[ebooks] The Personal Organizing Workbook: Solutions for a Simpler; Easier Life by Meryl Starr in Arts-Photography

Description

From the colourful abstraction of the Rietveld chair to the dry wit of the milkbottle lamp by design cooperative Droog; modern design in the Netherlands has always been a hotbed of experimentation. Dutch designers have consistently pushed to the limits anything from posters to postage-stamps; home furnishings to street signage; ceramics to city airports. Indeed; in the last decade or so; Dutch design has become a worldwide phenomenon; almost a brand in itself; with regular publications in magazines and books promoting the remarkable output of this small country.This book takes an in-depth look not just at designs made in the Netherlands; but behind the works created throughout the twentieth century and beyond. Author Mienke Simon Thomas; a curator at one of Hollands leading museums; provides a compelling thematic account; guiding the reader through the beginnings of crafts education; the debates of design as art; the moral and social ideals of modernism; the new profession of industrial designer; state-sponsored initiatives; and conceptual design objects and anti-design. As she argues; Dutch design seems to have been inspired by the wish to be functional; simple and affordable; but she also reveals how it has simultaneously embraced luxury; decoration and even exclusivity.A much-needed introduction to Dutch designs and their creators ndash; as well as the clients who commissioned them and the state initiatives that supported them ndash; this book will be essential reading for designers; historians and the general public with an interest in design.