Book description
Hello World is Alice Rawsthorn's definitive guide to design
and modern life
Design is one of the most powerful forces in our lives. When
deployed wisely, it can being us pleasure, choice, strength, decency
and much more. But if its power is abused, the outcome can be
wasteful, confusing, humiliating, even dangerous. None of us can avoid
being affected by design, whether or not we wish to. It is so
ubiquitous that it determines how we feel and what we do, often
without our noticing.
Hello World explores design's influence on our lives. Written
by the renowned design critic Alice Rawsthorn and designed by the
award-winning book designer Irma Boom, it describes how warlords,
scientists, farmers, hackers, activists and designers have used design
to different ends throughout history: from the macabre symbol invented
by 18th century pirates to terrorise their victims into surrender, to
one woman's quest for the best possible prosthetic legs and the
evolution of the World Cup ball.
At a time when we face colossal changes, unprecedented in their
speed, scale and intensity - from the deepening environmental crisis,
to giant leaps in science and technology - Hello World explains
how design can help us to make sense of them andto turn them to our advantage.
'Hello World is a new book by Alice Rawsthorn, the one and
only, the best design critic in the entire world. She keeps the banner
of design flying high. Irma Boom designed it, and Irma is simply the
best book designer alive' Paola Antonelli,
Senior Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern
Art, New York
Praise for Alice Rawsthorn's Yves Saint Laurent
'As gripping as a thriller, packed with plot, character and
atmosphere' The Times
'Rawsthorn's excellent biography isn't merely a story about clothes,
but of crises, comebacks and drug clinics, and as a document of the
time it is compulsive' Evening Standard
'The best book I have ever read about the mesmerising cruelty of
fashion' The Spectator
'Intelligent and pragmatic... this is a page-turner of a book'
New Statesman
'What a story! A skilful interweaving of the artistic, business and
emotional life of a great couture house' Mail on Sunday
Alice Rawsthorn is the design critic of the International Herald
Tribune, the global edition of the New York Times. Her
weekly Design column is syndicated worldwide. A trustee of Arts
Council England and the Whitechapel Gallery in London, she is chair of
trustees at the Chisenhale Gallery and the author of an acclaimed
biography of Yves Saint Laurent.
Alice Rawsthorn is the design critic of the
International Herald Tribune
, the global edition of the
New York Times
. Her weekly Design column is syndicated worldwide. A trustee of Arts
Council England and the Whitechapel Gallery in London, she is chair of
trustees at the Chisenhale Gallery and the author of an acclaimed
biography of
Yves Saint Laurent
.
