Author: JD

The Shape of Design

JD

Author: Frank Chimero

The Shape of Design is a short, accessible book about the creative process and the intersection of storytelling, craft and improvisation. The Shape of Design is a map of the road where we dance rather than a blueprint of it. It strives to investigate the opportunities of exploring the terrain, and it values stepping back from the everyday concerns of designing. … If you’ve read Frank Chimero’s essays or watched his talks online, you’ll recognise many of the ideas collected here. I’ve spent a year reading, re-reading, highlighting and annotating this book, and I’m sure I’ll keep coming back to it. If you work in design or a related field, and you think about what your work means and where it fits in the world, give this book a read.

The Shape of Design is a short, accessible book about the creative process and the intersection of storytelling, craft and improvisation. It strives to investigate the opportunities of exploring the terrain, and it values stepping back from the everyday concerns of designing. It attempts to impose a meaningful distance in order to patterns in the work and assess the practice as a whole. One can observe, from this distance, two very fundamental things about design that are easy to miss in the midst of all of this movement. First, design is imagining a future and working toward it with intelligence and cleverness. We use design to close the gap between the situation we have and the one we desire. Second, design is a practice built upon making things for other people. These two things dictate our relationship to the world and our bond to one another. They form the foundations of the design practice, so our work should revolve around these truths.

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Norman Foster: Net Works / Works

JD

Norman Foster: Net Works

Author: Philip Jodidio
Illustrator: Norman Foster

With a career spanning across continents and over six decades, the work of the renowned architect Norman Foster is nothing short of extraordinary. His creative innovation and holistic approach have made him one of the world’s most influential and well-known architects. From the Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California, to the Reichstag in Berlin, the enclosed court of the British Museum in London to the Millau Viaduct in France, with his practice of Foster + Partners, he has created celebrated landmarks that stand out for their inventive modernity and for what he calls “a sustainable approach to the design of the built environment.”

This is the first time Foster’s complete body of work has been published in one edition on such a grand scale. Giving a rare insight into the inner workings of his creative practice. It details his personal approach to his work, his inspirations, the link between art and architecture, and the significance and correlation between his passions, such as being an avid aviator, and his work.

The XXL monograph encompasses a lifetime of achievement and originality in two volumes. The first presents his architectural œuvre and is filled with numerous unpublished images and sketches handpicked by Foster from his archives. Paired with nearly 1000 illustrations, the second book contains eight essays he wrote explaining his sources of inspiration.

Aside from the 1999 Pritzker Prize, he has won the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal for Architecture, the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture, and the Gold Medal of the French Academy of Architecture. This is a magnificent visual journey not only through significant buildings of our time but also into the mind of a genius. Norman Foster sketched every page of this book and spent countless hours with the author and the graphic designer to make it one of the most remarkable architecture books ever published.

Also available as an Art Edition of 300 copies with a 1-meter-wide signed print of a drawing by Norman Foster, picturing the upcoming multifunctional community and business center InnHub in La Punt, Switzerland. The two volumes of this edition are collected in a custom-designed slipcase that folds into a book stand.

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The History of Graphic Design: 1890-1959 by Jens Müller, Julius Wiedemann

JD

The History of Graphic Design 1890-1959

This book is an in-depth history of graphic design from the end of the 19th century to the ’50s. It traces the evolution of this creative field from its beginning as poster design to its further development into advertising, corporate identity, packaging, and editorial design. Organized chronologically, the volume features over 2,500 seminal designs from all over the world, 71 of which are profiled in detail besides 61 leaders in the field, including Alphonse Mucha (chocolate advertisements), Edward Johnston (London Underground logo and typeface), El Lissitzky (constructivist graphics), Herbert Matter (photomontage travel posters from Switzerland), Saul Bass (animated opening titles), and A. M. Cassandre (art deco posters).

Author Jens Müller curates the standout designs for each year alongside a running sequence of design milestones. Meanwhile, in his introductory essay, David Jury situates graphic design from its point of origin in early printing, engraving, and lithography to striking creative developments in the 19th century. Each consecutive decade is then prefaced by a succinct overview as well as a visual timeline, offering a vivid display of the variety of graphic production in each decade as well as the global landscape which it at once described and defined.

As we move on from and reflect upon the 20th century, this first volume examines the foundations of what would influence some of the fastest-changing creative fields. Combined with Volume Two—which spans from the 1960s until today—the tomes offer the most comprehensive exploration of graphic design to date and a long-overdue recognition of its enormous contribution to economics, politics, social causes, the arts, media, and the way we see the world.

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GLOBAL SOCIO-CULTURAL FUTURES

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GLOBAL SOCIO-CULTURAL FUTURES

“Global Socio-Cultural Futures” is the second Course in the series on Global Systems designed for individuals and organisations committed to facing global challenges and finding solutions.

Course Content includes 12 Lessons across 3 Modules:

  1. City Futures
  2. Human Futures
  3. Educational Futures

There are two lessons in each, examining the challenges, and addressing the alternatives. This self-paced, web-based Course is incredibly well researched to give you a deep understanding of our emerging world and provides a solid basis for you to build your personal, professional, and family futures.

Why you should take this course:

  • Learn from Professor Jennifer Gidley’s valuable expertise gained from 30 years’ experience as an international futures consultant at the highest levels of global thinking into the complexity and wide impacts of Climate Crisis, Energy Systems and Ecosystem collapse
  • You will learn about rapid urbanisation and its social, cultural and environmental stresses; entrenched socio-cultural issues such as racism, gender inequality, and loss of meaning; and why the factory model of schooling is obsolete
  • Be empowered to imagine, design and create social and cultural innovations such as ecological and smart cities; social and cultural practices that are empowering, equitable, inclusive, and meaningful; and educational approaches that are creative, evolutionary, integral, and transformative
  • Learn how solutions offered align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
  • Receive a Certificate of Completion (Global Socio-Cultural Futures)
  • Continuing Professional Development (CPD) – 30 Points

To enroll, please contact info@beopenfuture.com

The Youth Statement issued by the UNECE ESD Forum and the MED9 Forum captures the key contributions and perspectives of the young delegates

JD


The UNECE ESD Forum and the MED9 Forum issued the Youth Statement, which captures the key contributions and perspectives of the young delegates, whose presence and active engagement were crucial during the special sessions. Their insights and energy provided a unique and vital perspective to the discussions, highlighting the importance of youth involvement in shaping a sustainable future..

The outcomes of these forums will play a significant role in shaping the discussions at the Summit of the Future, ensuring that the voices and ideas shared will have a lasting impact.

Art Since 1900 By Hal Foster, Rosalind Krauss, Yve-Alain Bois, Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, David Joselit

JD

Art Since 1900

Volume 1: 1900 to 1944;
Volume 2: 1945 to the Present

By Hal Foster, Rosalind Krauss, Yve-Alain Bois, Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, David Joselit

Five of the most influential and provocative art historians of our time have come together to provide a comprehensive history of art in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Art Since 1900 introduces students to the key theoretical approaches to modern and contemporary art. A flexible year-by-year structure and extensive cross-referencing allow teachers and students to pursue a chronological approach and/or to study the currents of art since 1900 by medium, theme, country, or region. This completely updated and expanded third edition contains over 125 essays, each focusing on a crucial event in the history of art from 1900 to the present. Ten new essays cover subjects such as Moscow conceptualism, abstract film, postmodern architecture, and queer art, as well as artists from emerging economies and the impact of the market on current art practice.

Text boxes provide further information on key figures and issues. Five introductions explain the different methods of art history at work in the book. There are two roundtable discussions between the authors, and all reference material has been updated.

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