Terrific Design

-An illustrated volume dedicated to the most disturbing, curious or ironically repellent pieces of modern and contemporary design -A brand new perspective on the creativity of the great masters of design, analyzed for its most visionary and imaginative elements -A critical analysis with popular appeal and lively illustrations that sets out in search of objects straight out of the most unbelievable fairy-tale world There has been a shift in contemporary design, something hazy like a summer rainbow and hard to label. It is not kitsch, something that has always taken a side swipe at beauty, because it does not have popular connotations. Rather, it appears to be a high and virtuous manifestation of creativity applied to objects of everyday use. It feeds off a variety of different abilities - woodwork, sculpture, carving, assemblage, collage, recycling, transformation, embroidery, knitting - and crosses a variety of trends, from Surrealism to Dadaism, from Zoomorphism to Anthropomorphism. It uses the most disparate of materials, with a focus on recovery. Functionality becomes optional; the objective is wonder, and perhaps disgust: that healthy jolt that strikes the stomach before it strikes the mind. Terrific Design celebrates some of the most bizarre objects to be found in the design world today.