Home »
Fashion Books »
Design Foundations »
Cracking the Whip: Essays on Design and Its Side Effects
Cracking the Whip: Essays on Design and Its Side Effects
by
Ralph Caplan
List Price: $26.00
©2006, 296 pp.,
softcover, 6 x 9
(1-56367-390-8)
Book category: Design Foundations
Meet the author: Ralph Caplan
Design is inescapably part of our lives--from the alarm clocks we wake up to and the cups we use for our morning coffee, to the chairs we sit in, the cars we drive, and the houses and cities we live in. In 63 engaged and engaging essays, Caplan explores how we use design, language, and instinct in our everyday world to relate to others, maintain traditions, and advance our causes. He probes our relation to the things that both comfort and disorient us--from pasta to corporate culture--and shows how we are shaped by our own artifacts and our attitudes toward them. Our sense of place and regional diversity are also examined--as are the shock of the new, the persistence of the old, and the expectation of a future. In this age of global sensibilities and "tourism as a lifestyle," we're continually recycling as we create. Previously published in forums such as The New York Times, I.D., Print, and Interior Design, Caplan (author of the popular classic By Design) is sharp, thoughtful, charming, and challenging. With a foreword by Milton Glaser.
Sample Chapter (PDF)
- CONTENTS
• Identity Crises: Words, images, and spin—how identities are designed, reinvented, stolen, and traded in
• Object Lessons: Are the things we own beginning to own us?
• For Sale: Buying and buying into, selling and selling out
• Being There: Where and who we are—and what we do when we get there
• Now and Then and Next: The more things change, the more they stay the same
Follow us on facebook
©Copyright 2010 Fairchild Publications.