IDEA 54 [International Design Annual . . . ]. Stuttgart: Verlag Gerd Hatje GmbH, 1953. Gerd Hatje, Editor.

IDEA 54
International Design Annual
Internationales Jahrbuch Für Formgebung
Annuaire International Des Formes Utiles

Gerd Hatje [Editor]

Gerd Hatje [Editor]: IDEA 54 [International Design Annual. Internationales Jahrbuch Für Formgebung. Annuaire International Des Formes Utiles]. Stuttgart: Verlag Gerd Hatje GmbH, 1953. First edition. Trilingual English/German/French edition. Quarto. Yellow cloth embossed and stamped in red. Printed dust jacket designed by Hans Haderek. 132 pp. 399 black and white photographs. Multiple paper stocks. Jacket lightly worn with a couple of short, closed tears and a chip to the lower front corner. Exceptionally clean and fresh: a fine copy in a nearly fine dust jacket.

8.75 x 11.75 hardcover book with 132 pages and 399 black and white photographs, a remarkable survey illustrating the best modern industrial design, circa 1953. Includes examples of china, ceramics, pottery, plastics, glass, wood, textiles, metal, small mechanical and household appliances, housewares, radios, communication equipment, lamps and clocks -- everything the burgeoning postwar middle class could possibly want.

The uncredited design -- as well as the tightly curated selection -- make this volume one of the best of the period. An extraordinarily useful reference volume, as well as a genuinely beautiful period object.

Contents:

• The Collaborators: Robert Gutmann, Gerd Hatje and Karel Sanders

• Introductory essays:

• ”A “Working Team of Designers in England by Robert Gutmann

• ”Design “in Post-War Germany by Gerd Hatje

• "Industrial Design in Holland” by Karel Sanders

• Illustrations:

• China And Pottery: 47 images

• Plastics: 14 images

• Glass: 67 images

• Wood: 13 images

• Textiles: 42 images

• Metal: 60 image

• Small Mechanical Appliances: 9 images

• Household Appliances: 45 images

• Communication: 22 images

• Lamps: 77 images

• Clocks: 4 images

• Index of Manufacturers, Designers and Photographers

Includes work by Carl Aübock, Kay Bojensen, Arundell Clark, Ekco Products, Greef Fabrics, Iroquois China, Jenaer Glaswerk, Knoll Associates, Lam Workshop, Jack Lenor Larsen, Laverne Originals, L. Anton Maix, Herman Miller Furniture Company, New Dimensions Furniture, Edith Nielson, Offefors Glasbruk, Sttterle Ceramics, Ralph O. Smith, Stilnovo, Marianne Strengall, Tapio Wirkkala, Allan Adler, Kaarina Aho, Takao Amano, Masakichi Awashima, Jacob Bang, Olga Lee Baughman, Hans Bergström, Elmar Berkovich, Sigvard Bernadotte, Sid Bersudsky, Acton Bjorn, Paul Boissevain, Willard Buschman, W. Van Campen, George Cardwardine, Roland & Roger Chalebois, Arundell Clark, Paul Mccobb, A. D. Copier, Andries Copier, Peter Cotton, Edna Cox, William Crawford, Lucienne Day, Robin Day, Ad. Ditting, A. J. Dorjee, Marli Ehrman, George Eitel, Henry Finkel, Cuno Fischer, Kaj Franck, Walter Franke, Bertel Goldberg, Simon Gate, Alexander Girard, Viola Grasten, Milner Gray, Jacqueline Groag, L. A. Grosbard, Greta Grosman, Robert Gutmann, Oswald Haerdtl, Otto Hagen, Karl Hagenauer, Aage Helbig Hansen, Eszter Haraszty, Robbert Hartog, Margret Hildebrand, Ing. Hilti, Josef Hoffmann, Saara Hopea, Louis Hoyles, James Hvale, Anthony Ongolia, Lisa-Johannnson-Pope, Yusaku Kamekura, Archie Kaplan, William Katavolos, Isamu Kenmochi, Katherine Kinnane, Freidl Kjellberg, Hans Knapp, Victor & Wener Kobler, Boris Kroll, Jacques Kuhn, Thomas Lamb, Bill Lam, Nils Landberg, Edwin Lorden, Elisabeth Mcclennan, Luke & Roland Lietzke, Ross Littell, J. & L. Lobmeyer, Heinz Löffelhardt, Adolf Loos, Per Lütekn, Ingeborg Lundin, Angelo Mangiarotti, Yoshikazu Mano, Jane & Gordon Martz, Neilson Mathews, Paul Mayen, F. Meydam, Greta Möller, Fred E. Moffat, Toini Muona, Nagoya Works, Kazuo Nakasone, Edith Nielsen, Yki Nummi, G. Kaare Pedersen, Thomas Penrose, Sigurd Persson, Ugo Pollice, D. W. Pye, Tibor Reich, John Reid, Lucie Rie, Leslie Roberts, Eugenio Roncoroni, Kyllikki Salmenhaara, A. J. P. Sanders, Raymons Sandin, Gino Sarfetti, Timo Sarpaneva, Tatsuzo Sasaki, P. J. Van Der Scheer, Martin Schiesser, Rudolf Schmidlin, Bernard Schottlander, Gaby Schreiber, John Selbing, Trudi & Harold Sitterle, Norman Slater, Dirk Van Sliedregt, A. M. Snider, Fred Synder, Alfred Soulek, Carl Harry Stälhane, Edward Durell Stone, Marianne Straub, Marianne Strengell, Nissa Strinning, Karel Suyling, Alf Svensson, Taga Works, Angelo Testa, A. F. Thwaites, Bert Travis, Jorgen Utzon, A. W. Verbeek, W. H. De Vries, Wilhelm Wagenfeld, Don Wallance, Riki Watanabe, Gilbert Watrous, Oskar Peter Wieczorek, Katherine & Burton Wilson, Tapio Wirkkala, Gross & Esther Wood, Russel Wright, Munemichi Yanagi, Eva Ziesel, and many others.

Gerd Hatje (Germany, 1915 – 2007) was born in Hamburg in 1915 and apprenticed as a typesetter in Stuttgart, where he started the Humanitas Verlag in 1945. The publishing house was renamed Verlag Gerd Hatje in 1947. His varied interests were reflected in his publishing program, where he concentrated on publishing art books of the highest quality. Among the books he published are some of the best designed art, design, and architecture books of the twentieth century. Hatje was always concerned with quality, both in books and art. He once said, "For me, there is neither a past nor a future in art. A work of art that cannot always exist in the present is not worth talking about." In his words, publishing is the process by which "intellectual spaces are made accessible."