IN REVIEW
history
engineering
LE CORBUSIER: LE GRAND
DESIGNED BY Julia Hasting
Phaidon Press, 768 pp., $200
Bookshelf
New and notable books
on architecture, culture,
and design
How much Corbu is too much? Probably this much: a 20-pound slab
of more than 700 pages containing about 2,000 illustrations, plus
a separate hardcover folio with English translations of hundreds of
documents. One hesitates to call Le Grand a coffee-table book because it could crush many coffee tables. Still, that’s the right genre:
the aim here is to assemble many, many images (including a photo
of a nude Corbu, ack!) and omit, for the most part, things like explication and interpretation. (The fine introduction by Jean-Louis
Cohen is the exception.) Yes,
it’s overkill, but you kind
of have to admire the sheer
moxie of it all. Even next to
Corbu’s monumental output
as an architect, a planner,
a painter, a sculptor, and a
writer, this seems like an extravagant piece of work.
Heller’s new book is based on a simple, provocative
premise: some of the most diabolical totalitarian
regimes of the last century—Nazi Germany, Fascist
Italy, Soviet Russia, and Communist China—were also
masters of branding, astutely employing graphic-design
devices to create a “core narrative” and sway public
opinion. To support his point, Heller marshals a stunning array of propaganda, ranging from posters and
photographs to mass-produced miscellany like Fascist
exam booklets and a swastika crossword puzzle. He is
particularly good on the way totalitarian leaders manipulated their personal iconography, deliberately emphasizing certain features: Hitler’s mustache, Mussolini’s
baldness, Lenin’s goatee, Mao’s enigmatic smile.
IRON FISTS: BRANDING THE 20TH-CENTURY
TOTALITARIAN STATE
BY Steven Heller
DESIGNED BY Project Projects
Phaidon Press, 224 pp., $90
PROCESS: 50 PRODUCT DESIGNS
FROM CONCEPT TO MANUFACTURE
BY Jennifer Hudson
Laurence King Publishing, 240 pp., $45
Process would be an excellent gift for any budding
industrial designer in your life, but be warned that it
may discourage less hardy souls. The processes documented here are long and often tortuous. Several of
the designs took four or more years of tinkering, fine-tuning, and (probably) hair pulling to make it from
initial concept to final product. (Satyendra Pakhalé’s
B.M. Horse Chair was seven and a half years in the
offing.) The author’s selections favor new technologies, innovative materials, and unorthodox production
methods; as a result, the book is steeped in the rarified world of high-end and limited-edition furniture.
Still, the lesson that young designers should take
away is as basic as it gets: ideas are easy; bringing
them to life is the hard part.
Illustration by
Amelia Hall
for Metropolis
