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Mid-Century Modern: Interiors, Furniture, Design Details (Conran Octopus Interiors)
Binding: Hardcover
Author: Bradley Quinn
Manufacturer: Conran
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Features:
Average Rating: 4.0
Total Customer Reviews: 13
List Price: $29.95
Our Price: $19.77
Sales Rank: 10566
Product Description
The 1950’s house was a scientific triumph, designed in a laboratory and tested on inhabitants of all ages before being built for the masses. Never had homes been so thoroughly contemporary, with antiques and period styles entirely banished. Mid-Century Modern explores the interior decor of this seminal decade, concentrating on all aspects of a home's decoration—walls, flooring, surfaces, lighting, and, of course, furniture. Case studies examine beautiful present-day homes that exhibit mid-century style in an exemplary way, and suggest ideas for taking the 1950’s look—complete with collector's pieces—and mixing and matching it with elements from other eras.
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Users Product Reviews: |
Product Review Summary: Love this book! Love this book. Very informative, easy to read . Nice photographs. Highly recommended.
Product Review Summary: Light on advice. Text was light on advice to recreate this look, unless you want to actually go out and buy original pieces. Which I'm sure would be nice, but if you want to spice up your average home with some mid-century joy, this book didn't help much.
Product Review Summary: Some nice photos but superficial content I was greatly disappointed by the lack of specifics included in this book. Many of the photos are provided as examples of popular mid-century styles and influences but do not include the designers who created them. If you're looking for decorating ideas, this book may provide inspiration. But for anyone already interested in mid-century modern design, this book comes up a bit short. It might teach you how to talk about mid-century design elements, but it doesn't go any deeper than how cool design from this period looks. I bought this book as I have a few mid-century modern pieces and I thought it would be nice to have a reference and examples from various mid-century designers... but it did not deliver.
Product Review Summary: Gorgeous coffee table book Great coffee table book with many photos for inspiration, as well as a lot of useful history on Mid-Century Modern style. I am not a professional designer so I can't judge how accurate it is, but for me it fit the bill perfectly.
Product Review Summary: Great pictures. Text - heavy going. What I liked about this book: It is well organised and it has lots of well-chosen, well composed, colorful and clearly printed photographs..
If you want inspiration and ideas, the excellent photographs will give you what you are looking for. Only one picture contains a human figure - the others let you concentrate on the design and the furnishings, with no distracting sign of any occupants.
Where the book falls down....
I found the writing is very heavy going.
On the dustwrapper, it mentions "Bradley also completed a master's degree in History of Art at the University of London".
It seemed to me that the book reads like a master's degree dissertation in which the writer's aim is to show his professor that he has thoroughly mastered the subject - rather than a book aiming to inform and entertain a general reader interested in the subject.
I'd read a paragraph and think "that sounds impressive - but what does it mean?" Then I'd read it again more carefully. At a third reading, I'd give up, not knowing whether it meant something profound or whether it was impressive-sounding but essentially meaningless.
A typical paragraph:
"The new styles of furniture took centre stage with the distinctive shapes that continue to typify the look today. While mid-century furniture is often recognisable by its balance of form and function, its impact resulted from its ability to convey the dynamics of lived experience in static form. Mid-century designers regarded furniture as tactile art intended to cradle the human form. Although the use of new materials and techniques pioneered a change of direction for furniture - with moulded and glued plywood, and plastics reinforced by fibreglass, among the exciting developments - the forms continued to take shape in relation to the human body. Designers used furniture to articulate the tension between movement and stillness, which can never be separated from the human body. Consequently, 1950s furniture often expressed a body-consciousness unknown to other traditions."
"... the dynamics of lived experience in static form." Huh?
".. to articulate the tension between movement and stillness, which can never be separated from the human body". Does this actually mean something that can be expressed in simple words? Dunno. Beats me.
The text is not always linked to the pictures. Descriptions of stylish objects in text, without linked illustrations is hard to follow. As just one example:
"In Isamu Noguchi's hands abstract art became applied art, In one of his sculptures, wood and glass were moulded into an arrestingly curvaceous silhouette that caught the eye of George Nelson, who identified the shape of a table in its form. An American manufacturer shared Nelson's view and in 1944 collaborated with Noguchi to transform the design into a coffee table. Organic in style, Noguchi's Coffee Table was manufactured with two wooden legs that interlocked to form a tripod, which supported a plate-glass top 2cm (3/4in) thick. Both parts of the design were reversible: the tabletop could be placed upside down or back to front, while the mirror effect of the tripod's design enabled it to maintain the same profile even when turned upside down. Needless to say, Noguchi's considered balance of sculptural form, design innovation and durable function inspired other designers of the period to pursue abstract shapes."
On checking the index, I found that there is actually a photo, earlier in the book, in which a part of such a coffee table is visible.
I recommend this book for its masses of interesting, clear and well-composed and chosen pictures of mid-century design. If you are like me, you'll finish up skipping over the text and enjoying it simply for its illustrations, which I found inspiring and first class.
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