On Design - Tapa blanda

Hello World is Alice Rawsthorn's definitive guide to design and modern life Design is one of the most powerful forces in our lives. When deployed wisely, it can bring us pleasure, choice, strength, decency and much more. But if its power is abused, the outcome can be wasteful, confusing, humiliating, even dangerous. None of us can avoid being affected by design, whether or not we wish to. It is so ubiquitous that it determines how we feel and what we do, often without our noticing. Hello World explores design's influence on our lives. Written by the renowned design critic Alice Rawsthorn and designed by the award-winning book designer Irma Boom, it describes how warlords, scientists, farmers, hackers, activists and designers have used design to different ends throughout history: from the macabre symbol invented by 18th century pirates to terrorise their victims into surrender, to one woman's quest for the best possible prosthetic legs and the evolution of the World Cup ball. At a time when we face colossal changes, unprecedented in their speed, scale and intensity - from the deepening environmental crisis, to giant leaps in science and technology - Hello World explains how design can help us to make sense of them andto turn them to our advantage.'Hello World is a new book by Alice Rawsthorn, the one and only, the best design critic in the entire world. She keeps the banner of design flying high. Irma Boom designed it, and Irma is simply the best book designer alive' Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art, New YorkPraise for Alice Rawsthorn's Yves Saint Laurent'As gripping as a thriller, packed with plot, character and atmosphere' The Times'Rawsthorn's excellent biography isn't merely a story about clothes, but of crises, comebacks and drug clinics, and as a document of the time it is compulsive' Evening Standard'The best book I have ever read about the mesmerising cruelty of fashion' The Spectator'Intelligent and pragmatic... this is a page-turner of a book' New Statesman'What a story! A skilful interweaving of the artistic, business and emotional life of a great couture house' Mail on SundayAlice Rawsthorn is the design critic of the International Herald Tribune, the global edition of the New York Times. Her weekly Design column is syndicated worldwide. A trustee of Arts Council England and the Whitechapel Gallery in London, she is chair of trustees at the Chisenhale Gallery and the author of an acclaimed biography of Yves Saint Laurent.

“Hello World maps and describes contemporary design with flair, passion, clarity and perspective, smartly connecting its most technologically advanced ‘mutant’ expressions with centuries-old examples and thus with tradition. We were all missing this book. Alice Rawsthorn has succeeded where everyone else has failed: she has written a page-turner about design.” —Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art
 
“Panoramic in scope, passionately argued and highly addictive to read, Hello World is an indispensable guide to design. Seamlessly integrating vivid accounts of contemporary practice with historic precedents, Alice Rawsthorn’s book will be an essential reference for decades to come. Hello World is an invaluable toolbox for the twenty-first century.” —Hans Ulrich Obrist, Co-director of the Serpentine Gallery, London
 
Praise for Yves Saint Laurent
 
“As gripping as a thriller, packed with plot, character and atmosphere.” —The Times
 
“Rawsthorn's excellent biography isn't merely a story about clothes, but of crises, comebacks and drug clinics, and as a document of the time it is compulsive.” —Evening Standard
 
“The best book I have ever read about the mesmerizing cruelty of fashion.” —The Spectator
 
“Intelligent and pragmatic . . . This is a page-turner of a book.” —New Statesman

"In a world saturated with ill-considered things, Hello World is a real wakeup call: a diverse and impassioned survey of why design matters. And Alice Rawsthorn practices what she preaches. Her on-point writing marries beautifully with Irma Boom's typography, resulting in a truly satisfying object."—Glenn Adamson, director of the Museum of Art and Design, New York

"Alice Rawsthorn constructs a meticulous living history of design, bridging the everyday and the extraordinary with equal parts precision and poetics."—Maria Popova, founder and editor of BrainPickings.org

"Making links across centuries of life-enhancing designs, and taking on the difficult task of defining the expansive world of contemporary design, Hello World is a must read for anyone wanting to understand the complex but essential role that design plays in daily life." —Zoë Ryan, John H. Bryan Chair and Curator of Architecture and Design, The Art Institute of Chicago