This documentary on the book maker Gerhard Steidl is really satisfying if you are into design, photography, books or “analog instead of digital.” It’s both a character study and a look at publishing photobooks. It’s really inspirational. I’m not sure where you might find it, but there’s a pirate version on YouTube as of this moment.
I’ve seen these annual digests of the best in product innovation around forever but only started buying them recently. I grabbed one at a place in LA that had loads of dusty design books on the cheap. Not long after that, I went to a Housing Works on the UES because someone on TikTok said it had the best clothing selection. It didn’t, but they did have 2 of these for $10 each.They’re pure cheat code. Every good idea that’s being ripped off by contemporary artisans is in one of these - lamps bent into unnatural shapes, shelves that don’t look like they hold very much, dinnerware that you’d never dare eat off of. The designs are Italian and Japanese, of course, but also Finnish, Canadian, Spanish, even American. Each edition has a different luminary as an editor: Arata Isozaki, Mario Bellini, Philippe Starck, freakin’ Alessandro Mendini. They’re tidy, portable museums.
Over-use them. Learn them. Stock up on dry herbs from Penzeys; keep fresh ones in the fridge. You are a witch. You know your tarragon from your parsley. You mutter to yourself “Yes,chef,” as you reach for the jar of Herbes de Provence. You feel exalted.
