The powerful aesthetic and philosophical framework that modernism ushered in during the early part of the 20th century revolutionized the built world, transformed our living spaces and lifestyles, and fundamentally changed the way we think about design. As they experimented with new forms, materials and techniques, modernist designers rejected historical precedents to prioritize function over history and tradition. This ambitious survey brings together all facets and all scales of design in a comprehensive volume that presents the vast breadth of both towering and lesserknown figures, revealing unexpected connections and new insights. Through sections on furniture, lighting, glass, ceramics, textiles, industrial and product design, graphic design and posters, architecture and interiors, and through profiles of nearly a hundred influential creators, including iconic figures, such as Bruno Mathsson, Charlotte Perriand and László Moholy-Nagy, as well as architects Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, Eliel Saarinen and Walter Gropius, the book's scope is unprecedented. Complete with specially commissioned essays by established academics and subject specialists, and with nearly 650 illustrations, the majority in colour, this book is set to become the definitive reference for a generation, equally indispensible for the designer's studio, the library shelves or the collector's desk.

Presents an account of a key period in American graphic design as it manifested itself in various media, covering major historical influences and significant works.

A beautiful and expansive look at Modernist design, representing iconic works including architecture, interiors, graphic design, and product design This wide-ranging survey showcases and analyzes the work of dozens of Modernist designers, from those who established the International Style in the 1920s and '30s through the groundbreaking practitioners of the mid-1940s. Modernism, with its powerful aesthetic and compelling philosophical framework, is the twentieth century's most defining movement in design and the applied arts. International architects and designers such as Alvar Aalto, Marcel Breuer, Eileen Gray, Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Frank Lloyd Wright revolutionized the built world and how we live in it. Their work rejected historical precedents, prioritizing function over tradition, and their experimentation with new forms, materials, and techniques transformed our living spaces and lifestyles and fundamentally changed the way we think about design. This lively and accessible volume includes sections on furniture, lighting, ceramics and glass, industrial and product design, graphic design and posters, houses and interiors, as well as profiles of more than seventy influential creators. The encyclopedic scope facilitates unexpected connections and offers new insights into the movement. Complete with essays by accomplished scholars and subject specialists, over 600 illustrations, and an illustrated A to Z of designers, architects, and manufacturers, this book is unparalleled and unprecedented in scope. Essential Modernism is an indispensable resource for scholars and students as well as for the designer's studio, the collector's desk, and the enthusiast's library.

Essential reading for all collectors and design aficionados, this book is the ultimate survey of mid- century modern design and architecture now available in a sleek, compact form. A definitive survey of mid-century modern design and architecture in an accessible compact edition, this book offers a rich overview of one of the most popular, collectable, and dynamic periods of design. With rich and diverse examples of everything from furniture and lighting to ceramics and textiles to graphics and posters to interior design and architecture, this sleek compendium of mid-century style includes over 1,000 illustrations representing classic designs and little-seen rarities, as well as entries on nearly 100 major creators, such as Dieter Rams, Robin Day, Isamu Noguchi, Lucie Rie, Charles and Ray Eames, Alvar Aalto, and Oscar Niemeyer. An additional illustrated dictionary features hundreds more influential mid-century designers, manufacturers, organizations, schools, and movements. Organized into three parts—“Media and Masters,” with six sections on applied arts; “Houses and Interiors,” featuring twenty seminal homes and their furnishings; and an “A–Z of Designers and Makers”—and complete with thirteen specially commissioned essays by renowned experts, this illustrated book is a must-have for collectors, design aficionados, and anyone seeking inspiration for their home.

Endless sun, sparkling sea, crystalline sky these are the elements of the Mediterranean that offer its inhabitants a lifestyle that is the envy of the world and have delighted architects since antiquity. A fusion of interior style and architecture, of glorious natural landscapes and bold man-made forms, "Mediterranean Modern" presents twenty-five of the region's most covetable houses in a format that speaks directly to today's increasingly design-savvy house-dwellers. It includes work by internationally established architects, such as Alberto Campo de Baeza and Alvaro Siza, and also houses by a number of the regions rising stars revealing a wealth of cool ideas for hot climates.

This text summarises and contextualises the ideas that formed visual arts practices this century. Art, design and architecture are located in their social and political contexts, and the ideas of modernism are traced from the development of industrialised Europe at the turn of the century to the post-industrial, post-colonial present. The complex relationship between modernism and postmodernism in the visual arts is examined and the book concludes with a review of the global impact of the new technologies on art and design production.

Modernism flourished from 1914 to 1939 and it was a key point of reference for 20th century architecture, design and art. This work explores Modernism and design from an international perspective and reveals the ways in which it has shaped our world and its visual culture.

This atlas of more than one thousand Modernist architectural masterpieces uncovers hidden gems while offering new perspectives on old favorites. In 2006, architecture and design curator Adam Stech embarked on a photographic project to document the best Modernist architecture around the globe. More than thirty countries and more than a decade later, the fruits of that monumental project are gathered in this impressive collection covering nearly a century of architectural history. Driven by a passion for rediscovering forgotten or lesser known architectural treasures of Modernism, Stech took thousands of diverse photographs of exteriors and interiors. This survey features often overlooked details and hidden projects that Stech helps bring to light. His brief commentary on each featured building reveals insights into his vast collection of images that includes treasures of Italian Modernism, American mid-century classics, South American Art Deco, Belgian organic architecture, French Brutalism, forgotten Australian modern houses, and much more. This expansive and inspiring book is the definitive guide to architecture in the 20th century in all its different forms and tendencies from its strict rationalist to flamboyant decorative styles.

Celebrating the ultimate masterpieces of modernist design, from the Arts and Crafts movement up to the twenty-first century, Total Design offers an intimate tour of houses conceived as complete works of art. Each of the spectacular houses making up Total Design demonstrates how an architect realized a unifying vision through all aspects of design—architecture, furniture, fittings, decorative objects, color, and gardens. Presenting masterpieces of modern architecture conceived as complete works of art inside and out, author George H. Marcus, a veteran chronicler of modernist design, delivers a highly accessible tour of the creations of some of the twentieth century’s greatest architects and designers, including Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, Alvar Aalto, Eero Saarinen, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and Gio Ponti. Together these masterworks of design offer a stunning survey of the many modes of modernist design, from the inventive refinement of Pierre Chareau to the colorful Nordic forms of Finn Juhl to the twenty-first-century expressionism of Daniel Libeskind.

Catalogue published on the occasion of the exhibition...at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art from November 20, 1998, to February 23, 1999.