The Arts and Crafts Movement: A Study of Its Sources, Ideals and Influence on Design Theory

by Gillian Naylor

The Arts and Crafts Movement : A Study of Its Sources, Ideals and Influence on Design Theory

Genres: Nonfiction, Art

208 pages, Paperback

First published April 28, 1980

Reviews

[Tracy]

Read through page 145 (195 pages of content before endnotes etc).

I found the layout of the text frustratingly uncomfortable to read, and feel it was a missed opportunity to mimic a Kelmscott Press layout of wide outer and bottom margins given the overall content to page ratio was similar.

Lots of original quotes are interspersed, from a variety of sources. The text itself sometimes got lost in facts, dates, and sequences; it was best where it narrativized and provided high level analysis of trends. Some of the quotes are 🔥

"The movement... represents in some sense a revolt against the hard mechanical conventional life and its insensibility to beauty (quite another thing to ornament). It is a protest against that so-called industrial progress which provides shoddy wares, the cheapness of which is paid for by the lives of their producers and the degradation of their users." -- Walter Crane, 'The Revival of Design and Handicraft'

Interesting and wide-ranging collection of sample works included (chiefly black and white unfortunately) -- though I was frustrated at least twice when a specific piece would be described in the text but not pictured.

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

well-written and comprehensive. nicely illustrated