Tag Archives: design

Honolulu Calling: A Tapa Barkcloth Binding for a 1930 Phone Book from the Royal Hawaiian Hotel

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Tapa Cloth front cover for the Hawaiian Telephone Directory

Front cover of the Tapa cloth binder for the Winter 1930 Telephone Directory for the Territory of Hawaii

The Smithsonian Institution Libraries recently acquired a telephone book. Big deal, you say? Ah, but this is a telephone directory for the territory of Hawaii, issued for the winter of 1930. For that reason alone, it’s fun to browse through, to see the old advertisements and daydream about living in the gorgeous Hawaiian Islands, back in the days when the entire list of businesses and households in the territory which owned telephones could be recorded in one slim volume.

But this isn’t just any old phone book. This particular copy belonged to the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu, which opened in February 1927 on the spectacular Waikiki beachfront. Known as “the Pink Palace of the Pacific,” the Royal Hawaiian Hotel was one of the earliest luxury resorts established in this tropical paradise. The stylish décor featured at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, inspired partly by the native crafts of the South Sea Islanders, exerted a lasting influence upon tourists from the mainland, who came to associate the good life in Hawaii with vivid patterns reminiscent of exotic plants, birds, marine life, sunshine, and ocean waves. Continue reading →

New and Notable—Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum Library

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The Libraries would like to highlight some new titles that have been added recently to the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum Library.

Déco: arte in Italia, 1919-1939,  a cura di Francesca Cagianelli, Dario Matteoni. Cinisello Balsamo, Milano: Silvana, 2009. Gift of Roma and David Korris. N6918.5.A7 D43 2009 CHM

Deco

Most art historians trace the origins of Art Deco to the International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Art in Paris in 1925 but a parallel movement was taking shape in Italy. A number of thinkers, designers and artists were producing fascinating new geometric work in Italy and Monza's International Expositions of Decorative Arts in 1923, 1925 and 1927 provided a showcase for this developing style. 'Déco. Arte in Italia 1919-1939' explores this trend as it emerged in Italy. Catalog of an exhibition held at the Pinacoteca di Palazzo Roverella, Rovigo, Italy, June 28, 2009.

Gothic art in the gilded age: Medieval and Renaissance treasures in the Gavet-Vanderbilt-Ringling collection, by Virginia Brilliant. Sarasota, Fla.: John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art; [Newport, R.I.]: Preservation Society of Newport County; Pittsburgh, Penn.: Distributed by Gutenberg Periscope Publishing, c2009. Gift from the Ringling Museum.  N6313.S2 J64 2009 CHM

Gothic

Published on the occasion of an exhibition held Dec. 16, 2009-Apr. 4, 2010 at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, and May 8-Oct. 31, 2010 at The Preservation Society of Newport County.

Designing for the 21st century: interdisciplinary questions and insights, edited by Tom Inns.  Aldershot : Gower, 2007. Gift of Roma and David Korris.  NK1510 .D478 2007 CHM

Insights

Intends to capture a sense of the many ways design thinking has been applied to a broad range of issues. This title describes the context for project work and the main research questions, which framed each project. It reviews the knowledge and understanding generated through project work and a description of potential beneficiaries.

Les émaux à Longwy: leur histoire, les plus belles pièces de collection, by Philippe Olland.  Dijon: Faton, c2009. NK5008.F35 A4 2009 CHM

Emaux

Faïencerie de Longwy History.

Visual creativity: inspirational ideas for advertising, animation and digital design, by Mario Pricken . New York, NY : Thames & Hudson, 2004. Gift of Roma and David Korris. T385 .P4913 2004 CHM

Visual

Subjects:  Computer graphics; Computer animation; Commercial art; Advertising.

The houses of Greenwich Village, by Kevin D. Murphy ; photography by Paul Rocheleau.  New York : Abrams, 2008. Gift of Roma and David Korris. NA735.N5 M87 2008 CHM

Greenwich

The houses of Greenwich Village takes readers inside 20 homes to show how the interiors evolved over time with the residents’ needs. A modest row house from 1827, for example, was renovated in 1893 to transform it into a space appropriate for Robert Blum, a celebrated artist interested in “Japonisme.” And in 2003, an 1801 town house was renovated by Ben Cherner and Emma O’Neill, architects who turned it into four Modernist apartments with a penthouse that blurs the boundaries between indoor and outdoor space.

—Elizabeth Broman and Stephen Van Dyk

New and Notable—Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum Library

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The Libraries would like to highlight some new titles that have been added recently to the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum Library.

Peter Thomson and son: mid-Victorian furniture styles and designs, [Jim and Cynthia Martin (editors)]. Woodbridge, Suffolk : Antique Collectors' Club, c2011. Gift of Roma and David Korris.

NK2542.T56 .P48 2011 CHM

Thomson

Comprehensive guide to the design and construction of furniture, recognising Peter Thomson's outstanding contribution to furniture design.

Victorian glassworlds: glass culture and the imagination 1830-1880, by Isobel Armstrong. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. Gift of Roma and David Korris. TP854.G7 A76 2008 CHM

Victorian

Isobel Armstrong's book tells the stories that spring from the mass-production of glass in 19th-century England. Moving across technology, industry, local history, architecture, literature, print culture, the visual arts, optics, and philosophy.

AGI: graphic design since 1950, edited by Ben & Elly Bos.  London: Thames & Hudson, 2007. Gift of Roma and David Korris. NC998.4 .A35 2007 CHM

Agi

The AGI – the Alliance Graphique Internationale – unites the world's leading graphic designers and artists in a professional club of common interest and achievement. This lavishly illustrated work of reference presents biographies of almost every AGI member to date, including such luminaries as Saul Bass, Alan Fletcher, April Greiman, Adrian Frutiger, Milton Glaser, Stefan Sagmeister, Cassandre, Dick Bruna, Bruno Munari and Irma Boom, accompanied by reproductions of their best – and often iconic – work.

Bauhaus women: art, handicraft, design. Ulrike Muller; with the collaboration of Ingrid Radewaldt and Sandra Kemker. English-language ed.  Paris : Flammarion; London: Thames & Hudson [distributor], 2009. Gift of Roma and David Korris. N332.G33 B4485 2009 CHM

Women

The  first monograph on the female painters, photographers, architects, sculptors, and designers of the vanguard Bauhaus School, who helped shape the cultural history of the twentieth century.

Art textiles of the world: Canada, edited by Matthew Koumis.  Brighton : Telos Art Pub., 2009. Gift of Roma and David Korris.  NK8813.A1 A78 2009 CHM

Canada

Book devoted to the work of twenty important Canadian artists who have developed a very personal language through their mastery of one or more of the various techniques in the field of textiles.

The Bauhaus at the Newsstand = Das Bauhaus am Kiosk: die Neue Linie 1929-1943. Patrick Rössler. Texts in English and German. Bielefeld: Kerber Art; New York, N.Y.: US Distribution, D.A.P., Distributed Art Publishers, c2009. Gift of Roma and David Korris. PN5220.N375 R67 2009 CHM

Newstand

Between 1929 and 1943, an outstanding new lifestyle magazine called "Die Neue Linie" ("The New Line") was published by Beyer Press in Leipzig. No other publication in this period was so consistent in bringing avant-garde typographic ideas to a mass audience, as leading graphic designers from the Bauhaus, including Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Umbo and Herbert Bayer, steered the look of the magazine, whose contents combined fashion, literature, graphic design and art. Published on the occasion of the exhibition on "Das Bauhaus am Kiosk" at the Bauhaus-Museum Weimar, Aug. 16-Nov. 8, 2009.

Furniture from the Salon Milano. [editor, QianHua Lian]. Beijing, China: Designer Books; Tokyo, Japan: distributed by AZUR Corporation, c2008. Gift of Roma and David Korris. NK2211.I8 M55 2008 CHM

Furniture

Presents the very best designs from the Salon Milano furniture shows, 2003-2007.

Elizabeth Broman and Stephen Van Dyk

New and Notable—Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum Library

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The Libraries would like to highlight some new titles that have been added recently to the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum Library.

TypeType : a visual history of typefaces and graphic styles  by Jan  Tholenaar.   Vo. 1  Köln; Los Angeles; London : Taschen, [c2009-2010] Gift of Roma and David Korris. Z250.A2 T96 2009 CHM

A visual history of fonts and graphic styles, Volume 1: 1628–1900.This selection of typographic fonts and styles traces the modern evolution of the printed letter, reproducing pages from catalogs showing type specimens in roman, italic, bold, semi-bold, narrow, and broad fonts. Also included are borders, ornaments, initial letters and decorations, and many spectacular examples of their use. Victorian fonts, spectacular in their complexity, are accorded a prominent place. In addition, examples from lithography and letters by inscription carvers and calligraphers are also included and described.

ProductProduct design in the sustainable era by Dalcacio Reis. Köln : Taschen, c2010.

Gift of Roma and David Korris. TS171.4 .R45 2010 CHM

Designing products with future generations in mind – Consumers are increasingly sensitive and concerned about sustainability. Indeed, a recent study of purchasing habits shows demand for sustainable offerings remains strong—despite the economic downturn.

 

BoulleAndré Charles Boulle, 1642-1732 : un nouveau style pour l'Europe by Jean Nérée Ronfort.  Paris : Somogy ; Frankfurt : Museum für Angewandte Kunst Frankfurt, 2009.  (In French)  NK2550.B7 A4 2009 CHM

Cabinet-Making – Woodworking – Marquetry . 140 color illustrations and several dozen color figs. – published to coincide with the 2009 showing at the Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt of furniture crafted by French cabinet-maker André Charles Boulle (1642-1732)

Jacqueline Groag. : textile & pattern design : Wiener Werkstätte to American modern  by Geoffrey Rayner, et al. [Woodbridge, England] : Antique Collector's Club, c2009. Gift of Roma and David Korris. N6811.5.G76 R39 2009 CHM

Active
Active literature : Jan Tschichold and new typography  by Christopher Burke. London : Hyphen, 2007.  Gift of Roma and David Korris.  Z232.T863 B87 2007 CHM

Jan Tschichold (1902-1974) was a  key typographer of the twentieth century : one of the leaders of the modernist movement of the 1920s, and, in the classical typography of his later career, perhaps the first typographic postmodernist. Active literature is a close study of his modernist years, based on extensive research in the archives and introducing a wealth of fresh reproductions.

 

KnollKnoll : a modernist universe by  Brian Lutz.  New York ; London : Rizzoli, 2010. Gift of Roma and David Korris.  NK2554.K58 L88 2010 CHM

The eponymous furniture company that German immigrant Hans G. Knoll founded in 1938 in New York, and later built into a bastion of modern interior design in Pennsylvania, brought steel, glass and plastic to home furnishings. A new book, "Knoll: A Modernist Universe," by historian Brian Lutz, a former Knoll employee, shows how the company shaped interior design. Knoll was noted for innovations in material by modernist masters: tubular steel furniture by Mies van der Rohe and Marcel Breuer, modular wood and canvas web chairs (during the metal-starved war years) by Jens Risom, and molded plastic Tulip chairs by Eero Saarinen. In many ways, the book is a tribute to Knoll's American wife, Florence Schust Knoll, who hired designers from among her instructors and associates at Cranbrook.

 

—Elizabeth Broman and Stephen Van Dyk

New and Notable—Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum Library

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The Libraries would like to highlight some new titles that have been added recently to the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum Library.

Soviet posters: the Sergo Grigorian collection, by Maria Lafont. 4th ed. Munich ; New York: Prestel, 2010. Gift of Roma and David Korris. NC1807.S65 L34 2010 CHM

Soviet

This book of Soviet propaganda posters dating from 1917 to the beginning of the Cold War features the work of such major Russian avant-garde designers as El Lissitzky and Alexander Rodchenko as well as extraordinary works by anonymous artists. In full color, the 250 posters gathered here range in themes from warnings about the dangers of alcohol abuse and the creeping Nazi menace to illustrations of utopian harmony and the Soviet industrial machine.

Gerd Rothmann: Werkverzeichnis 1967-2008: catalog raisonné. [Margit Brand, editing]. 

Stuttgart : Arnoldsche, c2009. Gift of Roma and David Korris. NK7398.R68 A4 2009 CHM

Gerd

Gold and silverwork of Gerd Rothmann in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Green design: creative sustainable designs for the twenty-first century, by Marcus Fairs. Berkeley, Calif.: North Atlantic Books, c2009. Gift of Roma and David Korris. NK1520 .F35 2009 CHM

Greendesign

Lighting — Homeware — Furniture — Textiles & materials — Products — Transport — Interiors — Architecture.

The image of business card today: the most creative business cards all around the world. [art direction, Vivian Lei; chief editors, Jam Mar].  Shenzhen, China: Artpower, c2009. Gift of Roma and David Korris. NE965 .I43 2009 CHM

Buscard

Showcases the most creative business cards from around the world.Nowadays, business cards have been granted more features to play a greater role in the modern business model. As a traditional way of communication, exchanging business cards has been gradually upgraded to a kind of social etiquette.

Robert Adam: the search for a modern classicism, by Richard John.  Mulgrave, Vic.: Images Publishing, 2010. Gift of Roma and David Korris. NA997.A43 J64 2010 CHM

Robertadam

Un/folded: paper in design, art, architecture and industry. Petra Schmidt and Nicola Basel; Boston: Birkhäuser, c2009. Gift of Roma and David Korris. N6498.P37 S36 2009 CHM

Unfolded

Unfolded presents paper from a new perspective: As a high-tech material and substance for a new generation of engineers, designers, artists, and architects.

—Elizabeth Broman and Stephen Van Dyk