EURO Deco

From Publishers Weekly
One of the most beloved design styles of nostalgic collectors, Art Deco developed in France following World War I and quickly became popular around the world, proliferating in lively posters, typefaces and skyscraper designs. Borrowing from Modernism's austere simplicity, while incorporating flourishes that would appeal to a mass audience, Art Deco allowed manufacturers to boost consumer desire for new and fashionable products. A compilation of six now out-of-print books from Chronicle's Deco Graphic Design series, this volume offers lesser-known examples of Deco graphic design from six countries: France, Italy, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and England. The playful advertisements and product labels, many created by unknown artists, demonstrate the breadth of the style's reach and its variation across Europe. Dutch beer posters, German cigarette packages and Italian book covers burst with color, allowing readers to slip back into a time in which the airplane was "a symbol of futuristic wonder" and inventions like furnaces and Pyrex pots were making their debuts. In each chapter, Heller, senior art director for the New York Times, and Fili, principal of a New York graphic design firm, introduce the historical context surrounding each country's Art Deco movement, noting prominent poster artists who influenced the field. Whimsical and informative, this volume should keep readers coming back for multiple perusals. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


Book Description
A sprawling compendium of Art Deco design from across Europe, Euro Deco features a broad range of exemplary graphic ephemera. Culled from Steven Heller and Louise Fili's popular International Deco series of inspirational reference books, the material in Euro Deco comes from Italy, Spain, the UK, Germany, France, and the Netherlands, primarily between WWI and WWII -- the time when the continent gave birth to modern graphic design. Well over a thousand images from posters, packaging, advertisements, menus, and brochures display the elegant geometry and harmonious marriage of typography and illustration that make deco a popular style to this day. A generous package at an attractive price, Euro Deco is poised to be a standard graphic resource for designers, collectors, and aesthetes alike.


About the Author
Steven Heller is senior art editor of The New York Times Book Review. He is the author of dozens of books on design and visual culture. He lives in New York City. Louise Fili is principal of Louise Fili Ltd., and the recipient of numerous design awards. She lives in New York City.


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Heller (senior art director, New York Times) and graphic designer Fili (president, Louise Fili Ltd.) have collected their previous coauthored books on graphic design into a compendium that packs more than 1200 images into 500 pages and provides as exhaustive an overview of the history of Art Deco as one could ever hope to find. Between World War I and World War II, Art Deco managed to sustain a wide appeal across many cultural and social boundaries, making it one of the most universally admired and commercially viable design aesthetics of the 20th century. This volume provides detailed references and hours of entertainment for students of design, history, and popular culture alike. Each chapter introduces a country and then describes the nature of the Art Deco movement there. Recommended for anyone with an extensive fine arts and/or applied art collection and libraries with an emphasis on European history.-Phil Hamlett, Acad. of Art Univ., San Francisco Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.


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