Contemporary Design – Design Museum by Catherine McDermott

Article by Martin Gibson – @embody3d @martingibson – 23.10.2010

The premise of Contemporary Design – Design Museum is to present a “collection of the most important and influential pieces of design produced in the modern age”. This immediately makes you consider what is an influential piece of design and what criterion certifies a piece to make this book? As it certainly could be argued that influential design is very contextual; what might catch on to one societal group might not catch on in another, and these distinctions can be made between countries, languages, religions and cultural groups.

Even before I opened this book I questioned what the difference is between great design and influential design and is it even worth documenting what is influential? I guess the real question is, do people prefer going to a museum or a contemporary design gallery? And I am sure like most others you would probably pick the contemporary design gallery.

However there is something most intriguing about old products, sometimes we look back on them with reverent respect whilst others we laugh and say…gosh I wouldn’t want to wear that top today. This is the real novelty of this book which makes it such value to breeze through; it is almost like watching my favorite show Antiques Roadshow, but goes through the modern age as well.

Contemporary Design showcases a whole range of design fields including: fashion, architecture, interiors, furniture, lighting, homeware, products, transport, type, packaging, advertising, communications and futures. Within each of these areas the book on the most part chronologically goes through the different pieces that encapsulate the era it represents. The book does a truly amazing job of doing this, no questions about it. It really does feel like a Museum in a book, as it has that element of mystery and intrigue as to what is behind the next corner. For each product shown throughout the book there is a large text area explaining the piece in good and interesting detail. Contemporary Design is brilliantly written, there has been an outstanding amount of research put into each caption. I give full credit to the author, Catherine McDermott, for this painstaking work which makes a fashion ignoramus like myself totally captivated about the details of a 1920’s sheath dress. Even the old pictures going back to the turn of the 20th century have been emaculately restored and presented and the author has exploited the large pages to really make a feature of all the products throughout.

Going back to my original question, what makes design influential? Well this is a difficult question to answer, but I guess it is something that has to be unique, not seen by the human eye in prior existence. Yet unique design must be novel and take a user to a familiar place. For instance the Hannibal Tape Dispenser by Julian Brown kind of looks like an elephant and is moulded using a translucent sun orange plastic. Its ribbed interior used of course for structural purposes beams out to the exterior almost giving the elephant, shell like scales. Its bulbous blue eyes stick out like a crustacean give it an almost deviant or evil look to the elephants face…the design is beautifully symbolic, yet never gets too literal. This is what unique design is all about and is just a handfull of the wonderful pieces shown throughout the book. There are some pieces that I find controversial to capture or influence an age, but I guess even if you gathered 1000 scholars on each of these specific areas there still would be a world of controversy.

This book is for people of all design disciplines, and it gives the opportunity for these individuals to appreciate one anothers craft. Unlike many of the higly educational design books I review I can honestly say this book makes a fantastic gift to not just a designer, but a child 10 years +, the elderly in particular and even your mum or dad. I see this book being a memorable Christmas gift! All I have is absolute praise for this book; it is large, beautifully written and presented, has a wide market, and serves multiple purposes.

[rating:5]