New book: Mid-Century Modern Designers by Dominic Bradbury
He has a track record of producing excellent books, so I have high hopes for Mid-Century Modern Designers by Dominic Bradbury.
You might well own some of those books. The likes of Mid-Century Modern Furniture, Mid-Century Modern Complete, and The Atlas of Mid-Century Modern Houses, to name a few. Dominic Bradbury is prolific in the areas of midcentury modern and 20th-century architecture, but without compromising on quality.
Hence why I have a good feeing about this one. Saying that, you rarely find a poor book amongst the Phaidon catalogue. The bar is always high on quality, which is likely to continue with this 352-page hardback publication.
The subject matter should be self-explanatory. It is officially described as a homage to the design pioneers who defined the Mid-Century aesthetic through their work in furniture, glassware, ceramics and textiles.
A glance at these pages, as well as the response I get when I post up MCM houses, should tell you that the popularity of this look and these areas has never been greater. So, a book that pulls together 300 influential designers who helped to define the look as an A-Z guide should be a sales winner.
It features popular icons such as Alvar Aalto, Lina Bo Bardi, Tony Duquette, Charles & Ray Eames, Pierre Jeanneret, Florence Knoll, and Gio Ponti, as well as lesser-known figures who might have passed you by, all coming together to create ‘an expansive, richly illustrated portrait of Mid-Century Modernism across the globe’.
You get a hint of what the book is about from the images shown here. Detailed texts about each designer are backed up with hundreds of images of post-war designs, from furniture to glassware, lighting to textiles, ceramics to tableware, revealing what is described as ‘the vibrant cross-pollination of ideas among the designers who defined the era’s aesthetic’.
Phaidon books are premium affairs and this one is no exception. It is published on 10th April 2025 but available to order now, selling for £69.95.
