Customer Reviews

Digital Dreams: The Work of the Sony Design Center

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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I am pleasantly surprised how good this book is.

I am impressed by the fact that the book not only covers the basic Industrial Design side of Sony's business, it also devoted a large portion of the book to the 2D design development at Sony. i.e. the Playstation logo development and the over all excellent packing done by Sony in the past, and even some Sony Web design!

The book, is also VERY up to date. It even covers the new standard such as the Sony memory sticks and various prototype of memory stick based "walkman -probably the first time Sony have shown these prototype.

The text portion of the book, as expected, are interview with various Japanese designer which at times could be boring---most of them talks about "dreams" and "hearts" which are the common theme of Japanese designers.

Over all, it is a must have book for al design/gadget freaks...

I am writing this as a sony evangelist, although the cover of the book is diffrent to the one which is shown here. the content of the book is amazing, The dazzling pictures and photography in the book is an eye opener, The book takes about the cluture and the art of the japanese sony designers. How they get their inspiration from stories and from the world around them. An extreammly good showcase of the arts and industrial developnment and design. The book is also rather new tackling subjects on memmory sticks and the newest Sony MD. However the most impressive part of the book was the chapters on the sony playstation and the sony viao subnote book computers. They explain such indept on how the designers used their inspiration and creativity to craft out wonders of high tech art. They also explained how sony tackled the many problems face when designing the playstation. Overall it is the best sony book i have bought. A wonderful inspirtational book filled with creativity which makes you "wow" at sony's design process and designs. "wow"

This is a rare coffee table type book that you'll want to take the the bedroom or study, or wherever you do your serious reading.

You can easily enjoy the book simply for the wonderful images of the ingeniously designed products that Sony has and continues to develop. But what sets this book apart from most in its genre is that it provides the reader with a surprisingly rich context within which to view the design work, not only with regards to industrial design, but also the history of Sony the company.

Reading the text, one gains a deeper appreciation for the level of thought put into the design of each and every product throughout its entire lifecycle.

Finally, the book also provides a unique look into the future of consumer electronics, at least from the perspective of the leaders at Sony. It's a rare opportunity to see the future as defined by a company which has much to do with the shape of our present.

This is definitely a great buy or gift!

Beautiful photographs and explanatory text help make this book a must buy.

But in no way does it sit on my coffee table - it's in my studio, in my home office - inspiring. The tight detail shots of real products to concept products make you wish all man-made objects had this attention to quality. This book is a must for designers because there are words that go with the pictures. They tell a wonderful story - whether you agree with the philosophy or not - it helps explain the design decisions, the strength of the Sony identity and their success. The timeline diagrams and text explaining the business trends of product entry to saturation really is a reflection of someone thinking and analyzing the system - something not really expected in pretty-picture books.

I can't believe the excellent price point too - most decent design books gouge you on cost. For those who appreciate beautiful form+function, get it.

I briefly glanced at this book at Sony's Metreon and thought it was beautiful pictures of Sony's products. After reading it, I was amazed at the elegant description of the unified design theory at Sony. The book uses a metaphor of daytime such as Early Morning for the initial design phase, Noon as the object becomes an icon, Early Afternoon as the product line diversifies which becomes instantly identifiable once it is explained. This is an lovely primer on design.

This book turned out to be better than I expected. Upon first getting it, I couldn't stop but look at every page an absorb the book. Great product shots and concepts of Sony's product lines showing their life cycle and how sony creates products. Very informative on how to apply product design to any product out there.

An Unusual Book, July 28, 2007
By Ray "A Reader" - See all my reviews

This book is a somewhat dated, but nevertheless gorgeous, panorama of product design Sony's way, and with their distinguished record of outstanding design work for some half a century, they are certainly in the position to tell us something about design. Never mind Sony's missteps and forays into the world of media and movies - this book tells us all about the Sony WE know, the company that developed the Trinitron television, the Walkman player, the MiniDisc recorder, and brought both cassettes and CD-ROM's into mainstream use (with its co-partner, Philips of the Netherlands). Digital Dreams tells us not so much about products, but how products are envisioned, designed, and ultimately walked through a lifecycle. It's a fun-filled story, filled with stunning graphic designs, gorgeous pictures and artwork, and even a little on how Sony viewed its business at the year 1999.

Though this book is not intended to do so, the book actually serves as a great case study for the field of Knowledge Management. For example, we learn a little bit about corporation logos, how they are best used to leverage their tacit value, and even thoughts on protecting them. We peek into the world of tacit knowledge and skills at Sony, and see how they are implemented in product design and even in marketing efforts. We learn about the creation of a CONCEPT that is materialized in a product (i.e., the MiniDisk recorder, the Memory Stick, the VAIO computer) which is as much about the psychology of human beings as it is the design of the product. As such, the text could easily serve as a supplemental text for a KM course, as well as it's obvious use in a graphic arts, products design, or business-oriented course.


Much of this information is now no longer of great interest to today's consumer due to it's release date of 1999, but it is remarkable to see the "timelessness "of the many designs in the book, and there is really not a dull moment to be found between the covers. In some ways, this was a great date to release such a book, because the VAIO computers were just beginning to hit the market, CyberShot digital cameras where just becoming available, and the Memory Stick was also just showing up, as well. If you can still get a copy of this book and you are interested in product design, graphic arts, consumer technology, and yes, even Sony itself, this book should be just what you're looking for.

Fascinating book that gives a very good insight into the create 'engine' of Sony. A must read for designers and business people alike.