Everything is design.
At Blu Dot, we've always believed that good design is just plain good. You know it when you see it, feel it, and live with it. For our inaugural edition of the Blu Dot Book Club, we gathered a group of books that put their own twist on the good-design-is-good equation. From philosophical meditations on household objects to the little-known history of the jellybean, these titles challenge us to look again and recognize that good design (or at least a good design story) is usually hiding in plain site.
The Beauty of Everyday Things
by Soetu Yanagi
Penguin Classics, 2018
Have you ever taken the time to appreciate a really good wooden spoon? These 100-year old essays by the poet-philosopher founder of Japan’s mingei movement (and father of industrial designer Sori Yanagi) provide a variety of insights into doing just that. In an era of upheaval and modernization not unlike our own, Yanagi looked to the tradition of unselfconsciously-crafted utilitarian objects for new meaning and values—“They may simply be things, but who can say that they don’t have a heart?”
Humble Masterpieces
Regan Books, 2005
Throughout its history, from 1934’s “Machine Art” to the “Good Design” program of the 1950’s, New York’s Museum of Modern Art has provoked audiences by displaying ordinary things alongside artistic masterpieces. This catalog for a 2004 exhibition highlights the creation stories behind a wide-ranging selection of stuff we tend to take for granted—band-aids, bubble wrap, jelly beans, post-it notes, fortune cookies, and match sticks—and reminds us that even the most commonplace things didn’t exist before they were designed.
Super Normal: Sensations of the Ordinary
by Naoto Fukasawa + Jasper Morrison
Lars Müller Publishers, 2007
We all know what normal is—but what about “super normal”? Two of our favorite designers explore the idea in this small but definitive book, based on a 2006 exhibition of 210 “super normal” objects. The selection ranges from the anonymous, like a plastic grocery basket, to the authored, to the unexpected (a literal goose egg). Through captions, short essays, and interviews, Fukasawa and Morrison assemble a collaged design manifesto that champions objects which elevate their inherent thing-ness, rejecting the now-pervasive idea that design is about novelty.
Usefulness in Small Things
by Sam Hecht + Kim Colin
Rizzoli, 2011
Via an overview of curious, inexpensive objects culled from local hardware stores, pharmacies, supermarkets, and convenience stores over a period of decades, this book provides an intimate view into the mind of the designer(s). Hecht and Colin offer keen observations not only about the nature of objects, materials, production, and (dis)functionality, but ultimately, and more consequentially, social change, globalization, and the idiosyncrasies of modern life.
It’s what’s inside that counts.
Elegant wood creates an expansive tabletop surface and alluring corridors below. Wood partitions provide an airy feel and casual entertainment from every angle. Admire it empty or jam-packed with your finest coffee table books.
