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Product Description
Product Description
240 Objects - ranging from manufactured or handmade to natural items - have been beautifully photographed and cleverly arranged to provoke the viewer into a host of different questions: Why do I like it? Where does it come from? What is it for? What is it made from? While this book inspires the reader to respond to the elegant forms of often-overlooked everyday objects, the accompanying text explains the author's own reactions to and interpretations of each object in terms of function, evolution and representation, context and symbolism. The first part of the book consists of photographs and the second of discussion and will be a fascinating and intriguing reference for anyone interested in artistic sources of inspiration.
About the Author
Alison Milner is a graduate of the Royal College of Art. She is a practising designer-craftsperson.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
Great book. Would have taken me ages to assemble all those images so the time saving alone was worth it. I really liked the groupings of entirely unrelated objects that were similar in form. I'm using it as a teaching aid providing students with unusual start points and for this it will be invaluable.
Format:Paperback
List books are usually the domain of the male writer, bringing out the inherent trainspotter in all of us with the Y chromosome. With 'Inspirational Objects' Alison Milner has proved that she can beat the boys at their own game.
If you've got an artistic eye then beach-battered pebbles, belt buckles, beer can ties, bottles, light bulbs and paper bags (all featured in this book) have their own beauty.
That's the basic premise of the book, which features simple black and white photographs of over 220 inspirational objects. Each object is numbered, and has an accompanying text (included as an appendix, keeping the words distant from the photographed objects themselves). Overall, the objects - while having some universal use as an interesting source book - also provide an unusual portrait of the artist behind the collection.
In an early incarnation (shown during the open houses in Worthing which are organised by RAG) the emphasis was on simplicity. And many of the items here (including man-mad objects alongside flowers, leaves and more than a few stones) have a simplicity that makes their design unbeatable.
Could you better the picture rail hook or drawing board clip for a blend of function and beauty? Of course, both also tell us that Alison has an interest in art, especially when the commentary on these objects is read.
Elsewhere, the objects are completely natural. Hagstones, sea-smoothed slate, a sea urchin fossil (known in Sussex as a Shepherd's Crown) and driftwood all hint at Alison's beachside home.
And a wealth of objects from the Indian subcontinent tell us that Alison likes to travel. A star lampshade, paper bag made from recycled paper and a hand-shaped stencil are all wonderfully evocative of a very different culture.
The likenesses and differences between objects are also key to the book, providing another narrative theme and a way of exploring the collection.
Overall it's a striking collection, and serves as a meditation on form and function. Interestingly, it also seems to yearn for an earlier age: there are few modern items included, and feather dusters, jelly moulds, old glass bottles and a coal shovel all seem like artefacts in Alison's own quirky museum.
An elegant, and sometimes witty, addition to any bookshelf. And any book that sees the Iced Gem and a sucked gobstopper as design classics is certain of a place on my cramped bookcase.
If you've got an artistic eye then beach-battered pebbles, belt buckles, beer can ties, bottles, light bulbs and paper bags (all featured in this book) have their own beauty.
That's the basic premise of the book, which features simple black and white photographs of over 220 inspirational objects. Each object is numbered, and has an accompanying text (included as an appendix, keeping the words distant from the photographed objects themselves). Overall, the objects - while having some universal use as an interesting source book - also provide an unusual portrait of the artist behind the collection.
In an early incarnation (shown during the open houses in Worthing which are organised by RAG) the emphasis was on simplicity. And many of the items here (including man-mad objects alongside flowers, leaves and more than a few stones) have a simplicity that makes their design unbeatable.
Could you better the picture rail hook or drawing board clip for a blend of function and beauty? Of course, both also tell us that Alison has an interest in art, especially when the commentary on these objects is read.
Elsewhere, the objects are completely natural. Hagstones, sea-smoothed slate, a sea urchin fossil (known in Sussex as a Shepherd's Crown) and driftwood all hint at Alison's beachside home.
And a wealth of objects from the Indian subcontinent tell us that Alison likes to travel. A star lampshade, paper bag made from recycled paper and a hand-shaped stencil are all wonderfully evocative of a very different culture.
The likenesses and differences between objects are also key to the book, providing another narrative theme and a way of exploring the collection.
Overall it's a striking collection, and serves as a meditation on form and function. Interestingly, it also seems to yearn for an earlier age: there are few modern items included, and feather dusters, jelly moulds, old glass bottles and a coal shovel all seem like artefacts in Alison's own quirky museum.
An elegant, and sometimes witty, addition to any bookshelf. And any book that sees the Iced Gem and a sucked gobstopper as design classics is certain of a place on my cramped bookcase.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Beautiful and enjoyable
20 Oct 2005
Format:Paperback
This book is really beautiful and enjoyable on many levels. It's not just beautifully put together there are really interesting thought provoking comments on the objects at the back.
I like also that there's no rigid rule of the kind of objects included.
Its the sort of book you feel will become a classic as there is so much to keep coming back to.
I like also that there's no rigid rule of the kind of objects included.
Its the sort of book you feel will become a classic as there is so much to keep coming back to.
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