Robin and Lucienne Day: Pioneers in Modern Design [Hardcover]

I stumbled upon this book while touring the MCA in Chicago last month. I was very suprised. Not only had i never heard of Robin & Lucienne Day, but I didnt even know Britain had a real modernism movement that could have spawned these two pioneers. It was amazing to me especially because of the parallels with Charles & Ray Eames. In both cases the women (Lucienne Day & Ray Eames) were the more playful and abstract thinkers, often using their vision to tackle fabric design, textiles, sculpture, home accessories. The men (Robin Day & Charles Eames), often inspired by their wives' intuitive and playful sense of design, used their engineering knowledge and a keen sense of the modern aesthetic to change how the 20th Century viewed furniture design. Along with the American and other European design modernists, the Day's also began to experiment in bold and minimal uses of basic materials, such as plywood, aluminum, steel, fiberglass, and plastics. Their early designs from the late 1930s/early 1940s are some of the most startling and beautiful pieces of furniture I've seen, easily comparing to many other minimalists such as Eames and George Nelson, particularly. They were also one of the first designers of compatible storage units (a la Eames/Nelson), which helped to revolutionize living rooms all over Europe. Upon fingering through the book, it is easy to tell that all of the designers of the time were aware of each others work, as many pieces of Lucienne and Robin Day look very similar to other designers of the time. But I think that kind of mutual admiration was one of the reasons that period of design (1930s-1960s) was so important. It helped to further the ideas and aesthtics of the modernism movement into daily life, the middle class, and the history books. Check out Lucienne Day's textile designs especially close...you will see how much her designs impacted the funky 1950s fabrics that were in every post-war home in the US. Some of them are really out there, and some are just really minimal and beautiful. If you are at all interested in mid-century design, this book is a MUST. It provides a more global understanding of how design impacted society in the mid-century, and how many of these modernists are regaining their influence after all these years.