CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 2/18/2015

Making Design

Kam Tang's 2012 poster for Herman Miller's Aeron Chair is reproduced from Making Design, the Cooper-Hewitt's rather amazing 912-page collection catalog. Designed by Irma Boom and featuring glow-in-the-dark ink on all three cover variations, 54 object essays, well more than 1000 color illustrations (selected from 210,000 objects spanning 30 centuries) and an extensive process glossary, this may be the most playfully ambitious collection catalog… ever. Cooper-Hewitt Director Caroline Baumann sums it up: "The organization, or narrative, of this book is purely visual and as you page through it, you'll see sequences of more than 1200 images that are provocative, lyrical, funny, unexpected, ravishing, somber and exquisite. The pairings emphasize looking at objects as well as making connections between them, highlighting their details, textures and patterns, forms, shapes and colors."