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Rating: 
Summary: A visual treat
Review: In my view, World Design is a rather subjective title to the book when most of the items discussed here are from Western countries, mainly powerhouse countries such as Italy, France, UK, Germany. Most of the modern classics are in here & most of the daily items that we have taken for granted are here too. Again, designers that are chosen to be included in this encyclopedia is subjective considering that there are other designers that failed to be mentioned such as the highly acclaimed late John Britten, a New Zealander who has designed & built an organic shaped motorbike using carbon fibre with many technological advances. What about the designers who designed the Jaguar E Type, Lotus Elise which uses the aluminium spaceframe which saves the weight of the car & not compromising the safety of the passengers, Benz SLK with its ability to be transformed from a convertible to a coupe in a matter of second, & what about Karem Rashid whose salt & pepper shakers have been rendered as a classics since? The list could go on but having said that, this book manages to inform the readers of those committed designers that designed items for the people, by the people. This book is by no mean a definite book for design because as we speak, more new designer pieces are coming to the market place, and designer pieces being evolved to meet the changes of our requirements.
Rating:
Summary: A visual treat
Review: In my view, World Design is a rather subjective title to the book when most of the items discussed here are from Western countries, mainly powerhouse countries such as Italy, France, UK, Germany. Most of the modern classics are in here & most of the daily items that we have taken for granted are here too. Again, designers that are chosen to be included in this encyclopedia is subjective considering that there are other designers that failed to be mentioned such as the highly acclaimed late John Britten, a New Zealander who has designed & built an organic shaped motorbike using carbon fibre with many technological advances. What about the designers who designed the Jaguar E Type, Lotus Elise which uses the aluminium spaceframe which saves the weight of the car & not compromising the safety of the passengers, Benz SLK with its ability to be transformed from a convertible to a coupe in a matter of second, & what about Karem Rashid whose salt & pepper shakers have been rendered as a classics since? The list could go on but having said that, this book manages to inform the readers of those committed designers that designed items for the people, by the people. This book is by no mean a definite book for design because as we speak, more new designer pieces are coming to the market place, and designer pieces being evolved to meet the changes of our requirements.
Rating: 
Summary: Promises more than it delivers (tant pis)
Review: Right off the bat, the infuriating things (I'll get to the kudos in a moment):1. Frequently and throughout, a work will be cited in the body text as significant in a designers' evolution and then *not illustrated*, whereas the works illustrated tend to be minor or tangential. You have no idea how annoying it is to read that Sir Norman Foster's lighting system for the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank (or George Nelson's Storagewall, or *most* of Ross Lovegrove's oeuvre, and so on...) was "revolutionary," and then not get to see it, or what was so revolutionary about it. 2. The book misses obvious, multifaceted rising talents like Karim Rashid, while devoting overmuch space to, say, Jamie Reid (much as I love his Sex Pistols work). 3. Some of the facts are just *wrong*. The font cited as OCR-B is, I believe, OCR-A, for just one example. 4. The text has either been translated poorly or written in English by someone with imperfect command of English idiom. This is OK in a Kartell catalogue, but not in a book intended for a mass English-speaking audience. It's clumsy, verging on contemptful (i.e., "They'll be so busy looking at the pretty pictures they won't notice the text.") All that said, this is a beautiful and useful book. It has enhanced my sense of the evolution and internationality of modern design, shed some (though not very much) light onto the personalities and motivations of individual designers, blown me away in places (Noguchi's Nurse radio!) and provided a valuable transitional reference for me at work, where I must among other things describe design products in depth on a daily basis. I *really* liked the equal respect given to categories like fashion and typography, or designers like Coco Chanel who are not usually thought of as such, or as so influential. And the timeline at the end of the book is especially interesting. This would make a great gift for anyone interested in industrial design, fashion, graphics, or even branding/marketing. Let's hope the next edition is even better.
Rating: 
Summary: Paced with details on designer styles.
Review: This A-Z encyclopedia of contemporary furniture, fashion and graphics designs provides an engrossing survey featuring over a thousand color photos of the works of the finest modern designers. From discussions of individual contributions to wider-ranging surveys of styles, movements and innovations, World Design packs in details about the changing, evolving world and styles of designers.
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