The Design Book

Phaidon has assembled five hundred years of industrial design into a single volume that functions equally as reference material and visual pleasure. The Design Book presents over 500 objects that have shaped how humans interact with manufactured goods, from anonymous innovations like the paperclip to celebrated works by Le Corbusier, Charles and Ray Eames, Philippe Starck, and Dieter Rams.

Each entry receives a full-page treatment with photography that emphasizes form, material, and surface. The accompanying text remains concise, providing essential context about designer, manufacturer, and the historical circumstances that gave rise to each piece. This brevity serves the book well, allowing readers to absorb dozens of entries in a single sitting without fatigue. The organization moves chronologically, revealing how ideas propagate across eras and how certain formal solutions recur whenever function demands elegance.

The updated edition incorporates thirty recent additions reflecting contemporary innovations in materials, manufacturing, and sustainability. These newer entries sit comfortably alongside mid-century classics, demonstrating that good design speaks a consistent language across generations. The hardcover binding and compact dimensions make the book suitable for desk reference or coffee table display. Pages lie flat when open, facilitating study of individual objects without fighting the spine.

For students of design, this volume provides a foundation in visual literacy. For practitioners, it offers a catalog of proven solutions. For anyone who appreciates the objects that populate daily life, it reveals the intention and craft embedded in things too often taken for granted.