As a previous reviewer wrote, this book is a nice object. It is beautifully printed, well-designed, and the selected images are uniformly of high quality. But not a word of written comment? Seriously? The short paragraph on the back cover (essentially the same as the product description on the Amazon page) is the ONLY written commentary of the entire book! So what readers are getting is a group of pretty pictures by contemporary and not-widely known designers. The images are united by a clean and dominantly retro aesthetic and you can like the work, dislike it, use it as visual inspiration. . . but context please??? Make that up for yourself, I guess.
The product description above notes “Instead, the book shows that it is only our idealistic conception of modernism that gives earlier work attributes that it never actually had.” Please describe this “idealistic conception” and the “attributes” that the earlier work never had? I think it is a huge leap over a gaping chasm to make that claim. While I do personally like the work showcased in this book, I am left hanging to draw my own assumptions about it. Nothing about this book furthers, challenges, disputes whatever ideas I have of modernism. It is a wasted opportunity. There are plenty of people willing to bash modernism and, sadly, here are two editors who apparently find value in it but their support for it, by lack of written content, is more lip service than rallying cry.
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This is such a cool book! From the cover paper stock to the paper stock of the interior pages, it’s fine attention to detail like this that’s not so common in books these days. Each page comes alive and commands your full attention. While the colors are bright, they also have that retro, dull look which plays up the theme. If you’re a fan of design where old is new again, you need to pick this up. Learning of so many new artists and designers alone makes the book worth it. Only 4 stars because I would’ve liked to see more new ideas rather than so many that literally lifted from the originals. The artist featured on the cover is the only one that really blew me away with originality. Still, I know it’s definitely a book I’ll flip to over and over again for inspiration!
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Why this book is titled “The Modernist” is a mystery to this reader. This blurb will contain more words than the book itself, which is comprised entirely of graphically compelling mock book covers
No written content? Really?,
As a previous reviewer wrote, this book is a nice object. It is beautifully printed, well-designed, and the selected images are uniformly of high quality. But not a word of written comment? Seriously? The short paragraph on the back cover (essentially the same as the product description on the Amazon page) is the ONLY written commentary of the entire book! So what readers are getting is a group of pretty pictures by contemporary and not-widely known designers. The images are united by a clean and dominantly retro aesthetic and you can like the work, dislike it, use it as visual inspiration. . . but context please??? Make that up for yourself, I guess.
The product description above notes “Instead, the book shows that it is only our idealistic conception of modernism that gives earlier work attributes that it never actually had.” Please describe this “idealistic conception” and the “attributes” that the earlier work never had? I think it is a huge leap over a gaping chasm to make that claim. While I do personally like the work showcased in this book, I am left hanging to draw my own assumptions about it. Nothing about this book furthers, challenges, disputes whatever ideas I have of modernism. It is a wasted opportunity. There are plenty of people willing to bash modernism and, sadly, here are two editors who apparently find value in it but their support for it, by lack of written content, is more lip service than rallying cry.
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|Eye Candy,
This is such a cool book! From the cover paper stock to the paper stock of the interior pages, it’s fine attention to detail like this that’s not so common in books these days. Each page comes alive and commands your full attention. While the colors are bright, they also have that retro, dull look which plays up the theme. If you’re a fan of design where old is new again, you need to pick this up. Learning of so many new artists and designers alone makes the book worth it. Only 4 stars because I would’ve liked to see more new ideas rather than so many that literally lifted from the originals. The artist featured on the cover is the only one that really blew me away with originality. Still, I know it’s definitely a book I’ll flip to over and over again for inspiration!
Was this review helpful to you?
|Where’s the context?,
Why this book is titled “The Modernist” is a mystery to this reader. This blurb will contain more words than the book itself, which is comprised entirely of graphically compelling mock book covers