AMERICAN STREAMLINED DESIGN: THE WORLD OF TOMORROW by David A. Hanks and Anne Hoy
From the late 1920s to the 1950s, American designers and the public were enamored with the aerodynamic styling and metallic bodies that fast cars, trains, and planes introduced. Modern streamlining became popular for everything from toy scooters to typewriters, power tools to teakettles, Coca-Cola bottles to Lucky Strike packaging, and Studebaker cars to Greyhound buses.

American Streamlined Design celebrates aerodynamic design through gorgeous photography of the classic work of Raymond Loewy, Donald Deskey, Henri Dreyfuss, Russel Wright, Norman Bel Geddes, as well as modern industrial designers who have exhibited a resurgence in streamlining. Patent drawings and period photographs reveal the uses and genesis of hundreds of dynamic designs. Nearly 200 pieces are showcased from photographs of the Eric Brill Collection (recently donated to the American Friends of Canada), supplemented by the Stewart Collection of 20th Century Design at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. A bibliography, biographies of the designers, and index round out this study.

Although the book stands well on its own as a major contribution to popular culture and the history of design, it also serves as a catalog for the traveling exhibition of the same name, which opened in France in May and will travel to several venues, ending up in North America in 2009.
$75, hardcover, 280 pages, Editions Flammarion, distributed by Rizzoli through Random House

DOT DOT DOT 9 by Stuart Bailey and Peter Bilak (eds.)
An interesting compilation of essays, musings, poetry, art, illustration, and design, this ninth issue of Dot Dot Dot holds something for everyone. From an introduction written in 1973 by B.S. Johnson regarding the business of writing to an essay by Rick Poyner on the importance of uncomfortable design, this book itself is an uncomfortable but insightful foray into the world of language, art, society, and just about every other topic one can imagine.

One unique observation from Rick Poyner (London, 1999) deserves mention: “Designers who allow space for the peculiar, the wayward, the imperfect—and, sometimes, the just plain ‘wrong’—set in motion a process and create the conditions for the viewer to have truly unexpected encounters with design that are one of its keenest, most human pleasures and a large part of its point.” This seems to sum up Dot Dot Dot 9, a unique and beautiful collection of rantings, emotional poetry, intelligent commentary, superb illustration, and random design pieces that is sure to hold readers’ interest whether they follow or not.
$16.95, softcover, 104 pages, Princeton Architectural Press

MORE PAPERWORK by Nancy Williams
Following on the successful heels of the first Paperwork, Nancy Williams’ second installation, More Paperwork, explores the myriad qualities of paper in all design disciplines, including product, furniture, fashion, and architecture. Williams discusses the many improvements paper has undergone since its first use as a writing tool in China to its now indispensable qualities in design of all sorts. Interactive chapter openers create a range of special effects to be achieved by the reader, complete with instructions. Chapters include topics such as Surface Qualities and Effects, Cutting and Folding, Binding, Interactive, Mixed Media, Exhibition and Sculpture, and Packaging, to name a few. Leading designers from around the world demonstrate the diverse qualities of paper, and how paper can be used to create functional pieces as well as innovative inspirations.
$49.95, hardcover, 176 pages, Phaidon Press