Review
Suitably grand at 600 pages, this comprehensive look at the work of designer Thomas Heatherwick is an impressive feat for a man who has actually only been in the business for 20 years. Making features over 140 projects, with new texts written by Heatherwick himself that explain the gestation of each. -- Creative Review
Thomas Heatherwick Making showcases two decades of ideas from the innovative designer ... From his striking fibre-optic Seedbank pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo to a sleek update on the Routemaster bus, it shows British design is in the rudest of health. -- Metro
...as a designer Heatherwick is remarkable in his tenacity, his sense of adventure and his absolute delight in finding solutions. And the results often have a uniquely accessible and playful appeal ... A mammoth book he has also put together this year, with his partner Maisie Rowe, of 140 projects both real and dreamt of, only underlines the point. The fact that it's called Making rather confirms where his preoccupations lie. -- Financial Times
Tart up your coffee table with this elegant tome. Thomas Heatherwick: Making is the first comprehensive book exploring the designer's iconic works spanning architecture, furniture and product design. -- Evening Standard
Heatherwick is a tough act to imitate, let alone follow, leaving one of Britain's brightest - and still youngest - design talents with the world at his feet. -- Wallpaper
As he says in the introduction to Making, a lavish new book about his practice ... 'I wanted to consider all design in three dimensions, not as multi-disciplinary design, but as a single discipline: three dimensional design'. The fulfilment of Heatherwick's grand, cross-pollinating ambitions has been appropriately abundant and varied. As a student he met Terence Conran, who became something of a mentor and later described Heatherwick as 'the Leonardo da Vinci of our times'... Heatherwick has used the process of putting together the new book and exhibition to attempt to track that movement of inventiveness in his own work. 'I started keeping a journal because of the shock at how quickly the past evaporates behind you like a vapour trail. The book and the V&A show have given us a chance to reflect. And while there is a risk of becoming sick of yourself when you look back at what you've done, trying to distil it will be very useful to us in the future ... We want the process of looking back to act as inspiration for making more. It's quite a moment. We can not only say 'this is what we've done', more importantly we can also ask: 'what's next?' --The Guardian
A truly exhaustive survey of Thomas Heatherwick's impressive practice to date. --Crafts
From his high-tech lab the Olympic cauldron's creator unleashes his magical designs ... his studio is a laboratory of creative excitement. --The Sunday Times
The photography and digital visualisations are clear and professional, and there is much to look at that is enjoyable and fun --The World of Interiors
Reads almost like a series of scientific experiments ... takes the reader on an expansive tour of seemingly every possible material used at all available scales ... [demonstrates] Heatherwick's urge to operate right at the edge of what is possible with any given amount of time, space and resources --V&A Magazine
The photography and digital visualisations are clear and professional, and there is much to look at that is enjoyable and fun --The World of Interiors
Reads almost like a series of scientific experiments ... takes the reader on an expansive tour of seemingly every possible material used at all available scales ... [demonstrates] Heatherwick's urge to operate right at the edge of what is possible with any given amount of time, space and resources --V&A Magazine
Proves emphatically that the demise of that wonderful three dimensional bundle of pages - the physical presence we know and love as the book is an exaggeration ... Making is a heavyweight of a book, full of power and energy ... [the digital ebook] stands no chance when it comes to the real tactile and sensual - experience of reading ... stunning photographs of 142 different sorts of things pop from clean, elegantly designed pages ... Celebrating the fun of problem solving, the joy of working materials and the pleasure of looking at beautiful things well made, Making is an inspiring and exciting book ... a gorgeous brick of a book ... Making reminds us that there is no substitute for the real thing. --The Mortice and Tenon
From the Back Cover
'Heatherwick is a Leonardo da Vinci of our times' Sir Terence Conran. Still just two decades into his career, British designer Thomas Heatherwick has been heralded as one of the most original creative talents for many decades. He has produced everything from sculptural chairs forged from the world's largest aluminium extruder, to a bridge that rolls open and closed and an exuberant seed bank, 'hairy' with fibre-optic lights (the award-winning UK Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai Expo). This book is the first to present an exhaustive survey of his studio's output to date: over 140 projects. Long in development, it offers a highly personal, in-depth and behind-the-scenes look at all aspects of Heatherwick's creative, design and manufacturing processes. Projects are organized chronologically and bookended by an introduction setting out the studio's philosophy and a project credits section. Each project is fully illustrated and accompanied by a text explaining, in Heatherwick's own words, the particular design challenge it posed and the creative and practical processes used to address it.
