Designing has come of age since World War II. The essential shape, form and structure of some objects in our daily lives may have been fixed many generations ago, but design and designers have now been moved center stage by the varied demands of a society that in less than half a century has gone from the restless search for the new throw-away consumerism to a postmodernist recycling of ideas - and now, Green recycling of materials. Companies use design systematically to plan their manufacturing, shape their marketing and make their products more attractive, while many designers have sought to raise the status of their activity to that of an art form and even - like Ettore Sottsass - to see it as "a way of discussing life". Dormer questions orthodoxies, defines the contexts within which designers work, and aims to cover the wide range of post-war activity, including industrial and product design, graphics, furniture, textiles, kitchen utensils and tableware. His previous books include The New Ceramics, The New Furniture and The Meanings of Modern Design.

Design Since 1945 (World of Art)

Arts & Photography

Dormer, Peter

History & Criticism

Thames&Hudson

Shows a variety of modern bowls, teapots, vases, plates, goblets, figurines, and abstract sculpture, and discusses the roles of form and ornamentation

The New Ceramics: Trends and Traditions

Sculpture

Brings together a number of international designs, and examines the historical roots and contemporary issues in furniture design

The New Furniture: Trends and Tradition

History

Discusses the development of style in the twentieth century, including its relationship with engineering, new materials, changing views of home, luxury goods, contemporary crafts, and the future of conservatism in design

The Meanings of Modern Design: Towards the Twenty-First Century

Decorative Arts & Design

The New Jewelry: Trends and Traditions by Peter Dormer and Ralph Turner

The New Jewelry: Trends and Traditions

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Turner, Ralph

Crafts & Hobbies

NEW CERAMICS

Photography & Video

Jewellery has come alive again. 20 years ago a mere handful of designers in Europe and America were fighting the cliches of conventional design. Today there has been, in Ralph Turner's words, a "burgeoning of many kinds of ornament". Comprehensively revised and updated to incorporate the challenging work of the late 1980s and the 1990s, this book now presents in three sections the very latest examples of contemporary inventiveness. Mainstream abstract jewellery encompasses the diversity of modern ornament; whilst contemporary figurative jewellery is made by artists who sculpt and model in precious metals or everyday materials; and today's "jewellery as theatre" features radical workers and their controversial "wearables". Recent trends are given a special section of their own.

The New Jewelry: Trends & Traditions

The most popular of all the decorative arts, pottery has established itself as a modern art, form universal in its appeal and language. This presentation of ceramics worldwide has been updated to reflect the latest developments in a fast-evolving field, revealing a blend of tradition with new ideas, and spectacular use of ornament and colour. Dormer discusses the nature and roots of today's trends, and examines form and decoration in an authoritative compilation.

New Ceramics: Trends + Traditions

When Clement Greenberg declared that "inspiration is the only factor that cannot be copied", he laid down a charter that has become a dead-end shibboleth for a whole culture. In painting and sculpture, the use of skill has been relegated to a marginal activity. In the applied arts, craft has become secondary to the ideas expressed by objects. Conception, it is said, has nothing to do with execution; and execution (mere making) can take care of itself. Skills are not merely mechanical and easily learned: they threaten self-expression, creativity, imagination. Art has become a quick fix for commenting upon contemporary society; theory rules practice as never before. Peter Dormer's highly reasoned demolition of the arrogance, confusion and inconsistencies of these ideas shows how far removed they are, not merely from the art of all past eras, but even from the great artists of the 20th century - such as Henri Matisse or Giorgio Morandi - whose apparent spontaneity was accompanied by a complex, rich expertise. In an account that draws widely on the entire spectrum of contemporary art, craft and design, Dormer shows how process and content are interdependent and mutually enriching; how the artist can use the communal culture of discovery, invention, innovation, technique and insight to transform his or her own self-expression; and how the difference between human and machine skills remain as clear as ever in the computer era. This essay offers potential solutions to the impasse which many feel afflicts the contemporary plastic arts, and is aimed at those involved in fine or applied arts, or at all interested in the issues they raise.

The art of the maker

Thames and Hudson

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Dormer, Peter. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Dormer, Peter

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Dormer, Peter. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Design Since 1945 (World of Art)

The New Ceramics: Trends and Traditions

The New Furniture: Trends and Tradition

The Meanings of Modern Design: Towards the Twenty-First Century

The New Jewelry: Trends and Traditions

NEW CERAMICS

The Meanings of Modern Design: Towards the Twenty-First Century

The New Jewelry: Trends & Traditions

New Ceramics: Trends + Traditions

The art of the maker