100 Years of Swiss Design

Bought as a gift for an artistically minded boyfriend. Was worried it would be dense text and too academic, but there are lots of pictures and he liked reading the explanations. The books really does cover the full time period and an interesting selection of different objects from household items, shoes, buildings, etc, so nice and interesting. The book is physically huge (bigger than A4) and VERY heavy - more so than I was expecting. Nice to find a book like this in English (the museum shop itself appears to only stock German language versions - from their website).

This the second book of Swiss design sponsored by the Museum fur Gestaltung in Zurich. The first title covered graphic design, this book has a much broader scope looking at product design though it does concentrate more on consumer rather commercial products. The book is divided into decades and because some design trends and style don't stop and start so neatly some of the essays look at their subject in a broader way, for example in the chapter devoted to the 1930s Arthur Ruegg writes about 'The 'New' light: 100 years of Swiss lighting design'. The ground breaking product exhibition 'Die gute form' created by Max Bill in 1949 is another example of design that influenced designers (and the public) in the following decades.Each decade starts with a mini photo portfolio followed by products that get a page each with relevant text and captions. The illustrated essays are mixed in with these product pages. I thought the choice of illustrations (about seven hundred) throughout the book was excellent, products are shown in use plus studio shots, designer concept drawings and graphics connected to the product.Like the other book on graphic design this one is beautifully designed and printed, the upright shape of both books give them an air of credibility. The back pages have a very comprehensive bibliography followed by an Index and biographies of the sixteen contributors. I think it's worth mentioning the translation by Jennifer Taylor, she has done a first-class job turning the original text into everyday English.The perfect overview of Swiss design culture over the decades.