Archive for Items Categorized 'Art, Artists and Design', only excerpts shown, click title for full entry.

Design Between the Lines

by Patrick le Quément, Stéphane Geffray

You’d have to have been sequestered on your private island for the last 50 years not to know the name of the author of this book. Simca, Ford, VW/Audi, Renault—some 60 million cars have Patrick le Quément’s fingerprints on them, and he reshaped his industry.

The Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild

by John L. Jacobus

Conceived during the Great Depression as a philanthropic project by the Fisher family, the Guild became one of the largest and longest-running youth-oriented design activities ever. The Guildsmen’s 2023 Reunion will be their last ever, so this is the time to read their stories once more.

Imagine too! Towards the Future

by Patrick G. Kelley 

It’s rare enough that a concept car makes it into production but just think of how many drawings never even make it to the modeling stage. Worse, concept drawings are by definition throwaways and get tossed as soon as their “job” is done. Good thing someone is saving them!

Virginia Bader, A Collage of Memories of the First Lady of Aviation Art

by Jill Amadio

A pioneering force in aviation art, not as an artist but a dealer / gallerist, especially of prints signed by the artists and where possible, the pilots. Later, she was the first organizer of symposia that connected artists and their public.

The Michelin Man, 100 Years of Bibendum

by Olivier Darmon

One of the world’s oldest trademarks still in active use, Bib has been around for longer than there have been cars. His custodians over the decades embraced change to their mascot, just as the times around him changed, and that’s what this book shows.

Forty Six: The Birth of Porsche Motorsport

by Bill Wagenblatt (Editor)

Right in time for the 100th anniversary of the race at which this car won its class as Porsche’s first postwar works entry this book tells its colorful story in forensic detail. How the provenance of the car was proven is amazing, and it raises the bar for “doing right” by historically important vehicles.

Zany Afternoons

by Bruce McCall

In a former life, McCall was a principal in McCaffery & McCall, the huge New York advertising agency that served Mercedes-Benz USA. On the side, he wrote less serious stories for Car & Driver (remember the Denbeigh Super Chauvinist?), Playboy, and The National Lampoon.

The Royal Navy in Action, Art from Dreadnought to Vengeance

by John Fairley

Warships in action are something fierce to behold, and even paintings reproduced at a size so much smaller than the often majestic originals stir the soul. Throw in some well crafted prose and you have a book you won’t want to put down.

P&O: Across the Oceans, Across the Years

by Ruth Artmonsky and Susie Cox 

After 175 years of plying the seas, there’s a story to be had. From paddle steamers hauling mail to today’s cruise ships, P&O made the world a smaller place. This fantastically well illustrated book will absorb you.

Founders of American Industrial Design

by Carroll Gantz

Unlike craft-based design, industrial design has to take into account how/if materials and techniques work in the real world of mass production. The author was a practicing, award-winning designer himself but also an academic and so has a broad frame of reference.

Toymaker: My Journey from War to Wonder

by Tom Karen

“The man who designed the 1970s” just died, on the last day of 2022. Here he offers a celebration of creativity. From domestic appliances to transistor radios and furniture to motorcars there was hardly an area of everyday life this industrial designer did not apply himself to.

The Michael Turner Collection

Over 50 Years of Motor-Sport Inspired Christmas Cards

by Chas Parker & Michael Turner

You don’t need to wait for Christmas to like these cards. They are a fabulous way to recall great moments in mostly F1 racing and also to marvel at Turner’s extraordinary eye and understanding of a scene.