The Language of Things

By Deyan Sudjic

Book Overview

In The Language of Things Deyan Sudjic, Director of the Design Museum, decodes the things around us: their hidden meanings, our relationship with them, how they shape our lives and why we desire them.

Design is everywhere. It seduces, pleases and inspires us. It makes us part with our money. It defines who we think we are. An iPhone, an anglepoise lamp, a Picasso, a banknote, an Armani suit, a William Morris textile, a Lucky Strike packet, a spacecraft - every object tells a story. And understanding their stories offers us a whole new way of seeing the world.

'Articulate and wonderfully knowledgeable ... for anyone who takes an interest in the world around us'
Time Out

'A nightmare vision of a world drowning in objects ... witty, well observed and wide-ranging'
Guardian

'An elegant, witty and free-ranging survey, from Thomas Chippendale's ponderous 18th-century manor-house furnishings to Jonathan Ive's sprightly Macintosh iBooks'
Daily Telegraph

'Lively ... engaging'
Evening Standard

'Readable, sharp and worthwhile'
Financial Times

Director of the Design Museum, Deyan Sudjic was born in London of Yugoslav parents. He is a former architecture critic for the Observer, and a visiting professor at the Royal College of Art. Sudjic was Director of the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2002 and is author of The Edifice Complex, the much-praised 100-Miles City, the best-selling Architecture Pack, The Language of Things and monographs on John Pawson, Ron Arad and Richard Rogers.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0141031174
• ISBN13: 9780141031170
• Release Date: October 2009
• Publisher: Penguin UK
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 4.4" x 7.1"

Customer Reviews

Deyan Sudjic starts his book oblivious to the real world.

I searched this book for some sort of social value or usefulness. Unfortunately, except for a few buzzwords and concepts that are secondary to what he's trying to say, there is nothing of any meaning in this book. The author Deyan Sudjic starts his dissertation with a complaint; he bought an Apple Computer because it was cute and fruity. Later he finds that the cute and fruity is not functional. So, he buys an Apple because it's black and flat. Later he finds that the black and flat does not mean it's functional. Throughout the book, he cites other people who buy things because they're fruity or black and flat. He makes the point that people are duped into things because they are fruity or black and flat, such as money, cars, lamps, clothing, and whatnot that are usable. He suggests that people collect things because they are either kitsch, have nostalgic value, or have some other elusive quality that is irrelevant to the function. He wraps up the book written in late 2008 with "What depression?" Everything seems as though it costs just the same, everybody still buys just the same stuff, and who would ever dream of a car company shutting down for 30 days over Christmas? This goes to show that he is still living in a fruity, flat black world. We learn nothing of any value from this book. Even his speculation that the red around the radiator of a black car is based on the red dot on a Walther PPK is stretching it a bit.