IT'S TIME TO SHOW SOME SPINE.
As a passionate fan of modern design, I spend an unhealthy amount of time looking at slickly-produced object catalogues. As a bookseller who specializes in modern design, I confess to obsessively reading the spines of the stacked and shelved books that strategically litter most lifestyle catalog product shots. Eventually a pattern emerged.
I deducted with certainty that all of the prop and decorating perfessionals shop at the same bookstore. And that this particular bookstore never runs out of Hans Wingler's behemoth Bauhaus Slipcased Edition. This is sad for many reasons.
A high-end catalog like DWR retains so many stylists and aesthetes that Nothing is Left to Chance. That's why you can reliably find the Wingler Bauhaus (not yet used as a doorstop), a tasteful assortment of Photography monographs and a few Contemporary Travel Books (Judd, Marfa, et al) in whatever setting needs that extra layer of sophistication. Let's face it -- nothing says Modern quite like a stack of books on the floor. That's what I tell my wife, anyway.
After a DWR photography session is over, it wouldn't surprise me if all the prop books were returned to the shelves in some mid-level cubicle at Pentagram's San Francisco Office. The people at DWR are smart enough to let a creative type select appropriate signifying props for surrounding their furniture and ever-increasing amounts of housewares. I suspect it is easier to get somebody to volunteer selections from their library than it is to get somebody to agree not to bring potato salad to the Company Picnic. People who love books love showing off their books. A good, honest book collection is a mirror of the person who built the collection. The DWR people know all this - they know books speak volumes about where a person has been and where that person is going. I'm okay with that.
When I redesigned this website, I believed there were enough people like me out there who spent an unhealthy amount of time looking at the book spines in the latest DWR catalogs. Hence my Front Page -- form meets function: book spines could visually cue my audience to this websites' essence more efficiently than any Jive Flash presentation. I thought it was a Pentagram-worthy concept.
Like the faceless SF Pentagram team-member, I eagerly raided my booksheleves, volunteering my signifiers and projecting my modern sensibilities. It was just like making a sexy Mix Tape for my college Girlfriend. That girlfried is now my wife and together we had a blast combing our shelves for some books to attract the attention of all those restless, spine studiers out there. You may not care for my website, but you have to agree: my bookshelves are cooler than the ones DWR use.
And we do have a copy of the Wingler book.
I deducted with certainty that all of the prop and decorating perfessionals shop at the same bookstore. And that this particular bookstore never runs out of Hans Wingler's behemoth Bauhaus Slipcased Edition. This is sad for many reasons.
A high-end catalog like DWR retains so many stylists and aesthetes that Nothing is Left to Chance. That's why you can reliably find the Wingler Bauhaus (not yet used as a doorstop), a tasteful assortment of Photography monographs and a few Contemporary Travel Books (Judd, Marfa, et al) in whatever setting needs that extra layer of sophistication. Let's face it -- nothing says Modern quite like a stack of books on the floor. That's what I tell my wife, anyway.
After a DWR photography session is over, it wouldn't surprise me if all the prop books were returned to the shelves in some mid-level cubicle at Pentagram's San Francisco Office. The people at DWR are smart enough to let a creative type select appropriate signifying props for surrounding their furniture and ever-increasing amounts of housewares. I suspect it is easier to get somebody to volunteer selections from their library than it is to get somebody to agree not to bring potato salad to the Company Picnic. People who love books love showing off their books. A good, honest book collection is a mirror of the person who built the collection. The DWR people know all this - they know books speak volumes about where a person has been and where that person is going. I'm okay with that.
When I redesigned this website, I believed there were enough people like me out there who spent an unhealthy amount of time looking at the book spines in the latest DWR catalogs. Hence my Front Page -- form meets function: book spines could visually cue my audience to this websites' essence more efficiently than any Jive Flash presentation. I thought it was a Pentagram-worthy concept.
Like the faceless SF Pentagram team-member, I eagerly raided my booksheleves, volunteering my signifiers and projecting my modern sensibilities. It was just like making a sexy Mix Tape for my college Girlfriend. That girlfried is now my wife and together we had a blast combing our shelves for some books to attract the attention of all those restless, spine studiers out there. You may not care for my website, but you have to agree: my bookshelves are cooler than the ones DWR use.
And we do have a copy of the Wingler book.
posted by Randall Ross at
7:19 AM
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