Name: Haley Park's review of Design as Art by Bruno Munari
Item: Design as Art
Rating: 2
Author: Haley Park

Bruno Munari

How do we see the world around us? The Penguin on Design series includes the works of creative thinkers whose writings on art, design and the media have changed our vision forever. Bruno Munari was among the most inspirational designers of all time, described by Picasso as �the new Leonardo�. Munari insisted that design be beautiful, functional and accessible, and this enlightening and highly entertaining book sets out his ideas about visual, graphic and industrial design and the role it plays in the objects we use everyday. Lamps, road signs, typography, posters, children�s books, advertising, cars and chairs � these are just some of the subjects to which he turns his illuminating gaze.

Design as Art

PG Gonni

"The greatest freedom comes from the greatest strictness. (Paul Valéy)

When a lot of money comes along before culture arrives, we get the phenomenon of the gold telephone. And when say culture I don't mean academic knowledge, I mean formation: information about what is happening in the world, about the things that make life interesting.

Often a firm unwilling to call in a graphic designer will use lettering suited to cheese to present a book of famous artists, and we may see an advertisement for the Bible which looks at first sight as if it were trying to sell us beer.

And why is it the designer who is called upon? Why is the artist not torn from his easel? Because the designer knows about printing, about the techniques used, and he uses forms and colours according to their psychological functions. He does not just make an artistic sketch and leave it up to the printer to reproduce it as best he may. He thinks from the start in terms of printing techniques, and it is with these that he makes his poster.

Lana

When the objects we use every day and the surroundings we live in have become in themselves a work of art, then we shall be able to say that we have achieved a balanced life.

Art is not technique, as everyone knows, and an artist can create with anything that comes to hand.

Olivier Estévez

Culture is not acddemic knowledge, it is information. Information about what is happening in the world about the things that make life interesting.

Copying nature is one thing and understanding nature is another. Copying nature can be simply a form of manual dexterity that does not help us to understand, for it shows us things just as we are accustomed to seeing them. But studying the structures of nature, observing the evolution of forms, can give everyone a better understanding of the world we live in.

Alex Rainer

This was yet another one of my failed attempts to learn something about design from books written by old men

Haley Park

This was yet another one of my failed attempts to learn something about design from books written by old men

- Is every human a male?
- So much verboseness and convoluted sentences yet very little substance
- And when it actually makes a statement it's something like: “useless objects such as roses are immoral” (???) — says the guy whose most known work is called "useless machines" 

- Yet another Western designer discovers Japan

Reading this was not a good use of my time. But I did have a meaningful time questioning why this book is recommended so much. If this were framed and advertised as "some floating thoughts" the above points wouldn't have bothered me. But I bought and read it because people on Twitter were raving about how this is a "must read for any creative."

The idea that objects should be aesthetic and art should be accessible was not new or historically significant at all in the 1960s. The book doesn't claim much and when it does it does without any research or evidence. The ideas are so abstract that it's closer to metaphysics but don't even come close to being philosophically meaningful. 

Could this book have been a beneficiary of hero-worshipping in design? Have we been trying to establish a pseudo-academic book as a canon and the writer as a visionary to alleviate our sizzling impostor syndrome within academia? I don't know. 

Interesting but at times just verbose and annoying to get through some chapters

I think a really necessary read for new designers (perspectives I would have wanted to be exposed to earlier! But they resonate and align with me now, so it was nice to see that this is something I can use in future classes or at least reference). 

Very much appreciate a design book that can tease the field itself—Munari is clearly incredibly fascinated and in love with design, but doesn’t take himself too seriously (and certainly reminds others to do the same themselves!).

Only qualm was that there are a few parts that dig into the ‘old euro man perspective™️’ that a lot of these older design books + essays have (this was 1966 after all). Some areas of assumptions and cultural generalizing that I found frustrating and distracting. But again Munari lacks a lot of the self-importance and definitiveness that I find annoyingly present in other design books from this same period and think it overall provided a novel discourse of the field at that time—and in many cases, now as well.

taylor miles hopkins

I think a really necessary read for new designers (perspectives I would have wanted to be exposed to earlier! But they resonate and align with me now, so it was nice to see that this is something I can use in future classes or at least reference). 

Very much appreciate a design book that can tease the field itself—Munari is clearly incredibly fascinated and in love with design, but doesn’t take himself too seriously (and certainly reminds others to do the same themselves!).

Only qualm was that there are a few parts that dig into the ‘old euro man perspective™️’ that a lot of these older design books + essays have (this was 1966 after all). Some areas of assumptions and cultural generalizing that I found frustrating and distracting. But again Munari lacks a lot of the self-importance and definitiveness that I find annoyingly present in other design books from this same period and think it overall provided a novel discourse of the field at that time—and in many cases, now as well.

Alla Dumnych

Для цієї книги, очевидно, треба бути розумнішою, аніж я є.:)
Але не можу сказати, що читання пройшло без задоволення. Принаймні хочеться познайомитись поближче із творчістю Бруно.

Irene Alegre

Really, really enjoyable book of essays on art and design. Some chapters were less interestinh than others, as it usually happens, but I found it a book full of curiosity, appreciation and enlightenment.

Orest Saksonov

Morgen Ruff

Elou

Christopher Butler

Matías Valenzuela

Teodorik

How do we see the world around us? The Penguin on Design series includes the works of creative thinkers whose writings on art, design and the media have changed our vision forever. Bruno Munari was among the most inspirational designers of all time, described by Picasso as ‘the new Leonardo’. Munari insisted that design be beautiful, functional and accessible, and this enlightening and highly entertaining book sets out his ideas about visual, graphic and industrial design and the role it plays in the objects we use everyday. Lamps, road signs, typography, posters, children’s books, advertising, cars and chairs – these are just some of the subjects to which he turns his illuminating gaze.

Alex Rainer &
Design as Art by Bruno Munari

Reviews

Highlights

Join the club

Alex Rainer &Design as Art by Bruno Munari

Reviews

Highlights

Join the club

Alex Rainer &
Design as Art by Bruno Munari