Scan barcode
jyeetreads's review against another edition
3.0
3/5 stars or 7.5/10
“When a lot of money comes along before culture arrives, we get the phenomenon of the gold telephone. And when I say culture I don’t mean academic knowledge, I mean information: information about what is happening in the world, about the things that make life interesting.”
Though I have to disagree with Munari on the need for absolute practicality in design- perhaps because I can’t help but enjoy a bit of artistic perspective in form and function; like I would want a pan-shaped clock haha- I respect his call for empathy and his recognition of design as being for all people.
I also was pleasantly surprised by his deep appreciation for Japanese design, which I too find lots of inspiration in.
I personally found the second half of the book more engaging and insightful than the first half but overall it felt like a necessary read. Munari is pretty genius and I’ll definitely be referring back to this book in the future.
“When a lot of money comes along before culture arrives, we get the phenomenon of the gold telephone. And when I say culture I don’t mean academic knowledge, I mean information: information about what is happening in the world, about the things that make life interesting.”
Though I have to disagree with Munari on the need for absolute practicality in design- perhaps because I can’t help but enjoy a bit of artistic perspective in form and function; like I would want a pan-shaped clock haha- I respect his call for empathy and his recognition of design as being for all people.
I also was pleasantly surprised by his deep appreciation for Japanese design, which I too find lots of inspiration in.
I personally found the second half of the book more engaging and insightful than the first half but overall it felt like a necessary read. Munari is pretty genius and I’ll definitely be referring back to this book in the future.
pr0pheta's review against another edition
informative
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
5.0
really interesting takes and expands on what i already knew or did inherently. it's cool seeing my thought process on paper in a way i would never be able to describe. super informative and a great light read for any sort of designer or artist
janadiebeere's review against another edition
2.0
I had very high hopes for this book but I gained very little from it. A lot of the chapters feel strangely preachy, despite being an opinion. He also has this obsession with Japan that keeps coming up. In the chapters on Industrial Design, he spends most of each section just listing items. I think in general the book spends so much time describing things in a lot of detail that are quite hard to understand even with visual help. For some of his machines, we see only a picture of them from the outside and then the internal functions are described, but I still have no idea what it looks like or how it works.
lewreviews's review against another edition
4.0
Super interesting book on the power of good design in all fields. Also serves as a humorous social commentary on our obsession with useless things and aesthetics.
noitsjustnate's review against another edition
3.0
I am very enamored with the illustrations in this book as well as some entertaining sections (see the chapter titled “Fancy Goods” in which Munari has a near Dr. Seuss like cadence describing items that take the form of other items and vice versa; the piece on a car as traveling sculpture; “Poster Without End”). As a book itself it wasn’t super coherent and- as some comments mention- the topics and epiphanies are very dated. There are a lot of bold infinitive statements that I think the book could’ve done without, or needed much more context (name-dropping artists or commentary on the design discipline with no cited sources) and could’ve clarified Munari’s central discussion. Nevertheless, as a collection of provocations and graphics this book is unique and a quick read if you want a taste of design, art and architecture.