Overview
Michael Graves Designs: The Art of the Everyday Object is the inside account of Michael Graves’ one-man design revolution. In creating more than one thousand objects for the home over the last three decades, the acclaimed architect has elevated everyday objects—from toasters to toilet brushes—into enduring icons that have redefined the American home.
In recent years, with the resounding success of his collaboration with Target Stores, Michael Graves has become a household name, equivalent in the public eye with the very concept of “good design.” In Michael Graves Designs: The Art of the Everyday Object, author Phil Patton surveys this fascinating career in design and retail, from kitchen accessories for Alessi to hotels and household objects for Disney, crystal bowls for Steuben, boutiques and packaging for Lenox and more. Going behind the scenes in Graves’ Princeton, N.J., studios, Patton offers an exclusive look at the firm’s passionate quest to make high style accessible to every shopper with eye-catching, witty, and formally beautiful products. In his own words, Graves describes the thought and process behind his uniquely American body of work.
With more than 300 color images, including rare examples of Graves’ famous personal sketches, product models and prototypes, technical drawings, and specially commissioned photographs of the studio in action, Michael Graves Design: Art of the Everyday Object celebrates works of art that work.
About the Author:
Michael Graves is one of the world’s most famous and accomplished architects and designers. He received the National Medal of the Arts in 1999 and the 2001 Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects.
Phil Patton is the author of Bug: The Strange Mutations of the World’s Most Famous Automobile and Made in USA: The Secret Histories of the Things that Make America. He is a frequent contributor to the New York Times, Wired and Esquire.
Editorials
Dwell
Whether or not you appreciate the aesthetics of Michael "Graves's products, it's impossible to deny that, hand-in-hand with " "Target, he is greatly responsible for America's blossoming design " "consciousness. Graves's Princeton, New Jersey, design studio has " "churned out a vast universe of items for the home, to which even this " "book, packaged in Graves's now-iconic colonial blue, belongs."—July/August 2004
I.D.
As a boy in Indiana, Michael Graves' mother warned him about " "his artistic aspirations: ""If you are not as good as Picasso, you " "will starve."" Fortunately for the masses, Graves turned instead to " "architecture and industrial design. The Target-colored, photo-filled " Michael Graves Designs is a quick and straightforward survey of an "oeuvre seen by more people, arguably, than a certain cubist's. " Glowing descriptions by Patton are interspersed with Graves' "first-person rhapsodies on figurative design, domesticity, color, and " "scale. From the Humana corporate headquarters to toasters, tea " "kettles, and egg timers, this tribute instructs us to see how a " Midwest boy made good-by democratizing design.—June 2004
Step Inside Design
If you don't recognize him through his award-winning architecture (including the Walt Disney World Dolphin and Swan Hotels "in Florida, and the Denver Central Library), then surely you know his " "home accessory designs, created in collaboration with Target Stores " (a partnership that has just marked its five-year anniversary). "Michael Graves is responsible for the creation of more than 1,000 " consumer products-from toasters to toilet brushes-over the last three decades. . . . Graves' Target creations have become so popular that his color scheme for the kitchen appliances-blue for touch and yellow accents for dials-has become familiar to millions of shoppers. The Graves blue was even recreated in the cover of the book.—May/June 2004