PACKAGING SUSTAINABILITY: TOOLS, SYSTEMS, AND STRATEGIES FOR INNOVATIVE PACKAGE DESIGN
By Wendy Jedlicka
John Wiley & Sons Inc., Hoboken, NJ 347 pp.; color illus. throughout; $45 (paperback)
“The most sustainable packaging is no packaging.” That idea is one of many presented here that ought to motivate designers to become larger-scale systems players, not just pretty object makers. Though this book’s case studies focus on package design, its message is applicable to all disciplines. Topics include material selection (where does your paper come from?), marketing concerns ( green-wash-ing), economic factors (the triple bottom line), and systems and methodologies ranging from Wal-Mart’s sustainability agenda to the cradle-to-cradle philosophy of “waste equals food.” Tables, lists, notes, and definitions drawn from a vast array of sources and thinkers—from Bucky Fuller to John Thackara—punctuate the chapters and fill a nearly 50-page glossary. The pragmatic approach makes the book informative, if a tad dull. Except for the dubious mossy accent color, Packaging Sustainability avoids typical green clichés and delivers clarity and breadth on sustainable design practice. —Kristian Bjørnard
LE CORBUSIER AND THE OCCULT: THE CODE By J.K. Birksted
MIT Press, Cambridge, MA
416 pp.; 177 illus.; $45 (hardcover)
MARK WEISS
Birksted encourages the reader to become a treasure hunter, pulling out dusty volumes and overturning symbol-laden artifacts to discover that Le Corbusier—an architect of seemingly unprecedented modernist invention—perpetuated his own myth of originality. Birksted pinpoints the work of 18th-century French neoclassical architect François-Joseph Belanger and Masonic symbology as the sources of Corbusier’s supposed “immaculate conceptions.” The architect, Birksted claims, repeatedly appropriated Belanger’s architectural plans, elevations, and sections to create such masterworks as Villa Savoye. The book then turns to Corbusier’s formative years in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, where the young artist was drawn to the local Masonic lodge, although there is no evidence that he joined. Peering into the lodge’s secret rituals, the author finds mystical origins for Corbu’s signature spatial and architectural elements, particularly the “architectural promenade” and “ineffable space” of Villa Savoye. It’s satisfying to see his self-proclaimed “flashes of unexpected insight” flicker out with a dousing of Birksted’s research. Turns out, he was just an ordinary genius after all. —Helen Armstrong
MANUFRACTURED: THE CONSPICUOUS
TRANSFORMATION OF EVERYDAY OBJECTS By Steven Skov Holt and Mara Holt Skov Chronicle Books, San Francisco
144 pp.; 80 color illus.; $35 (hardcover)
In a world drowning in commercial goods, a new wave of craft uses mass-produced objects as raw material, transforming the redundant and fleeting into the profound and permanent. Design critics and curators Steven Skov Holt and Mara Holt Skov call this work “manufracturing.” Their new book looks at the merging of kitschy craft, store-bought products, and high design. A companion to an exhibition presented at the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, Oregon, this book won’t show you how to make a tuxedo out of dryer sheets, but it does examine the work of artists who have piloted the DIY movement by fashioning bowls from traffic signs or repurposing industrial plastics into sculpture. The authors explain that in these projects, “The original form and function is forever changed and a new kind of preciousness is revealed.” A chapter on the history of “manufracturing” precedes analyses of the featured projects, which range from Livia Marin’s army of molded lipstick sculptures to Jason Rogene’s totems built from polystyrene packaging inserts. —Virginia Sasser
MANNAHATTA: A NATURAL HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY
By Eric Sanderson
Abrams, New York
352 pp.; 120 color illus.; $40 (hardcover)
Manhattan wasn’t always a congested metropolis swarming with pigeons, taxis, and celebrities. According to Eric Sanderson, a landscape ecologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society, if you had wandered into Times Square or strolled down Wall Street 400 years ago, you would have encountered more than 55 different ecosystems and thousands of species of flora and fauna. Mannahatta leaps back in time and imagines Manhattan as a wildly different place. This luxurious, richly illustrated book contrasts digitally reconstructed landscapes with current images of the city, revealing its evolution from 1609—when Henry Hudson accidentally discovered the area while looking for a route to China—to the present day. —Justin Kropp
THE WAYFINDING HANDBOOK
By David Gibson
Princeton Architectural Press, New York 152 pp.; 265 color illus.; $25 (paperback)
David Gibson, cofounder of the New York design firm Two Twelve, provides an uncomplicated
introduction to signage systems as a form of storytelling. Elucidating the origins and function of wayfinding, Gibson outlines real-world signage projects, including work for Princeton University and Children’s Hospital Boston, documenting most of his examples with photography or graphics. Project descriptions and commentary by other designers highlight each chapter. A section on type describes letterform anatomy, spacing, and arrangement, but doesn’t offer much detail on legibility issues in signage. As such, the book sometimes feels more like a primer for students or entry-level wayfinding designers than a down-and-dirty field guide for professionals. Other topics include branding, materials and media, code requirements, fabrication, and a brief section on sustainability. —Molly Hawthorne
Reviewed by students in Ellen Lupton’s writing course, Graphic Design MFA Program, Maryland Institute College of Art
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