Designers on Design

by Terence Conran, Max Fraser

Who is designing the classics of tomorrow? Designers on Design answers these questions and discusses the elements that set great designers apart. A beautifully illustrated guide to today's cutting-edge furniture and product designers, it features interviews with each of the designers asking questions such as, "What product do you wish you had designed?", "What was your big break?", "What influences your work?" and "What's the greatest challenge you face in your work?". A potted biography introduces each designer and beautiful photographs illustrate not only the designer's own work, but also the influences that inspire them and sketches or their ideas in progress. The book places each designer in historical context and an illustrated time-line running from the 1920s to the present day - and even looking into the future - forms part of the introduction and shows that the modernism of 100 years ago is still influential today.

Genres: Design

252 pages, Hardcover

First published November 30, 2004

About the author

Sir Terence Conran was educated at Bryanston School, Dorset, and trained as a textile designer at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London. Hand in hand with his much-publicized career as an arbiter of good taste for a whole generation goes a career in cookery and restaurant management. Having learned the basic skills in the kitchens of a two-star Parisian establishment, he opened several small restaurants in London.These were later sold to finance his fast-expanding furniture business, from which grew the hugely successful Habitat stores. No-one has had a greater influence on contemporary living style than Conran. From the outset of his career, in the brilliant era of the '60s, he devoted his talents to interpreting the home-making aspirations of the bright, busy people of his generation - and to providing them with an excellence of craftsmanship and design at a price they could afford.

Reviews

[Manintheboat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Designers are boring. Great photos and idea inspiring.