Wednesday 15 July 2009

Bling Bust, Bling Books


Six months' worth of Icon magazine has just been archived online, including various pieces by me.

"Behind this bloodletting, a revolution is taking place. What is dying is a distorted idea of luxury design that reared up monstrously in the debt-fuelled consumer boom of the past decade. ... Luxury can save the design economy. And it can do it sustainably." -- "Will the Crash Save Luxury Design?", Icon 068, February 2009

"In 1999 he published SUMO, a retrospective of the work of photographer Helmut Newton. This beast was the largest book produced in the 20th century: 50cm by 70cm; the Vatican's bible binder had to be called in to help make it. It came with its own stand, designed by Philippe Starck. Although the 10,000 copies of SUMO sold at a mere £6,000 each, edition number one (signed by 80 celebrities) later sold at auction for $304,000 - the most expensive book produced in the 20th century." -- Interview: Benedikt Taschen, Icon 067, January 2009

"Petit's coup can never be repeated, not just because the towers are gone, but because public suspicion has increased, and control of public space has tightened. It is odd, and unnerving, to look back on late Nixonian America as a more innocent age." -- Review: Man on Wire, Icon 064, October 2008

Some icons of the month: The Lightbulb, Modulor Man and SimCity. And a rant, against the disposable razor.

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