by design*byproxy -

Spomenik

Incredible images from Antwerp-based photographer Jan Kempenaers documenting abandoned monuments in the Balkans (former Yugoslavia).

‘During the 1960s and 70s, thousands of monuments commemorating the Second World War – called ‘Spomeniks’ – were built throughout the former Yugoslavia; striking monumental sculptures, with an angular geometry echoing the shapes of flowers, crystals, and macro-views of viruses or DNA. In the 1980s the Spomeniks still attracted millions of visitors from the Eastern bloc; today they are largely neglected and unknown, their symbolism lost and unwanted.

Get the book here.

~thanks retronaut!

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The New Gypsies


Really GREAT images from Iain McKell‘s New Gypsies –



Photographer Iain McKell offers an extraordinary and breathtakingly beautiful glimpse into the lives of a real and raw group of present-day nomads whose culture is built around ideals of freedom, nature, and simplicity. Historically despised the new Gypsies are there by choice, not heritage. Unrelated to the Roma, the movement began in 1986 when a group of Post-Punk Anti-Thatcher protesters headed out of London into the English countryside. McKell followed these New Age Travellers to the West Country and over the years he watched them become a hybrid tribe – the new gypsies – present-day rural anarchists, living the subversive lifestyle in elaborately decorated horse-drawn caravans. Known as ‘Horse-drawn’, the new gypsies share a desire for sustainability, a love of self-reliance and a disdain for the trappings of contemporary life. For more than a decade McKell has focused his lens on travellers of all ages: parents, children, couples and loners. With sensitivity and honesty he captures a way of life that seems at once romantic, strange, beautiful and simple. The result is a deeply insightful portrayal of a culture that eschews the traditional creature comforts of urban life in favour of the simplicity and freedom of the natural world.

Show on view now at Clic Gallery in NYC until October 2. Book available here as well.

~thanks black*eiffel!

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GUCCI: The Making Of


Coming out in October 2011 by Author Maria Luisa Frisa is GUCCI: The Making Of.

An unprecedented publication showcasing Gucci as never before, including thought-provoking essays, commentaries, and authoritative anecdotes along with previously unpublished contemporary and archival photographs. Published in conjunction with the opening of the new Gucci Museum in Florence, Gucci is the ultimate celebration of the world-renowned fashion house. Told through a loose grouping of words, concepts, shapes, and moods, the book tells its story through new conceptual forms and the free links between images, symbols, and objects. Conceived by fashion curator Maria Luisa Frisa and W magazine editor in chief Stefano Tonchi, this comprehensive volume showcases the genius of the fashion house through an exclusive lens with inside looks into the inspirations behind the design.~ Rizzoli

~thanks hypebeast!

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Dieter on Fab

Phaidon’s Deiter Rams: as Little Design As Possible is a comprehensive monograph on highly influential product designer Dieter Rams, who was head of design at Braun from 1961 to 1995. Rams created some of the most iconic objects of the 20th century.

Get it now on SALE @ fab.com

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Dealer’s Choice






Dealer’s Choice: At Home with Purveyors of Antique and Vintage Furnishings with text by Craig Kellogg and a foreword by 1st Dibs Founder Michael Bruno, features the homes of 32 dealers who specialize in midcentury modernist furniture and objects, antique European decorative works, and antiquities. Among the homes included are LA’s own Joel Chen’s of JF Chen, (above), Adam Blackman & David Cruz both of Blackman Cruz, also Robert Willson and David Serrano of Downtown.

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The Extraordinary Difference

Looking forward to checking out Rose Apodaca‘s 2nd book Fred Hayman – The Extraordinary Difference.

Fred Hayman is an American Revolutionary. By sheer will and his own pocketbook, he radically changed the way the world considered Los Angeles style, how the beauty business operated and magazines smelled, and the potential of retail and branding.

Having grown up in LA since my late teens, just looking at this cover brings back memories of his potently sweet smelling Giorgio fragrance and spicy RED I wore so often back in the late eighties. I couldn’t afford to own a bottle, I just used the little samples given to me by a friend that worked at Fred Hayman Beverly Hills. I may not have been making an “extraordinary difference“, but I sure smelled like I was. Thanks Fred.

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Between Earth and Heaven

One of the visionary architects of the twentieth century, John Lautner designed dramatically innovative buildings with a rare sensitivity to site, vista, and structure…this is the first publication to comprehensively explore his work, including his apprenticeship with Frank Lloyd Wright and the cultural and geographical context of Los Angeles, through an intensive examination of the archives of the John Lautner Foundation. ~Rizzoli

This isn’t a new book. It was published by Rizzoli in 2008. I felt inspired to share it after seeing the cover of today’s LA Times Magazine “Titans of Design”– Works of perfection from the masters who built up Southern California with vision and style.

I may not live in a Lautner, but do feel fortunate to live nearby the Marmol Radziner’s renovated Garcia House and see it everyday while sitting in my dining room.