Design Books | Godard Girl : The Taxonomies of Design

My blog has moved and changed name to DESIGN SODA, I’d love it if you followed along with my new content there.

So this weekend we have been plagued by the noro-virus, as a result I am lazy posting today, here are my top 5 Design Books:

Design as Art by Bruno Munari. 

Probably the greatest design book ever written, will make you look at 
the world around you and its objects in a different light. 
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What the dust jacket says: Bruno Munari was among the most 
inspirational designers of all time, described by Picasso as 'the new 
Leonardo'. Munari insisted that design be beautiful, functional and 
accessible,and this enlightening and highly entertaining book sets out
his ideas about visual, graphic and industrial design and the role it 
plays in the objects we use everyday. Lamps, road signs, typography,
posters, children's books, advertising, cars and chairs - these are 
just some of the subjects to which he turns his illuminating gaze.

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London Hidden Interiors by Philip Davies & Derek Kendall. 

This is my current favourite coffee table book, an immense 
encyclopedia of the interior gems of London, some known, many you will
never have heard of before. As a pictorial sourcebook it is wildly 
diverse plethora of beautifully shot spaces.
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What the dust jacket says: 180 of London's best conserved and least 
known interiors are revealed in 1500 spectacular photographs. 
Philip Davies turns his attention to London's conserved heritage, 
presenting an expert introductory essay followed by the most 
extraordinary collection of contemporary photographs of London's 
historic interiors ever published. London Hidden Interiors has one 
hundred and eighty examples which have been selected from a complete 
range of building types to convey the richness and diversity of 
London's architectural heritage and the secrets that lie within. It 
concentrates generally on the buildings and interiors that are lesser 
known and to which the public are not normally allowed the hidden and
the unusual, the quirky and the eccentric, although there is space 
too for some of the better known. 
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The London Design Guide: 2014-2015 Ed. Max Fraser.

Invaluable guide to the capital, packaged beautifully and complete 
with exceptional front cover.
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What the dust jacket says: London Design Guide is the only publication
dedicated to the capitals flourishing design scene. Featuring reviews 
of the latest contemporary and vintage hotspots together with the more
established, this guide reveals the city's leading design gems.Be it a
shop, gallery, museum, restaurant or bar, all are gathered by
neighbourhood and supported with maps, verifying London's reputation
as the design capital of the world.
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The Medium is the Massage: an inventory of Effects - Michael Mcluhan &
Quentin Fiore. 

Similar to Walter Benjamin's thoughts on mechanical reproduction, a 
bedfellow of Guy Debord's Society of the Spectacle, this is an 
illuminating work on our relation to things and how these impressions 
are influenced from outside of the inner life.
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What the dust jacket says:In a dazzling fusion of Quentin Fiore's bold
and inventive graphic design and Marshall McLuhan's unique insight 
into technology, advertising and mass-media, The Medium is the Massage
is a unique study of human communication in the twentieth century.
Marshall McLuhan is the man who predicted the all-pervasive rise of 
modern mass media. Blending text, image and photography, his 1960 
classic The Medium is the Massage illustrates how the growth of 
technology utterly reshapes society, personal lives and sensory 
perceptions, so that we are effectively transformed by the means we 
use to communicate. His theories, many of which are illustrated in 
this astonishing 'inventory of effects', force us to question how
modes of communication have shaped society. This concept, and his 
ideas such as rolling, up-to-the-minute news broadcasts and the
media 'Global Village' have proved decades ahead of their time.
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I guess I must include a specific interior design book so I am going 
to choose two of the best. Kevin Mclouds bible to style The Principles
of Home is full of middle class style dilemmas about authenticity but
it is unfailingly right about the issues it tackles and a really
helpful blueprint for thinking about a home space from scratch. 
Abigail Ahern's Decorating With Style is brilliant. I read this 
recently and felt a real affinity with her sense and approach to style
which I guess shows how much she has become a part of 
lexicon of modern interior thought.
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What the dust jackets say: In this inspirational yet also 
practical paperback Kevin explores all areas of domestic living, from 
materialism to sustainability, craftsmanship to comfort. Kevin’s
beautifully written text brings insight and understanding to enjoying 
life in the 21st century, but crucially he offers detailed, helpful 
and incisive advice on design, construction and style.

Decorating with Style gives you the confidence to take risks with
interior design, embrace what you love, and fill your home with 
infectiously fabulous stuff: comforting, inviting and imbued with 
personality. Decorating Abigail Ahern style is about creating spaces 
that make you happy - not just buying the latest 'it' chair. According
to the internationally renowned interior designer, the most successful
homes always have an element of the unexpected. Good taste is 
wonderful, but without a touch of eccentricity - some tension between 
spontaneity and rigour, refinement and rebellion - beautifully 
co-ordinated rooms can leave you cold. Proving that style has nothing 
to do with money and everything to do with confidence, Abigail goes 
back to basics to help you determine your own style, then demonstrates
how to take interiors to the next level by mixing and layering 
different styles and eras; injecting intrigue into a room with some 
maximalist lighting or a decorative rug; playing around with scale, 
colour and texture to create an enchanting, idiosyncratic vibe.