"Turning away from the hard angles and edges of conventional modernism, bliobjects are the design of now, and the future. Blobjects & Beyond is the first survey of the explosion of amorphic, organic, and curvaceous design. A formless from with roots in Surrealism and the kidney-shaped motifs of the 1950s, the ever more biological blobject has come into its own, embodying and reflecting the new international ethos of fluidity." "Authors Steven Skov Holt and Mara Holt Skov - curators of a major exhibition of blobjects at the San Jose Museum of Art - and contributors Phil Patton and Bruce Sterling, parse the various manifestations of the blobject, bringing together the realms of art, architecture, industrial design, graphics, digital design, furniture, and pop culture. As a counterpoint to the effusive popularity of the blobject, the authors also address more recent, post-9/11 forms that are mutated and disturbed, dangerous and intimidating - the dark side of the blobject." "A manifesto for fluidity across disciplines, cultures, and international boundaries, Blobjects & Beyond documents the first major design language to bridge the last millennium with the new one."--BOOK JACKET.

"From album covers and concert posters for some of the world's biggest rock stars to prints featured by interior designers to paintings and collage in fine art collections, Rex Ray's artwork is a rare combination of pop sophistcation, commercial design, and handmade craft. This is the first monograph to span Rex Ray's career in various media. Paper cutouts, mixed-media collages, paintings, digital prints, and the highly acclaimed graphic design and music packaging that launched his visual career ... are all brought together in a treasure trove of Rex Ray's unique and alluring aethetic ..."--

The iPod is transforming the lives of millions, changing their relationship to music and to each other. In iPod and Philosophy, 18 philosophers with diverse specialties and points of view bring their expertise to bear on this international cultural phenomenon. They explore such questions as how individuals become defined by their iPods, what the shuffle feature says about the role of randomness in people's lives, and much more.

Product Design offers a broad and comprehensive introduction to the field of product design and the key role of product designers. It follows through all the stages and activities involved in the creation of a new product – from concept design to manufacture, prototyping to marketing. It encourages the reader to challenge conventions and to think about the subject in new and exciting ways. The book also explores the diverse nature of product design, including new and emerging forms of practice. A rich overview of influential design movements and individuals are covered, together with interviews and examples from prominent product designers, and working practices and career guidance relevant to today. Full of visual examples and practical information, the book is an essential guide for students or anyone interested in product design.

A history of the rise and fall of Sloanist mass production, and a survey of the new economy emerging from the ruins: networked local manufacturing, garage industry, household microenterprises and resilient local economies.

What makes a product successful? How it looks? The way it functions? Its ease of use? Or do factors like price and marketing dominate? In a quest to find answers to these questions, Deconstructing Product Design engages readers in a process of critically analyzing a diverse collection of 100 innovative products, from well-known classics to contemporary objects of desire. The goal is to support critical thinking about design, facilitate discovery of patterns of success (and failure) across products, and enable readers to apply lessons learned to their own design work. Experts from multiples design disciplines contribute commentary, including: Robert Blaich, industrial design; Jill Butler, graphic design; Alan Cooper, technology design; Brock Danner, architecture; Kimberly Elam, graphic design; Donald Emmite, design history; Larimie Garcia, graphic arts; Scott Henderson, product design; Kritina Holden, human factors; Robert Kingslyn, graphic design; Jon Kolko, interaction design; Lyle Sandler, experience design; Rob Tannen, human factors; Dori Tunstall, Design Anthropology, Steven Umbach, Product Design; Paula Wellings, interaction design. Continue the deconstruction at www.deconstructingproductdesign.com.

Cities are responsible for three-quarters of the world s energy consumption. If we are to reduce our demands on the planet s resources how can we make our urban areas more energy efficient? One way is to refit existing buildings with more thermally efficient building materials. But such retrofitting involves significant issues of social acceptance and public participation. Retrofitting the City provides an important corrective to the assumptions that have been made concerning the ability of people and places to cope with such residential transformation. Drawing upon case studies from a number of European cities that have undergone far-reaching change in their built environments, the author shows that supposedly inadaptable people and places show a strong, if often hidden, degree of flexibility in responding to economic change and building transformation."