PHAIDON DESIGN CLASSICS by the Editors of Phaidon Press
The cover of each book in this hefty, three-volume collection includes a formal, dictionary-like definition—“Industrially manufactured objects of aesthetic value and timeless quality: 1. definitive models of lasting influence and enduring significance; 2. objects that are innovative in their use of new materials and unite technological advances with beautiful design; 3. objects characterized by simplicity, balance, and purity of form; 4. objects that are perfect in their design and have remained unchanged since their creation.”

Continue onto the first page before the table of contents, and the editors of Phaidon Design Classics further clarify how products made it into this series: “The 999 design classics included in this book have been chosen in consultation with a wide range of international design-world insiders. Academics, critics, historians, curators, journalists, designers, and architects were asked to select industrially manufactured objects that conform to our definition of a Phaidon Design Classic, as specified on the cover. Every object selected meets at least one of the criteria within our overall definition and many of them meet more than one.”

The books include not only classic objects created by internationally renowned designers like Le Corbusier, Eames, Loewy, Gaudí, Saarinen, Nelson, and Noguchi (to name just a few, of course), but also anonymously designed pieces that are used by just about every person in existence today, all over the world. The editors list ordinary things like the clothes peg, jacks (as in the child’s game pieces), scissors, the deck chair, the corkscrew, chopsticks, the lady’s bicycle—products that cannot be attributed to any particular designer but have achieved such a functional status in our lives that they’ve eliminated any possibility of improvement. From ashtrays to paperclips to zippers, each product is presented chronologically on two to six pages, with product and contextual photography accompanied by historical information on the development of the design, and an explanation as to why that particular design is important and groundbreaking. The final volume includes products considered by the Phaidon editors to be the “classics of tomorrow,” products more difficult to judge whether they’ll eventually end up as design classics due to our constantly changing technology, but substantial nonetheless. Each three-volume set comes with a black plastic carrying case exclusively designed by Konstantin Grcic. Perhaps this will be included in the next roundup of nearly 1,000 design classics—only time will tell.
$175, 3 volume hardcover set with plastic carrying case, 3,300 pages, Phaidon Press

THE ONE SHOW, VOLUME 27 and ONE SHOW INTERACTIVE, VOLUME VIII by The One Club
Considered by many as the ultimate in advertising annuals, The One Show, Volume 27 celebrates the winners of the 2005 One Show and One Show Design competitions. Categories covered include print, design, integrated branding, television, and radio, with a focus on ad campaigns in general. Winners are classified in painstaking detail, from Best of Show (Wieden+Kennedy/ London’s “Grrr” for Honda, featuring Garrison Keillor) to the Gold/Silver/Bronze Pencil winners (running the gamut from “consumer newspaper: over 600 lines—single” to “college competition —design”) to everything in between. This year’s impressively heavy volume of noteworthy advertising and design work is a must-have for anyone in the industry. The book’s design is itself arguably award-worthy, playing on the theme of heavy metal art, with beautiful imagery, type, and copy rounding out the exhibition.

One Show Interactive, Volume VIII is purely devoted to the ever-expanding field of interactive advertising and new media. This collection of excellent web work inspires, entertains, and blurs the boundaries between traditional and virtual disciplines. Categories include e-commerce, corporate image, direct marketing, self-promotion, and more. Each winning entry is profiled in great detail with an interview with the creative team and large, colorful imagery shedding light on the creative process.
$69.95/$49.50, hardcover/softcover, 483/268 pages, Rockport Publishers

CUT IT OUT: THE ART OF LOU BEACH by Steven Heller and Janice S. Gore (ed.)
Award-winning artist Lou Beach is a self-taught wonder whose work has appeared on covers for Houghton- Mifflin, Random House, TIME, and albums for musicians like The Neville Brothers, Blink 182, The Carpenters, Weather Report, “Weird Al” Yankovic, and Ethel Merman. He has been sought after as an editorial illustrator, working for an amazing amount of publications including Wired, The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Newsweek, and The New York Times, for starters. Top it off with his work on film poster art, advertising illustrations, and instructing courses at Art Center College of Design and Otis Parsons College of Design. That makes one well-respected, creative individual whose work deserves to be bound into a stunning collection —enter Cut It Out.

In what Beach calls the “Artist’s Statement Page,” he writes, “The problem-solving, deadline-driven aspect of editorial illustration has great dysfunctional appeal and must touch that part of me that thinks I’m smart and capable of sustaining myself in the wilderness armed only with a No. 10 X-Acto blade and an old Life magazine.” Smart seems to be the key word throughout Cut It Out. “I love the art of Lou Beach because it cheers me up,” says Matt Groening of The Simpsons fame. “[His] art is smart, witty, original, and surprising. ... The collage art of Lou Beach is probably smarter than you.” Steven Heller states in his introduction, “Beach doesn’t know how to make a dumb picture (even though art directors may want him to).” He continues, explaining that he’s occasionally asking Beach “to make gold out of shit.” It not only usually comes back within 24 hours, but it causes hysterical laughing fits to both Heller and his editors. “Of course, I take all the credit for his success, because that’s what a good art director does,” Heller concludes. “But without Beach it’s possible I wouldn’t be a good art director.” If everyone who knows him proclaims his intelligence, maybe owning this book can make you smart, too.
$24.95, hardcover, 130 pages, La Luz de Jesus Press