Consuming Design: Stefano Giovannoni’s Book List
By Steve Kroeter December 13, 2012
 |
| Stefano Giovannoni |
Product/industrial designer Stefano Giovannoni: Giovannoni Design (Milan)
On industrial designer Stefano Giovannoni’s book list for Designers & Books are five titles by the French philosopher, sociologist, and cultural commentator Jean Baudrillard. Why? Giovannoni thinks it’s very important for a designer “to open one’s vision to the philosophical and sociological aspects related to the evolution of our society.” “I’ve never found a design book deep enough for a broad vision of our profession,” he says in the introduction to his book list.
So, along with Baudrillard’s famous early work The System of Objects (also on the book list of architect Neil Denari), we find The Consumer Society, The Ecstasy of Communication, The Disappearance of Art, and Il Sogno della Merce (The Dream of Goods), in which, Giovannoni says, “Baudrillard analyzes the concept of ‘merchandise’ . . . as a crucial issue of consumer society. This book has been central to my design approach and the most important for my background.”
Baudrillardian thinking carries through to a comment Giovannoni makes about another more recent book on his list, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat (2005), which examines the effects of globalization on the world economy at the beginning of the 21st century. The book prompts the designer to observe: “We can visualize and communicate in real time with anyone all over the world, making a reality what Baudrillard had imagined and defined 20 years earlier as ‘the ecstasy of communication.’”
 |
| Stefano Giovannoni, Lilliput salt and pepper shakers for Alessi, 1993 |
With this background the Milan-based Giovannoni, who was trained as an architect, has created internationally award-winning and highly successful furnishings and home accessories in metals and colorful transparent plastics, recognized for their expressive and narrative qualities, for a range of companies. Notably, these clients include Alessi, for which Giovannoni has produced, among other designs, the series “Girotondo,” “Family Follows Fiction,” and the recent “Orientales.”
Inspired by works in the collection of the National Palace Museum in Taiwan, “Orientales” is also the subject of a book of the same name published in 2008 and featuring texts by Giovannoni, Alberto Alessi, Li Mun-Lee, and Alessandro Mendini.
View Stefano Giovannoni’s Profile View Stefano Giovannoni’s Book List
See more product/industrial designers’ book lists
Announcements
Total Armageddon: A Slanted Reader on Design edited by Ian Lynam
Total Armageddon: A Slanted Reader on Design
Edited by Ian Lynam
Publisher: Slanted Publishers
Published: March 2019
Total Armageddon is about design. And culture. And complexity, notably how we, as a global civilization, deal with science fiction, taste, social media, the cities we live in, aesthetics, PowerPoint, burkas, Big Tech, full-contact sports, and other thorny topics. The book celebrates 15 years of independent publishing and brings together a who’s who of authors and essays from 32 issues of Slanted Magazine.
A Field Guide to Color by Lisa Solomon
A Field Guide to Color: A Watercolor Workbook
By Lisa Solomon
Publisher: Roost Books
Published: August 2019
In this creative workbook you’ll discover fresh ways to connect with color in your art and life. Using watercolors, gouache, or any other water-based medium, explore color theory while playing with paint through a balanced blend of color experiments and loose color meditations. This inspiring workbook will change the way you relate to color
Five Oceans in a Teaspoon by Dennis Bernstein and Warren Lehrer
Five Oceans in a Teaspoon
Poems by Dennis Bernstein
Visualizations by Warren Lehrer
Introduction by Steven Heller
Publisher: Paper Crown Press
Published: September 19, 2019
“From a kidnap note for a world held hostage by an A-bomb, to a Holocaust survivor’s tattooed arms where the numbers just don’t add up, Five Oceans in a Teaspoon re-envisions a poetry memoir via a textual kaleidoscope... Bernstein and Lehrer are the Rodgers and Hart of Visual Poetry.” — Bob Holman, poet, poetry activist and chronicler, and founder of the Bowery Poetry Club
Ballpark: Baseball in the American City by Paul Goldberger
Ballpark: Baseball in the American City
By Paul Goldberger
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Published: May 2019
An illustrated, entirely new look at the history of baseball: told through the stories of the vibrant and ever-changing ballparks where the game was and is staged, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning architectural critic.
Charleston Fancy by Witold Rybczynski
Charleston Fancy: Little Houses and Big Dreams in the Holy City
By Witold Rybczynski
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: May 2019
Charleston, South Carolina, which boasts America’s first historic district, is known for its palmetto-lined streets and picturesque houses. The Holy City, named for its profusion of churches, exudes an irresistible charm. Award-winning author and cultural critic Witold Rybczynski unfolds a series of stories about a group of youthful architects, builders, and developers based in Charleston: a self-taught home builder, an Air Force pilot, a fledgling architect, and a bluegrass mandolin player.
Teaching Graphic Design History by Steven Heller
Teaching Graphic Design History
By Steven Heller
Publisher: Allworth Press
Published: June 2019
An examination of the concerted efforts, happy accidents, and key influences of the practice throughout the years, Teaching Graphic Design History is an illuminating resource for students, practitioners, and future teachers of the subject.
Recent Articles
