Claude Lichtenstein

Playfully Rigid

Swiss Architecture, Graphic Design, Product Design 1950-2006

This broad selection of Swiss architecture, graphic design, and design from 1950 to 2006 demonstrates that playful humor and clarity are by no means opposites, but a highly unusual duo of qualities that mingle and interpenetrate. The question addressed by this publication is: are these examples from three professions, various regions and languages, and a period of more than fifty years bound together by a common denominator? No parade of luxury items, but talents and ideas finding material expression and clients with the courage to embrace new “inventions,” are presented.

This broad selection of Swiss architecture, graphic design, and design from 1950 to 2006 demonstrates that playful humor and clarity are by no means opposites, but a highly unusual duo of qualities that mingle and interpenetrate. The question addressed by this publication is: are these examples from three professions, various regions and languages, and a period of more than fifty years bound together by a common denominator? No parade of luxury items, but talents and ideas finding material expression and clients with the courage to embrace new “inventions,” are presented.

Dieses Buch ist auch auf Deutsch erhältlich

Author(s): Claude Lichtenstein

Design: Integral Lars Müller

16,5 x 24,0 cm, 6 ½ x 9 ½ in

300 pages, 437 illustrations

hardback

2007, 978-3-03778-090-9, English
CHF 25.00

Claude Lichtenstein

Claude Lichtenstein (*1949) is a Swiss architect and an expert on design history. From 1985-2001, he was responsible for exhibitions on architecture and design at the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich in the function of curator. He is lecturer for design history and design science at various Swiss universities of applied sciences (ZHdK, FHNW, HSLU, ZHAW) and publishes widely on these subjects.