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

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.

Lovers and Other Strangers: Jack Vettriano

by Anthony Quinn

Perhaps you’ve seen a print of Vettriano’s The Singing Butler in a friend’s home. Perhaps you own a copy yourself. As wonderful as that painting is, it is overshadowed by the artist’s noir paintings. This book is a fine introduction to the work of this controversial, enigmatic Scottish painter.

Spada, The Long Story of a Short Tail

by Bart Lenaerts & Lies de Mol

The title sort of gives it away: Ercole Spada’s design career got underway with his interpretation of the truncated tail. Others did it too, he did it differently. At last there’s an entire—and supremely well designed—book about him.

Glamour Road

by Jeff Stork and Tom Dolle

Few “movements” touched so many aspects of life and lifestyle as that archly American endevor we now call Midcentury Modern: architecture, fashion, consumer goods, graphics, even gender roles. How do cars fit the dictum of clean lines, absence of decorative embellishments, and honest use of materials? This book shows how it all meshes.

Inside the Machine: An Engineer’s Tale of the Modern Automotive Industry 

by David Twohig

The author led the engineering teams for three very different vehicles, and his achievements at Nissan, Renault, and Alpine won him an Engineer of the Year Award. If you are ready to see how the sausage is made on the engineering side, this book will show you.