Phaidon Design Classics

摘要

Bruce Mau's S ML XL, published in 1995, set a new record for weighty design books but that has now been far surpassed by the three hefty volumes of Phaidon Design Classics. The books weigh in at eighteen pounds and call for a body builder's stamina to lift them. To make it easier, the publisher has provided a special plastic carrying rack. Designed by Konstantin Grcic, it is, unfortunately, useless once the books have been unpacked and put on a shelf. Phaidon Design Classics features photographs and short essays that describe 999 objects, evenly divided among the three volumes. It would be unfair to suggest that Grcic's ecologically wasteful carrying rack is the 1000th object, the one that jumped off the page and into use, but it is nonetheless ironic that a set of volumes purporting to represent an impressive array of outstanding products designed in the last four-hundred years should be accompanied by such an unsustainable packaging device.