Fashion designers, comic book artists, underground illustrators, graffiti and fine artists now lend their creativity to the task of coming up with innovative and striking new toy designs. Artists and toys featured in this stunning overview include Frank Kozik, Dalek, Gary Baseman, Bounty Hunter, Junko Mizuno, Jason Siu, Devilrobots, and Pete Fowler.

Made of beige open-weave jute with colored leather accents, Renate Müller's toy animals and shapes are some of the sweetest, most endearing and simply artistic toys that have ever been made. They were conceived in the early 1960s, as part of an endeavor launched by Helene Haeusler at the Sonneberg Technical College for Toy Design in Germany, and were designed to fulfill the need for large, brightly colored stuffed animals to enhance orthopedic exercises and balance coordination for mentally and physically handicapped children. Müller's toys debuted at the Leipzig Fair in 1967, were tested by psychiatric hospitals and clinics throughout Germany and proved a huge hit. In fact, her alligators and rhinos were so lovable, her fabric bowling pins so beautifully made, her hippos and elephants so comforting, that they quickly became coveted by design buffs worldwide, and they have remained so to this day. In 1990, Müller took over the rights to her designs and continues to hand-produce very limited quantities of these classic designs as well as new designs. Renate Müller: Toys + Design is the first monograph on Müller's work available in the United States. Coinciding with a wave of renewed interest in therapeutic toy design, and with Müller's first solo exhibition, at R 20th Century, this volume inspires and delights in equal measure.

With radical and innovative design solutions, everyone could be living in buildings and settlements that are more like gardens than cargo containers, and that purify air and water, generate energy, treat sewage and produce food - at lower cost. Birkeland introduces systems design thinking that cuts across academic and professional boundaries and the divide between social and physical sciences to move towards a transdiciplinary approach to environmental and social problem-solving. This sourcebook is useful for teaching, as each topic within the field of environmental management and social change has pairs of short readings providing diverse perspectives to compare, contrast and debate. Design for Sustainability presents examples of integrated systems design based on ecological principles and concepts and drawn from the foremost designers in the fields of industrial design, materials, housing design, urban planning and transport, landscape and permaculture, and energy and resource management.

Toys, fulfilling as they do one of mankind's most basic needs, have existed for as long as we have. From the earliest times both adults and children have used toys to simulate reality or simply to pass time. Renowned designers, artists and architects have always tried their hand at creating toys: from Frank Lloyd Wright's work with Fr�bel's building blocks to Josef Hartwig's Bauhaus chess set that is still produced today. Gerrit Rietveld, Pablo Picasso, Marcel Breuer and Andy Warhol also designed toys. However, most often it was craftsmen and -women - such as the seamstress Margarete Steiff (Steiff teddy bears), the carpenters Christiansen (Lego), or the cabinet-maker Hans Beck (Playmobil) - who designed the most successful and enduring toys. Toys for small children are often distinguished by a high level of abstraction (babies' toys, for example, typically have fluid contours, simplified detail drawings and primary colors), although timeless designer toys such as those produced by Naef cross all age limits and can even be found on executive desks. This volume in the "Design"series presents both contemporary designer toys and classic toys that are still on the market.

Did you know that there are unusual animals for every letter in the alphabet? For instance, C is for the capybara, who is the world's largest rodent, and P is for the pangolin, who, believe it or not, is a mammal that is covered in scales instead of fur! Learn this and much more in this alphabet book featuring nonfiction facts about some of the most unique and different animals. Timothy Young's signature style and familiar characters appeal to his youngest audience ever and introduce readers to lesser-known species in the animal world.

Tracing developments in toy making and marketing across the evolving landscape of the 20th century, this encyclopedia is a comprehensive reference guide to America's most popular playthings and the culture to which they belong. From the origins of favorite playthings to their associations with events and activities, the study of a nation's toys reveals the hopes, goals, values, and priorities of its people. Toys have influenced the science, art, and religion of the United States, and have contributed to the development of business, politics, and medicine. Toys and American Culture: An Encyclopedia documents America's shifting cultural values as they are embedded within and transmitted by the nation's favorite playthings. Alphabetically arranged entries trace developments in toy making and toy marketing across the evolving landscape of 20th-century America. In addition to discussing the history of America's most influential toys, the book contains specific entries on the individuals, organizations, companies, and publications that gave shape to America's culture of play from 1900 to 2000. Toys from the two decades that frame the 20th century are also included, as bridges to the fascinating past—and the inspiring future—of American toys.

In "Plastic Culture", British comics artist and illustrator Woodrow Phoenixxplores our relationship to toys in the twenty-first century, witharticular emphasis on Japan - an exporter of both merchandise and ideas.lastic Toys based on comics, movies and TV shows from "Astro Boy", "Godzilla"nd "Gatchaman", to "Power Rangers", "Sailor Moon" and "Pokemon" have had aowerful effect on the West, and have kick-started trends in design and populture that have crossed from Japan to the West and back East again. Withts blend of incisive analysis and stylish photography, this is a book thatill appeal to a wide range of readers: from those interested in the latestrends in contemporary art, to toy collectors young and old, and to anyoneith an interest in Japan's influence on contemporary pop culture.

The recent digital and mobile revolutions are a minor blip compared to the next wave of technological change, as everything from robot swarms to skin-top embeddable computers and bio printable organs start appearing in coming years. In this collection of inspiring essays, designers, engineers, and researchers discuss their approaches to experience design for groundbreaking technologies. Design not only provides the framework for how technology works and how it’s used, but also places it in a broader context that includes the total ecosystem with which it interacts and the possibility of unintended consequences. If you’re a UX designer or engineer open to complexity and dissonant ideas, this book is a revelation. Contributors include: Stephen Anderson, PoetPainter, LLC Lisa Caldwell, Brazen UX Martin Charlier, Independent Design Consultant Jeff Faneuff, Carbonite Andy Goodman, Fjord US Camille Goudeseune, Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Bill Hartman, Essential Design Steven Keating, MIT Media Lab, Mediated Matter Group Brook Kennedy, Virginia Tech Dirk Knemeyer, Involution Studios Barry Kudrowitz, University of Minnesota Gershom Kutliroff, Omek Studio at Intel Michal Levin, Google Matt Nish-Lapidus, Normative Erin Rae Hoffer, Autodesk Marco Righetto, SumAll Juhan Sonin, Involution Studios Scott Stropkay, Essential Design Scott Sullivan, Adaptive Path Hunter Whitney, Hunter Whitney and Associates, Inc. Yaron Yanai, Omek Studio at Intel

Informed by the analytical practices of the interdisciplinary 'material turn' and social historical studies of childhood, Childhood By Design: Toys and the Material Culture of Childhood offers new approaches to the material world of childhood and design culture for children. This volume situates toys and design culture for children within broader narratives on history, art, design and the decorative arts, where toy design has traditionally been viewed as an aberration from more serious pursuits. The essays included treat toys not merely as unproblematic reflections of socio-cultural constructions of childhood but consider how design culture actively shaped, commodified and materialized shifting discursive constellations surrounding childhood and children. Focusing on the new array of material objects designed in response to the modern 'invention' of childhood-what we might refer to as objects for a childhood by design-Childhood by Design explores dynamic tensions between theory and practice, discursive constructions and lived experience as embodied in the material culture of childhood. Contributions from and between a variety of disciplinary perspectives (including history, art history, material cultural studies, decorative arts, design history, and childhood studies) are represented – critically linking historical discourses of childhood with close study of material objects and design culture. Chronologically, the volume spans the 18th century, which witnessed the invention of the toy as an educational plaything and a proliferation of new material artifacts designed expressly for children's use; through the 19th-century expansion of factory-based methods of toy production facilitating accuracy in miniaturization and a new vocabulary of design objects coinciding with the recognition of childhood innocence and physical separation within the household; towards the intersection of early 20th-century child-centered pedagogy and modernist approaches to nursery and furniture design; through the changing consumption and sales practices of the postwar period marketing directly to children through television, film and other digital media; and into the present, where the line between the material culture of childhood and adulthood is increasingly blurred.

A comprehensive, genre-defining survey of children's product and furniture design from Bauhaus to today Design for Children, a must-have book for all style-conscious and design-savvy readers, documents the evolution of design for babies, toddlers, and beyond. The book spotlights more than 450 beautiful, creative, stylish, and clever examples of designs created exclusively for kids - from toys, furniture, and tableware, to textiles, lights, and vehicles. Contemporary superstars and twentieth-century masters, including Philippe Starck, Nendo, Marc Newson, Piero Lissoni, Kengo Kuma, and Marcel Wanders, are showcased.