Up close and personal with some great designs

New Dorling Kindersley book Great Designs takes some of the most well-know designs from the 19^th century onwards, dissects them and puts them under the microscope.

By Angus Montgomery August 30, 2013 4:49 pm February 6, 2015 3:40 pm

Covering projects from the 1859 Thonet Bentwood chair to the 2010 Apple iPad, the book tells the visual story of some classic designs, through sketches, prototypes and design details.

While there’s nothing terribly unexpected in the project selection (Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona chair, the Mini and the Valentine typewriter are all present and correct) there’s an admirable range of disciplines.

So it’s good to see Otl Aicher’s Munich Olympic pictograms analysed in as much detail as Matthew Carter’s Verdana typeface or Neville Brody’s work on The Face.

And while Great Designs might not hold any great surprises, it does provide a rare opportunity to see a huge variety of iconic designs from a fresh angle and in a new light.