Cut and Shut: The History of Creative Salvage

Add to My Reading List

Gareth Williams

Williams Wright Publishing, London, 2012, English

Design, General

10.9 x 8.5 inches, hardcover, 208 pages

ISBN: 9780957418301

Suggested Retail Price: £50.00/$81.72

From the Publisher. "It comes from London and it comes from the music business. You take different influences and you meld them together and you make it up as you go along. There's no formal training in rock and roll. People learn themselves and they teach each other." - Tom Dixon.

Illustrated by a huge archive of previously unpublished images, with a cover by Ben Kelly, and including interviews with Tom Dixon, Ron Arad, Joe Rush, Mark Brazier-Jones, Jon Mills, Andre Dubreuil and Danny Lane, this is the account of some of the most anarchic design ever produced. Those involved relate how the emergent hip hop culture encountered when Funkapolitan supported The Clash in New York inspired bassist Tom Dixon and singer Nick Jones to launch the first hip hop club in London. When the crowd grew too big for the Language Lab, they put on parties in pirated buildings across London. Cars being chopped by Mark Brazier-Jones provided the light show, crashing the fuel-spewing wrecks the entertainment. These demolition derbies also sparked the idea to weld one ton of scrap metal into furniture.

From parties in North Venice Bus Garage to the Venice Biennale, via the Notting Hill Carnival to a gig at Manchester's Hacienda, and a stop at Buckingham Palace to collect nan OBE for servies to design: this is the history of Creative Salvage.

comments powered by Disqus

Announcements

Now is Better by Stefan Sagmeister

Now is Better

By Stefan Sagmeister
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: October 2023

Combining art, design, history, and quantitative analysis, transforms data sets into stunning artworks that underscore his positive view of human progress, inspiring us to think about the future with much-needed hope.

Order the book.

Design Emergency: Building a Better Future by Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli

Design Emergency: Building a Better Future

By Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: May 2022

Rawsthorn and Antonelli tell the stories of the remarkable designers, architects, engineers, artists, scientists, and activists who are at the forefront of positive change worldwide. Focusing on four themes—Technology, Society, Communication, and Ecology—the authors present a unique portrait of how our great creative minds are developing new design solutions to the major challenges of our time, while helping us to benefit from advances in science and technology.

Order the book.

Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World’s Most Creative People by Debbie Millman

Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World's Most Creative People

By Debbie Millman
Publisher: Harper Design
Published: February 22, 2022

Debbie Millman—author, educator, brand consultant, and host of the widely successful and award-winning podcast “Design Matters”—showcases dozens of her most exciting interviews, bringing together insights and reflections from today’s leading creative minds from across diverse fields.

Order the book.

Milton Glaser: POP by Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber

Milton Glaser: POP

By Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber
Publisher: The Monacelli Press
Published: March 2023

This collection of work from graphci design legend Milton Glaser’s Pop period features hundreds of examples of the designer’s work that have not been seen since their original publication, demonstrating the graphic revolution that transformed design and popular culture.

Order the book.

Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall by Alexandra Lange

Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall

By Alexandra Lange
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: June 2022

Chronicles postwar architects’ and merchants’ invention of the shopping mall, revealing how the design of these marketplaces played an integral role in their cultural ascent. Publishers Weekly writes, “Contending that malls answer ‘the basic human need’ of bringing people together, influential design critic Lange advocates for retrofitting abandoned shopping centers into college campuses, senior housing, and ‘ethnocentric marketplaces’ catering to immigrant communities. Lucid and well researched, this is an insightful study of an overlooked and undervalued architectural form.”

Order the book.

Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition) by Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller

Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition)

By Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller
Publisher: Letterform Archives Books
Published: October 2023

This facsimile edition of Die Fläche, recreates every page of the formative design periodical in full color and at original size, accompanied by essays that contextualize the work, highlighting contributions by pathbreaking women, innovative lettering artists, and key practitioners of the new “surface art,” including Rudolf von Larisch, Alfred Roller, and Wiener Werkstätte founders Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann.

Order the book.