way to go.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book for modern, ultra-contemporary designs, March 3, 2003

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CK (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Designing the 21st Century (Specials) (Paperback)

This book profiles industrial designers and design firms (mostly situated in Europe, as stated by the last reviewer).

It's a great book if you're interested in where industrial and product design is going, rather than where it's been. The product photographs and computer-generated illustrations are plenty and colourful (common to Taschen publications).

I have yet to find any other comparable books on modern, ultra-contemporary and futuristic designs. A must for anyone studying ID or product design or anyone with an interest in design.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars interested in design, March 18, 2004

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dndnd (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Designing the 21st Century (Specials) (Paperback)

I like this book, like many of the books from TASCHEN it has great print quality and has a great design itself.
The examples inside are some that I have encountered already others I had never seen before.
Remember since this is not a ten volume work it is only a selection of designs rather than an exhaustive list.
Keeping this in mind, I like the choices the editors made. It has designers from all over the world, is in three languages like most of Taschen publications of this kind and the print quality as mentioned before is superior.